- dandy
[dandy 词源字典] - dandy: [18] The first record of the word dandy comes in Scottish border ballads of the late 18th century, but by the early 19th century it had become a buzz term in fashionable London society. It is generally explained as being an abbreviation of jack-a-dandy ‘affected man’, a word first recorded in the 17th century which apparently incorporates Dandy, a colloquial Scottish abbreviation of the name Andrew. The word’s adjectival use started in the 19th century in close semantic relationship to the noun – ‘affectedly trim or neat’ – but American English has rehabilitated it to ‘excellent’ in the 20th century.
=> andrew[dandy etymology, dandy origin, 英语词源] - dandy (n.)
- c. 1780, of uncertain origin; it first appeared in a Scottish border ballad:
I've heard my granny crack
O' sixty twa years back
When there were sic a stock of Dandies O
etc. In that region, Dandy is diminutive of Andrew (as it was in Middle English generally). The word was in vogue in London c. 1813-1819. His female counterpart was a dandizette (1821) with French-type ending. The adjective dandy first recorded 1792; very popular c. 1880-1900. Related: Dandified; dandify.
