A few years ago, I was answering listeners' questions on a radio call-in show. Everything was hunky-dory until a caller stumped me by asking, "What's the origin of 'hunky-dory'?"

In my most mellifluous radio voice, I replied, "Uhhhhhh..."

What I meant to say, of course, was this: An old Dutch word for the goal or home base in a children's street game was "honk."

During the 1600s, Dutch children in New Amsterdam (later New York City) would run around the streets saying things were "all honk," meaning that everything was safe and secure. (Come to think of it, most busy streets in New York are still all honk.)

Well, things weren't as "all honk" as those Dutch kids thought, for in 1664 the British abruptly took over their city, adopting the Dutch word as "hunk" and creating the adjective "hunky," meaning "safe, all right, satisfactory."

Just how "dory" docked with "hunky" isn't clear, but it apparently had nothing to do with the boat known as a "dory," which derives from the Miskito Indian word for a canoe, "dori."

"Hunky-dory" gained popularity during the mid-1860s thanks to a rambling minstrel tune with the delightful name "Josephus Orange Blossom." Its lyrics included a reference to "red-hot hunky-dory contraband."

And, to this day, a woman who spots a well-muscled young man in a small boat is likely to proclaim, "Hunky-dory!"

Another hyphenated phrase that recently stumped me is "spick-and-span," meaning "clean as a whistle."

This phrase combines two old terms that both mean "new, fresh." "Spick" is a variant of "spike," which referred to a spike fresh from a blacksmith's forge — hence, it was brand new. ("Brand new" originally denoted a piece of metal fresh from the "brand," an old word for fire.)

"Span" is a clipped form of "span-nyr," an Old English word meaning "new chip." It referred to a wood chip freshly cut with an ax. (This is the same "span" that denotes newness in the phrase "spanking new.")

So having been stumped twice by etymological questions, I decided to investigate the origin of the verb "stump" itself.

H. L. Mencken traced the term to the early 1800s when roads cut through woods were often littered with large stumps. A wagon or carriage impeded by these obstacles was said to be "stumped." Soon the verb "stump" took on its general meaning of "hamper, baffle."

Radio report circa 1815: "Traffic to Ohio on the National Road is backed up behind a stumped wagon in the westbound lane." Honk, honk!

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

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