Slang doesn’t really do optimism, but as a one-off special to mark the nation’s temporary mood of joy, here’s Mr Slang’s Alphabet of Admirability…
I have eschewed what I term the O-word, but it is over now and I am emerging – decrepitude permitting – from behind my canapé, which is, pleasingly at least to me, what French calls a sofa. Still, it did catch me up yesterday via a large screen on the wall of a Chinese restaurant. It appeared that a black man was running through London’s streets and rather than evoke the usual response; the addition of several policeman to the exercise, the boys in blue were merely holding back the thronging and enthusiastic crowds. What a difference a fortnight appears to have made.
I gather that everything has changed. The nation has been figuratively redecorated in the deliberately ‘happy’ primary colours usually associated with the slides, swings and kindred diversions to be found in children’s playgrounds, one cannot turn a corner but to stumble upon be-hejabbed ladies dancing a measure with EDL-tattooed skinheads, pausing only to caress the pit-bulls that frolic around the gladsome duo, and in a marvel of rebirth, last year’s gutted shopping centres have soared from the ashes with the bright glossiness of a Lego castle. Lord Coe is in his heaven and all is right with the world.
Slang finds optimism hard. Though not as hard as I had believed. A search on such adjectives as ‘wonderful’, ‘excellent’, ‘best’, ‘marvellous’ and so on brings up – to me – a remarkable 500 responses. The words bah and indeed humbug, so central to my daily discourse, remain on hand but it seems that we must stem them. We are not at home to Mr Grumpy. Though ‘bad’, ‘worst’, ‘mediocre’, ‘inferior’ and ‘second-rate’ come up with almost exactly the same number. Not to mention the lexis of insults – whether personal, general or racial/national – which, to the curmudgeon’s relief, maintain the vocabulary’s reputation for nay-saying.
So, for those who would like some variations on the standard terminology of delight, here’s Slang’s Alphabet of Admirability. Enjoy it while it lasts:
acknickulous [? SE acknowledged + ridiculous + marvellous] [1980s+] (US black/teen).
bodacious (also bardacious, bodashes) [SE bold + audacious. Coined in the 19C, the term was ‘relaunched’ on 1970s Citizen’s Band radio and with the release of the film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989). A Dict. of Afro-American Slang (1994) suggests a root in Bantu botesha, grand, big]
copacetic [? Chinook jargon copasenee, everything is satisfactory, esp. as orig. used on the waterways of Washington state. Other etys. include: (i) the contrived phr. the cop is on the settee, i.e. the cop is not paying attention, which elided into copacetic and was supposedly used as such by US hoodlums; (ii) a word presumed to be Ital. but otherwise unknown; (iii) Fr. coupersetique, f. couper, to strike; thus striking or worth a strike; (iv) the Yid. phr. hakol b’seder, all is in order or, earlier, kol b’tzedek, all with justice.]
double-breasted [mid-19C–1930s]
egg-a-muffin! [SE egg on + McDonald’s egg McMuffin] [1980s+] (US campus).
first chop [from Hind. chhaap meaning a print, and thus a seal, notably that which is placed on first-rate merchandise; Schele de Vere, Americanisms (1872), however, cites it as ‘Canton-jargon of the Anglo-Chinese’] [early 19C+].
gallows (also gallus) [on pattern of bloody (1), i.e. fig. use of violence as synonym for extremism; note Scot. gallows, rascally, dissolute] [mid-19C+].
hunky-dory (also honky-dooley) [Du. hunk, home (in a game; the word was first used by youngsters in New Amsterdam and thence New York); thus adv. hunk, in a safe position, all right; dory, ety. unknown; ? redup. Note Quinion World Wide Words 27/11/99: ‘HUNKY-DORY […] The suggestion is that the term was introduced in America about 1865 by a popular variety performer named Japanese Tommy. […] it is said to have been sailors’ slang for a street in Yokohama named Honki-Dori, whose inhabitants “catered for the pleasures of sailors”, as he puts it. The word was a play on the existing word “hunky” for something that was fine, splendid or satisfactory, which itself probably derives from the adjective “hunk” with much the same sense. That can be traced back to the 1840s and has links to another reduplicated term, “hunkum-bunkum”.’] (orig. US).
ill [fig. uses of SE ill, unwell; on the bad = good model] (US black/teen) [1980s+].
jakeloo (also jackaloo, jake-a-pie, jakerloo) [note A.G. Pretty (ed.), Glossary Of Slang […] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (1924): ‘…“Jake” was in use before the war, in Australia by drivers & others to indicate that the load and harness were secure and everything ready for a start. It was also used to indicate that all was well with the speaker. The addition of the last two syllables appear to have been made in the A.I.F. abroad; perhaps the outcome of the observation by certain members of the “force” of the “Bakerloo”, the name of the underground railway that connected Waterloo station with Baker Street, both in London.’] [1910s+] (Aus./N.Z.).
