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One day I said to Peter, “that gives me the Heebie-Jeebies” and he looked at me like I was speaking in tongues. I couldn’t believe he had never heard the phrase before. It’s a great phrase and used in the right context the way it rolls off your tongue, it just conveys its meaning.
Heebie-Jeebies means a feeling of anxiety, apprehension or illness. And this type of two-word phrase is known as a Rhyming Reduplication. It is similar to other phrases such as Hocus-Pocus and Mumbo-Jumbo are similar with a bit of the jitters thrown in.
Heebie and Jeebie as separate words don’t mean anything. However, in the 1920’s, a bunch of new nonsense rhyming pairs became popular in the United States. There was the Bee’s Knees, Okey-Dokey and Zig-Zag.
The term is widely attributed to William Morgan “Billy” de Beck. The first citation of it in print is certainly in a 1923 cartoon of his, in the 26th October edition of the New York American:
You can find Rhyming Reduplications in our everyday language in use starting in the nursery with phrases like Choo-Choo, Wee-Wee and then as adults there’s Hanky-Panky – today we have Bling-Bling, Boob-Tube and Hip-Hop. The rhyming and reduplication of words dates back to the 14th Century with Riff-Raff and about a thousand years ago Willy-Nilly appeared.
Once you start thinking about these crazy little phrases, you’ll be coming up with your own list. Here’s a head start:
Arty-Farty
Chick-Flick
Boogie-Woogie
Helter-Skelter
Fuzzy-Wuzzy
Fuddy-Duddy
Gang-Bang
Hoity-Toity
Nitty-Gritty
Jeepers-Creepers
Razzle-Dazzle
Isn’t this fun?
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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