The Origin of Donkey

Sarah and I have had a lot of people asking about the word "donkey" that she and I use a lot....especially in this blog.

By now, you likely know what it means....and are probably curious of its origin...

It all started the second week of February, 2012. I was a young man trying to make his way in this world, Sarah was a starving retail expert.

While fishing with my friend Jakob at an unspecified location we came upon a stretch of river, say a mile long, that was not good fly fishing water. Jakob turned to me and said "Let's blow by this next stretch of donkey water". I quickly agreed, but made note of the clever use of the word.

Jakob is Danish, hence the "k" over the commonly used "c"....and my only guess is that he picked up the word at some point in his youth in Europe.

Letting the word lay dormant for many years, the cunning Danish sir exposed the word at only the right time- when he knew it would fall on willing ears.

I believe I then introduced the word donkey into the greater Portland area initially as a reference to a hair cut someone I worked with had....and it was then used to describe a great many things.

Quickly, it's use stretched as far south as Klamath Falls, and was even used in official documents in the town of Lebanon to describe the 2001 Strawberry Princess.

Now, donkey is regularly used as far away as Shanghai, China. The native population pronounces it "Lǘ" and uses it to describe everything, including (pictures):

1- These foreigners
2- This beer
3- This sign
4- Pajamas at 3pm with dress shoes
5- This city
6- Her glasses

And many other things.....

Donkey can often be replaced by the word "Twinkie" but only when used in the current tense. Example:

A gentleman sees an old bike painted pink with white polk-a-dots and has a pink banana seat. Turning to he friend he says "Check out this little Twinkie".

The future of the word donkey is yet to be seen. Only time will tell what is in store for this word....but you can be sure of this- as long as the show Glee is on TV, donkey will remain a staple in the vocabulary of many.