It is mentioned in the Illuminatus Trilogy and it was the name of a band, but what exactly is 23 skidoo? Below is an article that was published in 1906 that tells us about the word’s origin and slang use.
Skidoo – Twenty-three
The origin of the slang expression “twenty-three for you,’ which is having a run over the country never before equalled by a slang expression, has a romantic origin and can trace its ancestry to one of the greatest novels known to English literature.
In Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” Sidney Carton is made a hero whose fame shall not die. In the end of that novel a knitting woman sits beside the guillotine and as the tumbrils discharge their devoted freight and human heads are rolled into the baskets, she knits an account of them into her work. One, two, three, and so on.
As Sydney Carton’s head falls from the knife, she knits “twenty-three.”
A few years ago the “Tale of Two Cities” was produced on the stage under the title, “The Only Way.” The actress who impersonated the knitting woman at the guillotine, had the last word as the curtain went down, as the play ended, as the hero’s life ended, as the story was done. That last word was “twenty-three.”
Being of a humorous turn and withal somewhat convivial, she hit upon the idea of informing such gentlemen as had finished their course with her of the inclusion of things, by quoting the last word of her part of the play.
The play and actress went all over the country, and the slang was born.
In slang parlance it means “your finish.”
“Skidoo” means “git,” so the two expressions are frequently coupled.
In the text of “The Tale of Two Cities” the disconnected sentence “twenty-three” ends the story. Then there is an epilogue in which is set down what Carlton might have said had he been permitted to speak at the scaffold.
Source: Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.), 03 Aug. 1906.
