Hot Diggity
Yesterday I had to go to work, even though I am on sick leave. My leg is feeling well enough, and I needed to complete some things for class on Monday. One of my coworkers was doing her club activity. A club activity is something we do in some of our teacher training courses where we do something that is not directly related to English education with the trainees. Her club activity is poker. I love poker, so I joined them. During her explanation, the phrase hot diggity came up. One of the trainees asked what it meant. Of course, I knew that the phrase was used to show excitement, but I didn’t know what diggity actually meant.
As it turns out, the phrase hot diggity is a non-sense phrase first recorded in 1928. Al Jolson, an American entertainer, is credited with exclaiming the phrase after hearing the song, There’s a Rainbow Round My Shoulder. He said, “Hot diggity dog! Hot Kitty! Hot pussycat!...” It appears that diggity was just a nonsensical word inserted into the name of the food, hot dog. When a word is inserted into another word or phrase, it is called tmesis. Another example of tmesis is un-freaking-believable. Hot diggity dog was shortened to hot diggity over the years.
Example: I got a royal flush. Hot diggity dog!!
Example: I won $1000. Hot diggity!
Yelling, “Hot dog!” was a way to show excitement even before 1928. More recently, hot dog has adopted a new meaning. Nowadays you can use the phrase hot dog to talk about someone who is showing off or performs something in a complicated and extravagant way.
Example: He could have easily just caught the ball, but he had to be a hot dog and show off. He missed the ball and now we are losing.
The thing about this phrase that made me curious is the 1996 song by Blackstreet called, No Diggity. Clearly this phrase is not related to hot diggity, but still uses the nonsensical word. In this song it appears that diggity means doubt as in the lyrics, “No diggity. No doubt.” Having no doubt means that the speaker has believes their statement is certain or true. Diggity can also modify other words, such as bomb-diggity, which means amazing.
It seems that the word diggity cannot survive on its own. It can only be used to modify another word and carries no intrinsic meaning. It is certainly an odd word.
Can you think of anything other words, like diggity, that can’t exist on their own?
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Reference:
https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/60/messages/818.html
https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2011/03/01/hot-diggity-dog/
Yale Students' Song (1870s)
Oh where, oh where is my little dog gone?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
Bologna sausage is very good.
And many of them I see;
Oh where, oh where is my little dog gone?
I guess they make ’em of he.
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