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Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English. The 4th edition of Dictionary of Americanisms includes a definition of an earlier spelling of 'hunky-dory':.
Superlatively good. Said to be a word introduced by Japanese Tommy and to be or to be derived from the name of a street, or bazaar, in Yeddo [a. Japanese Tommy was the stage name of the variety performer Thomas Dilward, popular in the USA in the s - and conspicuously not Japanese.
Dilward was a black dwarf before cosmologists ever thought of the term. There is no direct evidence to support Bartlett's supposition. Benjol Benjol 4, 2 2 gold badges 27 27 silver badges 33 33 bronze badges. I had not seen them before. Odd are that someone said "hunky dunky" and someone else decided that "hunky dory" sounded better. I myself frequently do this sort of neologizing word play.
Edit: and I see below that hunky dory was used in a poem.. Martin found some other quotations: Not long afterward, in October , the US magazine The Galaxy , seemed unclear why the phrase was used, which also indicates that it wasn't very long in the tooth at that date: "I cannot conceive on any theory of etymology that I ever studied why anything that is 'hunkee doree', or 'hefty' or 'kindy dusty' should be so admirable. It seems that The Galaxy writer had been perplexed by the recent popularity of the the expression, which appears in several publications in ; for example, The Galveston Daily News , June , had this piece of advice: In the morning wash with Castile soap, in soft rain water, and you are all "Hunky-dore" - as fresh as a lily - as sweet as a pink.
First, Library of Universal Knowledge, Volume 1 : Hunk , a large piece; " all hunky ," all right; also " hunky dory.
Hugo Hugo Etymonline says , Amer. But that's pretty nebulous. Robusto Robusto k 37 37 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Here's what I found in a New York State newspaper from The slang expression of hunky dory is Scotch, and is a synonym of the Latin "non compos.
Hugo Nice research but I dispute the logic of the article. None of this has anything to do with the generally accepted meaning of Hunky Dory. This was a newspaper in so they didn't cite a source but typesetter's wry comments are frequently used as fillers.
I assume they meant non compos mentis, as in not in a right frame of mind. My Webster's dictionary from s says hunky dory means "as well as can be expected. As usual in such cases, there have been no shortage of theories.
New York City was originally the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, of course, and many Dutch terms and place names remain in use. Nurse Dainton tends me like I was made of glass.
When I lived in Japan I was told that the saying originated from Yokohama as mentioned. The only difference was that sailors would become hopelessly lost in Yokohama. But as soon as they cane across Honcho Dori they knew where they were. All was fine, so Hunky Dori! I use this phrase all the time and even have a metal sign of it in the kitchen.
I am Grandpa used it often.
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