Happy as a sand-boy

Question

Hello:I know:"happy as a sand-boy"probably means "very happy"http://www.bartleby.com/110/836.htmlMERRY, - as a -cricket, - grig, - marriage bell; joyful, joyous, jocund, jovial; jolly, - as a thrush, - as a sand-boy; blithesome; gleeful, gleesome; hilarious, rattling (colloq.).However, what is a "sand-boy"?-)Is it a boy playing in the sand?A boy retrieving balls on golf courses in the sand traps (like a ball boy in tennis)?Or ... :-)Thank you,Marius Hancu

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I know: "happy as a sand-boy" probably means "very happy" http://www.bartleby.com/110/836.html MERRY, - as a -cricket, - grig, - ... A boy retrieving ***** on golf courses in the sand traps (like a ball boy in tennis)? Or ... :-)[/nq]
I didn't know either, but Onelook.com gave me a basic definition, and the AUE Website Search box gave me two articles (one by M. Quinion, one by E. Morris). It worked better to search on "sandboy" instead of "sand-boy" or "sand boy".
If you need fuller addresses, please let me know.
PS - there's an old round (canon) that goes:
White sands and gray sands
Who will buy my white sands?
Who will buy my gray sands?

Best - Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

Thank you, Donna.
Indeed, I should have searched with "sandboy" ...
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/sandboy
Definition: (n) (British) a peddler of sand at a seashore resort; used now only to express great happiness in the expression "happy as a sandboy"
Best,
Marius Hancu

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hello: I know: "happy as a sand-boy" probably means "very happy" http://www.bartleby.com/110/836.html MERRY, - as a -cricket, - grig, ... - as a thrush, - as a sand-boy; blithesome; gleeful, gleesome; hilarious, rattling (colloq.). However, what is a "sand-boy"?-)[/nq]
Oxford is consistent, at least when it bothers:
(COD10)
sandboy
· n. (in phr. (as) happy as a sandboy) extremely happy or carefree. ? ORIGIN prob. orig. denoting a boy hawking sand.
The entry is missing in (COD11).
(SOED5)
/"san(d)bOI/
E19.
(from SAND noun + BOY noun, perh. orig. 'boy hawking sand for sale'.) (as) happy as a sandboy, (as) jolly as a sandboy, etc., extremely happy or carefree.
(OED2)
(f. sand n.2 + boy n.1)

1. ? A boy who hawks sand for sale. In proverbial phr. as happy (orjolly, etc.) as a sandboy.

1821 P. Egan Life in London ii. v. 289 Logic+appeared to be as happyas a sand-boy, who had unexpectedly met with good luck in disposing of his hampers full of the above-household commodity.
1823 ?Jon Bee? Dict. Turf, Sand-boy, all rags and all happiness; theurchins who drive the sand-laden neddies through our streets, are envied by the capon-eating turtle-loving epicures of these cities. ?As jolly as a sand-boy?, designates a merry fellow who has tasted a drop.

1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xviii, The Jolly Sandboys was a smallroad-side inn.., with a sign, representing three Sandboys increasing their jollity.

1841 E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 70 We will smoke together and beas merry as sandboys.

1892 Zangwill Childr. Ghetto i. xxiv, Everything combined to make himas jolly as a sand-boy.

1928 Daily Express 17 Mar. 3/1 The King was in his element here... Hewas happy as a sandboy.

1958 Daily Sketch 2 June 11/3 Brimming with health, polished like aDerby cup, happy as a sandboy.

1973 Perthshire Advertiser 17 Feb. 18/3 It isn't hot, but they're ashappy as sandboys.
2. = sand-man: see sand n.2 10.
1873 St. Paul's Mag. Feb. 139 But you are sleepy?the sand-boys are inyour eyes.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Thank you, Donna. Indeed, I should have searched with "sandboy" ... Definition: (n) (British) a peddler of sand at a seashore resort; used now only to express great happiness in the expression "happy as a sandboy"[/nq]
Are British beaches so rocky that one must buy (or rent) sand from a peddler? Why would such a peddler be particularly happy? Do such sandmongers currently ply their trade at, say, Blackpool?

