Gee, What does "Johnny on the Spot" mean?

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Johnny-on-the-spot describes a person who is close at hand and readily available at all times. Interestingly, the term Johnny-on-the-spot can be traced to a newspaper article published by the New York Sun in 1896, extolling the phrase as a new idiom. This article maintains that the term Johnny-on-the-spot is derived from the phrase “Johnny is always on the spot when wanted.” In this case, Johnny is a generic term for a person. Note that the Oxford English Dictionary prefers the hyphenated form, Johnny-on-the-spot, while other dictionaries render the phrase without hyphens as in Johnny on the spot. Further note that in all cases the noun Johnny is capitalized as it is a proper name.

Johnny-on-the-spot Idiom Definition – Grammarist


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