This excellent word (“Origin unknown”) is best explained by quoting the OED’s citations:
1936 Allen & Lyman Wonder Bk. Air 312 A modoc, the derivation of which is obscure, is a flashy chap who goes around wearing helmet and goggles, and more than likely, leather boots and riding breeches, too, and talking about the big things he is going to do for aviation. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §756/2 Modock, one who has taken up aviation for publicity, social, or similar reasons. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 341/2 Modoc, one who becomes an Air Force flier for publicity, social prestige, or similar reasons.
As far as I can tell by googling, the word is dead as a mackerel, which is a pity—it has a fine slangy ring to it. (Found at The Sensible Ass, a blog which makes a habit of listing odd and interesting words.)
Update. According to Mike (in the comments), modock (as he spells it) “is currently used by a large group of U.S. pilots”; I am happy to retract my statement that it was dead as a mackerel. Mike is interested in the early history of the word, so if you know anything about it, please e-mail him (click on his name in the comments for the address).
Seems weird not to mention the possibility of a connection with Modoc County, California. (Northeast corner of the state.) Didn’t the story about Ishi, the last Yahi, occur in the early 1900’s?
Here is a link that gives a derivation of “Modoc” as in Modoc Indians, the Modoc War, and Modoc County: “Modoc is from the word Moadokkni, meaning ‘Southerners.’ Their kindred tribe, the Klamath, refer to them as Moadok Maklaks, ‘people of the south.’ In their own language, the Modoc call themselves Maklaks, meaning ‘people.'”
Link: http://www.trailsoftears.org/tribalinfo/content-modoc.htm
Apaches. Those were the french dudes that wore those striped shirts and threw their women around on the dance floor, right?
Captain Jack was a Modoc, the country he made his last stand in is amazingly surreal, with quiet volcanoes and fields of hardened lava. This is an OK version of the events at the end of his life.
The Modoc War
Here’s a picture of Captain Jack and an example of an alternative medicine’s alternative to the malpractice suit.
Captain Jack’s Stronghold
Seems weird not to mention the possibility of a connection with Modoc County, California
Except that it’s hard to imagine what such a connection might be, unless there happened to be an early hotshot pilot from there who was called “Modoc” the way other guys are called “Tex”… but then you’d expect the word would have been connected with him. The county is presumably named after the Indian tribe.
The Historical Dictionary of American Slang antedates the OED by a little bit: 1933 Stewart Airman Speech 78: Modock: One who talks about aviation but never flies.
It also includes two other cites not used by the OED. I do not have any earlier cites, nor did a simple search in the usual places turn anything up.
As an aside, I absolutely love Captain Jack’s Stronghold and that whole area. Much of my family is from the Klamath area, and it’s an amazing place to visit. One of the Oregon-California borderland’s many jewels.
Modock is currently used by a large group of U.S. pilots. The group uses the term as derogitory way to describe a pilot who looks the part but isn’t a true aviator. However, there is some contoversy as to its true meaning and origin. The group feels that the term has been around since 1921 but that fact is still unsubstantiated. There is also some question whether a man named Cy Caldwell coined the term. Caldwell was a known humorist and columnist for an aviation magazine, as well as a pilot, in the 1930s. If so, why did he use the word ‘modock.’ If there is anymore information on the the term ‘modock,’ as it applys to pilots or the aviation community, I would love to know more.
Modock is used by a large group of pilots to describe one who talks more about his flying antics than actually doing them.
Hello,
There is quite a myth/legend about an early family member and it is much written about. In 1170. a Man from Wales, by the name of MADOG, reportedly sailed from there to what is now Mobile Bay, Alabama. I wonder if the MODOC, Indians got their name from him, based on a piece about a “Boston Charley” of the MODOC’S, who was very white. Reportedly Madog, mixed with Indians, and the result was white Indians. That is they had white hair and blue eyes. They say, this was noticeable among the MANDANS, of North Dakota.
There is a Modoc South Carolina. They have a racetrack that I believe is the Mococ Speedway. My lifelong friend, Dave, his Dad was Lt. Colonel Fred Smith. I remember him talking about having an Oldmobile of Buick or whatever it was and saying “that car would really modock.” I still say modock with that use but did not know that it referred to flying. I like it.
In an episode of the Virginian in 1966 an episode introducing Harrison FORD was premiered called,
“The Modoc Kid.”
Apperently they knew what a Modoc was in 1966.
Since the original 2003 posting, more has been added to the OED:
A bit of searching turned up an article titled “Beyond Keewee and Modock”, in the “The Talk of the Town” section of The New Yorker for 1928-01-07. I was a bit puzzled as to how to copy the text of the salient bits, when it occurred to me that there might be a Wiki page for the topic, and lo, there is: the Quiet Birdmen. The text of the card appears in the New Yorker, and on the card image on the Wikipedia page:
If a “modock” is a boastful wanna-be/hanger-on, a “keewee” might be an amateur, a newbie.
[EDIT: Shoulda searched.]
Pilots’ Place at airport honors aviators who have ‘gone west’
Huh. Looks like the above source may not be entirely correct.
The Mystery of the Quiet Birdmen
An excellent antedate!
Smithsonian Institute page for the Quiet Birdmen booklet
With etymological notes!
Elsewhere in the booklet, it says that a Keewee is simply a non-pilot (and so not necessarily connected to aviation).
(Thank you, toxic misogyny!)
(Re: Kiwi: A quick check of Wikipedia shows 5 species of kiwi, and while they are listed as “Near Threatened” or “Vulnerable”, that is far from “Critically endangered”, the last stage before “Extinct in the wild”)
The link I posted was to the entire booklet. Page image for pages 14+15, with the explanation for Keewee and Modock.
Despite what the booklet says (“no gurls allowed (unless they show their tits)”), the 1928 New Yorker article mentioned above claims that “Miss Elder holds an honorary membership card”. A bit of research shows that this was probably Ruth Elder, who would have been 25 in January 1928, and the author of the piece probably felt no need to give her full name because:
Those were the french dudes that wore those striped shirts and threw their women around on the dance floor, right?
Apache dress vs. Apache dress.
Gale reminds me that the pseudo-apache who was so vicious to her on that occasion pronounced the word as apaché with English-style final stress. Ignotum per ignotius.
I also suspect that the QB’s might have evicted Ms Elder (or she might have left after seeing what a sausage party they were becoming) after 1928, because in 1929, she helped found the Ninety-Nines.
I became curious about the 1931 citation from the OED. Is its source online now? Yes, it is:
Sayer, Daniel C. Wingéd Words: Aviation Enriches the American Languge. MIT Technology Review. November 1931. pp. 65-67,102.
The full paragraph:
Checking the OED, I do not find anything that suggests that “kewee” (or “keewee”) was ever a common alternate spelling for “kiwi”.
Indeed, the OED actually shows that “kiwi” (with that spelling) as aviator slang for a non-flying person dates back to 1918 at least (that is, preceding the QB club). I note that the various examples given are not quite synonymous in meaning.
I think that the work of Cy Caldwell might be online as well (in “Aero Digest” and/or “Aviator”), but it does not seem to be fully OCRed, so searching for that odd comment about “delicatessen Greek” might take a while.
The picture has succumbed to link rot.
Fixed, per JC’s request.