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{{Short description|A fanciful being whose undefined appearance and essence is left to imagination}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{About|the colloquial term|the musical group|Whangdoodle Entertainers}}
The '''Whangdoodle''' is a fanciful or humorous being whose undefined appearance and essence is left to individual imagination. Other connotations may include an object of humor, something noisy but of no consequence and insignificant.

==19th-century usage==
It appeared in 1858 as a title for and text within a parody sermon "Where the lion roareth and the wang-doodle mourneth," published in [[Samuel Putnam Avery]]'s ''The Harp of a Thousand Strings: Or, Laughter for a Lifetime''.<ref name="Avery 1858">{{cite web |last=Avery |first=Samuel Putnam |authorlink=Samuel Putnam Avery |title=The Harp of a Thousand Strings: Or, Laughter for a Lifetime |publisher=Dick & Fitzgerald |location=New York |year=1858 |oclc=780193269 |url=https://archive.org/details/harpofthousandst00aver/page/224/mode/2up?view=theater |page=224}}</ref> Possibly due to its resemblance to or formation from existing words ''whang''{{efn|":a loud sharp vibrant or resonant sound"<ref name="Definition of Whangs by Merriam-Webster 2021">{{cite web |title=Definition of WHANGS |website=Merriam-Webster |date=2021-03-04 |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whangs#dictionary-entry-3 |access-date=2021-03-04}}</ref>}} and [[Doodle#Etymology|''doodle'']],{{efn|":an aimless or casual scribble, design, or sketch; ''also'' : a minor work"<ref name="Definition of Doodle by Merriam-Webster 2020">{{cite web |title=Definition of DOODLE |website=Merriam-Webster |date=2020-12-03 |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doodle#dictionary-entry-2 |access-date=2021-03-04}}</ref>}}<ref name="Lexico Dictionaries {{pipe}} English">{{cite web |title=WHANGDOODLE |website=Lexico Dictionaries {{pipe}} English |url=https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/whangdoodle |access-date=2021-03-04}}{{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> it soon became common to spell it as ''whangdoodle''.
The term appeared derisively in 1859 correspondence published in ''The Cincinnati Lancet & Observer''.<ref name="X. Y. 1858">{{cite journal |author=X. Y. |title=Transactions of Indiana State Medical Society : Review of a Review |journal=The Cincinnati Lancet & Observer |location=Cincinnati |publisher=E.B. Stevens |year=1858 |oclc=297243391 |issn=1053-5128 |url={{Google books |id=IXaxpzxxzWg |page=PA673 |plainurl=yes}} |page=373 |quote=The address of an Ex-President, which Hoosier attacks so zealously that old English fails to supply him with enough weapons, so he sends a new one, ''whangdoodle'', which probably ranks in logomachy as the ''boomerang'' does in physical warfare ...}}</ref> [[Mark Twain]] used it disparagingly in a letter in 1862.<ref name="Twain Branch Bucci Franck 2020">{{cite book |last1=Twain | first1=Mark | last2=Branch | first2=Edgar Marquess | last3=Bucci | first3=Richard | last4=Franck | first4=Michael B. | last5=Salamo | first5=Lin | last6=Sanderson | first6=Kenneth M. | last7=Smith | first7=Harriet Elinor |title=Mark Twain's Letters |publisher=University of California Press |publication-place=Berkeley, CA |year=2020 |isbn=9780520906068 |oclc=1202623858 |doi=10.1525/9780520906068 |page=171 |quote=For a man who can listen for an hour to Mr. White, the whining, nasal, Whangdoodle preacher, and then sit down and write, without shedding melancholy from his pen as water slides from a duck's back, is more than mortal.}}</ref> By 1877 it had been included in a dictionary.
{{Quote box|quote='''Whangdoodle.''' A humorously imaginary creature, whose precise nature, form, and attributes are left to everyone's individual fancy.<br/>
{{blockquote|text=Where the lion roareth and the ''whangdoodle'' mourneth for her first born. — ''The Harp of a Thousand Strings.''}}
|source={{cite book |last=Bartlett |first=John Russell |author-link=John Russell Bartlett |title=Dictionary of Americanisms : a glossary of words and phrases usually regarded as peculiar to the United States |year=1877 |location=Boston; Cambridge |publisher=Little, Brown, and Company; Press of John Wilson & Son| oclc=669372713 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433069243867?urlappend=%3Bseq=823 |page=745 |hdl=2027/nyp.33433069243867?urlappend=%3Bseq=823 |ref=none}}
}}
{{clear}}

==20th-century usage==
The [[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] listed this definition in the [[:wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poker|Poker article]]: {{term|Whangdoodle}} {{defn|Compulsory round of jack-pots, usually agreed upon to follow a very large hand.<ref name="EB1911 Poker">{{Cite EB1911|page=901|wstitle=Poker}}</ref>}}

==20th-century literature==
{{unreferenced|section|date=March 2021}}
In [[children's literature]] by British authors [[Roald Dahl]] and [[Julie Andrews]], a whangdoodle is portrayed as dismayed and discontent, or a creature of sorrow.

===Roald Dahl books===
;''[[The Minpins]]''
One of the main characters is warned by his mother against a forest where Whangdoodles and other monsters live (though the only monster he does meet there is the Gruncher).

;''[[James and the Giant Peach]]''
One of the firemen in [[New York City]] refers to the [[centipede]] as a Whangdoodle.

;''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]''
[[Willy Wonka]] mentions that he saved the Oompa Loompas from being preyed upon by Whangdoodles and various other monsters. Whangdoodles are described as particularly "terrible" and "wicked".

;''[[Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator]]''
One of the ingredients for Wonka-Vite is "the hide (and the seek) of a spotted Whangdoodle".

===The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles===
{{main article|The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles}}
A different Whangdoodle is described in the children's novel ''The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles'' by singer and actress Dame [[Julie Andrews]] (under her married name of Julie Edwards): an intelligent, ungulate-like character capable of changing color to suit its emotions or blend into its surroundings, from whose hind legs grow a new and different set of bedroom slippers each year. It is introduced to the [[protagonist]]s Ben, Tom, and Lindy, and thus to the reader, by the geneticist 'Professor Savant', a scholar of the Whangdoodle and its secret domain. Attempting to visit both, the scientist and children are opposed by the [[antagonist]] 'Prock' (the Whangdoodle's second-in-command), until his resources are exhausted by their tenacity. With Prock persuaded to grant their passage, the children discover that the Whangdoodle is oppressed by want of a mate, and convince Savant to create the latter. With this done, the two Whangdoodles are to be wedded at a great celebration, and the children return to their home.

===The Big Rock Candy Mountain===
Some versions of the song "[[Big Rock Candy Mountain|The Big Rock Candy Mountain]]" include a mention of a Whangdoodle singing in the titular [[hobo]]'s paradise. This is the case in the version written down and arranged by Charles and Ruth Seeger. This version is used in the [[Frederic Rzewski]] composition for violin, piano, and percussion, titled "Whangdoodles".

==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
<references />

{{Wiktionary|whangdoodle}}
[[Category:Animal characters in literature]]
[[Category:English-language slang]]

Whangdoodle - Revision history

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