23 Skidoo (phrase)
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''23 skidoo'' (sometimes ''23 skiddoo'') is an American
slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
phrase generally referring to leaving quickly, being forced to leave quickly by someone else, or taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave. Popularized during the early 20th century, the exact origin of the phrase is uncertain. ''23 skidoo'' has been described as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S", to the extent that "Pennants and arm-bands at shore resorts, parks, and county fairs bore either 3or the word 'Skiddoo'." "23 skidoo" combines two earlier expressions, "twenty-three" (1899) and "skidoo" (1901), both of which, independently and separately, referred to leaving, being kicked out, or the end of something. "23 skidoo" quickly became a popular catchphrase after its appearance in early 1906.


Origin

Although there are a number of stories suggesting the possible origin of the phrase, none has been universally accepted.


Flatiron Building

Perhaps the most widely known story of the origin of the expression concerns the area around the triangular-shaped
Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a 22-story, steel-framed triangular building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinke ...
at
Madison Square Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, the fourth president of the United St ...
in New York City. The building is located on 23rd Street at the intersection of
Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...
and Broadway, the latter two of which intersect at an acute angle. Because of the shape of the building, winds swirl around it. During the early 1900s, groups of men reportedly gathered to watch women walking by have their skirts blown up, revealing legs, which were seldom seen publicly at that time. Local constables, when sometimes telling such groups of men to leave the area, were said to be "giving them the 23 Skidoo". An early
nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
film, '' What Happened on Twenty-third Street'', which dates from 1901, shows a woman's skirt being lifted by the updraft from a ventilation grate, exposing her knees. Some consider the Flatiron Building origin claim dubious because the slang expressions "23" and "skidoo" were already in use before 1902, the year in which the Flatiron Building was built.


"23" (or "Twenty-Three")

The earliest-known report of the slang expression "23" (or "twenty-three") as a code word for asking someone to leave is a newspaper reference on March 17, 1899: At the time, a stage version of ''
A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...
'', ''The Only Way'', was playing in London. The production moved to New York City later that year; it opened at the Herald Square Theatre on September 16, 1899. Less than two months later, popular slang author George Ade described having heard a new slang expression, "twenty-three": In the same interview, Ade described two purported origin stories he had heard: that it was "from the English
race track A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...
s, twenty-three being the limit on the number of horses allowed to start in one race" or that it had been a signal used in a plot to free a Mexican embezzler from custody in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
.


Skidoo

''
Webster's New World Dictionary ''Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language'' is an American dictionary published first in 1951. As of 2022, the work is owned by HarperCollins Publishers. Overview The first edition was published by the World Publishing Comp ...
'' derives ''skiddoo'' (with two d's) as probably from '' skedaddle'', meaning "to leave", with an imperative sense. The word ''Skidoo'' was the name of a ''Lark''-class racing sailboat that competed in races on Long Island Sound during the 1901 racing season. The ''Skidoo'' competed every summer through at least 1904. ''Skidoo'' is attested, in its conventional, slang sense, by 1904. ''Skidoo-wagon'' (as well as "skidoodle wagon" and "skedaddle wagon") was a short-lived euphemism for automobiles during 1904–1905. The word ''skidoo'', used by itself as a noun denoting a supposed bringer of bad luck, is attested in the early 1910s, in
P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...
's '' Psmith, Journalist''. It appeared in newspapers as early as 1906.


Twenty-three, skidoo!

