Ricky-ticky

Posted by ESC on August 04, 2003

In Reply to: Most Rikki Tik posted by Bob on August 04, 2003

: : When I was in The Marines,one of my instructors was in the habit of using the phrase;"Most Rikki Tik" whenever something was to be done quickly.In the thirty years since, I have never heard anyone but me use the phrase and I don't use it much because most people respond as though I've made it up for lack of something more intelligent to say. Now that I have found this wonderful resource, I'm hoping to resolve this once and for all.I didn't find it in the data base. Has anyone else ever heard this used? Bob Yeomans

: Kipling's story: Rikki-Tiki-Tavi is a brave mongoose who defeats the evil cobra (who name escapes me now) with a single-minded devotion to duty, persistently defending the safety of his human masters at any cost. Sounds like something a Marine would admire.

Here's another ricky-ticky phrase.

RICKY-TICK - "Applied to a simple repetitive rhythm, as in early 'straight' jazz, and hence to rag-time and old-fashioned jazz; imitative.Hence ricky-tick, ricky-ticky used as an adjective to denote music or a tempo that is repetitive or dull ." From Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1999).