# Explain this phrase to me please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813 "2006-02-03T11:06:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/1 "2006-02-03T11:06:13Z")
In several American films and T.V. shows I have heard a phrase used that has left me puzzled. I have had no luck in Googling the answer because having only heard the phrase spoken and never written down I have no idea how to spell it. My best guess at spelling of the phrase would be “onus dintion”, I am sure that isn’t how it is spelled but that is how it sounds to me. The phrase seems to mean ‘I swear’ or ‘I promise’. So, can anyone tell me what the phrase actually is and possibly it’s origins (if it isn’t obvious). ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/2 "2006-02-03T11:13:16Z")
I think the phrase would be “[honest injun](http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/honest+injun)” or, without the accent honest indian. Note, that “[injun](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Injun)” is considered derogatory now. This was probably classic movies you saw the phrase in, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/3 "2006-02-03T11:13:24Z")
Honest Injun (Indian)? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/4 "2006-02-03T11:16:31Z")
I think you mean “honest Indian”, where “Indian” is usually pronounced “Injun”. I’m not sure of the origin of the phrase, except that it’s quite old. It does have the sense you interpreted, as an oath of honesty. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/5 "2006-02-03T11:21:37Z")
Thanks, that is certainly the phrase I have heard being used. Oddly the programs and films I have heard it in weren’t classic by any means. I heard Bruce Willis say it this morning on an episode of Moonlighting (I know this show is relatively old) which prompted this question and I also remember hearing Shannon Elizabeth say it on ‘Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back’. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/6 "2006-02-03T11:26:24Z")
IIRC, Bruce Willis’ character in Moonlighting was fond of old movies though, wasn’t he? Wasn’t it Humphrey Bogart, and Casablanca that he was fond of? I believe Judy Garland used the phrase in some of her films as well. He (the character) also would have grown up using the phrase as a child to promise things, and to attest to their truth as well. The phrase was in use when I was a child in the seventies, but not widely. (Could have been a remnant too, and the rest of the country had phased it out.) As far as why it was used in the Jay and Silent Bob movie, I’m unsure. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/7 "2006-02-03T11:50:58Z")
My dad used to say this to us a lot - he’s from London, and used to love all the old Bogart movies etc ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-phrase-to-me-please/342813/8 "2006-02-03T16:44:14Z")
From _Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins_ by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988): > [@](#): > > **HONEST INJUN** – from Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, has been traced back to 1851, but it is probably much older than that. Originally it was probably an expression of sarcastic derision – ‘as honest as an Indian.’ But later it came to mean about the same thing as the British ‘honor bright’ or the American ‘scout’s honor’ – a pledge of truth and honesty.