Re: Yonks

Posted by Barney on November 11, 2002

In Reply to: Yonks posted by James Briggs on November 11, 2002

: I thought that I had posted ther following some weeks ago, but I can't find it in the Archive, so clearly I didn't post it! It was sent to me as a suggestion.

: There's nothing certain in our archives about the origin of this word. Today I had the following suggestion sent to me. Any comments?

: "I have spent some time trying to support my theory for the origin of YONKS (meaning an indefinitely long period of time in relation to the subject in hand) but have found nothing on the web. It was a word much in use when I was in college in 1960.
: It has always appeared obvious to me that it comes from Years + mONths + weeKS.
: I offer this to you for what it is worth."

There is some suggestion it's a corruption of, or derived from, 'dONKeys YearS', but who knows the truth of that?