Tonto

Posted by Bob on July 15, 2007

In Reply to: Kemo savy posted by Bob on July 15, 2007

: : I would like to know about the origins of the slang "Savy", it obviously means "intelligent" or "on the ball" but I can't work out where this word has come from. The other day I also heard it used with the pre-fix of "Kemo" pronounced "Key-mo". Any ideas?

: Savvy. Note the spelling. It's standard English now, not slang. Dictionaries trace it to the Spanish "sabe" or a corruption of the French "save" and ultimately from the Latin sapere, to be wise.

: As for kemosabe, what Tonto called The Lone Ranger, I have no clue....

I learned a little more about Tonto, and his "kemo sabe>" Nice article on wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Tonto It's fake-pidgin stuff.