• Ou Ming
  • Tuesday, January 24, 2006

    Τι μαθαίνει κανείς... useless info - part 1

    Μόλις κανόνισα για καφέ με την Α. Στην ερώτηση: would that be convenient for you? απάντησε: Thursday is hunky dory!!! Ίσως να είναι η εκατοστή φορά που ακούω αυτή τη φράση (αλλά μόνο από την Α. Από κανέναν άλλο Άγγλο. Ποτέ!)
    εξτριμλυ μπιζι ατ γουορκ, για αυτό ακριβώς I googled it up:
    The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang suggests that the term may have been introduced in America about 1865 by a popular variety performer named Japanese Tommy. Other references suggest that it may have been sailors’ slang for a street in Yokohama that catered for what one might describe as the special needs of sailors. In Yokohama today a broad thoroughfare called Honcho-dori runs from the centre of the city to the port area, so one that would have been familiar to sailors (dori is the Japanese word for a road, in particular a broad or important one).
    What seems certain is that hunky-dory was a play on an existing sense of the word hunky for something that was fine, splendid or satisfactory. In turn, this probably derives from the adjective hunk, which means that one is all right or in a safe or good position. his derives from the Dutch honk, meaning “goal” or “home” (...)
    It may be that hunky-dory was the result of a bilingual pun, perhaps invented because American sailors knew the word dori and prefixed it with hunky as an imagined Japanese street of earthly delights.
    Εγώ πάλι φαντάζομουν ένα χρωματιστό γάιδαρο...

    1 Comments:

    Blogger Nick D said...

    Ahaha you koufed us. Apisteuto!

    January 24, 2006 2:21 pm  

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