"foo" origin

[Herman Rubin]

In article <575 at unmvax.unm.edu>, oconnell at unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Pat O'Connell) writes:
> In an early Daffy Duck cartoon (late 30's?--it's in black & white) that my
> kids replay incessantly, they use the phrase "Silence is Foo" to ask for
> quiet in the operating room theater while Daffy's mad doctor boss sews up
> a football.  So the expression is older than WW II--I think it means
> something like the "mandatory" rather than "fouled up".  Anyway, my 
> daughter asked about what it means in the cartoon.  Anyone out there of
> appropriate vintage to help us figure out this slang??

I remember that "foo" was an expression used in the _Smokey Stover_ comic
strip.  It was also used as a somewhat derogatory manner in ordinary speech,
as, "Foo to you."
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin at l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)