tickety-boo

Meaning

Adjective

• Correct, satisfactory.

Origin

• Origin uncertain. Chiefly and originally British slang. Possibly from an Indo-Aryan language: compare Hindi ठीक है, बाबू ("it's all right, sir"). The phrase could have been picked up by British personnel in India before independence and spread in modified form to the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. It may also be a corruption from French: "ce que t'es beau", "how beautiful you are", adopted similarly to "toodeloo' (bye-bye), which is a corruption of "tout a l'heure" (see you later, today). Likely from WW1 Tommies. Alternately, it may be an extended version of that's the ticket, possibly influenced by peekaboo. Attested in English since the 1920s.