Long time no see

[Jan Ivarsson]

Brewer's Dictionary of 20th Century Phrase and Fable (Cassell, new ed. 1993) says:
"It originates in the pidgin English phrases used by the colonial British and Americans in the Far East and dates probably from the beginning of the 20th century. Expatriates and servicemen imported the phrase on their visits home, when it became well established on both sides of the Atlantic. It is now somewhat dated and used with caution. The variant 'long time no see - short time buckshee' (i.e. free) was how servicemen hoped they would be greeted by their favourite prostitute afte a long absence."

Jan Ivarsson, Sweden
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: den 3 oktober 2000 13:40
Subject: Re: Long time no see


> > > He gives the Chinese as "ch'ang chih mei", meaning the same thing. I am
> > > skeptical and I think there is an error here: maybe "ch'ang shih mei k'an"
> > > can fill the bill ....
> >
> >You're right that ch'ang chih mei is wrong. As I said yesterday, long time
> >no see is perfect Chinese grammar. Ch'ang shih mei k'an (Wade-Giles is not
> >my favorite transliteration system, but never mind) is good grammatical
> >Chinese, but it's not idiomatic. In Chinese people say "hao jiu bu jian"
> >(good long or good while no see).
>
> But the expression wouldn't have originated in modern Kuoyü.
>
> It would originate more likely in Shanghainese (Wu), or some other port
> 'dialect', I would guess.
>
> And note that the expression is at least about 100 years old.
>
> -- Doug Wilson