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A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is..... Double whammy
The Tories used a poster to undermine the Labour Party.
A double blow or setback.
It contained the text “Labour’s Double Whammy” and,
A whammy was originally an evil influence or hex. It on the boxing gloves, “1. More Taxes” and “2. Higher
originated in the USA in the 1940s and is associated with Prices”. The poster proved to be a highly effective part
a variety of sports. The first reference to it in print found of the campaign for the Conservatives - who won the
is in the Syracuse Herald Journal, October 1939:
subsequent election.
“Nobody would have suspected that the baseball gods
had put the whammy on Myers and Ernie when the ninth Is there an English phrase or saying that you would
opened.”
like to know more about?
’Double whammy’ emerged not long afterwards, as
Email it to us on submissions@awolonline.net
seen here in the Oakland Tribune, August 1941, in an
interview with the eccentric boxing manager Wirt Ross:
“Shore there’s only one way to beat Joe Louis ... No man
can lick ‘im, it takes a syndicate and that’s what I got.
I’ve been taking a course in hypnotism from the famous
Professor Hoffmeister of Pennsylvania. When I gave my
big police dog the evil eye like this he liked to collapse,
went out and nearly got himself killed by the neighbour’s
pet poodle pooch. Professor Hoffmeister says I don’t
get the double whammy to put on human beings until
Lesson 9.”
Ross was well-known for his tall tales and flowery
language. It is quite possible that he coined the term in
that interview.
‘Double whammy’ is often associated with Al Capp’s Li’l
Abner cartoon strip, which featured the phrase several
times. In that it referred to as an intense stare which had
a withering effect on its victims; for example, this piece
from Li’l Abner July 1951:
“Evil-Eye Fleegle is th’ name, an’ th’ ‘whammy’ is my
game. Mudder Nature endowed me wit’ eyes which can
putrefy citizens t’ th’ spot!. There is th’ ‘single whammy’!
That, friend, is th’ full, pure power o’ one o’ my evil eyes!
It’s dynamite, friend, an’ I do not t’row it around lightly!
... And, lastly - th’ ‘double whammy’ - namely, th’ full
power o’ both eyes - which I hopes I never hafta use.”
The phrase came to be used widely, in the UK at least,
during the Conservative Party’s 1992 election campaign.
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