Hebejeebie

[Stuart Fullerton]

pierre -

i will ask all to help me out with this.  what is "funny" in one language is often
not in another. i am not a linguist by any means and have enough problems with
american let alone english.

but - to start.  the tern  heebiejeebies  was a word coined (invented) by an
american camic-strip cartoonist  W. DeBeck (1890-1942) and has the slang meaning
"a condition of extreme nervousness caused by vear, worry, strain, etc.  the
jitters, the willies  (random house college dictionary -  1980 ). good luck with
that.

so - to have the heebiejeebies is to have the jitters, the willies, or to be
fastly nervous.  "nervous".

so ---  the use of this as a generic name :

Those interested in taxonomic etymology may be interested to learn of
Hebejeebie - a new plant genus from New Zealand that refers to the anxiety
the plants often caused taxonomists.

as in this group of plants is difficult ?? and causes folks to worry??  or may
have some chemical that the person reacts with??

as to the Castnia inca dinkadu   i have not a clue (no pun) but there was a
famouse comedian of the last century here in the u.s.   jimmy derante   who used
the term "inca dinka do"  a lot and what that is all about i do not know.

then we come to the  genus La   which i think means "the"

so we have La cucaracha   (the cockraoch)  ( a dance??????  i think)
                La paloma       (the dove)  (a love song)
                La cerveza  (mex/tex/spanish for beer)

and
                La benepunctalis      - which escapes me  but has something to do
with being on time?

 so one must kindly be on time to do the cockroack dance with your dove (lady
love) while drinking beer.

uugh.    any others you all can pass on to pierre or atleast correct from mine?
rof

pierre deleporte wrote:

> off-list :
>
> Hi Stuart,
>
> I'm pleased that you're pleased to read the HBJB stuff.
> I'm only frustrated not to pick a single word of this joke. Could you
> please explain it to a poor non-native-English-speaking Frenchie ?
>
> Thanks
> Pierre
>
> A 08:35 24/03/2003 -0500, vous avez ?crit :
> >ya all made my day
> >
> >thanks
> >
> >after a mental bad weekend with the world, twas nice to read  HBJB stuff!.
> >not being a scholar, not sure how to apply this last it to the world today.
> >
> >but things in the bug closet work without a radio and without a t.v. so today
> >will be good!.
> >
> >cheers!  rof
> >
> >Adolf Ceska wrote:
> >
> > > According to the Principle V of the International Code of Botanical
> > > Nomenclature,
> > >
> > > "Scientific names of taxonomic groups are treated as Latin regardless of
> > > their derivation."
> > >
> > > If you read "Hebejeebie" as any classical non-English scholar would (or
> > > should) you will get
> > >
> > > "He-be jeb je", which - unfortunately - in Czech means: "Hebe - f... them!"
> > >
> > > Yours sincerely,
> > >
> > > Adolf Ceska, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
> >
> >--
> >Stuart M Fullerton ROF, Research Associate in charge of Arthropod
> >Collections (UCFC), Dept. of Biology, University of Central Florida, PO
> >Box 162368, Orlando, Florida, 32816-2368, USA. stuartf at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
> >OR stuartf at biology.ucf.edu  (407) 823-6540 (no voice mail)
> ><http://biology.ucf.edu/bugs/>
>
> Pierre Deleporte
> CNRS UMR 6552 - Station Biologique de Paimpont
> F-35380 Paimpont   FRANCE
> T?l?phone : 02 99 61 81 66
> T?l?copie : 02 99 61 81 88

--
Stuart M Fullerton ROF, Research Associate in charge of Arthropod
Collections (UCFC), Dept. of Biology, University of Central Florida, PO
Box 162368, Orlando, Florida, 32816-2368, USA. stuartf at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
OR stuartf at biology.ucf.edu  (407) 823-6540 (no voice mail)
<http://biology.ucf.edu/bugs/>