Chapter 3 of Sholem Asch’s motke ganef is entitled: motke zoyl nit di shmatke zoygen, which Edwin [1887-1959] and Willa [1890-1970] Muir translate as Mottke refuses his rag dummy. dos maylkhel zaynm iz geven farshtopt mit a shtikel nase layvend in velkhen es iz geven ayngebunden a shtikele zukher, un motke hot derfun ohn oyfher genogt, gezoygen. (His mouth was stopped with a dummy made of a wet linen rag wrapped round a piece of sugar, and Mottke kept sucking at it without stopping.) I had never heard of dummy used in this sense. I couldn’t find this meaning in either the American Heritage or Merriam-Webster dictionaries online, but the OED gave it as short for dummy teat. A quick look around the web showed that it is indeed a synonym for the more common term—at least in the States—pacifier. (I know that when I was teething, my grandmother let me gum at an old gold bracelet of hers.)
Posted by jim at December 31, 2003 08:44 AM | TrackBackThese days you'll find that sense of dummy largely in the phrase spit the dummy and variants (his dummy, her dummy, etc.), in the UK and the Anglophone antipodes.
Posted by: Grant Barrett on December 31, 2003 12:21 PMIt's a choice phrase this spit the dummy. Thanks.
Posted by: jim on December 31, 2003 12:41 PM"Pacifier" is a more useful description of the general intention, "dummy" the useful, and peaceful, corollary. Unfortunately I refused to give my 2nd a dummy on aesthetic grounds and am deafened as a consequence.
"Spit the dummy" sounds like "throwing all his/her toys out of the cot". But more succinct.
Posted by: qB on December 31, 2003 12:52 PMI'm pretty sure the Anglophone Antipodes is the birthplace of that particular phrase.
Google:
uk: 68 hits / au: 686 hits
Sputa il succhiotto!
and other great great didgeridoo hits.