Mr. Answer Man, my daughter and I have a question we need answered. We are sad that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, has passed on, but we still love watching his shows. What exactly does the Australian word "crikey" mean? We’ve looked it up online, and the definition just doesn’t seem to fit. Please help us out! — Anonymous
"Crikey" is a "very British expression of surprise," according to the online English-to-American Dictionary at www.english2american.com. The Web author says, "A contributor tells me that he reckons it’s derived from ‘Christ kill me.’ He provides absolutely no etymological corollary for this, so I’m going to follow my usual instinct and publish it anyway."
Other sources say it’s a 19th century "minced oath," or mild-mannered cuss word, again for the word Christ.
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Oh all knowiest: I noticed that the building that houses the Rochester Repertory Theater at 314 1/2 S. Broadway says it was built in 1877, but then above the date it says "A.O.U.W." What’s the story behind this? Send your sleuths to ferret this out. — Oronoco Curious One
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I use neither sleuths nor ferrets to dig out the truth — only my bare hands.
The American Order of United Workers was one of many Masonic-like fraternal orders in the late 19th century that provided members with "financial protection, a collective voice and fraternal brotherhood," according to one historian. The AOUW was founded in Pennsylvania in 1868 and within 20 years had 3,200 member lodges across the country, including the Rochester lodge.
The AOUW is not to be confused with the AAUW, the American Association of University Women.
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TAPAS THIS! In Thursday’s column I mentioned that the origin of the term "tapas" is a mystery — I’ve read of more than a few possible origins for the word that describes sampler-sized plates of Spanish munchies. A helpful You Asked reader, David Marquette, passed along a Web link that describes the most frequently cited legend: "A Sevillian bartender covers his customer’s drink with a saucer or tapa, to keep the flies away," a custom that eventually came to include snacks served on top of the tapa. "The Andalusian custom of moving from bar to bar, sampling the house tapas from each, develops from the bartender’s little idea … on Sundays and holidays the bars are packed with whole families enjoying a mouthful of each item available."
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EVERYTHING’S RELATIVE: A reader asked last week (in an unpublished letter) whether it’s accurate to call a 65-year-old woman "elderly," as the Associated Press did in a story about the Catholic nun who was murdered in Somalia last month. I posted that item on my blog and a sharp-thinking reader, Terry Conway of Hilton Head Island, S.C., had this response:
"It seems that the average life expectancy in that country is only 50 years of age, compared with the U.S. life expectancy of 75 years, so someone who’s 65 in Somalia would be similar to a person of 90 in the U.S. Certainly qualifies as elderly in my book."
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