The Mikado, vocabulary, "toco," "con fuoco," and "guoco"

"toco," "con fuoco," and "guoco"

toco

In Gilbert's day, toco was schoolboy slang. If a boy were sent away to school, he might have gone to a boarding school. And if he did something wrong, he might get away with it, or he might "catch toco" -- suffer a beating or punishment.

Partridge defines toco (or toko) as "chastisement," and dates it from 1823 (Partridge 408).

The OED offers several examples of the use of toco:

Dict Turf

(toco)

Hughes' 1857 Tom Brown "The School leaders come up furious and administer toco to the wretched fags nearest at hand" (I, v). ("Fag" in this case refers probably to younger schoolboys, who were required to be subservient. My apologies to all those offended, as they should be, by this.)

J. Coleman's 1903 C. Reade "They both caught 'Toko' when they went back" (II, ii; p. 274 of the 1904 edition).

con fuoco

guoco

This discussion is based on the definition of the word toco in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.

College of Fine Arts and Humanities

St. Cloud State University

This URL: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/scogdill/mikado/toco.html.

Last update: 19 May 1998.