Editing 23 skidoo (section)

==Origin==
Although there are a number of stories suggesting the possible origin of the phrase, none has been universally accepted.

===Flatiron Building===
Perhaps the most widely known story of the origin of the expression concerns the area around the triangular-shaped [[Flatiron Building]] at [[Madison Square]] in New York City. The building is located on [[23rd Street (Manhattan)|23rd Street]] at the intersection of [[Fifth Avenue]] and [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]], the latter two of which intersect at an acute angle. Because of the shape of the building, winds swirl around it. During the early 1900s, groups of men reportedly gathered to watch women walking by have their skirts blown up, revealing legs, which were seldom seen publicly at that time. Local constables, when sometimes telling such groups of men to leave the area, were said to be "giving them the 23 Skidoo".<ref>{{cite book |last=Douglas |first=George H. |title=Skyscrapers: A Social History of the Very Tall Building in America |publisher=McFarland and Co. |year=2004 |isbn=0-7864-2030-8 |page=39 |quote=The intersection in front of the [Flatiron Building] was always a congested spot, and a windy one, too, and in the old days the corner was a famous spot for young lads to watch women's skirts being whipped around. So famous was the spot, in fact, that policemen would occasionally have to shoo away these perpetual watches, and the expression 'Twenty-three Skidoo' was said to have been born on this windswept corner.}}</ref> An early [[Nickelodeon (movie theater)|nickelodeon]] film, ''[[What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City|What Happened on Twenty-third Street]]'', which dates from 1901, shows a woman's skirt being lifted by the updraft from a ventilation grate, exposing her knees.<ref>[[Independent Film Channel]] ''Indie Sex: Censored'' (2007), viewed Feb 10, 2008</ref>

Some consider the Flatiron Building origin claim dubious because the slang expressions "23" and "skidoo" were already in use before 1902,<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Peter Jensen |title=Skidaddle, Skidoodle, and Skidoo - the Vanishing History and Etymology of Twenty-Three Skidoo |url=http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/02/skedaddle-skidoodle-skidoo-vanishing.html |website=Early Sports 'n' Pop Culture History Blog |date=17 February 2015 |access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref> the year in which the Flatiron Building was built.

==="23" (or "Twenty-Three")===
The earliest-known report of the slang expression "23" (or "twenty-three") as a code word for asking someone to leave is a newspaper reference on March 17, 1899:
{{quote|For some time past there has been going the rounds of the men about town the slang phrase "Twenty-three." The meaning attached to it is to "move on," "get out," "good-bye, glad you are gone," "your move" and so on. To the initiated it is used with effect in a jocular manner.

It has only significance to local men and is not in vogue elsewhere. Such expressions often obtain a national use, as instanced by "rats!" "cheese it," etc., which were once in use throughout the length and breadth of the land.

Such phrases originated, no one can say when. It is ventured that this expression originated with [[Charles Dickens]] in the ''Tale of Two Cities''. Though the significance is distorted from its first use, it may be traced. The phrase "Twenty-three" is in a sentence in the close of that powerful novel. [[Sidney Carton]], the hero of the novel, goes to the [[guillotine]] in place of [[Charles Darnay]], the husband of the woman he loves. The time is during the [[French Revolution]] when prisoners were guillotined by the hundred. The prisoners are [[behead]]ed according to their number. Twenty-two has gone and Sidney Carton answers to – Twenty-three. His career is ended and he passes from view.<ref>{{cite news |title=none |work=[[Lexington Herald-Leader|Morning Herald]] |date=March 17, 1899}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Popik |first=Barry |title=Twenty-three Skidoo Myth |url=http://barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/twenty_three_skidoo_myth |website=The Big Apple |access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref>}}

At the time, a stage version of ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'', ''The Only Way'', was playing in London. The production moved to New York City later that year; it opened at the [[Herald Square Theatre]] on September 16, 1899. Less than two months later, popular slang author [[George Ade]] described having heard a new slang expression, "twenty-three":
{{quote|By the way, I have come upon a new piece of slang within the past two months and it has puzzled me. I just heard it from a big [[Newspaper hawker|newsboy]] who had a 'stand' on a corner. A small boy with several papers under his arm had edged up until he was trespassing on the territory of the other. When the big boy saw the small one he went at him in a threatening manner and said: 'Here! Here! Twenty-three! Twenty-three!' The small boy scowled and talked under his breath, but he moved away. A few days after that I saw a street beggar approach a well-dressed man, who might have been a [[bookmaker]] or [[Horse racing|horseman]], and try for the usual 'touch'. The man looked at the beggar in cold disgust and said: 'Aw, twenty-three!' I could see that the beggar didn't understand it any better than I did. I happened to meet a man who tries to 'keep up' on slang and I asked [about] the meaning of 'Twenty-three!' He said it was a signal to clear out, run, get away.<ref>{{cite news |title=Literary Notes |work=The Washington Times |date=October 22, 1899 |page=8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Buchan |first=Jamie |title=Easy as Pi: The Countless Ways We Use Numbers Every Day |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P93tAbdyf2MC |publisher=Reader's Digest |location=Pleasantville, NY |date=2009 |access-date=26 June 2017 |isbn=978-1-606-52278-3}}</ref>}}

