Wishy washy / wischiwaschi
Marvelous piece on Margaret Marks' December 16th Transblawg. Is it possible that the phrases grew up in English and German together/separately?edit: subject lineOr maybe just Chinese for laundry-man?
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"Washy" meaning diluted or water-logged is even older, mid-16th century. "Wishy-washy" is a reduplication of this older term.She doesn't give dates or early citations for the German usage (other than...
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As a small boy, before ww2, i was taken to a Christmas pantomime in London. It was "Aladdin". Aladdin's mother, the Widow Twankey, ran a laundry, assisted by her right-hand man, Wishy Washy. He would...
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How appropriate, on Christmas Eve, that we should talk of Aladdin, Widow Twankey and Wishee Washee (in some versions he's Aladdin's brother).The lady widow herself (or rather, himself) has an...
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