I’m looking for the origin of the word phooey.  I first heard it as meaning “poop”, a German
euphemism used by my mother, e.g. Pfui machen.  I’m not sure if it came from our dialect,
Preissich (that’s what we called it, spoken in Germany, just east of Luxembourg).

Also, is anyone familiar with the designation, “Preissich”?  Since my family came to the US
in 1847, might it refer to a political entity of the time? It seems unlikely that it has anything to do with
“Prussian”.

Duke

The origin of phooey is uncertain. It might indeed come from the German phui. Another possibility is that it is echoic, imitating the sound of air escaping the lips, a sign of exasperation. Other echoic terms of roughly the same meaning include phoo and phew.

I have no idea what Preissich is. Are you sure it’s not Preussich, or Prussian? At it’s peak, the Kingdom of Prussia extended far beyond the boundaries of the core area in the east. Prussia’s Rhine Province, which includes the area directly east of Luxembourg, was acquired by Prussia in 1815, as a result of the Napoleonic wars.

I agree that the only thing Preissisch is likely to mean is Preussisch, but it wouldn’t make much sense to call the dialect that—Luxembourg and the region east of it speak Middle Franconian, aka West Central German (see map and description).

I’d always sort of assumed that phooey was a minced oath for fuck. Is this a viable possibility as well, or not so much?

Not so much.  Individual people can use it that way, of course, but that’s not the origin.

The spelling ‘preissisch’ is intriguing, as it would represent the Bavarian pronunciation of the word. For Austrians and Bavarians it’s used (along with the intensified form saupreißisch) to refer to anything vaguely north or standard German, usually in an uncomplimentary manner.

A nice example of dialect from the net:

Nur weil du`s net verstost, hoaßt des no lang net, dass schlechts deitsch is

Oder wo duat standa, dass ma auf saupreißisch schreim muaß?

In standard German that would be, I think: Nur weil du es nicht verstehst, heißt das schon lange nicht, dass es schlecht deutsch ist. [Oder sollen wir verstehen,] dass man auf saupreußisch schreiben muss? Or, in English, ‘Just because you don’t understand it, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad German. [Or are we to understand] that we have to write this filthy standard German?’

I’m not sure about the bit in brackets, and would appreciate confirmation or correction from anybody with a better command of German dialects.

I suspect, though, that the spelling in the OP’s post may just be a coincidence rather than reflect this fact.