What is the correct spelling for "Hippie-Dippy Bologna"?

Question

Because while that is technically the correct spelling for each word, but as a phrase it doesn't seem to work well together. It lacks symmetry (Hippie vs. Dippy) and uses the extremely rare-yet-proper Italian "bologna".

Origin: The phrase is used with delightful comic effect in The Lego Movie and quoted on wikiquote as "hippie, dippy baloney".

Consider:

"Hippie-dippie" for symmetry? Merriam-Webster supports it. (Wiktionary includes it as a short entry).
Hippy? Would match "Dippy". Although "Hippie" has the most support in usage and prescription (on wiktionary and English stackexchange)
- And yet Google suggests "Hippy Dippy Baloney Lego" for a "Hippie Dippy Baloney Lego" search, as if "Hippie" were misspelled based on the comparative number of search results.
Dippie? Would match "Hippie".
- And yet scarce presence among Internet dictionaries.
- Whereas Dippy
Baloney? Far more common in usage and growing in dictionary acceptance.
Dash between hippie and dippy? Dash between all three?

The question is: How best to spell "Hippie-Dippie Baloney"?

Spell it however you like. Plenty of people use the spelling *hippy*, and even more use *boloney* rather than baloney (or your supposedly "correct" bologna). — FumbleFingers, Dec 14 '15 at 17:59
Hippie-dippie has been around longer than The Lego Movie. There must be some kind of conventional spelling for it, I should think. Also, seems like it is a compound word rather than something one might think of spelling separately, like a whatdoyoucallit phrasal repeat like "thingy-dingy". — Kit Z. Fox, Dec 14 '15 at 18:07

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 23 '15 at 02:46

1

The case for Hippy Dippy Balony: the spelling of hippy with a final y predates the spelling ending ie:

One of the earliest attestations of the term hippy is found in the "Dictionary of Hip Words and Phrases" included in the liner notes for the 1959 comedy album How to Speak Hip, a parody based on the burgeoning Greenwich Village scene.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_hippie)

Further it is clearly an adjective. Hippy is also a valid adjective in every dictionary I checked, meaning "having big hips." Further, the word hippy in the phrase is clearly an adjective.

"Balony" is the best way to spell baloney/bologna because to spell it correctly would be like spelling out "OK" as "okae".

edited Dec 23 '15 at 02:46

deadrat

44,678

answered Dec 14 '15 at 19:02

Gordon Flammer

26

Plus "Hippy" is pleasantly similar to "Gypsy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Romani_people#Gypsy_and_Gipsy – BrianOFlan Dec 14 '15 at 23:48
1

Alas, I cannot mark this answer as the answer because of its treatment of "balony"/baloney/bologna. Compare baloney to balony. (How strange that boloney is fine but not balony/bolony.) – BrianOFlan Dec 14 '15 at 23:50

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 23 '15 at 03:35

1

On the Warner Home Video DVD release, the English subtitles render it

hippie-dippie baloney

(But, perhaps the subtitles do not represent the intended or scripted spelling.)

answered Dec 23 '15 at 03:35

J. T.

31

What is the correct spelling for "Hippie-Dippy Bologna"?

2 Answers2