In the same interview, Ade described two purported origin stories he had heard: that it was "from the English [[race track]]s, twenty-three being the limit on the number of horses allowed to start in one race" or that it had been a signal used in a plot to free a Mexican embezzler from custody in [[New Orleans]].<ref name="Selfie">{{cite book |last=Metcalf |first=Allan |title=From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the Generations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94FfCgAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |date=2016 |pages=63–64 |access-date=26 June 2017 |isbn=978-0-19-992712-8}}</ref>

===Skidoo===
''[[Webster's New World Dictionary]]'' derives ''skiddoo'' (with two d's) as probably from ''[[:wiktionary:skedaddle|skedaddle]]'', meaning "to leave", with an imperative sense.

The word ''Skidoo'' was the name of a ''Lark''-class racing sailboat that competed in races on Long Island Sound during the 1901 racing season.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aldridge |first=A.F. |title=The Yachting Record: Summaries of All Races Sailed on New York Harbor, Long Island Sound and Off Newport, in 1901 |url=https://archive.org/details/yachtingrecordsu00aldr |date=1902 |publisher=Thompson and Company |location=New York}}</ref> The ''Skidoo'' competed every summer through at least 1904.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

''Skidoo'' is attested, in its conventional, slang sense, by 1904.<ref>{{cite news |last=Green |first=Martin |title=The Man Higher Up |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1904-04-18/ed-1/seq-10/ |access-date=1 March 2015 |work=The Evening World |date=April 18, 1904}}</ref> ''Skidoo-wagon'' (as well as "skidoodle wagon" and "skedaddle wagon") was a short-lived euphemism for automobiles during 1904–1905.<ref name="esnpc.blogspot.com"/>

The word ''skidoo'', used by itself as a noun denoting a supposed bringer of bad luck, is attested in the early 1910s, in [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s ''[[Psmith, Journalist]]''.<ref name="Wodehouse 2011 112">{{cite book |last=Wodehouse |first=P.G. |author-link=P. G. Wodehouse |title=Psmith, Journalist |publisher=CreateSpace |orig-year=1915 |year=2011 |page=112 |isbn=978-1-4662-7530-0}}</ref> It appeared in newspapers as early as 1906.<ref name="Benecke 2011">{{cite journal |last=Benecke |first=Mark |title=The Numerology of 23 |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |publisher=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=49–53 |year=2011}}</ref>

===Twenty-three, skidoo!===
Both of the slang expressions, ''23'' and ''skidoo'', were used in [[George M. Cohan]]'s 1904 musical play ''[[Little Johnny Jones]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Bright Ones|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1906-04-05/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=0&words=23+skiddoo&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=23+skiddoo&andtext=&dateFilterTyp|access-date=5 March 2015|work=Los Angeles Herald|date=April 5, 1906|page=3|quote=Tom Lewis, as the Unknown, is responsible for most of the good ones and his "23" and "skiddoo" and a few others never failed.}}</ref> Numerous news items from the period credited either Cohan or Tom Lewis (the actor performing the role that spoke those lines in the play) with creating or popularizing one or both of the expressions.<ref>{{cite news|title=Answers to Queries: Twenty-Three|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1906-09-03/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=0&words=Skidoo+three+Twenty+Twenty-three&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=twenty-three+skidoo&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1|access-date=5 March 2015|work=The San Francisco Call|date=September 3, 1906|page=8|quote=The man who introduced "Twenty-three Skidoo" to the people of the United States was George Cohan, the vaudeville singer.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title="Yankee Prince" Next Attraction at the Columbia|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1912-09-12/ed-1/seq-11/|access-date=5 March 2015|work=The Washington Times|date=September 12, 1912|page=11|quote=Mr. Lewis, famous the country over as originator and best exponent of many familiar slang phrases, such as . . . "twenty-three" . . . .}}</ref> Even before the expression ''"23, skidoo!"'' became popular in its own right, ''23'' (or ''twenty-three'') and ''skidoo'' were frequently used in conjunction with, or near, one another in the same sentence or paragraph; ''23'' often as part of the phrase "23 for you [or yours]."<ref name="esnpc.blogspot.com"/> For example, "Skiddoo! Git! Twenty-three for yours!",<ref>{{cite news|title=Jiu Jitsu Sells|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn00065127/1905-08-18/ed-1/seq-6/|work=Dakota Farmers' Leader|date=August 18, 1905}}</ref> or "Twenty-three for his! Skidoo."<ref>{{cite news|title=Hyrum On The New Year|work=Goodwin's Weekly|date=January 6, 1906|page=6|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010218519/}}</ref>

