Talk:attaboy

• in the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English by Eric Partridge [1]:
  • attaboy! Go it!: US (— 1917)
  • 2. Hence, an approbatory exclam. from ca. 1931, as in D.L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise, 1933, '"Picture of nice girl bending down to put the cushion in the corner of the [railway] carriage. And the headline [of the advertistement]? 'Don't let them pinch your seat.'" "Attaboy!" said Mr Bredon [Lord Peter Wimsey].'
  • 3. (As Attaboy) an Air Transport Auxiliary 'plane or member: WW2, then nostalgic. (Jackson.) Suggested by the intitials and punning on senses 1 and 2. See Ancient and Tattered Airmen or Aviators.

• Merriam-Webster: probably alteration of that's the boy, First Known Use: 1909

• Baseball Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings (1869 - 1928) claims to have coined the term "Attaboy!", a contraction of "That a Boy!", another cry of encouragement.

• "ATTA BOY" a Musical Revue of 1917 (Brockport Republic Newspaper February 1917, "Atta Boy" at IDBD)

• Silent movies: "Atta Boy’s Last Race" (1916) and "Atta Boy" (1926)

• The Kentucky Kernel, September 20, 1917: "The old familiar "atta boy" rings across the best athletic field in the South in the old familiar way, and the exhortation is never uttered in vain. In other words, the football team at the University of Kentucky is going to be a team up to high standards and accomplishments."

Etymology is difficult! --Atlasowa (talk) 06:25, 26 March 2013 (UTC)