Lone Ranger
Larry Preuss
of the terms Tonto and Kimo Sabe in Fran Striker's Lone Ranger books,
but have lost my bookmark. Could someone help me find this material, or
give me the address of the a.u.e. FAQ if that is where the information
is to be found?
Please post/email
Larry Preuss
Ann Arbor, MI
USA
--
vellov
>I have read discussion several years ago, I believe here, about the use
>of the terms Tonto and Kimo Sabe in Fran Striker's Lone Ranger books,
>but have lost my bookmark. Could someone help me find this material, or
>give me the address of the a.u.e. FAQ if that is where the information
>is to be found?
'Tonto' = 'stupid', 'Kemo Sabe' = 'que mas sabe', '(he) who knows more',
from the Spanish.
With respect,
vellov
Robert Lieblich
More or less accurate, although I think "foolish" or "silly" comes close
to the meaning of "tonto" than "stupid."
I think, however, that "tonto" has another meaning in some Spanish
dialects. There's a long thread on this in the deja.con archives of
alt.usage.english, but I'm too tired to look it up and too considerate
of AUE to cross-post this. Perhaps someone with both the time and the
curiosity can pin this down.
Larry Preuss
<vel...@control98.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Larry Preuss wrote in message ...
> >I have read discussion several years ago, I believe here, about the use
> >of the terms Tonto and Kimo Sabe in Fran Striker's Lone Ranger books,
> >but have lost my bookmark. Could someone help me find this material, or
> >give me the address of the a.u.e. FAQ if that is where the information
> >is to be found?
>
>
> 'Tonto' = 'stupid', 'Kemo Sabe' = 'que mas sabe', '(he) who knows more',
> from the Spanish.
> With respect,
> vellov
>
>
Thank you. Sometime after I asked the question I found the site below:
http://users.ticnet.com/mlargent/ranger/faq.html
Is Kemosabe a real word? What does it really mean?
Kemosabe (or any of the other various spellings) *is* a real word. It's
from the language of the Potowatomie Indians. The Potowatomie Indians
lived in and around Michigan. (The Lone Ranger originated at WXYZ in
Detroit.) One of the show's
producers, Jim Jewell, had a father-in-law who ran a boy's camp named
"Camp Kee-mo-sah-bee." Kemosabe means "faithful friend" or "trusty
scout."
Isn't it true that Tonto means "fool" in Spanish?
This *is* true, but it was not that meaning that was intended by the
producers of the show. There are two versions of the story. Fran Striker
told the Saturday Evening Post that he invented Tonto's name and that it
was picked by merely altering the consonants in the name Bobo. (This was
a caveman character Striker had created in another radio program.) Jim
Jewell says that Striker was remembering wrong. Tonto, he said, is
another Potowatomie word. There were a few Indians who would come to the
camp to tell stories to the children. One of the Indians apparently had
a penchant for drinking after the children had gone to sleep. Sometimes
he would get rowdy and the other Indians would call him "tonto." This
meant "wild one." Jewell remembered the word, liked it, and gave the
name to the Lone Ranger's Indian companion.
Larry
--
Ray Rodriguez
¿Qué más sabe?= "What else do you know?"
"vellov" <vel...@control98.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8cb18m$hue$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
vellov
Ray Rodriguez wrote in message ...
>¿Qué más sabe?= "What else do you know?"
>
for 'who knows more'? (I know this isn't alt.spanish.usage, but since you're
here...)
With respect,
vellov
Alexander Deubelbeiss
vellov schrieb in Nachricht <8clce8$slp$3...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>...
"Qui" is French. The Spanish interrogative is "Quien". You can say "¿Quien
sabe más?" for "who knows more?", but "quien más sabe" means "the person who
knows the most".
vellov
Alexander Deubelbeiss wrote in message <8cpsm3$96f$1...@bw107zhb.bluewin.ch>...
>
>vellov schrieb in Nachricht <8clce8$slp$3...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk>...
>>
>>Ray Rodriguez wrote in message ...
>>>¿Qué más sabe?= "What else do you know?"
>>>
>>Thank you: I stand corrected. Can one say 'qui mas sabe' (= 'qui sabe
mas')
>>for 'who knows more'? (I know this isn't alt.spanish.usage, but since
>you're
>>here...)
>>
>
>"Qui" is French. The Spanish interrogative is "Quien".
Oops.
> You can say "¿Quien
>sabe más?" for "who knows more?", but "quien más sabe" means "the person
who
>knows the most".
>
"Quien más sabe" sounds more like 'Kemo sabe', doesn't it? Maybe Tonto's
Spanish was as bad as mine...
With respect,
vellov
mpl...@my-deja.com
Ranger" believed _Kemosabe_ to mean "trusty friend" (though I accept
the theory that in the original language it meant "scout"):
Excerpted from "What Does 'Kemo Sabe' Really Mean? by Fran Striker,
Jr., at: http://www.old-time.com/kemo.html
[quote]
Allow me just one final note on Kemo Sabe... an interesting side
light. It is usually assumed that Kemo Sabe is how the Ranger refers
to Tonto. However, in many of the early radio broadcasts, the Ranger
calls Tonto Kemo Sabe AND Tonto also calls the Ranger Kemo Sabe.
[end quote]
--
Raymond S. Wise
"The biochemistry of the world is straight out of a Bill Gates
fantasy--there's only one operating system for everything."
Joel Achenbach
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Wes Groleau
> Excerpted from "What Does 'Kemo Sabe' Really Mean? by Fran Striker,
> Jr., at: http://www.old-time.com/kemo.html
See also http://www.old-time.com/tonto.txt for a discussion which says
"Tonto" means "wild one" in the same language that Kemo Sabe came from.
--
Wes Groleau
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wgroleau