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prettygoodwordrhubarb - n., nonsense, rubbish; an argument, a noisy dispute, a brawl.
The first sense dates to England around 1840 and comes from the practice, apparently originating in the early 19th century theater actors, especially in crowd scenes, of saying the word rhubarb repetitively to mimic the sound of indistinct conversation, per Wiktionary "the word having been chosen because it does not have harsh-sounding consonants or clear vowels." The second sense was originally U.S. baseball slang, coined around 1940 by sports writer Garry Schumacher and popularized by the baseball commentator Red Barber. Barber knew the theater use from having worked in radio dramas, but thought it mimicked angry words, and applied it to arguments on the baseball field where he could not distinguish the words. So, nothing in either case to do with the actual plant.
Bonus word: rhoid, which I plan to use more often.
---L.
The first sense dates to England around 1840 and comes from the practice, apparently originating in the early 19th century theater actors, especially in crowd scenes, of saying the word rhubarb repetitively to mimic the sound of indistinct conversation, per Wiktionary "the word having been chosen because it does not have harsh-sounding consonants or clear vowels." The second sense was originally U.S. baseball slang, coined around 1940 by sports writer Garry Schumacher and popularized by the baseball commentator Red Barber. Barber knew the theater use from having worked in radio dramas, but thought it mimicked angry words, and applied it to arguments on the baseball field where he could not distinguish the words. So, nothing in either case to do with the actual plant.
Bonus word: rhoid, which I plan to use more often.
---L.
