[Ads-l] 23 skidoo, 1905, slight antedating?

[Peter Reitan]

When I posted about 23 and skidoo, the earliest example I found of the two words in that order was in the Daily Illini, November 9, 1905.

It's not clear whether the combination, in that order was idiomatic or not. Both 23 and skidoo had been used in conjunction with one another for awhile already.

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/02/skedaddle-skidoodle-skidoo-vanishing.html<https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/02/skedaddle-skidoodle-skidoo-vanishing.html?m=1>
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 4, 2022 11:06:07 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: 23 skidoo, 1905, slight antedating?

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Subject:      23 skidoo, 1905, slight antedating?
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23 was considered, by some, unlucky. It was sometimes followed by skidoo, a=
s another thought-unlucky number, 13, was sometimes followed by hoodoo.

Dec. 25, 1905, Mon., 4/5
Hutchinson [KS] Daily News [1]

The Cornishman's Lament

O, me and Nicolas the Russ,
Our fightin' days are done.
It's 23, skidoo with us,
Time has us on the run....

--Kansas City Times

And compare Nov 6, 1905, also newspapers,com, also a poem about Nicolas II =
[there aka 23] in St. Louis Dispatch 6/3:

So, 23, vamoose, skidoo.

SGoranson

[1]

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