Vamoose!
How many ways are there to
say to leave? Here are a few that I
find intriguing. Interestingly, only the first two come from sources other than
American English.
Vamoose comes from the Spanish word vamos & showed up in
English in 1834. The Spanish word translates to let us go & comes from the Proto-Indo-European word wadh-
through Latin. Wadh-‘s progeny include the word
wade.
Since 1844 English speakers have been able to shove off, a term
born in the British boating world.
The classic American cop
shows of our youth often included the theifly imperative Cheese it man, it’s the cops!
Cheese
it means stop, hide, quit, be
quiet, or get out of here. Nobody’s sure where cheese it came from, but
at least one etymologist has suggested it may have come from the word cease.
1950s westerns gave us the
phrase, Get out of Dodge, meaning leave
town, as so many westerns were based in Dodge City, Kansas, & there was
seldom enough room in Dodge City into which a protagonist & antagonist
might wedge themselves.
In 1928 the word scram
materialized in American English. Its source is unclear. It may have
been derived from scramble or it may have descended from the German word schramm,
which means to depart.
Another American English
term, to make tracks, showed up in 1835, meaning to move quickly.
Skedaddle also comes from American English & has an unknown source. It appeared
in 1861 meaning to run away & was
a form of military slang during the Civil War. Possible but unproven sources
include scaddle, a dialectical English word meaning scare or frighten, & a Northern
English dialectical word which meant to
spill. Continuing in the uncertain parentage vein skedaddle may or may not
have spawned the 1905 word skidoo, meaning to leave in a hurry, a word nearly always associated with the
number twenty-three for no reason anyone has yet discerned.
Here’s hoping you’ll add a
comment or two about all this in the comments section. Me? I’ve got to scram.
I was hoping you'd have found a theory on the 23 skidoo thing. Such a very strange saying, and apparently meaningless. Skedaddle is mysterious too--but such a fun word.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever heard the cheese it phrase. To me Cheez-it means those orange stryrofoamy snack objects that taste almost, but not quite, like food.
The scram-schramm connection makes perfect sense.
Hi Anne - thanks for coming by. I'm with you on the 23 Skidoo thing. I had always assumed it had to do with the year 1923 -- graduating class, political contest? And it does seem weird they can't nail down something that looks as obvious as scram/schramm.
ReplyDeleteI need to use the phrase, "Cheese it, man!" in casual conversation as soon as possible. As always, great post!
ReplyDeleteThis might be a phrase you could use when pushing Jack in a stroller through the neighborhood when the longwinded Mrs. Hussenfuss comes bustling out of her house to give you a piece of her mind.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard "cheese it" either. But, it would be fun to use. My mom used skedaddle all the time. And I mean ALL the time, seeing as I have 6 siblings. We did a lot of skedaddling!
ReplyDelete