"23 skiddoo,"

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/1/02 5:50:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
george.thompson at NYU.EDU writes:

> What is the present state of play regarding the origin of "23 skidoo"?

The following appears at URL
      http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/4/messages/811.html

It gives not only the extremely persistent Flatiron Building story but two
others as well, and for dessert cites our favorite cartoonist, TAD

<begin>
 I lifted the following word for word from the Word Detective:

: The puzzle of "twenty-three skiddoo," which can mean "let's go," "get
lost," "whoopee!," or a variety of other things, is one of the classic
word-origin questions, and nearly every authority has at least one theory.

: The "skiddoo" part is fairly easy to trace, and is almost certainly a
variant of the slang word "skedaddle," meaning "to depart in haste." The
"twenty-three," however, is a bit more obscure. One theory, which is often
reported as fact, but isn't, traces the phrase to the corner of Twenty-third
Street and Broadway in New York City. This is the location of the famous
Flatiron Building, built in 1902 and known for the fierce updrafts its
triangular shape (resembling an old-style flatiron) causes on the neighboring
sidewalks. It is said that young men of the period would gather at this
corner in hopes of seeing a lady's dress blown up by the wind, a practice
which the local police would discourage with the gruff order "Twenty-three
skiddoo!" Early films of the "dress blowing" phenomenon do, in fact, exist.
You can even download one from the Library of Congress site on the Web. But
"Twenty-three Skiddoo" was a popular phrase among young people as early as
the 1890's, long before the Flatiron Building, which caused the wind storms
in the first place, was even built.

: The late etymologist Eric Partridge reported that one of his correspondents
felt that the phrase might have had its roots in old telegraphers' code,
where common phrases were replaced by numbers. In this code, "30" sent in
Morse code meant "end of transmission" (a notation still used by journalists
to signal the end of a story), "73" meant "best regards" (still very much in
use by amateur radio operators), and "23" meant "away with you!" This seems a
far more likely explanation of the phrase.

: http://www.greenapple.com/~words1/backidx.html

And here's another theory: 23 skidoo – From “Who Put the Butter in
Butterfly?” by David Feldman, Harper & Row: “Why is the only number you see
before skidoo 23? Who would have thought that this breezy bit of slang has
lofty roots? It does, in Charles Dickens ‘Tale of Two Cities.’ The hero of
this sad novel is Sidney Carton, who is the twenty-third of a multitude
executed by the guillotine.

: In the last act of the theatrical adaptation, ‘The Only Way,’ an old woman
sits at the foot of the guillotine, calmly counting heads as they are lopped
off. The only recognition or dignity afforded Carton as he meets his fate is
the old woman emotionlessly saying ‘twenty-three’ as he is beheaded.

: ‘Twenty-three’ quickly became a popular catchphrase among the theater
community in the early twentieth century, often used to mean, ‘It’s time to
leave while the getting is good.’ Cartoonist T.A. Dorgan combined
‘twenty-three’ with ‘skidoo.’ Skidoo was simply a fanciful variant of
‘skedaddle.’”

: (Skedaddle, according to “The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang” by Tony
Thorne, Pantheon Books, originated in the American Civil War and
“…suggestions have been made as to the word’s derivation; it is probably a
form of a dialect version of ‘scatter’ or ‘scuttle.’”)
<end quote>

       - Jim Landau