I´m Your Huckleberry - Huckleberry Friends AG worldwide creative network

I´m Your Huckleberry >> Expression I´m Your Huckleberry: Ich bin genau der Mann den Sie gesucht haben. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Huckleberry Friends: Wir sind die richtigen Leute, zur richtigen Zeit am richtigen Ort. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some Meanings: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/Itemsofinterest1/huckleberrysource.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm Your Huckleberry! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Lawson Stone -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On and off I hear discussions in which people speculate on the exact origin and meaning is of the quaint idiom used by Doc Holliday in the movie "Tombstone." I've heard some wild suggestions, including "huckleberry" meaning "pall-bearer" suggesting "I'll bury you." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Still others think it has something to do with Mark Twain's character, Huckleberry Finn, and means "steadfast friend, pard." This is unlikely, since the book of that title was not written until 1883. Tom Sawyer was written in 1876, but nowhere there is the term "huckleberry" used to mean "steadfast friend" or the like. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Still others claim that a victor's crown or wreath of huckleberry is involved, making the statement "I'm your huckleberry" something like "I'll beat you!" But no such reference can be found in the historical materials supporting the use of this term in 19th century America. Additionally, "huckleberry" was native to North America so it's unlikely it was used in ancient Britain as a prize! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solutions to such questions are actually very easy to find, since there are numerous dictionaries of the English language in its various periods, and there are dictionaries of English slang. These works simply cull from books, magazines, and newspapers of the period representative usages of the words to illustrate their meaning. I consulted several of these and found the expression to have a very interesting origin. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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." As a result, "huckleberry" came to denote idiomatically two things. First, it denoted a small unit of measure, a "tad," as it were, and a person who was a huckleberry could be a small, unimportant person--usually expressed ironically in mock self-depreciation. The second and more common usage came to mean, in the words of the "Dictionary of American Slang: Second Supplemented Edition" (Crowell, 1975): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A man; specif., the exact kind of man needed for a particular purpose. 1936: "Well, I'm your huckleberry, Mr. Haney." Tully, "Bruiser," 37. Since 1880, archaic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The "Historical Dictionary of American Slang" which is a multivolume work, has about a third of a column of citations documenting this meaning all through the latter 19th century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So "I'm your huckleberry" means "I'm just the man you're looking for!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now ain't that a daisy! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The "Daisy" comment is easier. In the late 19th century "daisy" was a common slang term for "the best in it's class." So for "daisy" just substitute "the best" and you'll have it. It was a short-lived idiom and doesn't seem to be popular much after 1890. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.word-detective.com/back-w.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Very Berry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Evan: I recently ran into the phrase "I'm your huckleberry" in a story about the Old West. Looking up the term in a dictionary, I found that in slang it meant "special man for the job" around 1880, but is now considered archaic. No explanation or derivation was given. As usage was traced to 1880 and Huckleberry Finn was not published until 1884 (I think), did Twain have this meaning in mind when he named his main character? -- Robert Hood, via the internet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's not impossible, I suppose, and the remarkable variety of connotations given the humble "huckleberry" in late 19th century America would certainly have been familiar to Twain when he was writing his novel. According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, "huckleberry" meant, as you've discovered, "the desired or suitable person" for a task, or just an all-around nice person or even "sweetheart." But "huckleberry" could also mean "a small amount or distance" or even "a negligible thing or person." In fact, Twain himself used the word in this less than flattering sense in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in 1889. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a handy metaphor for something very small, the huckleberry also appeared in phrases such as "to bet a huckleberry to a persimmon" (a very small bet) and "a huckleberry above a persimmon" (a very small amount). But, though small, huckleberries could be special, too, as in the phrase "the only huckleberry on the bush," signifying something unique. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ironically, amid all this evidence of turn-of-the-century huckleberry madness, we find evidence that the humble huckleberry actually got its name from a simple mistake. Early American colonists, upon encountering the native American berry, misidentified it as the European blueberry known as the "hurtleberry," by which name it was called until, through generations of slightly sloppy pronunciation, it became known as the "huckleberry." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-huc1.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Q] From Cristlyn Randazzo: “What is the origin of the expression ‘I’ll be your Huckleberry’? What exactly does it mean?” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A] What it means is easy enough. To be one’s huckleberry—usually as the phrase I’m your huckleberry—is to be just the right person for a given job, or a willing executor of some commission. Where it comes from needs a bit more explaining. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First a bit of botanical history. When European settlers arrived in the New World, they found several plants that provided small, dark-coloured sweet berries. They reminded them of the English bilberry and similar fruits and they gave them one of the dialect terms they knew for them, hurtleberry, whose origin is unknown (though some say it has something to do with hurt, from the bruised colour of the berries; a related British dialect form is whortleberry). Very early on—at the latest 1670—this was corrupted to huckleberry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. An example from 1832: “He was within a huckleberry of being smothered to death”. Later on it came to mean somebody inconsequential. Mark Twain borrowed some aspects of these ideas to name his famous character, Huckleberry Finn. His idea, as he told an interviewer in 1895, was to establish that he was a boy “of lower extraction or degree” than Tom Sawyer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also 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 a huckleberry to a persimmon, the persimmon being so much larger that it immediately establishes the image of something tiny against something substantial. There’s also a huckleberry over one’s persimmon, something just a little bit beyond one’s reach or abilities; an example is in David Crockett: His Life and Adventures by John S C Abbott, of 1874: “This was a hard business on me, for I could just barely write my own name. But to do this, and write the warrants too, was at least a huckleberry over my persimmon”. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quite how I’m your huckleberry 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. There is often an identification of oneself as a willing helper or assistant about it, as here in True to Himself, by Edward Stratemeyer, dated 1900: “ ‘I will pay you for whatever you do for me.’ ‘Then I’m your huckleberry. Who are you and what do you want to know?’ ”. Despite the obvious associations, it doesn’t seem to derive directly from Mark Twain’s books. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Short question, long answer! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HUCKLEBERRY FRIENDS AG is a hand-picked network of the most experienced professional contractors and consultants. A dynamic forge of talent. A passion for the work, the thrill of achievement, a desire to make a difference, and uncompromising integrity – these are our driving forces. We measure our success by the success of our clients. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Strategy A: 1 plus 1 equals 11. Eleven. Strategy is a regal discipline. We are the right people, at the right time, in the right place. Our line-of-sight is clear : client – excellent results – objective. Sometimes it’s just having that one trick up your sleeve that gets you the prize. Strategy B: Think big. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -> top