conked out

[banstead]

can you tell me the derivation of the above term

thank you

denise

[Clanad]

Conk Out:

Stop functioning, fail, as in The engine finally conked out. [Colloquial; early 1900s]

Fall asleep, as in Every evening he conked out in front of the television set. [1940s]

Faint or collapse, as in I don't know if it was the heat, but she suddenly conked out. [1920s]

Die, as in He's paranoid about conking out and he's only twenty! [Late 1920s] (With thanks to The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms)

This is certainly not an exhaustive search and, obviously, Americanized, so I await the arrival of Quizmonster for a more Anglicized assistance...

[Quizmonster]

One of the earliest references to the word, from a book about World War I fighter aircraft published in 1918, suggests that 'conked' is (quote): "a new word from the Russian language meaning stopped or killed". I don't know Russian myself, so I cannot confirm that as the derivation.

So, we've had the Americanised and anglicised versions...all we need now is the Russianised!

[Kay]

I thought it came from kids playing conkers when the loser had lost his/her conkers to the opponent.

[Octavius]

And there was me thinking it came from being conquered

[Kingaroo]

I always thought it had to do with the sound that a knock-out blow to the head would make.
As in, "I conked my head on the cabinet door."

[Quizmonster]

The word 'conk' itself has several meanings, including nose, head, fungus and punch. The verb form with 'out', however, has always implied something dying/failing to work. Nor only that, but all the earliest uses of conk out/konk out seem to have referred to aircraft engines stopping during World War I.

'Conkers', as in the children's game with chestnuts, originally used snail-shells. The apex of each competing shell was pressed against the other until one broke. The owner of the unbroken one was the 'conqueror' and his successful shell was dubbed the 'conker'.

There would appear to be no direct connection between 'conk out' and 'conquer/conker'. Indeed, TOED simply says the origin is "obscure". If the Oxford scholars can't establish the derivation, I don't hold out much hope that we will!

Where are the Russian linguists when we need them? I'd still like to know whether there is any credibility in the suggestion from the quote in my original response above. Namely, is there a Russian word meaning stop/die that sounds like conk? Anyone?