How do?
"How do?" is an old phrase created further back in time than you might realise. Little know that this phrase used to mean much more than simply "How do you do?"
In 1807, the phrase "How do?" was created. First seen in the book "St. Mary's Seminary and Catholics at Large Vindicated, Against the Pastoral Letter of the Ministers, Bishops, Etc." Published in September 1811.[1] [2] All other references to the phrase were similar, such as "How do you do?" and "How are?", which started in 1790. [3]
In the book, "How do?" is used as a form of compliment, not sincere worry as to how the person is. It is used to show that they care about the person's wellbeing and that they "have their back", regardless of the fact that no one understood this abbreviation.
Later, in 1940, it became the main wonder of the infamous military "Cloud Planes" story, briefly mentioned in "BBC Newshour", and "Porco Rosso".[4] The story goes that a pilot is flying a Spitfire. He sees many of his close friends explode in mid-air, and finally, he gets shot as well. In an attempt to escape enemy fire, he soars above the clouds, seeing all his friends that were killed, floating higher and higher towards the sun. The pilot shouts at his friends to come back down, and one of the pilots dips his cap, exclaims "How do?", and floats up to the sun, out of sight. The pilot manages to dive down and parachute to safety. Supposedly a ghost story, it was a very popular military story to build confidence and hope that the end of the war was near.
From 2005 onwards, it was used as slang, as the abbreviation of the phrase "How do you do?". Mostly, it was used in a sexual context. In roleplay, and such, "How do?" would be used to connect two characters in a sexual relationship. It would be most commonly used in roleplay as two characters, usually virgins, pretending that they were experienced and professional in terms of "shagging".[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31531689-st-mary-s-seminary-and-catholics-at-large-vindicated-against-the-pasto?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=qDtKeFWSRd&rank=1
- ↑ https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=How+do%3F&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHow%20do%20%3F%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CHow%20do%20%3F%3B%2Cc0
- ↑ https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=How+do%3F&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHow%20do%20%3F%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CHow%20do%20%3F%3B%2Cc0
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porco_Rosso
- ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shagging
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