Strack

[Mark A Mandel]

On Sat, 10 Aug 2002, Jan wrote:

#I was in the Army Artillery in Germany from 1962-65 (prior to Vietnam).
#We used strack there in much the signification you indicate. Other
#Korean remnants ("skosh") were still used. Never knew where "strack"
#came from. -Jan

"Skosh" may be a Korean *War* "remnant", but its origin is Japanese. The
word means 'a little, a little bit, a little while, a little way', and
is pronunciation is
 - phonologically /sukosi/
 - Romanized "sukoshi"; Japanese /i/ sounds like "sh" before /i/
 - likely to sound to an English-speaker like "skosh" ("o" as in "both")
because both the "i" and the "u" are (commonly) voiceless/whispered

-- Mark A. Mandel