This post is definitely off-topic.

But I was wondering whether I was correct in saying that "right on" was from the 1960s. It turns out that I was right about the decade when that was a popular saying.

See this excerpt from

Re: Right On!
Posted by ESC on March 15, 2004

In Reply to: Right On! posted by Robert on March 15, 2004

: A common phrase uttered in the "Love in" era of the '60s was "Right On" - indicating the speaker was emphatically correct. Though no longer in common useage, I was wondering about the source...

'Right on!' was derived from 'right on T' and popularized by the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 1970s."

ON TIME/ON T - "At the appropriate natural, psychological moment, regardless of 'clock' time. Probably from the Traditional Black Church expression associated with the story of Job. 'He (God) may not come when you want Him, but He's right on time.'" From "Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner" by Geneva Smitherman (Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, N.Y., 1994).

".Right on.which is first recorded in 1925." From "20th Century Words: The Story of New Words in English Over the Last 100 Years" by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, New York, 1999)"

-snip-

For what it's worth, I've never heard or seen in print "On T", but I have definitely heard [and used] the saying "He (or "God") may not come when you want Him, but He's right on time."

That saying is so well known among African Americans that it's sometimes given in a call & response manner-meaning one person may say "He may not come when you want Him". And someone else completes the saying "But He's always right on time".*

I had no idea that the phrase "right on" came from that saying. But even if it's not true, it sounds good.

*My interpretation of "He may not come when you want Him, but He's right on time" is is that God knows what is best for us. Although His plans may not fit our time frames (since we want things to happen sooner rather than later), when they happen and even if they don't happen at all, is all part of a master plan. So, on the one hand, we have to wait & trust that God has our best interests at heart, and on the other hand "God helps those who help themselves", so we shouldn't just knock on wood and hope things will turn out for the best without doing what we need to do to the best of our abilities.

I added that "knock on wood" phrase to bring the subject back to the theme of this thread. :o)