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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Swimmingly well #45971 10/26/2001 2:36 AM Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 866 Perth, Western Australia stales old hand stales old hand Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 866 Perth, Western Australia When everything is all going to plan I am prone to say, "Everything is tickitty (sp??) boo". Anybody know where I may have picked this up? Darned if I do - been with me for many years. stales Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Swimmingly well #45972 10/26/2001 3:18 AM Joined: May 2000 Posts: 28 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Lucy newbie Lucy newbie Joined: May 2000 Posts: 28 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Use it myself all the time - when in print use 'ticketty' as spelling, with no authority whatsoever. I've always assumed that it was service slang (particularly the RAAF) - but may pre-date WWII. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Swimmingly well #45973 10/26/2001 3:54 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass it's not used in the US that I'm aware of, but I can provide this: tickety-boo - colloq. [Etym. obscure: perh. f. Hindi thik hai all right; cf. also ticket n.1 9.] In order, correct, satisfactory. 1939 N. Streatfeild Luke 186 Things ought to have shaped right.+ Couldn't have looked more tickety-boo. 1947 Amer. N. & Q. Sept. 94/1 Lord Mountbatten, now Governor General of India, is credited in the New York Times Magazine (June 22, 1947, p. 45) with ‘giving currency’ to the phrase ‘tickety-boo’ (or ‘tiggerty-boo’). This Royal Navy term for ‘okay’ is derived from the Hindustani. 1954 ‘G. Carr’ Death under Snowdon xi. 143 ‘All tiggity-boo.’ ‘TiggityI? Never mind, Sergeant. Go on.’ ‘Everything's jake, sir.’ 1957 J. Braine Room at Top xxi. 179 Everything was tickety-boo again. 1960 D. Fearon Murder-on-Thames xviii. 168 ‘I never killed Mr. Evans either’. ‘Then that's all ticketty-boo.’ 1977 Listener 7 Apr. 450/3 Attempting vainly to get everything tickety-boo for the Big Day. 1981 S. Rushdie Midnight's Children i. 97 Everything's in fine fettle, don't you agree? Tickety-boo, we used to say. ticket - 9. slang. a. The correct thing; what is wanted, expected, or fashionable; esp. in phr. that's the ticket. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Swimmingly well #45974 10/26/2001 4:43 AM Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 866 Perth, Western Australia stales old hand stales old hand Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 866 Perth, Western Australia Thanks Tsuwm - doncha just hate those "obsc" etymologies!! Am struggling with the derivation from the Hindi though. Having lived in Bombay/Mumbai, "Thik hai" was absorbed into the stales' family dialect years ago. We pronounce it "tee - khi" which is nothing like "tick-ett-ee". And whence the "boo"? Like the idea of it being service slang. stales Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Swimmingly well #45975 10/27/2001 5:12 AM Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 5 Echo stranger Echo stranger Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 5 In reply to: "Thik hai" was absorbed into the stales' family dialect years ago. We pronounce it "tee - khi" which is nothing like "tick-ett-ee". And whence the "boo"? --- I asked my Pakistani neighbour and friend, Omar, who thinks "Tickety" could have come from "Theek hai ji" ji being a suffix for respect. He did not know where boo comes from. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: tickety-boo #45976 10/27/2001 1:33 PM Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 3,439 New England, USA wow Carpal Tunnel wow Carpal Tunnel Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 3,439 New England, USA tsuwm : You've *got to visit New England! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: tickety-boo #45977 10/27/2001 5:12 PM Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 3,146 Northamptonshire, England Capital Kiwi Carpal Tunnel Capital Kiwi Carpal Tunnel Joined: Nov 2000 Posts: 3,146 Northamptonshire, England I remember someone saying that "tickety-boo" came back to Zild from the sub-continent about the time of WWI. I always assumed that it was from some Indian (in the broader sense) dialect. But, illusions come and go! The idiot also known as Capfka ... Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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