Origins

March Break

by Dalya Goldberger

Cruising at 29,000 feet in an airplane en route to the Dominican Republic, Miss Hoopty and Delilah flip through the Duty Free Catalogue as the captain announces the beginning of their descent.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” crackled the captain’s voice over the intercom. “It’s a balmy 32^oC at our destination. Local time is 12:20 p.m. We should have you down on the ground in no time.”

“UGH. 32^oC. I’M GOING TO MELT,” groaned Miss Hoopty.

“I doubt it,” dismissed Delilah who was vibrating with excitement and sipping her airplane-size cocktail. “I can’t wait to get there, forget about everything, and just veg on the beach.”

Twenty minutes later, the two women emerged from the aircraft into the enveloping heat. Delilah chirped with glee; an instantly sweaty Miss Hoopty gasped and choked.

“I DON’T KNOW WHY I AGREED TO THIS VACATION,” she grumbled. “I HATE THE HEAT.”

“This is fantastic!” squealed Delilah, immediately shedding as many clothes as decency would allow. They boarded the bus that would take them to their resort.

While waiting to check in at the hotel, a large, well-heeled woman stomped into the open-air foyer dragging behind her five upholstered suitcases of varying sizes. Beads of sweat made lines through her garish makeup.

“Is everything okay Ma’am?” asked a wary porter.

“Absolutely not,” seethed the sweating woman. “My travel agent assured me that everything would be tickety-boo, yet there was no limousine waiting for me at the airport and no one to help me with my bags. I had to take a taxi,” she said with disgust.

“SOMEONE’S GOT HER NOSE OUT OF JOINT,” commented Miss Hoopty. “DID SHE JUST SAY ‘TICKETY-BOO’? WHO SAYS THAT?”

With room keys in hand, the two women abandoned the scene in the foyer, dumped their baggage in the room, and made their way to the beach.

No sooner had hot sand filled their shoes than Miss Hoopty plopped her bag down on a beach chair and cried “I MAY HATE THE HEAT, BUT I SURE DO LOVE THE OCEAN!” She bounded off into the waves.

Not long after, a bedraggled but grinning Miss Hoopty returned to her chair, her long curly hair formed into a single, salty dreadlock.

With one look at her friend, Delilah reached for and toppled her beach bag, spilling its contents. A camera, three types of sunscreen, sunglasses, a book, band-aids, a hairbrush, hand sanitizer, and three types of currency lay strewn on the sand. She snatched up the hairbrush and handed it to Miss Hoopty.

“AM I TRAVELLING WITH THE GIRL GUIDES?” howled Miss Hoopty. “I BET YOU KNOW THEIR MOTTO BY HEART.” She gave Delilah the Girl Guide salute and mouthed the words, “Be prepared.”

Seven hours later, the full afternoon of sun and heat, not to mention the depletion of all possible Girl Guide jokes, had taken its toll on Miss Hoopty.

“AH, BLESSED AIR CONDITIONING,” Miss Hoopty sighed upon entering the room. But when she caught sight of her hair and the crimson glow of her skin in the mirror she screamed.

“Yup.”

“WHAT?”

“Nothing.”

To veg means to loaf around, relax, or do nothing strenuous. This term, an abbreviation of vegetate, may not even be a quarter of a century old.

Today, the American slang well-heeled means “well provided with money”; however, in the frontier days, it meant “well provided with weapons.” The expression may derive from a cock-fighting term: a cock was equipped with an artificial spur before it entered the fight. In this sense, well-heeled is recorded as early as 1867. It wasn’t until a decade later that the term took on the meaning that it has today.

The expression tickety-boo means “everything’s just fine” and Canadians have been using it for half of the 20^th century. The term was probably inherited from the British, but it’s most likely a corruption of the Hindi phrase “tikai babu,” which means “It’s all right, sir.” This isn’t surprising given the British administration of India. The term probably made its way to Canada through Canadian soldiers who flew in the RAF. The World War II time frame is supported by the fact that the first written example doesn’t appear before 1939.

To put someone’s nose out of joint means to humiliate someone or otherwise upset his or her plans. The expression is first recorded in the 16^th century. Samuel Pepys wrote that the marriage of Charles II to Catharine of Braganza, “a very fine and handsome lady,” would put his mistress Madame Castlemaine’s “nose out of joynt.”

The dreadlock, a narrow ropelike strand of hair formed by matting or braiding, has its roots in the Rastafari culture. In post-slavery and Eurocentric culture, the hairstyle was deemed dreadful, thereby giving rise to its name. Through a literal translation of the bible, Rastas believe that they should not put sharp metal objects to their head. Others believe that the hairstyle resembles the mane of a lion, a respected king of the animal kingdom.

A Girl Guide is the Canadian equivalent to the American Girl Scout. Girl Guides of Canada is an organization for girls and women.

The expressions know by heart or learn by heart stem from the ancient Greek belief that the heart was the seat of intelligence and memory, as well as emotion. The word record also reminds us of this belief. Record stems from a time when writing was not as commonplace as it is today and information had to be memorized. Record is formed from the Latin re “again” and cor “heart” and literally means to learn by heart. Learn by heart was first recorded in 1374 by Chaucer.

Dalya Goldberger is the Managing Editor of Writer’s Block. Listen for her from time to time on Paul Castle’s “That’s a Good Question” segment on CBC radio in Saint John, New Brunswick, and CBC’s "Daybreak" in Prince George, British Columbia.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins: Revised and Expanded Edition by Robert Hendrickson
Dread Library
Girl Guides of Canada