"23 Skidoo!"

"23 skidoo", sometimes written as "23 skiddoo", is American slang popularized in the early 20th century. First appearing before World War I, it became popular in the Roaring Twenties

It generally refers to leaving quickly. One nuance of the phrase suggests being rushed out by someone else. Another is taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is: "getting out while the getting is good."

Webster's New World Dictionary derives skiddoo (with two d's) as likely from skedaddle, meaning "to leave" with a sense of the imperative.

The "23" part of the phrase has a wide diversity of explanations. Among the best . .

1. New York City's Flatiron Building, on 23rd Street, is shaped as a triangle thereby causing frequent winds that would stir ladies' skirts, revealing ankles which, in the early years of the Twentieth Century, were seldom seen in public. Rogues would loiter around the Flatiron Building hoping for glimpses. Local constables, shooing such rogues away, were said to be giving them the 23 Skidoo.
   
2. An early 1900s Death Valley town had 23 saloons (basically tents many of them). A visit to all, going 23 skidoo, meant having a really good time.
   
3. Sydney Carton, the protagonist of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is the 23rd person sent to the guillotine in a series of executions in a popular stage production of the book.

Wentworth and Flexner (Dictionary of American Slang) describe it as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S."

Adapted from Wikipedia.

See also