Sukosi

[Ed Finegan]

from the OED on skosh:

U.S. slang (orig. Forces').

[ad. Jap. sukoshi a little, somewhat.]

     A little, a small amount; freq. used advb. in the expression a
skosh, slightly, somewhat.

   [1955 Amer. Speech XXX. 44 Along with..everyday greetings, Bamboo
English employs sukoshi 'few, some' and its antonym takusan 'plenty',
both of which are forthwith made into two-syllable words, dispensing
with the voiceless Japanese u.] 1959 (recorded by Prof. A. L. Hench,
Univ. of Virginia) 10 May, 'Just a skosh,' he said. When I asked him
what he meant he said he had picked the word up in Korea. It means 'a
little bit'. 'Just a little bit left' was his meaning. 1977 Detroit Free
Press 19 Dec. 4-C/1 In the ad, a slightly out-of-breath jogger laments
middle-age body bulge and tells how glad he is that a new line of Levis
for men is constructed with 'a skosh more room where I need it'. 1988
Cycle World Sept. 37/1 The GSX-R's seat is more comfortable than the
Yamaha's thinly padded perch, and its bars are a skosh higher.


Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Sukosi
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In a current TV ad a guy who has lost more in the market than he
> would like to admit tells his wife that he has lost some, a little,
> etc... and then he says he has lost a "skowsh" ("scowsh"?) /skosh/,
> the vowel of "boat". The etymology of this seems crystal clear to me;
> it is surely from Japanese "sukosi" ("sukoshi" for those who don't
> like phonemic spelling), meaning a tad, a a little, etc.... (The
> monosyllabic English pronunciation falls out directly from Japanese
> vowel devoicing, which is heard as "nothing" by English speakers, in
> the first syllable and the last. High vowels are "devoiced" between
> two voiceless consonants or between a voiceless consonant and pause,
> yielding /skosh/ from /sukoshi/.)
>
> But that's enough phonology (which never seems to get me anywhere anyhow.)
>
> When did this item enter English? Is it a WWII, Korean War, or later
> (or earlier) loan? DARE doesn't have it (as expected, since I don't
> suspect it's regional), and I can't find it in other dictionaries
> (and I don't know how to spell it in English anyhow, which makes it
> tough to look up).
>
> dInIs
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
> A-740 Wells Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> Phone: (517) 432-3099
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
> preston at msu.edu
>