Everyone knows hunky dory means everything is fine but how did it come to mean fine? It has nautical connotations and comes from Japanese Honcho dori meaning main street where sailors went for diversion and services in the 1860s. Next nautical term is sink or swim which by the definition really should be sink or die. In Medieval times suspected witches were thrown into deep water where if they sank they died and if they swam they were witches and were executed. We'll wrap up today with loose cannon which comes from the 1900s when cannons were mounted on the decks of warships and would sometimes come loose during combat or storms causing great damage and we all know about today's loose cannons.
No comments:
Post a Comment