Jif, the head honcho

[Keith Webb]

I had always imagined "honcho" was of hispanic origin, but apparently this is not so...

"The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II."

From a trivia website.

It also has one of my favourite ones which I heard the origin of many years ago:

"The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

[Jon Skagfeld]

Interesting trivia link.

I can just imagine a menu driven utility asking its customers to press the octothorpe key!

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by Jon Skagfeld
I can just imagine a menu driven utility asking its customers to press the octothorpe key!

It annoys me that the "Hatch" key has now been corrupted to "Hash". Too much of hash going on!

While we're on the subject of trivia, who knows the origin of the two-fingered "Up-yours" gesture? (Hint: It wasn't Winston, but it IS military)

[Jon Skagfeld]

Racking my feeble brain cells, I seem to recall that this might have derived from RAF ground crews who used this sign indicating that they needed assistance to bring a starter mechanism to fire up an aircraft, and at the same time saying :Two six on the trolley acc". (Trolley accumulator).

Otherwise, I ascribe to Tony's description of a rude, upward sweeping gesture meaning "Up yours"?

It wouldn't be a bastardization of the Boy Scout salute, surely.:

Originally posted by Tony Smith
While we're on the subject of trivia, who knows the origin of the two-fingered "Up-yours" gesture? (Hint: It wasn't Winston, but it IS military)

The much-feared longbow men at Agincourt, Oct 25th 1415.

Being so devastating, it was the French custom to remove the first two fingers of an English bowman to prevent any future attempt to draw the bow, thus the two-fingered "salute" was an aggressive and appropriate warning to the enemy that the bowmen still had their capability to unleash devastating fire.

In actuallity the tiny English force of just 5000 archers and 900 men-at-arms was sick, exhausted and almost starving; it faced a French army of some 20,000 to 30,000 men with a substantial contingent of mounted cavalry. However, the battlefield was chosen by the English with forest either side to funnel the French onto the archers, having brought down the initial charge the remaining forces floundered on the dead and dying men and horses of the first wave and were themselves slaughtered by a steady downpour of armour-piercing, bodkin-point, arrows. Paradoxically it was the large size of the French forces that told against them.

R.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Jon Skagfeld
Racking my feeble brain cells, I seem to recall that this might have derived from RAF ground crews who used this sign indicating that they needed assistance to bring a starter mechanism to fire up an aircraft, and at the same time saying :Two six on the trolley acc". (Trolley accumulator).

Jon,

Can't answer the two finger salute, but "Two Six", now according to a WW2 book on RAF slang;
TWO-SIX (as a command) Push! (As a verb) Hurry! Thus, "Two-six on the hanger doors!" or "If I don't two-six I'll be late". Originated from the procedure when pushing aircraft by man power of having two airmen on the tail to guide and three on each mainplane.

Richard

Originally posted by Jon Skagfeld
Racking my feeble brain cells, I seem to recall that this might have derived from RAF ground crews who used this sign indicating that they needed assistance to bring a starter mechanism to fire up an aircraft, and at the same time saying :Two six on the trolley acc". (Trolley accumulator).

The expression "two-six" then do something, usually heave or lift together comes from the Royal Navy of Nelson's time.

Numbers two and six of the gun crew were the people who heaved in unison on the cannon ropes to run the gun out for firing or after a re-load.

R.

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by FV623
The much-feared longbow men at Agincourt, Oct 25th 1415.
R.

Correct!