honest injun
- idiom
- Slur
:
[ofensivo: juramento que emplea un insulto racial contra indígenas (EE. UU.)]
- I'm telling you the truth—honest injun, that's how it happened.
Examples
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You can trust me, honest injun!
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I promise, I'm telling you the truth, honest injun!
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Honest injun, I didn’t know anything about the surprise party.
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She said, honest injun, she would return the money by Friday.
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Honest injun, I promise I won't tell anyone your secret.
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I'm being truthful—honest injun, I never stole that bike.
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She told me honest injun that she aced her exam.
Synonyms
∞
3.2
In an honest and direct way that may upset or surprise
691
1.1
Said when you want to stress that you really mean what you say
221
2.3
To show you are telling the truth or how you really feel
84
3.8
Actually, what is said is true even if people think otherwise
43
7.9
Used to say something is completely honest without exaggeration
17
3.7
To tell the truth to show you really mean it
5
6.1
A phrase people say to show what they say is really true
1
7.9
Truly real and not fake
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase functions as an idiomatic, emphatic oath and its meaning ('I’m telling the truth') is not predictably derived from the literal meanings of 'honest' and the offensive slang 'injun'; 'injun' has no semantic link to truthfulness. A B1 learner who knows both words would therefore be unlikely to infer the idiomatic usage (and might be unaware of the derogatory connotation), so the expression is best treated as opaque.
Etymology
Honest injun comes from old American speech where injun was a casual, now offensive, way to say 'Indian'. People used it as a strong promise, like saying 'really, I'm honest', so honest injun came to mean 'I'm telling the truth'.