"smashing" < Gaelic??

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Here's a bit of correspondence I had:

>>>>>
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000, Aria wrote:

#I know the phenomenon, physicist though I am I do find some linguistics
#fascinating.
#For example, did you know the exclamation 'Smashing!' Actually comes from
#Gaelic?
#'S math sin' (That is good.)

I hadn't heard it. It's interesting, and a good story... which doesn't
make it true. Lots of really good (in that sense) etymologies are just a
load of hokum. There's a discussion now on ADS-L, the American Dialect
Soc'y list, about "posh", which is usually and wrongly attributed to an
acronym for "Port Out, Starboard Home" for round trips from Britain to the
eastern jewels in the crown of the empire. I'll ask about this one.
<<<<<

Info, anyone?

   Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist and Manager of Acoustic Data
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Dragon Systems, Inc.
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/