Ke-mo sah-bee

Ke-mo sah-bee (/ˌkiːmoʊˈsɑːbiː/; often spelled kemo sabe, kemosabe or kimosabe) is the term used by the fictional Native American sidekick Tonto as the Indian name for The Lone Ranger in the American television and radio programs The Lone Ranger. It has become a common catchphrase.

Ultimately derived from gimoozaabi, an Ojibwe and Potawatomi word that may mean "he/she looks out in secret",[1] it is sometimes translated as "trusty scout" (the first Lone Ranger TV episode, 1941) or "faithful friend".[2]

In the 2013 film The Lone Ranger, Tonto states that it means "wrong brother" in Comanche, a seemingly tongue-in-cheek translation within the context of the plot.

Meaning and origin

Jim Jewell, director of The Lone Ranger from 1933 to 1939, took the phrase from Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee, a boys' camp on Mullett Lake in Michigan, established by Charles W. Yeager (Jewell's father-in-law) in 1916.[3] Yeager himself probably took the term from Ernest Thompson Seton, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America, who had given the meaning "scout runner" to Kee-mo-sah'-bee in his 1912 book "The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore".[4]

Kamp Kee-Mo Sah-Bee was in an area inhabited by the Ottawa, who speak a language which is mutually comprehensible with Ojibwe. John D. Nichols and Earl Nyholm's A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe defines the Ojibwe word giimoozaabi as "he peeks" (and, in theory, "he who peeks"), making use of the prefix giimoo(j)-, "secretly"; Rob Malouf, now an associate professor of linguistics at San Diego State University, suggested that "giimoozaabi" may indeed have also meant scout (i.e., "one who sneaks").[5]

Other uses

References
  1. Rhodes, Richard (1993). "Eastern Ojibwa". Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary. New York: Mouton DeGruyter. p. Back cover. ISBN 3-11-013749-6.
  2. Striker, Jr., Fran. "What Does 'Kemo Sabe' Really Mean ?". Old Time Radio. Archived from the original on 2020-02-25. Retrieved November 12, 2008.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "The Handbook of Private Schools". 1916. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Seton, Ernest Thompson (1912). "The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore". Doubleday, Page: 134. kee-mo-sah-bee. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Adams, Cecil (July 18, 1997). "In the old Lone Ranger series, what did "kemosabe" mean?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKhi9ITkRgA
  7. "Everything Everything - Kemosabe".

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.