Where does "I'm your huckleberry" come from?


	Where does "I'm your huckleberry" come from?

Lexica

10-31-2009 10:48 PM

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tags:

words, quotations, etymology, movies, history

4 Comments |

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10-31-2009 11:13 PM

lollipop10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W28EBu8HU-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pqyX_as3PI

11-1-2009 8:02 AM

chestnut501

I don't know about huckleberries, but persimmon pudding is to die for.

11-2-2009 3:42 PM

lollipop10

i've never even seen a persimmon.

11-3-2009 12:47 AM

saranyafa

"Huckleberry" was commonly used in the 1800's in conjunction with "persimmon" as a small unit of measure. "I'm a huckleberry over your persimmon" meant "I'm just a bit better than you.

http://www.rajagiriworld.com/beforeyouhavea-massage.html

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/9a50a4e7-644f-4d25-89a7-fd2b1a4adc74/18E5ACE6-AC67-4478-AF46-13A2E01A23A0/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm" href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.worldwidewords.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">What is the origin of the expression ‘I’ll be your Huckleberry’? What exactly does it mean?</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">To be one’s huckleberry — usually as the phrase <I>I’m your huckleberry</I> — is to be just the right person for a given job, or a willing executor of some commission</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">As huckleberries are small, dark and rather insignificant, in the early part of the nineteenth century the word became a synonym for something humble or minor, or a tiny amount</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">around the 1830s, we see the same idea of something small being elaborated and bombasted in the way so typical of the period to make the comparison <I>a huckleberry to a persimmon</I></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">There’s also <I>a huckleberry over one’s persimmon</I>, something just a little bit beyond one’s reach or abilities</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm">Quite how <I>I’m your huckleberry</I> came out of all that with the sense of the man for the job isn’t obvious. It seems that the word came to be given as a mark of affection or comradeship to one’s partner or sidekick.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/18E5ACE6-AC67-4478-AF46-13A2E01A23A0/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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