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HAHA. This joke made my day. What the heck does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean anyway? I had seen it my whole childhood.

by atonse 1y ago

muststopmyths 1y ago
"horn please", to tell people to honk while passing. OK was originally a separate thing that used to occur in locations other than between the two words. I distinctly recall this from my childhood. Don't know the origins of it but there is some suggestion on the internet that it was copied from Tata trucks which had the logo of the OK soap (a lotus). They could occur in the current order, but it was not necessary. It should still be read as separate from the "horn please" phrase. As the country became functionally more illiterate over the years (yes, probably a controversial opinion :) ), the three words were just rote copied inline and painted on trucks, with the meaning lost to time.
- __rito__ 1y ago
  OK means: "On Kerosene". See: https://trucksfloor.com/en/blog/horn-ok-please-on-indian-truck https://trucksfloor.com/en/blog/horn-ok-please-on-indian-tru...
  - muststopmyths 1y ago
    I would love to see a reliable source for this. All I have ever found is people on the internet asserting this to be true, but no actual evidence (in the form of contemporaneous pictures or documents from WW2).
gopalv 1y ago
> What the heck does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean anyway? I had seen it my whole childhood. I was told that this was the polite honk triplet - the two honk call and one honk response. "honk honk" / "honk" "horn ok" / "please"
__rito__ 1y ago
It is just Horn Please. OK is a historical artefact. During WW2, due to fuel shortages, Indian trucks often switched to Kerosene. OK means: "On Kerosene". OK was painted on the back of trucks and other vehicles to warn other drivers to maintain a safe distance because Kerosene is highly flammable. Due to another meaning of OK, they just kept doing it. [0] [0]: https://www.fr8.in/blog/why-is-horn-ok-please-written-behind-trucks https://www.fr8.in/blog/why-is-horn-ok-please-written-behind...
- mikestew 1y ago
  More flammable than gasoline? I’m not buying this one at all.
  - detaro 1y ago
    It says "than diesel" in the link, but I don't think diesel engines would've been common at all at the time. To my knowledge they only became popular post-WW2.

HAHA. This joke made my day. What the heck does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean anyway? I had seen it my whole childhood.

by atonse 1y ago

HAHA. This joke made my day. What the heck does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean anyway? I had seen it my whole childhood.

"horn please", to tell people to honk while passing. OK was originally a separate thing that used to occur in locations other than between the two words. I distinctly recall this from my childhood. Don't know the origins of it but there is some suggestion on the internet that it was copied from Tata trucks which had the logo of the OK soap (a lotus). They could occur in the current order, but it was not necessary. It should still be read as separate from the "horn please" phrase. As the country became functionally more illiterate over the years (yes, probably a controversial opinion :) ), the three words were just rote copied inline and painted on trucks, with the meaning lost to time.

__rito__ 1y ago
OK means: "On Kerosene". See: https://trucksfloor.com/en/blog/horn-ok-please-on-indian-truck https://trucksfloor.com/en/blog/horn-ok-please-on-indian-tru...
- muststopmyths 1y ago
  I would love to see a reliable source for this. All I have ever found is people on the internet asserting this to be true, but no actual evidence (in the form of contemporaneous pictures or documents from WW2).

gopalv 1y ago

> What the heck does "HORN OK PLEASE" mean anyway? I had seen it my whole childhood. I was told that this was the polite honk triplet - the two honk call and one honk response. "honk honk" / "honk" "horn ok" / "please"

__rito__ 1y ago

It is just Horn Please. OK is a historical artefact. During WW2, due to fuel shortages, Indian trucks often switched to Kerosene. OK means: "On Kerosene". OK was painted on the back of trucks and other vehicles to warn other drivers to maintain a safe distance because Kerosene is highly flammable. Due to another meaning of OK, they just kept doing it. [0] [0]: https://www.fr8.in/blog/why-is-horn-ok-please-written-behind-trucks https://www.fr8.in/blog/why-is-horn-ok-please-written-behind...

mikestew 1y ago
More flammable than gasoline? I’m not buying this one at all.
- detaro 1y ago
  It says "than diesel" in the link, but I don't think diesel engines would've been common at all at the time. To my knowledge they only became popular post-WW2.