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stranger
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Does anyone know anything about the origin of the phrase "hunky dory"? A friend told me that he saw it in a list of quotes from immigrants at Ellis Island and he thought it might be of Danish origin.
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Carpal Tunnel
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from Atomica:
hun·ky-do·ry
adj. Slang.
Perfectly satisfactory; fine.
[Probably alteration of hunky, safe, all right, from obsolete hunk, goal, home in a game, from Dutch honk, from Frisian hunk.]
and from M-W:
Main Entry: hun.ky-do.ry
Pronunciation: "h&[ng]-kE-'dOr-E, -'dor-
Function: adjective
Etymology: obsolete English dialect hunk (home base) + -dory (origin unknown)
Date: 1866
: quite satisfactory : FINE
formerly known as etaoin...
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Sooo ... David Bowie didn't make it up as a hunky-dory title for his album? Damn, another illusion shattered! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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from Bartleby, The American Heritage Dictionary: dory2
SYLLABICATION: do·ry
PRONUNCIATION: dôr, dr
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. do·ries
1. John Dory. 2. See walleye (sense 1).
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English dorre, from Old French doree, from feminine past participle of dorer, to gild, from Late Latin deaurre : Latin d-, de- + Latin aurum, gold. That would seem to make sense...adding to satisfactory (hunky), gilded (dory). >from Late Latin deaurre : Latin d-, de- + Latin aurum, gold.< How did you miss this one, Faldage? Nits must be in season...
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Aww, gosh. Normally people just call me by my first name. Seem to forget that my last name's Dory.
TEd
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W'ON: How did you miss this one, Faldage? Nits must be in season... ROTFLMAO! 
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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Thanks. That makes sense especially in the Ellis Island context safe at home.
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stranger
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That was my second guess!
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Welcome aBoard, buccojoe; nice to have you. :-) May I offer a suggestion? Early on, we found out that, when there were already several posts in a thread, if a new post just included a response only, it was often difficult to tell which previous one it was referring to. So we got into the habit of either quoting part of what we were responding to, or perhaps using the other person's name; something, anyway, to indicate specifically. I'm not fussing, please understand--I'm just wondering what your second guess was!  WO'N, thank you for including dory! Even I know that dorado means gold--that is so cool! How did the little boat come to be called a dory?
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