view release on metacpan or  search on metacpan

share/SpamAssassin/easy_ham_2/01323.8f994027cca214b6e0e7df2d443ff4cd  view on Meta::CPAN

to mock, jeer or laugh at, via an unrecorded intermediate form
"mogadói".

Others suggest that, like some other East End slang terms, it
derives from the Gypsy language Romany (Cockney slang is like
London itself, a melting pot, in which words from many sources are
amalgamated, including Yiddish and old-time forces slang derived
from languages around the world). In this case the source may be
"mokardi" or "mokodo", something tainted (these Romany words also
provide the root for yet another slang phrase, "to put the mockers
on something", to jinx it).

Sorry not to be able to be more definite!

                        -----------

Q. I was having an interesting discussion with an American
professor of business studies who also consults to industry. She
was recalling an unbudgeted initiative within a major software
corporate, which the UK managing director described as a "skunk
project". I have seen this epithet before, usually in the phrase
"skunk works", meaning a semi-official project team that is tacitly
licensed to bend the rules and think outside the box. I wonder what
the derivation is? I don't think it can refer to the smelly wild
animal, but neither I think can it refer to the street term for a
strong variant of marijuana. Can you shed any light? [Martin
Hayman]

A. We must start in Dogpatch, the fictional place in the backwoods
of upper New York State made famous between 1934 and 1977 as the
home of professional mattress tester Li'l Abner, in the comic strip
written and drawn by Al Capp. The original was actually "Skonk
Works", the place where Lonesome Polecat and Hairless Joe brewed
their highly illicit bootleg Kickapoo Joy Juice from ingredients
such as old shoes and dead skunks. ("Skonk" is a dialect variant of
"skunk".)

We must now move to the very real Burbank, California. In 1943, a
small group of aeronautical engineers working for the then Lockheed
Aircraft Corporation (headed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson) were
given the rush job of creating an entirely new plane from scratch,
the P-80 "Shooting Star" jet fighter. This they did in 143 days, 37
days ahead of schedule. Their secret project was housed in a
temporary structure roofed over with an old circus tent, which had
been thrown up next to a smelly plastics factory. The story goes
that one of the engineers answered the phone on a hot summer day
with the phrase "Skonk Works here" and the name stuck. It is also
said that Al Capp objected to their use of his term and it was
changed to Skunk Works.

One division of the company, formally the Lockheed Martin Advanced
Development Program, is still known as the Skunk Works. The term
has been trademarked by Lockheed Martin, who have been aggressive
in protecting it.

As a generic term, it dates from the 1960s. One definition is very
much that of the original and the one you describe: a small group
of experts who drop out of the mainstream of a company's operations
in order to develop some experimental technology or new application
in secrecy or at speed, unhampered by bureaucracy or the strict
application of regulations (Kelly Johnson formulated 14 visionary
rules for running such an operation, which are still regarded as
valid even now). It is also sometimes used for a similar group that
operates semi-illicitly, without top-level official knowledge or
support, though usually with the tacit approval of immediate
management.


5. Endnote
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The principal design of a grammar of any language is to teach us to
express ourselves with propriety in that language; and to enable us
to judge of every phrase and form of construction, whether it be
right or not. [Robert Lowth, "A Short Introduction to English
Grammar" (1762)]


6. Subscription commands
-------------------------------------------------------------------
To leave the list, change your subscription address, or subscribe,
please visit <http://www.worldwidewords.org/wordlist.htm>.

Or, you can send a message to <listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org>
from the address at which you are (or want to be) subscribed:

  To leave, send: SIGNOFF WORLDWIDEWORDS
  To join, send: SUBSCRIBE WORLDWIDEWORDS First-name Last-name


7. Contact addresses
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not use the address that comes up when you hit 'Reply' on this
mailing, or your message will be sent to an electronic dead-letter
office. Either create a new message, or change the outgoing 'To:'
address to one of these:

  For general comments, especially responses to Q&A pieces:
      <TheEditor@worldwidewords.org>.
  For questions intended for reply in a future Q&A feature:
      <QandA@worldwidewords.org>.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
World Wide Words is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2002.  All rights
reserved. The Words Web site is at <http://www.worldwidewords.org>.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or in part in other free
media online provided that you include this note and the copyright
notice above. Reproduction in print media or on Web pages requires
prior permission: contact <TheEditor@worldwidewords.org>.
-------------------------------------------------------------------