Usenet · Answer

Martin Ambuhl quoted:
(COD10)
sandboy
· n. (in phr. (as) happy as a sandboy) extremely happy or carefree. ? ORIGIN prob. orig. denoting a boy hawking sand.
Anyone know why these boys hawked sand?
Some relation to kitty litter would be my uninformed guess.

Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Thank you, Donna. Indeed, I should have searched with "sandboy" ... to express great happiness in the expression "happyas a sandboy"[/nq]
[nq:1]Are British beaches so rocky that one must buy (or rent) sand froma peddler? Why would such a peddler be particularly happy? Do such sandmongers currently ply their trade at, say, Blackpool?[/nq]
I think the Hyperdictionary is simply wrong, unless there was once some ironic expression like "As happy as a sandboy at the beach". Sand was once, of course, used for cleaning and other household purposes.
Mike.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Thank you, Donna. Indeed, I should have searched with "sandboy" ... express great happiness in the expression "happy as a sandboy"[/nq]
[nq:1]Are British beaches so rocky that one must buy (or rent) sand from a peddler? Why would such a peddler be particularly happy? Do such sandmongers currently ply their trade at, say, Blackpool?[/nq]
My vague sense is that "hyperdictionary" is not to be trusted, although I don't remember right now who they are.
If you put into the highly talented search box at the AUE Website which everyone here has bookmarked, right? you will get two reliable sources discussing the word at length.

Everybody knows that the website has links like this to the best word-and-phrases sites, right?
Just in case... it's at http://www.alt-usage-english.org/ .

Best Donna Richoux

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Thank you, Donna. Indeed, I should have searched with "sandboy" ... Definition: (n) (British) a peddler of sand at a seashore resort; used now only to express great happiness in the expression "happy as a sandboy"[/nq]
[nq:1]Are British beaches so rocky that one must buy (or rent) sand from a peddler? Why would such a peddler be particularly happy? Do such sandmongers currently ply their trade at, say, Blackpool?[/nq]
Michael Quinion's answer is on
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hap2.htm
Sand was used traditionally to scour pans and sprinkle on floors. IMO it has little to do with the seaside, and peddling sand at a seaside resort sounds a bit like taking coals to Newcastle neither would be a cause for happiness.
His final paragraph is interesting.

But I suspect that the long hours and hard work involved in carrying and shovelling sand, plus the poor returns, meant that sandboys didn?t have much cause to look happy in the normal run of things, improving only when they?d had a pint or two, when they became tipsily cheerful. My guess is that at first the saying was meant ironically. Only when the trade of sandboy had died out around the middle of the century could it be taken as a figurative reference to happiness. Certainly, to judge from the answers to the question in Notes & Queries in 1866, even by then its origin was obscure.

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Michael Quinion's answer is on http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hap2.htm Sand was used traditionally to scour pans and sprinkle on floors. IMO it has ... from the answers to the question in Notes & Queries in 1866, even by then its origin was obscure. [/nq]
As usual, Michael Quinion's comments are very interesting. And he's probably right in his assumption about this line of work.

My initial vision on "happy as a sand-boy" was a kid building sand castles, thus genuinely happy. Then I realized it's something else ...

Thank you all.
Marius Hancu

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]PS - there's an old round (canon) that goes: White sands and gray sands Who will buy my white sands? Who will buy my gray sands?[/nq]
I've always found that a very haunting tune. (The version I learnt as a child was marginally different - "who'll" and no plurals.) Interesting, though, or perhaps worrying, that I've known that round all my life and yet, until today, I'd not made any connection with the actual real-life selling of sand as such.

Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @

Happy as a sand-boy

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