"..., the noo!"

**An t-Ileach** · 22nd October 05, 09:24 AM

It (I suppose inevitably) cropped up a few days ago on a thread, that I forgot to remember - being very tired - that someone had had a white van man call "och aye, the noo" at him. Someone wondered what it meant. The answer is probably nothing, other than a survival of some long forgotten, and probably not very funny, music hall parody of the highlander in Glasgow - they were considered hysterically funny back around WW1, for some reason.

Anyway, the "..., the noo!" bit does actually make sense (just like the equally hysterical "..., at all, at all!" actually does). It's a translation of the Gaelic interjection "..., an drasda" - as in "mar sin leat, an drasd'" ("'Bye, for now!") - a sort of generally meaningless ending like "innit", "y'know", and so on.

Ah well! 'Bye, for now.

**auld argonian** · 22nd October 05, 07:05 PM

Since genealogical research has shown up the fact that my ancestor who migrated to the Americas did so, in part, because he was a nice Presbyterian boy who met a nice Jewish girl and they decided to get married, I am occasionally given to saying, "Och, oy!"

best

AA

**Archangel** · 22nd October 05, 08:26 PM

Upon a hill there stood a coo.
She must have moved,
She's no there noo.

not sure if I'd agree with the transfer of colloquial idiomatic grammar, but I won't argue it either.
Funny for a culture that eliminates so many syllables, that this word is said as two, or one and a half, depending.
All I remember of it is that when I heard it, I had better be moving because mum's slipper was coming straight at "ma heed" before the last part finished.

**highlander_Daz** · 23rd October 05, 02:44 AM

It just means "now" Och Aye gives us the modern OK

**macwilkin** · 23rd October 05, 04:21 AM

Originally Posted by highlander_Daz

It just means "now" Och Aye gives us the modern OK

Daz,

That's one of the theories of the origin of "OK" -- the one I have always heard is this one:

The oldest written references to 'OK' result from its adoption as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'.

This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected!). During the late 1830s there had been a brief but widespread craze in the US for humorous misspellings, and the form orl korrekt which was among them could explain the initials 'OK'. Such a theory has been supported by more than one distinguished American scholar, and is given in many dictionaries, including Oxford dictionaries.

-- http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexper...wordorigins/ok

Although I do like the Scots origin, though! :mrgreen: Off-Topic over now.

T.