Both of the slang expressions, ''23'' and ''skidoo'', were used in
George M. Cohan George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
's 1904 musical play ''
Little Johnny Jones ''Little Johnny Jones'' is a musical by George M. Cohan. The show introduced Cohan's tunes " Give My Regards to Broadway" and " The Yankee Doodle Boy." The "Yankee Doodle" character was inspired by real-life Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan. Ba ...
''. Numerous news items from the period credited either Cohan or Tom Lewis (the actor performing the role that spoke those lines in the play) with creating or popularizing one or both of the expressions. Even before the expression ''"23, skidoo!"'' became popular in its own right, ''23'' (or ''twenty-three'') and ''skidoo'' were frequently used in conjunction with, or near, one another in the same sentence or paragraph; ''23'' often as part of the phrase "23 for you r yours" For example, "Skiddoo! Git! Twenty-three for yours!", or "Twenty-three for his! Skidoo." The earliest known use of the expression, in the familiar ''"23, skidoo!"'' form, is an advertisement for Billy B. Van's show ''The Errand Boy'': The phrase quickly became a ubiquitous catchphrase, and Google Books has many examples of commercial advertisements using "23-Skidoo" that begin in 1906. For example, the edition of ''The Shoe Retailer'' for August 4, 1906, volume 59, No. 5 (Boston, MA), has a full-page ad for a "23-Skidoo" sale, with blurbs such as "23-Skidoo/Says Low Price to the Shoe/Now It's Up to You". On the RMS ''Titanic'' there was a watertight door on E Deck numbered 23 which was informally called the "skidoo door" according to the testimony of the Chief Baker Charles John Joughin.


Other explanations

* Cartoonist "TAD" ( Thomas A. Dorgan) was credited in his 1929 obituary in ''The New York Times'' as being the "First to say 'Twenty-three, Skidoo.'" * Baseball player Mike Donlin and comedian Tom Lewis may have created the expression as part of their vaudeville act. * An article in the June 26, 1906 ''
New York American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...
'' credits the phrase to Patsey Marlson, then a former
jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase (horse racing), steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used ...
hauled into court on a
misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...
charge. At his hearing, Marlson is asked by the judge how the expression came about. He explains that when he was a jockey, he worked at a track which only had room for 22 horses to start in a line. If a 23rd horse was added, the long shot would be lined up behind the 22 horses on the front line. Apparently, "23 skidoo" implied that if the horse in the back was to have any chance of winning, it would really have to run very fast. Marlson also says in the article that the expression was originally "23, skidoo for you." * A parody of
Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...
's well-regarded stage presentation of
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
's 1859 novel ''
A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...
'' may have also been the beginning of the phrase. Miller's 1899 production, entitled ''The Only Way'', was staged at the Herald Square Theatre. The final scene of the play portrays a series of executions at a
guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
. As each person is beheaded, an old woman counts. When Sydney Carton, the protagonist of the story, is beheaded, the old woman calls out "Twenty-three!" The grisly scene was remarkable for its time, but it soon became the subject for parody, and the phrase "Twenty-three, skidoo!" was used by Broadway comedians to parody this moment. This seems likely to be an instance of comedians using an already-popular slang juxtaposed against a well-known dramatic moment for the resulting comic effect, and not an indication of invention, although the theatrical usage may have popularized the expression, or made it more widely known. * It is said that ''23'' was an old
Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...
signal used by telegraph operators to mean "away with you." (The same story accounts for ''30'' as "end of transmission", a code still used by modern journalists in North America, who place ''
-30- -30- has been traditionally used by journalists in North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean ...
'' at the end of articles as a sign to editors. However, the
Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...
'' 92 Code'', which is the source of ''30'' and other numbers like ''73'' and ''88'' still used in
amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...
, lists ''23'' as "all stations copy".) * An early 1900s
Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...
town had 23 saloons (many basically tents). A visit to all, ''going 23 skidoo'', meant having a very good time. *
Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...
National Park interpreters have sometimes given as an explanation that the early 1900s mining town of Skidoo, California required that a water line be run from the source of water on
Telescope Peak Telescope Peak (Timbisha: Chiombe) is the highest point within Death Valley National Park, in the U.S. state of California. It is also the highest point of the Panamint Range, and lies in Inyo County. From atop this desert mountain one can see ...
to the town – a distance of 23 miles. Most thought it would be easy, but the immensely hard rock along the course made it very difficult; it was eventually accomplished by a determined engineer. The term "23 Skidoo" was then used as a statement of irony, something like "duck soup": a reference to something apparently easy, but actually very difficult. Other interpreters simply say the 23-mile pipeline and the popular slang phrase is what gave the town its name. * A
jump rope A skipping rope (or jump rope) is a tool used in a sport involving rhythmic jumping over a rope swung underfoot and overhead. The activity, practiced both recreationally and competitively, encompasses disciplines such as freestyle routines—f ...
rhyme that ended up "butterfly, butterfly, twenty three to do" dates to 1909 and may be the origin of this phrase. * In ''The Literature of Slang'' (p. 38), W.J. Burke claims that the term "skidoo" was coined in 1906 by the musical comedy star Billy B. Van, citing an article in the ''Indianapolis Morning Star'', March 31, 1906. * In the 1977 book ''The Age of Uncertainty'' by
John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the ...
, Skidoo 23 refers to the abandonment of a town, Skidoo, in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park in California in the early 1900s. The number 23 apparently refers to the number of miles water had to be piped to the town and its sole reason for being: the mining of gold. After the mines were depleted, the town ceased to exist. * In the 1913 book ''The Confessions of a Con Man as Told to Will Irwin'' by Will Irwin, 23 relates to a rigged dice game called a ''cloth'' that travelled with small American circuses and carnivals in the latter part of the 19th century. It referred to a square marked ''23 You Lose'' on the cloth which had 48 printed squares but only the one ''You Lose'' square. After making a big bet, the sucker was at some point persuaded that he had rolled a 23, had thereby lost his money and should stop squawking and beat it. This became, by a logical extension, an in-crowd, underworld expression indicating that for whatever reason the person addressed would not get what he was seeking and should clear out.


