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That week flew by, but everything is tickety-boo. So, for a quick post, I looked up tickety-boo, a word that I keep hearing on Foyle's War.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, tickety-boo is used colloquially to mean: "In order, correct, satisfactory." The first quotation cited is from 1939, so Samantha Stewart's use of it in the World War II drama is quite appropriate.
The OED isn't committing to an etymology for tickety-boo. One possibility is that it comes from a Hindi word with a similar meaning. Another is that it grew out of the expression, "that's the ticket!"
Tickety-boo is apparently not much used today, so it might sound odd for an American in London to say it. Too bad - it's such a fun word to say!
About Joy Weese Moll
a librarian writing about books
