Date:  Sat, 25 Feb 1995 10:56:55 -0400

From:  "E. Wayles Browne" <ewb2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CORNELL.EDU>

Subject: Re: long time no see



>Anybody know the history of the phrase "long time no see"?

>What other pidginesque phrases do we use?

>

>Anton Sherwood  *\\*  +1 415 267 0685  *\\*  DASher[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]netcom.com



"No tickee, no washee." With apologies to modern Asian-Americans:

early Chinese settlers in the U.S. worked in a limited range of

occupations, one of them being laundries (there were jokes--from

the Marx Brothers movies?--about Chinese hand laundries being

places where they would wash one's dirty hands, instead of the

literal meaning, places where they would wash one's clothes by hand).

"No tickee, no washee", as I understand it, alludes to the Chinese

laundry proprietor being unwilling to give you your clothes back

if you didn't give him the laundry slip (claim check).





Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics

Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Morrill Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.

tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)

e-mail ewb2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornell.edu (1989 to 1993 was: jn5j[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornella.bitnet //

jn5j[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cornella.cit.cornell.edu)