Kelsey’s nuts n. [punning ref. to the US Kelsey Wheel Company, founded in 1910 to produce automobile wheels. The need for nuts and bolts to be exceptionally tight fitting to preclude wobbly wheels gave rise to the imagery] [1930s+] (US Und.).
lush [SE luscious] [1950s+] good, excellent.
mega [adopted Greek pfx mega-, great] [1960s+] (orig. US teen).
number one [widely popularized after its importation from pidgin by veterans of the Korean (1950–3) and Vietnam (1964–75) Wars] [mid-19C+] (orig. US).
out of sight (also outasight, outasite) [note Tom Dalzell (1996): ‘out-of-sight was Bowery slang for astonishingly excellent in the 1890s, and was used by Stephen Crane in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893). Visiting a museum, our heroine utters, “Dis is outa sight.” She could have been speaking 70 years later. Berrey and Van den Bark identified out-of-sight as a slang synonym for five categories – beyond comparison, very superior, excessive, completely, and expensive – in the American Thesaurus of Slang (1942)’]
pimptastic [2000s] (US black) fantastic; self-aggrandizing.
quare [Irish pron. of SE queer] [mid-19C+] (Irish).
rum (also rome) [most prob. from SE Rome (and indeed could be spelled ‘rome’ until the 18C), which, as a city, meant glory and grandeur. Other origins include the Romany rom, a male gypsy, or the Turkish Röm, a gypsy, many of whom passed through the Ottoman Empire. Reversing the process, the Lat. Roma (Rome) is cognate with the Teutonic root hruod (fame) (as found in the names Roger and Roderick) which appears in the German Ruhm (fame)] (orig. UK Und.) [mid-16C–1920s].
stunning Joe Banks [stunning + proper name Joe Banks, a contemporary publican–cum–receiver, based in Dyott Street, Seven Dials, London, and later in the Cranbourne Street rookery, who always gave a fair price to the thieves with whom he dealt. Like many receivers, he added to his income by returning, for a price, the stolen goods to their original owners. His neckties, adds Hotten (1860), were as stunning as his character and the aristocracy, as well as the underworld, patronized his after-hours drinking club] [mid–late 19C].
turd, fine as a cow — stuck with primroses [late 18C–early 19C].
umpty-doo (also humpty-doo) [the nursery rhyme Humpty-Dumpty, who ‘fell off a wall’; the image is of something that is similarly forceful] [1910s+] (Aus.).
vicious [on bad = good model] (US black/teen).
wicked [although the modern bad = good model properly dates f. 1970s US black vocab. the OED’s first cited use is in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise (1920): ‘Phoebe and I are going to shake a wicked calf’]
wicked pisser n. [pisser n. (2a)] [1990s+] (US, mainly northeast) something very good or very bad. When used without an article, e.g. This food is wicked pisser, it is taken to mean very good; when used with an article, e.g. This job is a wicked pisser, it is taken to mean something very bad.
zanzy [Zanzibar, a part of Africa and thus viewed positively] [1960s] (US black).
Interesting how many of these are US. I’d thought of ‘jake’ as North American too, and I’m sure I have come across it in hard-boiled detective fiction. I might have to re-read Raymond Chandler to find out.
idea for a new WW2 buddy movie involving the escaped inmates of a lunatic asylum called ‘Kelsey’s Nuts’
Cast it, cast it!
Does “jackeloo” have anything to do with the “jackeroo”? I seem to remember reading Roald Dahl’s typically revolting description of a “jackeroo”; apparently an Australian rancher in the outback- one of their specialities was the castration of lambs, a disturbing method which included the use of their teeth and rubber bands. The lamb’s bollocks were then boiled up into a lip-smackin’ appetising stew. Thinking about it, I expect this was Roald’s little joke.
pls see below at ‘George’
Jackaroo – many of my school friends on leaving boarding school (early 1960’s) became jackaroos. Applies to young men learning their trade on the land. Never a ranch – in Australia, a sheep or cattle station. We do not have ranchers – we have pastoralists or graziers. In these days of equal opportunity we also have ‘Jillaroo’s’.
“Wicked pissah” is Bostonian isn’t it? Seem to remember that being bandied about when I went. Great city, Boston, could happily live there.
German wags, yes they do exist, say that someone in a happy state is suffering from Durchfall des Gehirns, roughly translated means diarrhea of the brain.
I always understood “number one” to be a translation of “ichi ban”, learned during the occupation of Japan, and from the ongoing US presence there and in Okinawa.
There was a band in the 30s, wasn’t there, called the Copacetics?
You’re the culinary expert but I have a feeling that Roald was simply writing what he witnessed. The jackeroo is a staple of Aussie rural life: originally defined as a white man living beyond the bounds of ‘civilization’ [from Jagara dhugai-tu, a wandering white man]. Then as a man newly arrived from Britain to gain experience in the bush. Baker, The Australian Language (1945), suggests Queensland Aborigine tchaceroo, the shrike, which ‘talks’ a great deal, orig. applied to a group of German missionaries settled near Brisbane and thence all whites and all young hired hands. Other proposed etymologiesd are an elision of Jacky Raw; a newcomer and Jack, as a generic name + kangaroo
Fascinating, Mr Slang. As erudite as ever. Thank you.
This was meant for Luke. Apologies all round.
Meanwhile George, I would have agreed – and still accept that the link is there for 20th century US use – but a check through the citations shows that in fact that ‘number one’ was in use from the mid-19th century. It was, as I suggest, popularized by vets, who encountered it in Korea, Vietnam and as you point out Japan, though seemingly during the post-war US occupation rather than during the war as such.
It’s somehow pleasing that all those Dukes of Hazzard CB-types were using a term derived from Bantu.