Last week on That's What They Say, we looked at the nuanced connotations associated with "do-gooder" and "good-doer." By the end of our conversation, we were wondering whether the less-than-complimentary "do-gooder" had anything to do with the equally disparaging term "goody goody."
"Goody" and "goodies" showed up in the mid-1700s to refer to fun things to eat, and you'll find that use today. By the 20th century, "goodies" could refer to anything attractive or desirable, as well as things that are offered in addition to something else. For example, if a car comes with fun extra features like heated seats and a sun roof, you might say that it comes with all the goodies.
By the late 1700s, "goody" was also being used as an exclamation of "childish delight: "There's no work tomorrow, goody!"
"Goody" as an adjective and a noun was in the language by the early 1800s and was used to refer to a person who was "self-consciously careful to be good, to conform to the standards of conduct or good manners in an affected way." Think of it as trying a little too hard to be good.
This particular use was sometimes contrasted with "good." Here's an example from the 1835 book Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "There can be no great poet who is not a good man, though not, perhaps, a goody man." In other words, a great poet must be good, but may not be "self-consciously careful" about good manners.
From this use of goody, we get the reduplicative form "goody goody." Being called a goody goody is not good. For more on that and for our discussion of the term "goody two shoes," listen to the audio above.
