![]() "The earliest written usages are all native English speakers 'reporting' the speech of non-native speakers, from about 1840-1915. Navy, Volume 13 includes the following:Īs the Applied Applied Linguistics blog points out in the debate over whether "long time no see" has Native American or Chinese origins. ![]() An excruciating letter published in Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. ![]() There is a separate account that lends weight to this latter theory except that it involves members of the U.S. The second widely accepted etymological explanation is that the phrase is a loan translation* from the Mandarin Chinese phrase "hǎojǐu bújiàn", which means exactly "long time, no see."Įric Patridge's " Dictionary of Catch Phrases American and British traces the term to the early 1900s, but says it has Asian origins and was brought back to England by members of the British Navy, who picked it up through the pidgin English used by the Chinese people they encountered. While Drannan's book was the first time this exact phrase appears in print, the exact origins of "long time, no see" are the subject of ongoing debate among linguists and historians. Once again, the phrase was attributed to an American Indian, "Ugh, you squaw, she no long time see you: you go home mucha quick." Hayes' Tales of the Sierras, another Western published in 1900. The phrase would be used in a similar way in Jeff W. Long time no see you,' and at the same time presented the gun with breech foremost." When we rode up to him he said: 'Good morning. That last part of the novel's very long title is relevant here, as it gives a good indication of the kind of story Drannan wanted to tell.Īccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, Drannan used the phrase to describe an encounter with a Native American he had previously met, "I knew he had recognized me. The first time "long time, no see" appeared in print was in the 1900 Western " Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West, by William F. It turns out there are, at least, two strong possibilities. ![]() But how and why did such a grammatically awkward phrase become a widely accepted part of American speech? How many times has the average person been greeted with the phrase "long time, no see" after running into an old acquaintance? My guess is plenty. Just how and why did the grammatically awkward phrase "long-time-no-see" become a widely accepted part of American speech? ![]()
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