Mollusk Chris, BrooklynIn high school, as far as I can remember, the formal social season revolved around three school- sponsored dances: Homecoming, Tolo and the Senior Prom. Glittering-yet-glum affairs full of rampant acne, rented tuxes, sequined tulle, puffed chiffon and ill-themed photo ops, they were sticky webs of all the worst manner of adolescent hierarchy and teenage angst. Admittedly, a well documented phenomena. A lesser known commodity, however, is the word Tolo.
I had always figured the name of the dance where gender norms are "really shaken up" and the girl "gets" to ask the boy (elsewhere referred to as a Sadie Hawkins or Snowball dance) was derived from some sort of Greek origin. Basically, I had seen Animal House and figured it was like a toga party. Accordingly, throughout high school I always wondered that we didn't actually wear togas to the Tolo.
Today, musing over the interesting taxonomy of relationships that are instilled in us at an early age, it struck me that I still didn't know from whence that word derives. According to Wikipedia, it is derived from Chinook pidgin meaning "to earn" or "to win."
I find this etymology irresistibly satisfying.
Chinook Jargon
I had always figured the name of the dance where gender norms are "really shaken up" and the girl "gets" to ask the boy (elsewhere referred to as a Sadie Hawkins or Snowball dance) was derived from some sort of Greek origin. Basically, I had seen Animal House and figured it was like a toga party. Accordingly, throughout high school I always wondered that we didn't actually wear togas to the Tolo.
Today, musing over the interesting taxonomy of relationships that are instilled in us at an early age, it struck me that I still didn't know from whence that word derives. According to Wikipedia, it is derived from Chinook pidgin meaning "to earn" or "to win."
I find this etymology irresistibly satisfying.
Chinook Jargon
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