It’s a long time since I’ve posted anything, and today I realised with a jolt that I’m in danger of turning my site into what is sometimes called a ‘cobweb site’, in that gruesome pun I remember from back in the day when I was a gros fromage at Collins Dictionaries.

I decided it really was time to get off my metaphorical, ahem, hindquarters.

But what to write about?

Well, anything that comes into my head, really, is as good a starting point as any. And what usually comes into my head is something to do with words.

And the words today are the phrase a gogo in the sense of ‘galore, in abundance’. It comes after any noun, so it’s ‘postpositive’, to use the off-putting grammarian’s term, e.g. Funny characters, great visuals, Robin Williams back on form, cameos agogo

(It came to mind because I was thinking of other reduplicated phrases such as hippy-dippy and happy-clappy, which will give me substantial fodder for another day.)

So is a gogo an example of reduplication?

Well, yes and no: ‘yes’, because it is a reduplication, and ‘no’, because it didn’t happen in English but in French. And the English a is an anglicisation of French à.

I was wondering if the phrase is a bit, you know, passé, so I thought I’d take a gander at Google news.

Well, slap my thigh and knock me down with the proverbial feather! I find a UK site offering that succulent Greek lamb stew kleftiko for home delivery under the name of ‘Kleftiko-a-Go-Go’. Which suggests to me the phrase is alive and kicking – even if, sadly, the lamb isn’t.

But next I find a headline that’s real gold dust as regards my quest:

Out-of-control dump truck slams into iconic ‘Whisky a Go Go’ music venue in West Hollywood*

That accident happened back in May 2025; the point is not the accident but the name of the venue.

For that venue’s name is cloned on the Parisian venue which in a sense started the whole thing going, as the OED etymology makes clear.

Back in the mists of time – well, 1952, actually, which is as good as – a nightclub and discotheque opened in Paris with the name Whisky à Gogo, literally, ‘Whisky Galore’ and quickly became hip and fashionable.

Paris being a sort of fashion leader back then – and not generally subject to outrageous jewellery heists from its top museums – venues in other European countries followed suit and opened with the same name. The trend hit the US a bit later, and the Hollywood Whisky a Go-Go on Sunset Boulevard* opened in 1964 and to this day hosts bands.

Stellar bands who’ve played there include The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Byrds and many, many others. And into its hallowed walls slammed an out-of-control dump truck on 10 May 2025, fortunately not injuring anybody.

Image courtesy of the New York Public Library

The OED gives a go-go two meanings, the first of which is first recorded from 1960 and means ‘fashionable, with it’ as in:

At the bar David the DJ bought the first round, ‘Trust me, Henry, Pernod and blackcurrant is a go go,’ he said with a smile.

J. A. Walker, Art-Lovers ii. 10, 1999

 I have to say, that meaning is not in my idiolect.

The second meaning is the one I think most (British?) readers will know, i.e. ‘galore, in abundance’, and dates from 1961 according to the OED, which states ‘In early use frequently with connotation of modishness; now often used ironically.’

I’m pretty sure there was nary a hint of irony in its first recorded use, in the title of an ITV series showcasing pop bands that ran from 1961 to 1965, Discs a Go-Go. It featured stellar [no irony intended and none taken, I hope] bands and artistes such as Manfred Mann, Gene Pitney, The Searchers, The Spencer Davis group, The Animals and scores more.

What about that reduplication, though?

In French, the phrase goes back to at least 1485 with the meaning ‘joyfully, uninhibitedly, extravagantly’ and might be the source also of English agog.  The go element is apparently based on the archaic word gogue, meaning ‘amusement, fun, entertainment’.

There are two English reduplications of go-go, one to do with nightclubs and (erotic) dancing (1964), the other meaning a) possessed of boundless energy (1951) or b) fashionable, in vogue.

Carole’s own name for the glasses is ‘Go-Go Goggles’. Why? ‘Because they make me feel very go-go! Speeded up! Moving fast!’

Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Jrnl. 25 April 1965

Tri-color ski jackets: two go-go styles with nylon shells puffed out with polyfill.

New York Times 9 October (advertisement) 1981

How should I spell it?

The world’s your oyster.

Oxford Online has a gogo;

But the examples it shows include agogo;

The OED has a-go-go;

Collins keeps the French accent à gogo;

Merriam-Webster online and Unabridged only seems to refer to senses of go-go and doesn’t cover the ‘abundantly’ sense.

Is it a very British thang?

Update

Thanks to three of my sistren folllowers, I ‘can now reveal’:

a) there was a famous Whiskey-a-Go Go at No. 4 Queen Square, Brighton in the early 1960s. it even featured in a TV documentary about teenagers and sex;

b) there’s an old pun about the nightclub for the over-80s, Disco-A-Ga-Ga;

c) that the synth-pop band Landscape in the early 80s released a track that rejoiced in the name of Einstein a Go-Go.

* In an irony of ironies, sort of (come back Alanis, all is forgiven) the band due to play rejoices in the name of Boy Hits Car.

** Who can type that address without thinking of the immortal film of the same name?