DCHP-2

dipsy-doodle DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• 1 adj. — Hockey

  a quick series of moves by the puck-carrier involving feints and expert stickhandling.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — While the term term originates in other sports (see meaning 2), it is now used most frequently in the context of hockey in Canada. The hockey domain is the most productive one, transforming the original adjective (meanings 1 and 2) into a verb (meaning 3) and a noun (meaning 4), together with a nominal derivation (meaning 6) and figurative uses in a non-sport context (meaning 5). It seems fair to say that once dipsy-doodle was adopted into the hocky context, it was expanded to a number of functions. AHD-5 (s.v. "dipsy-doodle") derives the term, which it defines generally as 'to move in or follow a zigzag pattern', from dipsy-do, a baseball term describing the motion of a screwball. In the hockey context, dipsy-doodle is of high frequency in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "dipsy-doodle", which is marked "Cdn slang", and W-3, s.v. "dipsy-doodle", AHD-5, s.v. "dipsy-doodle".

  See also: deke ((n.))  stickhandling  

• 2 † adj. — Sports

  pertaining to an evasive move in other sports, often basketball, baseball and football.

  The oldest uses of the term relate to basketball and baseball contexts. The most widely used contexts in Canada are hockey (see other meanings) and occasionally football (see, e.g. the 1989 quotation), while the term is rarely used in other sports in Canada today.

  See also: stickhandle  

• 3 v. — Hockey

  to move in such a way, see meaning 1.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The verbal function seems to have developed out of the adjectival function (see meaning 1).

• 4 n. — Hockey

  such a maneuvre, see meaning 1.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Like in meaning 3 for the verb, the attestations as a noun post-date the attestations as an adjective by several decades. The meaning is recently also attested in the football domain.

• 5 n. — in figurative use

  an evasive strategy in a non-sports context, often in politics.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Transfer of hockey terms into other domains is a characteristic of Canadian English not likely to be found elsewhere.

• 6 n. — Hockey

  dipsy-doodler, one who is expert at dipsy-doodling.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Another derivation, the term is used most often in a hockey context. See, in this context, one of the oldest uses as a noun as plain dipsy-doodle in the 1942 quotation. The noun may also occur in the context of Canadian football.