Hawk sounds meaning12/15/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Turning now to the aforementioned query posed by the aforementioned uncountable letter-writers, we are glad to report that either hawking or hocking loogies is fine. Dan Bickley, The Indiana Gazette (Indiana, PA), 31 Aug. Now, rules are rules, and no one likes to see an umpire with a face full of loogey. ![]() The term for this salivary discharge has been in use since the mid-20th century, and although we give the spelling as loogie (plural form loogies) it must be noted that alternate forms are occasionally found. The word is a phonesthemic coinage, with -oog- perhaps coming from bogey "piece of nasal mucus" or from booger, with the suffix -IE. A loogie is a mass of saliva and phlegm, cleared from the throat and forcefully expectorated. We have received an uncountable number of letters (mainly because we haven’t ever bothered to count them) on a topic of similar grammatical weight to the that/which conundrum: is it more proper to hawk a loogie, or should one hock it? What is a 'Loogie'?īefore we get to the matter of whether one should hawk or hock, what exactly is a loogie? We are so very glad you asked. Others, such as whether one should employ that or which to introduce a restrictive clause, have more staying power, and we expect to keep hearing about this for decades to come. Some language quibbles are short-lived things the notion, for instance, that only a house built of stone may properly be called dilapidated, on account of the word having stone roots (it comes in part from the Latin lapidare, "to pelt with stones") has been put to rest. If you're in public, the answer should be: neither. ![]()
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