Examples of use

* ''The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor'' (1908): * ''The House Boat Boys; or Drifting Down to the Sunny South'' (1912): * ''
Make Way for Tomorrow ''Make Way for Tomorrow'' is a 1937 American tragedy film directed by Leo McCarey. The plot concerns an elderly couple (played by Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five ch ...
'' (1937): * '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'' (1943): * ''
Cheaper by the Dozen ''Cheaper by the Dozen'' is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, published in 1948. The novel recounts the authors' childhood lives growing up in a household of 12 children. The bes ...
'' (1948): * The saying was in popular usage prior to 1912, as it appears in the transcript of the ''Titanic'' Inquiry: *
William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...
wrote a short story in 1967 titled "23 Skidoo". * In an episode of '' Popeye the Sailor Man'' (1954), titled "Taxi-Turvy", Olive Oyl asks Popeye to take her to 23 Skidoo Street: "23 Skidoo Street, driver." *
Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
in ''The Book of Lies'' (–13) titled Chapter 23 "Skidoo", with the comment that "23" and "Skidoo" are American words meaning "Get out". * There is a
post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...
band originating in the 1970s named 23 Skidoo. * The password '23skidoo' was used by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
to encrypt WFWSYS.CFG configuration file using RC4, which was used in early
Windows for Workgroups Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a Shell (computing), shell on top of MS-DOS; it was t ...
installations. * Spat what he knew, energy for true. To all fake rappers, twenty-three skidoo - "Sofa King" by Danger Doom, lyrics by MF Doom *
John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend of humoro ...
uses the phrase as an address in the chorus of his song, " Jesus, the Missing Years" from the 1991 album ''The Missing Years''. ("They all reside down the block inside of 23 Skidoo.")


See also

* 23 enigma


References

Notes


External links


Water pipeline to Skidoo ghost town, 23 miles long



23 Skidoo
from th
Museum of the City of New York Collections blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:23 Skidoo (Phrase) Articles containing video clips English-language slang 1900s neologisms 1906 quotations Quotations from literature Catchphrases English words and phrases 20th-century fads and trends