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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Does "beat-ee" mean "one who's asking for beating"?
Context:
Sweetie, formed from the adjective sweet and the diminutive suffix -ie, has been used as a vocative for quite a long time, especially in the United States. It appears as "sweet-ee" in a bit ofhttp://books.google.com/books?id=ICwgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA220 from 1778 that is also notable for its early use of Yankee to refer to Americans:
Sweetie, formed from the adjective sweet and the diminutive suffix -ie, has been used as a vocative for quite a long time, especially in the United States. It appears as "sweet-ee" in a bit ofhttp://books.google.com/books?id=ICwgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA220 from 1778 that is also notable for its early use of Yankee to refer to Americans:
("North" in the verse is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_North%2C_Lord_North, the British prime minister during the American Revolution, and bantling is an old word meaning "brat" or "***.")
O My Yankee, my Yankee,
And O my Yankee, my sweet-ee,
And was its nurse North asham'd
Because such a bantling hath beat-ee?
Top answer
e. "hath beat-ee" means "had/has beaten you" in modern English. I am by no means certain though.
- e.
- "hath beat-ee" means "had/has beaten you" in modern English.
- I am by no means certain though.
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4 Answers
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I'm wondering whether "ee" might mean "you" (obsolete or dialect, short for "thee"), i.e. "hath beat-ee" means "had/has beaten you" in modern English. I am by no means certain though.
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That thought did occur to me. However, there are words at the end of other lines in the
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fivejedjonThat thought did occur to me. However, there are words at the end of other lines in the whole song that end in '-ee' clearly just for rhythm/ rhyme.But if "ee" is just a rhyming or rhythmical flourish, would "Because such a bantling hath beat" actually make sense?
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