Origins
The origin of the term comes from pickpocket slang of the late 19th and early 20th century. The "kick" is the front side pocket of a pair of trousers, and was found to be the pocket safest from theft. Some unknown poet of the underworld must have made the connection between the front pocket - the hardest to pick - and an inseparable companion.
One of the earliest recorded sidekicks may be Enkidu, who adopted a sidekick role to Gilgamesh after they became allies in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Other early examples include Achilles and Patroclus from the Iliad, and Moses and Aaron from the Bible.
Read more about this topic: Sidekick
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)