The earliest known use of the expression, in the familiar ''"23, skidoo!"'' form, is an advertisement for Billy B. Van's show ''The Errand Boy'': {{quote|Billy B. Van's Great Hit, in "The Errand Boy." 23--Skiddoo!! by Miller and Boecher.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Holloway |first1=Diane |last2=Cheney |first2=Bob |title=American History in Song: Lyrics from 1900 to 1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zj5QxjMh9aAC |publisher=Authors Choice Press |location=San Jose |date=2001 |chapter=6 |page=45 |isbn=0-595-19331-5 |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> |author=|title=|source=}}The phrase quickly became a ubiquitous catchphrase, and Google Books has many examples of commercial advertisements using "23-Skidoo" that begin in 1906. For example, the edition of ''The Shoe Retailer'' for August 4, 1906, volume 59, No. 5 (Boston, MA), has a full-page ad for a "23-Skidoo" sale,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7tw-AQAAMAAJ&q=%2223+skidoo%22&pg=RA4-PA17 |title=Keep the Store Busy During August |magazine=Shoe Retailer and Boots and Shoes Weekly |volume=59 |date=August 4, 1906}}</ref> with blurbs such as "23-Skidoo/Says Low Price to the Shoe/Now It's Up to You".

On the [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']] there was a watertight door on E Deck numbered 23 which was informally called the "skidoo door" according to the testimony of the Chief Baker Charles John Joughin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=TIP {{!}} British Wreck Commissioner's Inquiry {{!}} Day 6 {{!}} Testimony of Charles Joughin, cont. question number 6344 |url=http://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Joughin03.php |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=www.titanicinquiry.org}}</ref>

