Been a snake, it woulda bit chew.
Dear Word Detective: We have always used the phrase “big as Ike” in my family, and I’m sure I’ve heard other Southern folk use it too to mean “crystal clear, it was right in front of me,” etc. Do you know the origin of this phrase? — Jack Connell.
“Big as Ike” is a new one on me, but I grew up in suburban Connecticut, an environment not known for its colorful turns of phrase. We tend, in fact, to say things like “colorful turns of phrase,” which is about as much fun as a cummerbund at a pool party. I just made that up, by the way, so maybe there’s hope for me yet.
On the other hand, “big as Ike” doesn’t seem a vary common turn of phrase. A Google search turns up just 14 hits, and several of them refer to former US president Dwight D. (”Ike”) Eisenhower. One does address “big as Ike” but hypothesizes (sorry, Connecticut again) that the phrase is a combination of “big as life” and Eisenhower’s campaign slogan, “I Like Ike,” which strikes me as extremely unlikely. Several others refer to a song called “I Saw Elvis in a UFO” (”I just walked on over there big as Ike and looked up in there and there he was.”) by a certain Ray Stevens and C.W. Kalb, Jr. of Nashville. “Big as Ike” in the song seems to mean “boldly, making no attempt to hang back or hide,” so that definitely fits with the way your family used the phrase.
“Ike,” President Eisenhower notwithstanding, is generally used as a familiar form of the name Isaac, and its history as a slang term isn’t pretty. “Isaac” being considered a typical Jewish man’s name, “Ike” and “Ikey” have since at least the 19th century been used in both Britain and the US as a derogatory term for any Jewish man. As an adjective, “ikey” has also been used in an extended sense to mean both “crafty” and “stuck up.” The Oxford English Dictionary quite rightly labels both “Ike” and “ikey” as “derogatory and offensive in all uses as applied to persons.”
In the southern US at the end of the 19th century, however, “Ike” seems to have slipped its bigoted moorings a bit and came into use meaning simply “a rude or uncouth person.” By the early 20th century, “big Ike” had appeared in the South, meaning “a conceited or self-important person” (”He’s a big Ike in some church in Atlanta,” 1902). “Ikey,” on the other hand, remained in use as a derogatory term for a Jewish man.
This leaves the question of how “big Ike” (pompous person) became “big as Ike” (glaringly obvious), but this doesn’t seem like that great a leap in meaning. A puffed-up self-important “big Ike” is hard to miss in any setting.
My mother used the phrase “Okay, Mr. Big Ike” to put my dad in his place anytime she thought he was being a know-it-all or overly confident. She was from Arkansas and he from Mississippi. Since I was born when Eisenhower was President, I’ve always suspected it was a reference to him.
I’ve heard the phrase, “Mr. Big Ike,” used to point out gently that someone was acting pompous, all my life (I’m 68 years old), so it predates Eisenhower. This morning I used it in conversation with my Texas-born husband to refer to our two-year-old grandson’s insistence on paying the check at restaurants (with someone else’s money, of course). Husband swears he’s never heard the term before. I was born in and reared in Eastern North Carolina. My mother is from northern Alabama, and we visited her family at least annually and lived there for a couple of years during WWII.
Now I’m curious to find out just who “Mr. Big Ike” was and why he’s unknown outside the stretch of real estate from Eastern North Carolina to Arkansas.
Being a Southerner (South Carolinian), I’ve heard the phrase “big as Ike” used frequently, at least during my younger years on this planet. I don’t hear it used very often anymore except occasionally by the older folks. It was always used as Mr. Connell explained, “very obvious” or “without a doubt”.
How and why it originated, and who or what “Ike” was, I have no clue.
Mr. Big Ike is definitely a Southern term. We heard it in our youth. That and the ever-so colloquial “trifling” (as in – “he has some trifling ways”.
I am from northwestern Oklahoma and grew up hearing the term “Big Ike.” I don’t think I ever heard it applied to women, but rather men who were full of their own self-importance, e.g., “He Big-Iked all over town.”