Jamaican Children's Game: "Dandy Shandy" - Part III (What That Name Means)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series on the Jamaican children's game "Dandy Shandy".

This post presents what I believe are the probable reasons why the game "Dandy Shandy" has that name. My conclusion is based on the meanings of the term "shandy" and the term "jim dandy".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/11/jamaican-childrens-game-dandy-shandy.html   
 for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a video of this game. Part I also presents information about "Dandy Shandy" from selected online articles.

Clickhttps://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/11/jamaican-childrens-game-dandy-shandy_26.htmlfor Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents a compilation of selected online comments about the Jamaican children's game "Dandy Shandy".

The content of this post is presented for cultural and linguistic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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This is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on Jamaican children's play.

Click the "Jamaican children's play" tag below for other pancocojams posts in this series.

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PROBABLY WHY THE JAMAICAN CHILDREN'S GAME "DANDY SHANDY" HAS THAT  NAME   

(The sources for these excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only)

I haven't found any information or comments online about why the Jamaican children's game "Dandy Shandy" has that name. But I think that the reasons below are probably why that name is used for that game.

1. Whoever gave this Jamaican dodge ball game the name "Dandy Shandy" lifted it from a children's light alcoholic beverage that has that name.

2. The name "Dandy Shandy" stuck for that Jamaican children's game because it reflects how people are usually boisterous and excited when they play this game.

"Boisterous and excited" mirrors the effects that the "Dandy Shandy" drink may have upon children.  

3. The name "Dandy Shandy" stuck for that Jamaican children's game because it rhymes and is fun to say.

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EXCERPTS ABOUT THE USE OF THE NAME "DANDY SHANDY"

EXCERPT  #1
From https://www.oed.com/dictionary/dandy-shandy_n?tl=true
"[definition #1]

1906–

Originally: (a brand name for) a type of non-alcoholic fizzy drink. In later use also: a drink consisting of a mixture of beer and ginger beer, lemonade, or similar; a shandy. Now chiefly Jamaican.

[examples of these words]

1906

"On draught—..Dandy Shandy."
-Advertiser (Adelaide) 5 January 2/4 (advertisement) Citation details for Advertiser (Adelaide)

1916

"Dandy Shandy... This new drink made from Sarsaparilla, Dandy Lion and other herbs."
-Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 4 March 24/2 (advertisement) Citation details for Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica)…

2013

"A woulda drink a ice cold dandy shandy."
-@StreetsKel 20 March in twitter.com (accessed 26 May 2020)

[definition #2]

1978–

Jamaican. A game, typically played by children, in which the object is to throw a ball or juice box so that it hits and eliminates other players.

[examples of these words]

1978

"They..extend the game of dandy-shandy and chevy chase."
- Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 23 September (Council Voluntary Social Services Supplement) p. VI/6Citation details for Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica)

2020

"I'm ready to be a kid again and play dandy shandy after school with my cousins and neighbors."
-@cringeeeworthyy 7 May in twitter.com (accessed 26 May 2020)"

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EXCERPT #2
From https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/word-history-of-shandygaff-or-shandy [no publishing date given, retrieved Nov. 25, 2023] An Undiluted History Of 'Shandy'
German cyclists might call it 'radler.'
….“Whereas, nowadays, a shandy is considered a blend of beer with any nonalcoholic beverage, the original specifically was beer mixed with ginger beer or ginger ale. (Both ginger beer and ginger ale are believed to have originated as alcoholic brews but were then processed as soft drinks, making their names misnomers as early as mid-19th century. Typically, ginger beer has a stronger gingery flavor.) Another traditional mixer for a shandy is carbonated lemonade.

The term shandy itself is a shortening of shandygaff, which first appears in 19th-century England. Although we don't know for sure how the name shandygaff came about, we are fairly certain that the concept of a beer cocktail traces back centuries earlier. And we are definitely sure that a shandygaff was enjoyed. Charles Dickens once commented that it was the perfect "alliance between beer and pop." In The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green—an 1853 novel about a first-year undergraduate at Oxford University written under the pseudonym Cuthbert M. Bede—Mr. Green states that a friend taught him "to make shandy-gaff and sherry-cobbler …: oh, it's capital!" By late-19th century, shandygaff is shortened to shandy, and creative imbibers begin experimenting. Refreshing, effervescent lemonade becomes an early substitute for ginger beer. Other mixers such as orange and grapefruit juice soon follow, along with cider.

