Now, I find “Oh, there, there” to be both obvious and reasonable. It was just funny to discover that la la in ancient Sumerian means joy joy or great joy. And Ul la la is joy, joy, joy!. Which works so much better as an exclamation from a French man looking at a beautiful woman: “Ooh la la!”
Bert Lawrence:
August 20th, 2009 at 1:26 am
When did people begin using the abbreviation “LA” for Los Angeles? I don’t recall anyone in film or writing that used LA in the early days of Hollywood. I’m feeling that LA came into common usage sometime during the sixties, when the people of Los Angeles began to recognize that they lived in a world class city. Am I wrong?
Bob Newberry:
August 26th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I remmember the city being referred to as LA in the mid forties and fifties.
I now reside in Jefferson County, Alabama. The county seat is the City of Birmingham. Birmingham’s current mayor is LArry LAngford, who could be referred to as Mayor Moonbeam (He is currently under indictment for fraud and conspiricy). Since his creative finances have been exposed Birmingham has often been called LA LA Land.
ISADORE PROTECKI:
October 24th, 2010 at 11:54 am
As a child growing up in Detroit, MI 45 years ago, I would hear the term “LA” as a city in California, and thought the city name was spelled “Elay,” an easy misconception for a second grade student. I could not find “Elay” on the California map, so I wondered where people were going. Eventually, I was corrected, and moved to “Elay” 15 years later (Actually, the ‘Beautiful’ San Fernando Valley). With the backbone of the computer porn industry in this area, “E-Lay” seems a more appropriate moniker. As there is also a large Latino influence, “El Lay” may also fit.
Izzy
It’s very curious that in Swahili, LALA Salama means sleep well, or good night. I’ve always known the term lala land to be used in that context…..as in sleep or dreaming. Now that I travel to Africa all the time, I would imagine there has to be some connection with our US terminology La-La Land and the English translation of the Swahili term LaLa Salama. Makes sense to me now, but certainly not growing up, I knew nothing of Swahili.
It may have originated as a British mockery of the Germans.
Ken:
October 23rd, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Older use of the term is french which means “there there” and can also mean “delight”. La la land was clearly in use in English as early as 1903 based on its record in the Canadian Parliament.
It could have been an import from Swahili or from French, meaning the land of delight.
Jeremy:
December 30th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
I have records of “La La Land” being used in the 60’s from a Leela Rogotzke. She owned a circuit board printing company in 63 called Lees Electronics. So the Lee was the professional side, and the La was her party side (Lee-La) so when she was off work she would say she was off to La La Land
Susan Johann:
April 28th, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Interesting, but “ooh la la”, rather than a stereotypically french expression, is actually a misspelling and mispronunciation of the stereotypically french expression, “oh la la.”
Jenni:
June 11th, 2015 at 11:44 am
To further expound on Susan’s comment, the French phrase “oh la la” is used to convey surprised dismay, and would translate most accurately to “oops” or “oh, dear!” One might cry “oh la la” when a lady spills red wine down the front of her white silk dress.
Of course, Americans at some point adopted the view that anything French must have something to do with sex, and thus the phrase “ooh la la” is not only mispronounced, but aslo misused to express scandalized glee over something raunchy or taboo.
Hugo:
November 23rd, 2016 at 9:44 am
I’m glad I finally looked it up. It will prevent the possibility of being embarrassed by my ignorance some time in the future. I had always thought that “La la land” referred to the land of leftwing nuts, which I took to be Hollywood. I’ll have to look up more things that I thought I knew.
If Mike Royko, legendary Chicago newspaper pundit, is really the originator of “La La Land”, the etymology is clear. It is a variation of “Chicagoland”, the locally ubiquitous designation for the metropolitan Chicago area. This locution dates back to the 1920’s and s usually attributed to Chicago Tribune editor and owner, Robert McCormick.
stacie:
December 10th, 2016 at 9:07 pm
I loved my old movies. Join the club and La La Land were two phrases that made
sense to me. I used them frequently in school in the early ’70’s. I was throwing
pebbles across the ocean. So maybe I’m tooting my own horn, but it’s amazing
to see how no one would ever think someone not famous might popularize
something like a phrase, or saying. It might be the same kind of thinking that
wants patents and copyrights done away with.
Chad:
March 1st, 2017 at 10:28 am
“La” is also a negative in Arabic, often used as “no” or referring to something that doesn’t exist (as in the affirmation of faith in Islam: there is no god, but God – la illah ila allahu).
From this possible root, la la land implies no land, or utopia – literally, “no place”, a non-existent, yet desirable place, that ties into the Swahili idea stated above too. These different possible origins actually could all converge as Swahili interacted with Arabic and French colonizers of much of the Arab world also borrowed from Arabic.
Interestingly, regardless of its possible origins the term all seems to imply something similar, a utopic, dreamy place!
Lynn:
May 5th, 2020 at 7:03 pm
If we are going international, lala in Farsi is for when babies are supposed to go to bed and lala land is where they go when they fall asleep. This dreamland meaning resonates quite nicely with the dreamlands created by LA-Hollywood movie-makers.
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aquart:
April 6th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Now, I find “Oh, there, there” to be both obvious and reasonable. It was just funny to discover that la la in ancient Sumerian means joy joy or great joy. And Ul la la is joy, joy, joy!. Which works so much better as an exclamation from a French man looking at a beautiful woman: “Ooh la la!”
Bert Lawrence:
August 20th, 2009 at 1:26 am
When did people begin using the abbreviation “LA” for Los Angeles? I don’t recall anyone in film or writing that used LA in the early days of Hollywood. I’m feeling that LA came into common usage sometime during the sixties, when the people of Los Angeles began to recognize that they lived in a world class city. Am I wrong?
