Knock the Stink Off

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, it’s Suzanne Bernard in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hi, Suzanne. What’s on your mind?

Hi. My dad had a phrase that he would use with the family often.

And I’ve said it to my husband. He’s never heard it before. He thinks my dad made it up.

So maybe you can help me with it.

Dad would often say, let’s go knock the stink off.

Let’s go knock the stink off. What did he mean by that?

He was a Brooklyn man, and so I think some of the street phrases were kind of strange.

Knock the stink off meant, let’s go out and do something.

We’re inside too long.

We’ve got to get out.

We’ve got to get some fresh air.

Yeah, I think we can help you a little bit with that.

We’ve gotten some correspondence a few times over the years on this.

I don’t think we’ve ever tackled it on the show.

I see that Linda in Chesapeake, Virginia, said that her mother used to tell the kids and her family to blow the stink off when she wanted them to go out and play.

And then Katie in Toka, Alaska, who grew up in Minnesota, reports that her mom used to say, chase the stink off for the same reason.

So you are not alone.

So we know then that it wasn’t just your dad.

And digging around, you know, it kind of seems like we might revise that old aphorism and say that kids like fish begin to smell after they hang around the house too long.

Mm-Kids, guests, and fish, right? Kids, guests, and fish.

But I don’t necessarily think that it actually means that they’re emanating odors.

And it sounds like that’s not the way your dad meant it either, right?

I think it’s really just about more like the idea of raising a great stink or kicking up a stink, particularly related to kids.

Now, in your case, it sounds like it was just about being around the house too long and being kind of stuck in there.

But kids in general, the idea is that when they raise a great stink, they’re causing a ruckus, and so they want to take that ruckus or that stink outside.

But also in your dad’s sense, there’s also the idea of a stink meaning a bad feeling or a bad mood or a bad history.

For example, we might talk about somebody getting the stink off of them after a scandal by doing some good deed or some good act, and that goes back well into the 1800s.

And so all of these together make me think that really you kind of, I think you brought us the sense and good understanding of the term is the way your dad used it.

When he talks about knocking the stink off, he’s really saying, let’s just shake off this kind of the doldrums and this lassitude and this sense of nothing happening and go out into the world and experience something good.

Sure.

And I know him growing up in Brooklyn. I’m sure that came from his childhood and he just continued it with us.

Yep, so definitely not just your dad.

It’s got a history.

That’s good.

He was a rather colorful man, so I’m glad to hear there’s a history behind this phrase.

Thanks for bringing it to us, Suzanne.

It’s a good one.

Maybe it will trigger some memories for some other people who say, oh, yeah, I remember that from my youth.

I think we can all use it these days.

I think it will.

Yes.

I’m going to go knock the stink off myself.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Suzanne.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Thank you.

877-929-9673.