Shandygaff is a compound word, but as to why the base words came together (or in what senses they are used in) is a mystery. Inevitably, there has been speculation. Some people have suggested that gaff is a portmanteau of ginger and half. That's possible, but what about the other multiple uses of gaff that enter the English language by mid-19th century? Quite possibly, one of those could have been applied jocularly for the beverage's name.

The most common use of gaff is as the name for the spear or hook used for lifting heavy fish out of the water. Another gaff refers to loud laughter (as in "his resounding gaffs filled the room" or "he gaffed merrily")—senses found in dialectal Scottish English. There is also gaff meaning "a fair" or "a place of lower-class amusement (as at a theater or music hall)." In a 1918 collection of essays entitled, fittingly, Shandygaff, American writer Christopher Morley links the word shandygaff to the lower classes, "Shandygaff is a very refreshing drink, being a mixture of bitter ale or beer and ginger-beer, commonly drunk by the lower classes in England, and by strolling tinkers, low church parsons, newspaper men, journalists, and prizefighters." As early as the 17th century, shandy was also being used in dialectal English as an adjective to refer to people who were wild, boisterous, or slightly crazy. Perhaps, the "place of lower-class amusement" sense of gaff and this sense of shandy were blended together. It's certainly not unreasonable to think that people drinking shandygaffs in lower-class establishments got a little wild—we just need to find evidence corroborating this etymology.”…
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The words written in italics were found that way in that article.

I added bold font to that sentence to emphasize what it says as I think it may pertain to the Dandy Shandy children's game.

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EXCERPT #3
From https://www.pelliclemag.com/home/2021/8/3/the-zest-of-both-worlds The Zest of Both Worlds — Is the UK Going Through a Shandy Renaissance? by Jemma Beedie [no publishing date given; retrieved Nov. 25, 2023
“Mention shandy to someone over 40 and you’ll inevitably get hit with a wave of sentimentality.

In the 1970s and 80s, shandy was a tin of almost-booze given to children, a soft drink with top notes of beer. Top Deck and Shandy Bass were on sale in newsagents up and down the country. In a particular subsect of the internet’s nostalgia machine, grizzly men reminisce about their first sip of this drink, the thing that gave them a thirst for the real deal, before going on to bash the “nanny state” that did away with beer for babies.

In Scotland, we can still pick up a litre bottle of Barr Shandy, should we require it. To most of us, however, shandy is a gently alcoholic treat for a summer’s day, a way of joining in the fun without risking a hangover.

A mix of lager and lemonade is most common, though I far prefer a bitter shandy. In the late summer after my daughter was born I sipped half-pints in my village beer garden. The refreshing fizz of sugar cut through the biscuity slick of Belhaven Best, both parts somehow combining to become another thing entirely. Something better. “…

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EXCERPT #4
From https://thehungarybuddha.com/2015/07/16/dandy-shandy/ DANDY SHANDY [no author or publishing date given’ retrieved Nov. 26, 2023
"Whew. The heat is on. Let’s beat it with a Dandy Shandy.

For today, Thirsty Thursday, if you will, another cocktail.

It’s my own version of a Shandy Dandy. Dandy Shandy? I can’t remember.

 

No…I haven’t had that much to drink, but neither iteration of the name seems to make much sense since to me it sounds like stringing adjectives.  Anyway, a Dandy Shandy, aside from being a sort of ball game played by children in Jamaica, is also a beer cocktail. Internet searches suggest this is some sort of English stout concoction, but I pull my inspiration from The Spice Necklace, a book filled with recipes of Caribbean delights borrowed from Lettuce.  And to make it more summery, I opted for a light Corona rather than a heavy Guinness. Maybe that’ll be the name of the game in two months, but for now light beverages only.”…

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EXCERPT #5
This quote is presented as an explanation for the use of the informal word "dandy" in the term "Dandy Shandy". This use refers to use of the word "dandy" in the name of the beverage and in the name of the Jamaican children's game.]

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jim-dandy
"jim-dandy

noun

jim-dan·​dy ˈjim-ˈdan-dē

Synonyms of jim-dandy

: something excellent of its kind

jim-dandy adjective

Word History

Etymology

from the name Jim

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of jim-dandy was in 1887"
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Therefore, a "dandy shandy" is an informal term for a shandy (beverage or game) that is very good. 

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series on "Dandy Shandy"

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