“Shoo fly”最早出现在1866年的政治新闻中，作为对害虫的警告，源自shoo（动词，意为“赶走”）和fly（名词，意为“苍蝇”）。这个短语通过丹·布莱恩特的一首民谣《Shoo fly — don't bother me》而广为人知，这首歌在1868年印刷出版，并从次年起风靡一时。根据H.L. 门肯的说法，这个短语“困扰了美国人至少两年”，甚至出现在国会记录中。
[A]n epidemic called the "Shoo fly," that has raged in New York and other eastern cities for some time, has at length broken out there [Cincinnati] with great intensity. Young and old have got it. Babies lisp it, and old men are heard to pipe it forth. The child, when threatened with chastisement by its mother, modifies the parental wrath, and sometimes escapes the impending rod by waving its infantile hand and singing out:"Shoo-fly, don't bodder me!"
[Knoxville, Tenn., Daily Press and Herald, Jan. 28, 1870]
最近在纽约和其他东部城市流行的“Shoo fly”疫情，终于在辛辛那提爆发，且传播极为迅猛。无论老少，几乎人人都在传唱。连婴儿也开始咿呀学语，老人们则乐于高歌。当孩子们被母亲威胁要惩罚时，往往会用稚嫩的手挥舞，边唱边逃：“Shoo-fly, don't bodder me！”
[《田纳西州诺克斯维尔日报与公报》，1870年1月28日]
这个短语还被用于多种专业领域。宾夕法尼亚德裔的传统美食shoo-fly pie（鞋子派）最早出现在1908年《费城询问者》的一则食谱中。
Its name is generally taken to be an allusion to the fact that it is so attractive to flies that they have to be constantly shooed away from it, but the fact that it originated as a Pennsylvania-Dutch specialty suggests the possibility that shoofly is an alteration of an unidentified German word. [Ayto, "Diner's Dictionary"]
人们普遍认为，这个名字是因为它对苍蝇的吸引力太强，以至于需要不断地将它们赶走。然而，由于它起源于宾夕法尼亚德裔的特色美食，这也让人联想到“shoofly”可能是某个德语词的变体。[Ayto,《餐饮词典》]
比姆的《宾夕法尼亚德语词典》[兰卡斯特，1985年]中将“shoofly pie”翻译为der Melassichriwwelboi。
