How did upsy-daisy come about?

looney_tunes

"Alas, as with many etymologies, there's a lot of uncertainty. Terms such as "up-a-daisy" dates to the early 1700s, as an encouragement to a child who has fallen to stand up, or as an exclamation upon lifting a child. It's basically a nonsense phrase, presumably intended to amuse the little ones. Variants include "upsi-daisy" or "upsy-daisy" from the 1860s as well as "upsa-daisy" . . . any of them with or without hyphens. The first use of "whoops-a-daisy" per se is around 1925, in a New Yorker cartoon. It's an expression of surprise or dismay, specifically upon discovering one's own error. The modern-day equivalent would be "D'oh!", I'm afraid, which is much less expressive. The term was shortened to "whoops" by 1937, and appears in that form in a letter by Ezra Pound, no less. One assumes that it was related to the expression "to whoop," as in giving "whoops of joy." That usage goes back to the early 1600s. " http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2039/whats-the-origin-of-whoops-a-daisy Dec 27 09, 4:43 AM