===Other explanations===
* Cartoonist "TAD" ([[Thomas A. Dorgan]]) was credited in his 1929 obituary in ''The New York Times'' as being the "First to say 'Twenty-three, Skidoo.'" <ref>{{cite news |title='Tad,' Cartoonist, Dies In His Sleep. |quote=Thomas A. Dorgan, Famous For His 'Indoor Sports,' Victim of Heart Disease. Was A Shut-In For Years. Worked Cheerfully at Home in Great Neck on Drawings That Amused Countless Thousands. His slangy breeziness won immediate circulation. It was he who first said 'Twenty-three, Skidoo,' and 'Yes, we have no bananas,' 'apple sauce' and 'solid ivory.' Other expressions that are now part of the American vernacular include 'cake-eater,' 'drug-store cowboy,' 'storm and strife,' 'Dumb Dora,' 'dumb-bell,' 'finale hopper,' 'Benny' for a hat and 'dogs' for shoes. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 3, 1929}}</ref>
* Baseball player [[Mike Donlin]] and comedian Tom Lewis may have created the expression as part of their vaudeville act.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mansch |first=Larry D. |title=Rube Marquard: The Life & Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer |publisher=McFarland and Company |year=1998 |isbn=0-7864-0497-3 |pages=96 |quote=Lewis sat on Mike's lap and acted as a dummy to Mike's ventriloquist. The pair first came up with the expression 'twenty-three skidoo.'}}</ref>
* An article in the June 26, 1906 ''[[New York American]]'' credits the phrase to Patsey Marlson, then a former [[jockey]] hauled into court on a [[misdemeanor]] charge. At his hearing, Marlson is asked by the judge how the expression came about. He explains that when he was a jockey, he worked at a track which only had room for 22 horses to start in a line. If a 23rd horse was added, the long shot would be lined up behind the 22 horses on the front line. Apparently, "23 skidoo" implied that if the horse in the back was to have any chance of winning, it would really have to run very fast. Marlson also says in the article that the expression was originally "23, skidoo for you."
* A parody of [[Henry Miller (actor)|Henry Miller]]'s well-regarded stage presentation of [[Charles Dickens]]'s 1859 novel ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' may have also been the beginning of the phrase. Miller's 1899 production, entitled ''The Only Way'', was staged at the [[Herald Square Theatre]]. The final scene of the play portrays a series of executions at a [[guillotine]]. As each person is beheaded, an old woman counts. When Sydney Carton, the protagonist of the story, is beheaded, the old woman calls out "Twenty-three!"<ref name="PhraseUK"/> The grisly scene was remarkable for its time, but it soon became the subject for parody, and the phrase "Twenty-three, skidoo!" was used by Broadway comedians to parody this moment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phillips |first=Richard |title=Numbers: number 23 |url=https://badseypublications.co.uk/number/Num23.htm |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=badseypublications.co.uk}}</ref> This seems likely to be an instance of comedians using an already-popular slang<ref>{{Cite web |title=Previous Columns/Posted 02/07/98 |url=http://www.word-detective.com/020798.html#skidoo |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=www.word-detective.com}}</ref> juxtaposed against a well-known dramatic moment for the resulting comic effect, and not an indication of invention, although the theatrical usage may have popularized the expression, or made it more widely known.
* It is said that ''23'' was an old [[Morse code]] signal used by telegraph operators to mean "away with you."<ref>{{cite book | last = Partridge | first = Eric | year = 1992 | title = Dictionary of Catch Phrases | publisher = Scarborough House | isbn = 0-8128-8536-8 | author-link = Eric Partridge | url = https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcatc00eric }}</ref> (The same story accounts for ''30'' as "end of transmission", a code still used by modern journalists in North America, who place ''[[-30-]]'' at the end of articles as a sign to editors. However, the [[Western Union]] ''[[92 Code]]'', which is the source of ''30'' and other numbers like ''73'' and ''88'' still used in [[amateur radio]], lists ''23'' as "all stations copy".)<ref>{{cite web | title="1859 Western Union "92 Code" | url=http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/wurules1866/92code.html | publisher=Signal Corps Association | author=G.M. Dodge | accessdate=2006-06-03}}</ref><ref name="Selfie"/>
* An early 1900s [[Death Valley]] town had 23 [[Western saloon|saloons]] (many basically tents). A visit to all, ''going 23 skidoo'', meant having a very good time.<ref name="PhraseUK">{{cite web | title=Twenty three skidoo | url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/393450.html | work=The Phrase finder | access-date=2006-06-02| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060614122409/http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/393450.html| archive-date= 14 June 2006 | url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Death Valley]] National Park interpreters have sometimes given as an explanation that the early 1900s mining town of [[Skidoo, California]] required that a water line be run from the source of water on [[Telescope Peak]] to the town – a distance of 23 miles. Most thought it would be easy, but the immensely hard rock along the course made it very difficult; it was eventually accomplished by a determined engineer. The term "23 Skidoo" was then used as a statement of irony, something like "duck soup": a reference to something apparently easy, but actually very difficult. Other interpreters simply say the 23-mile pipeline and the popular slang phrase is what gave the town its name.
* A [[jump rope]] rhyme that ended up "butterfly, butterfly, twenty three to do" dates to 1909 and may be the origin of this phrase.<ref>{{cite web |last=Selzer |first=Adam |title=Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear: The Long History of a Jump Rope Rhyme |url=http://www.playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/teddy-bear-teddy-bear-long-history-of.html |url-status=dead |publisher=Playground Jungle |access-date=April 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416222211/http://www.playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/teddy-bear-teddy-bear-long-history-of.html |archive-date=April 16, 2014}}</ref>
* In ''The Literature of Slang'' (p.&nbsp;38), W.J. Burke claims that the term "skidoo" was coined in 1906 by the musical comedy star [[Billy B. Van]], citing an article in the ''Indianapolis Morning Star'', March 31, 1906.
* In the 1977 book ''The Age of Uncertainty'' by [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], Skidoo 23 refers to the abandonment of a town, Skidoo, in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park in California in the early 1900s. The number 23 apparently refers to the number of miles water had to be piped to the town and its sole reason for being: the mining of gold. After the mines were depleted, the town ceased to exist.
* In the 1913 book ''The Confessions of a Con Man as Told to Will Irwin'' by [[Will Irwin]], 23 relates to a rigged dice game called a ''cloth'' that travelled with small American circuses and carnivals in the latter part of the 19th century. It referred to a square marked ''23 You Lose'' on the cloth which had 48 printed squares but only the one ''You Lose'' square. After making a big bet, the sucker was at some point persuaded that he had rolled a 23, had thereby lost his money and should stop squawking and beat it. This became, by a logical extension, an in-crowd, underworld expression indicating that for whatever reason the person addressed would not get what he was seeking and should clear out.