Bob Newberry:
August 26th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I remmember the city being referred to as LA in the mid forties and fifties.
I now reside in Jefferson County, Alabama. The county seat is the City of Birmingham. Birmingham’s current mayor is LArry LAngford, who could be referred to as Mayor Moonbeam (He is currently under indictment for fraud and conspiricy). Since his creative finances have been exposed Birmingham has often been called LA LA Land.
ISADORE PROTECKI:
October 24th, 2010 at 11:54 am
As a child growing up in Detroit, MI 45 years ago, I would hear the term “LA” as a city in California, and thought the city name was spelled “Elay,” an easy misconception for a second grade student. I could not find “Elay” on the California map, so I wondered where people were going. Eventually, I was corrected, and moved to “Elay” 15 years later (Actually, the ‘Beautiful’ San Fernando Valley). With the backbone of the computer porn industry in this area, “E-Lay” seems a more appropriate moniker. As there is also a large Latino influence, “El Lay” may also fit.
Izzy
Kay Trotman:
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:59 am
It’s very curious that in Swahili, LALA Salama means sleep well, or good night. I’ve always known the term lala land to be used in that context…..as in sleep or dreaming. Now that I travel to Africa all the time, I would imagine there has to be some connection with our US terminology La-La Land and the English translation of the Swahili term LaLa Salama. Makes sense to me now, but certainly not growing up, I knew nothing of Swahili.
Ken:
October 23rd, 2012 at 12:46 pm
I found a use of the phrase “everything will be fine in la la land” in the 1907 report of the Canadian Parliament here:
http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=O91XAAAAYAAJ&q=%22la+la+land%22&dq=%22la+la+land%22&source=bl&ots=FWNOY7opax&sig=MANs13s_AW_o3Y5oDvkHhJzuOVA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GMmGUL2PE8Op0QWPqYCIBA&redir_esc=y
Also, it is found as a phrase in an old German song about the fatherland from the 1800’s.
http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=bfUsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=%22la+la+land%22&source=bl&ots=ZoSISoKmVv&sig=duJYTWeQk8NSfnqGTCnWstT4Fas&hl=en&sa=X&ei=q8iGUL3tL6bX0QWCwoGQBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22la%20la%20land%22&f=false
It may have originated as a British mockery of the Germans.
Ken:
October 23rd, 2012 at 12:55 pm
Older use of the term is french which means “there there” and can also mean “delight”. La la land was clearly in use in English as early as 1903 based on its record in the Canadian Parliament.
It could have been an import from Swahili or from French, meaning the land of delight.
Jeremy:
December 30th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
I have records of “La La Land” being used in the 60’s from a Leela Rogotzke. She owned a circuit board printing company in 63 called Lees Electronics. So the Lee was the professional side, and the La was her party side (Lee-La) so when she was off work she would say she was off to La La Land
Susan Johann:
April 28th, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Interesting, but “ooh la la”, rather than a stereotypically french expression, is actually a misspelling and mispronunciation of the stereotypically french expression, “oh la la.”
Jenni:
June 11th, 2015 at 11:44 am
To further expound on Susan’s comment, the French phrase “oh la la” is used to convey surprised dismay, and would translate most accurately to “oops” or “oh, dear!” One might cry “oh la la” when a lady spills red wine down the front of her white silk dress.
Of course, Americans at some point adopted the view that anything French must have something to do with sex, and thus the phrase “ooh la la” is not only mispronounced, but aslo misused to express scandalized glee over something raunchy or taboo.
Hugo:
November 23rd, 2016 at 9:44 am
I’m glad I finally looked it up. It will prevent the possibility of being embarrassed by my ignorance some time in the future. I had always thought that “La la land” referred to the land of leftwing nuts, which I took to be Hollywood. I’ll have to look up more things that I thought I knew.
WGM:
December 4th, 2016 at 1:59 pm
If Mike Royko, legendary Chicago newspaper pundit, is really the originator of “La La Land”, the etymology is clear. It is a variation of “Chicagoland”, the locally ubiquitous designation for the metropolitan Chicago area. This locution dates back to the 1920’s and s usually attributed to Chicago Tribune editor and owner, Robert McCormick.
stacie:
December 10th, 2016 at 9:07 pm
I loved my old movies. Join the club and La La Land were two phrases that made
sense to me. I used them frequently in school in the early ’70’s. I was throwing
pebbles across the ocean. So maybe I’m tooting my own horn, but it’s amazing
to see how no one would ever think someone not famous might popularize
something like a phrase, or saying. It might be the same kind of thinking that
wants patents and copyrights done away with.
Chad:
March 1st, 2017 at 10:28 am
“La” is also a negative in Arabic, often used as “no” or referring to something that doesn’t exist (as in the affirmation of faith in Islam: there is no god, but God – la illah ila allahu).
From this possible root, la la land implies no land, or utopia – literally, “no place”, a non-existent, yet desirable place, that ties into the Swahili idea stated above too. These different possible origins actually could all converge as Swahili interacted with Arabic and French colonizers of much of the Arab world also borrowed from Arabic.
Interestingly, regardless of its possible origins the term all seems to imply something similar, a utopic, dreamy place!
Lynn:
May 5th, 2020 at 7:03 pm
If we are going international, lala in Farsi is for when babies are supposed to go to bed and lala land is where they go when they fall asleep. This dreamland meaning resonates quite nicely with the dreamlands created by LA-Hollywood movie-makers.