“Hunky-dory”
I’ve come across this term occasionally, and wondered about its origin. It turns up, among other places, in the song “The Fall of Charleston,” in the lines,
We’ll squash poor Jeff’s confederacy, and then get “Hunkydory!”
Sounds like it means happily drunk.
Well, I finally found a near-contemporary source. New York Commercial Advertiser, August 5, 1870, p. 2:
So it means stupid drunk. Close enough, y’all.
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Image from “The Five Stages of Being Drunk in the 1860s.”
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Another line in “The Fall of Charleston” is: “A hunky boy is General Sherman”. So are they saying he was drunk when he took Charleston?
I thought it might be found in the Rogue’s Lexicon, but to no avail.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924073798740
Thanks for reminding me of that one!