World Wide Words -- 07 Feb 04

Fri Feb 6 18:33:21 UTC 2004

WORLD WIDE WORDS         ISSUE 378         Saturday 7 February 2004
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Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK      ISSN 1470-1448
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Weird Words: Oche.
3. Q&A: New York Minute; Irish twins; Buckley's chance.
A. FAQ of the week.
B. Subscription commands.
C. Useful URLs.

1. Feedback, notes and comments
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BACK IN HARNESS  The holiday was excellent, thank you for asking -
Madeira was having an unseasonable winter heat wave (fine for us,
but not so for the islanders, who desperately needed rain) and we
returned bronzed and refreshed.

YOUR E-MAIL UNANSWERED?  In the eight days we were away, my mailbox
accumulated 13,552 messages, most related to the MyDoom e-mail worm
that has been causing so much trouble recently. My systems are good
at deleting rubbish, but not 100% efficient, so a few real messages
were probably thrown out with the trash (you will appreciate that
checking 13,000 messages by hand for wrongly categorised items was
not a practical proposition). On the other hand, many real messages
need responses, but with much else to do I haven't been able to make
more than a token attempt at answering them.

Most of these nuisance messages are coming to me because the worm
has infected computers which have my e-mail address in the user's
address book. It's a fair bet that most such users are subscribers
to World Wide Words. In your interests, but especially in mine, do
please get and run a virus checker on your computer if you haven't
done so already.

2. Weird Words: Oche  /'Qki/
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The line behind which darts players stand when throwing.

The classic pub game, darts is the ultimate non-sportsman's sport -
you don't need any special clothing and little equipment (a set of
darts is a good idea, but pubs lend those out), and you don't need
to be fit (the aptitude of players often appears to be in direct
proportion to the size of their beer guts). All you have to
remember is to count back from 501, end on a double, and avoid
putting your toes over the oche.

"Oche" is the classic bit of darts jargon, even more obscure and
basic than "double top" for a double twenty, "bag o' nuts" for a
score of 45 (don't ask where it comes from because I don't know),
"Shanghai" for a score made up of a single, double and triple of
the same number (ditto), "mugs away" as an invitation to the losing
player to start the next round, or "mad house" for a double one
(because getting it can drive you crazy).

"Oche" is pronounced like "hockey" without the initial "h".
Attempts are sometimes made to derive it from an obsolete word
meaning to chop off, from Old French "ochen" to cut a deep notch in
something, though the link with darts is obscure. Eric Partridge
preferred an origin in "hoggins line", for no good reason that one
may discern. However, the earliest written examples - from the
1930s - are all spelled "hockey" and the "oche" form didn't become
standard until the late 1970s.

But why "hockey"? One story holds that it's from the name of a West
Country brewery, S Hockey and Sons, whose crates were just the
right size with which to mark out the throwing distance. That's so
unlikely as to be merely funny. But we have nothing definite to put
in its place.

3. Q&A
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Q. The term "New York minute" is well known in the USA to mean a
very short period of time. Where did the phrase originate and why?
[Michael Powers]

A. Despite its intimate relationship with that ceaseless city of
rush and hurry, it might not be from New York. The Dictionary of
American Regional English (DARE) quotes this explanation of the
term, from 1984: "Immediately. Equates to a nanosecond, or that
infinitesimal blink of time in New York after the traffic light
turns green and before the ol' boy behind you honks his horn." This
is from Texas Crude by Ken Weaver, a glossary of Lone Star state
slang and expletives that, though sometimes obscene, has to be
believed.

So it is likely that it began as an outsider's jaundiced view of
the lack of patience shown by the Big Apple's urban cowboys. That
doesn't necessarily tie it to Texas, even though DARE's first known
example, from its own field records, puts it in that state as long
ago as 1967. My guess is that by the 1970s it was becoming fairly
widely known; I base this on finding a mention of a racehorse with
the name "New York Minute" in Maryland in 1976, which surely
suggests the term had by then achieved some notoriety.

It's more than likely to be some rural hayseed's witty remark,
coined far from the madding crowd, that had been circulated and
reinvented for many years before people such as Ken Weaver began to
take note of it. Its progenitor, that mute inglorious Milton, is
likely never to be known.

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Q. I recently heard the expression, "Irish twins". What does it
mean and would you cast some light as to its origin? [Swami
Murugananda]

A. What it means is easy enough to explain. It refers to siblings
born in the same calendar year, or otherwise less than twelve
months apart. It's clearly a deeply derogatory comment about the
stereotypical fecundity (and lack of contraception) of Irish
Catholic families. It's probably twentieth-century, but I can find
little evidence that would help to tie it down (it may be relevant
that it isn't listed in the 1984 edition of Eric Partridge's
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English). So far as I can
tell from the places I've found it, all online, it's primarily an
American expression; it's also known in Britain, but it doesn't
often find its way into print, no doubt because it is considered
offensive.

                        -----------

Q. A word often used here in Oz comes to mind: "Buckley's", as in
"He hasn't a Buckley's" or "Not a Buckley's of me doing that", no
chance at all. But where did it come from? [Mike White, Australia]

A. This term for a very slim hope or no chance at all is well known
in both Australia and New Zealand but isn't, I think, recorded
anywhere else. That suggests that the Buckley concerned is a local
person. The expression has been known in various forms; as well as
the ones you quote, there are also the older and longer forms
"Buckley's chance", "Buckley's hope" and "Buckley's show"; the name
is used alone in "There are just two chances, Buckley's or none",
two notional possibilities that in reality amount to next to no
chance at all.

There are, as it happens, just two known choices for the answer.
One points to William Buckley, a convict in the early days of
European settlement in Australia, who escaped in 1803 from the
short-lived penal settlement at Port Philip Bay (where Melbourne is
today) and lived for 32 years with the Aborigines in southern
Victoria, gaining the sobriquet of The Wild White Man, before
giving himself up and being pardoned. The implication is that, like
Buckley, you have no chance of success, it being assumed that you
measure success by an escape to a part of Australia colonised by
European immigrants. One problem is that Buckley died in 1856,
whereas the expression doesn't appear in print until 1895 (though
that isn't a conclusive objection, since phrases are often
transmitted orally for years before they get written down and
Buckley's story became one of the most common anecdotes told about
the early days of colonisation). The other possibility links it
with the department store in Melbourne run by Messrs Buckley and
Nunn, so that the expanded version, "there are just two chances,
Buckley's or none", is a pun. However, that phrase isn't recorded
until 1953 and you need to have William Buckley's exploits in mind
before the pun achieves its full force.

You must take your choice. At this distance in time our chance of
finding out which, if either, is right is roughly Buckley's.

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