Editing Dandy (section)

== Etymology ==
The earliest record of the word ''dandy'' dates back to the late 1700s, in ''Scottish Song.''<ref name=":0" /> Since the late 18th century, the word ''dandy'' has been rumored to be an abbreviated usage of the 17th-century British ''jack-a-dandy''; the term was used to described a conceited man.<ref>"jack-a-dandy", ''The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (1993) Lesley Brown, Ed. p. 1,434.</ref> In [[British North America]], prior to American Revolution (1765–1791), a British version of the song "[[Yankee Doodle]]" in its first verse: "Yankee Doodle went to town, / Upon a little pony; / He stuck a feather in his hat, / And called it Macoroni … ." and chorus: "Yankee Doodle, keep it up, / Yankee Doodle Dandy, / Mind the music and the step, / And with the girls be handy … ." derided the rustic manner and perceived poverty of colonial American. The lyrics, particularly the reference to "stuck a feather in his hat" and "called it [[Macaroni (fashion)|Macoroni]]," suggested that adorning fashionable attire (a fine horse and gold-braided clothing) was what set the dandy apart from colonial society.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr19.html#yankee "Yankee Doodle"]</ref> In other cultural contexts, an Anglo–Scottish [[border ballad]] dated around 1780 utilized ''dandy'' in its Scottish connotation and not the derisive British usage populated in colonial North America.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford English Dictionary|year=1989|url=http://dictionary.oed.com/|quote=Dandy 1.a. "One who studies, above everything, to dress elegantly and fashionably; a beau, a fop, an exquisite. A 1780 Scots song says: "I've heard my granny crack O' sixty twa' years back. When there were sic a stock of Dandies O; Oh they gaed to Kirk and Fair, Wi' their ribbons round their hair, And their stumpie drugget coats, quite the Dandy O.|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=2 March 2008|archive-date=25 June 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625103623/http://dictionary.oed.com/|url-status=dead}} See: Notes and Queries 8th Ser. IV. 81.</ref> Since the 18th century, contemporary British usage has drawn a distinction between a dandy and a [[fop]], with the former characterized by a more restrained and refined wardrobe compared to the flamboyant and ostentatious attire of the latter.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911, p. 0000.</ref>