Comments on: Big as Ike

By: Betty

Betty — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:56:32 +0000

I’m 63 yrs. of age. I’ve always heard and used the terminology, “Big as Ike,” never thinking upon the meaning. I used it for referring to, “being a show off.” I’m I incorrect?

By: barbara

barbara — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:22:25 +0000

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.”

By: T. Hannah

T. Hannah — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:17:49 +0000

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”.

By: Rodger

Rodger — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:28:49 +0000

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.

By: Valeria Truitt

Valeria Truitt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:15:43 +0000

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.

By: Lynn Wilson

Lynn Wilson — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:19:50 +0000

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.