Talk:softly softly
Latest comment: 7 years ago by Eric Kvaalen in topic Etymology
Etymology[edit]
I believe the etymology is not simple reduplication but rather an abbreviation of the faux-pidgin proverb "softly softly catchee monkey". (Of course, the faux-pidgin includes reduplication, but this occurs in the postulated pidgin rather than in Standard English.) The full form was popularised by Baden-Powell's The downfall of Prempeh (1896); he called it an Ashanti saying. It predates him:
- Autobiography (1811) of Mary Wells quotes "an itinerant black preacher" with "Softly, softly, brethren, and you'll catch a monkey!".
- Archer Polson (1840) attributes "Softly, softly, catch monkey" to "the negro".
I couldn't antedate the "catchee" form at Google books before Baden-Powell.
The abbreviated form appears in Kipling's Kim (1901); this commentary calls its origin a "Chinese proverb". Jnestorius (talk) 10:58, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
- Those of us in the UK (of a certain age) will also remember the TV series w:Softly, Softly (TV series) supposedly based on the proverb. SemperBlotto (talk) 11:02, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
Here's a link to the passage in Baden-Powell. Eric Kvaalen (talk) 17:21, 13 December 2016 (UTC)