Talk:screaming abdabs

abdabs
A state of extreme nervousness. Really? bd2412 T 16:35, 19 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, OED2+ has habdabs or abdabs or hab-dabs as slang with this meaning, and four quotes from 1946 - 1966. They have found it mainly in the phrase screaming habdabs, which is the only way I remember it.  It often has an implication of nervous diarrhoea.  There are 10s of b.g.c. hits. --Eng in ear 21:12, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * So would this be a plurale tantum? bd2412 T 22:13, 19 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Four quotes? Their criteria is supposed to be 15 quotes?  So how could the OED have it?  Do they have a special slang version online somewhere?  Ahem: .  --Connel MacKenzie 03:11, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually I looked it up to see if they were aware of the spelling -- I had thought it was spelled habdabs or habjabs and might be pre-WW2 only -- so noted what I found in case others made similar mistakes . I don't think that they require 15 quotes.  Often they only give one, and I have seen a few of their entries which imply that a word is a nonce usage, and a few which only cite an entry in an old dictionary, and no actual usage at all.  That's the best reason I have for refuting the notion that we should include any entry which is accepted by the OED. --Eng in ear 12:55, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
 * A number of those Google Books hits reference predecessor names of Pink Floyd, "the Abdabs, the Architectural Abdabs, and, finally, the Screaming Abdabs" (apparently derived from the earlier use of the term). I've tagged it as UK, I see no evidence of U.S. use. Cheers! bd2412 T 13:14, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

So, anyone want to cite this? —RuakhTALK 17:51, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I have moved the entry to screaming abdabs, and provided quotations (including one for plain abdabs). — Beobach972 20:46, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * rfvpassed for screaming abdabs Cynewulf 18:15, 19 June 2007 (UTC)