Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

23 skidoo

German translation:

Hau ab!

Added to glossary by Katy62
Nov 14, 2003 08:45
20 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

23 skidoo

English to German Other Slang colloquial
While holding a person at gun point the "bad" guy says, "All right, 23 skidoo for you. I'll help myself."

I have never heard this expression. What is the meaning? What is a good translation?
Proposed translations (German)
4 +1 Hau ab
5 Title of a short story
2 s.u.

Proposed translations

+1
11 mins
Selected

Hau ab

oder so.

Welchen tieferen Sinn die 23 hat, konnte ich leider nicht heraus finden.

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Note added at 2003-11-14 09:08:25 (GMT)
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eine von vielen Bedeutungen der Zahl 23 in diesem Zusammenhang geht auch i Richtung \"Hau ab\"

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/4/messages/804.html
Peer comment(s):

agree Darija Racanovic : Anscheinend bedeuten beide 'Wörter', skidoo & 23, jedes für sich so was wie hau ab. s. http://geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3435/23.htm
10 mins
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "You never stop learning! Thanks for the information."
22 mins

Title of a short story

23 Skidoo! is a short story of William S. Burroghs. It was the first story which caught the magic of the number 23 which was followed by a lot of other authors like Robert Shea and Robert A. Wilson (Illuminatus trilogy).

You find a lot of material about this in the web.
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41 mins

s.u.

Hier gibt's noch ein paar Theorien dazu:

http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/24/messages/313.html

: The puzzle of "twenty-three skiddoo," which can mean "let's go," "get lost," "whoopee!," or a variety of other things, is one of the classic word-origin questions, and nearly every authority has at least one theory.

: The "skiddoo" part is fairly easy to trace, and is almost certainly a variant of the slang word "skedaddle," meaning "to depart in haste." The "twenty-three," however, is a bit more obscure.

One theory, which is often reported as fact, but isn't, traces the phrase to the corner of Twenty-third Street and Broadway in New York City. This is the location of the famous Flatiron Building, built in 1902 and known for the fierce updrafts its triangular shape (resembling an old-style flatiron) causes on the neighboring sidewalks. It is said that young men of the period would gather at this corner in hopes of seeing a lady's dress blown up by the wind, a practice which the local police would discourage with the gruff order "Twenty-three skiddoo!" Early films of the "dress blowing" phenomenon do, in fact, exist. You can even download one from the Library of Congress site on the Web. But "Twenty-three Skiddoo" was a popular phrase among young people as early as the 1890's, long before the Flatiron Building, which caused the wind storms in the first place, was even built.

: The late etymologist Eric Partridge reported that one of his correspondents felt that the phrase might have had its roots in old telegraphers' code, where common phrases were replaced by numbers. In this code, "30" sent in Morse code meant "end of transmission" (a notation still used by journalists to signal the end of a story), "73" meant "best regards" (still very much in use by amateur radio operators), and "23" meant "away with you!" This seems a far more likely explanation of the phrase.

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