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In Samurai Gourmet, Kasumi says:

> 滑り出しは順調だ！

I can see why 滑り出し could mean beginning (imagining myself at the top of a
large waterslide) but I'm curious to know if there is any historical context
behind this.
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2020-03-10T15:46:28.687
74945
2020-03-11T12:54:27.667
36831
question
words etymology
Why does 滑り出し mean 'beginning'?
だす with a native verb in the i-form (連用形) means to start doing something.

働【はたら】き出【だ】す = start working.

言【い】い出【だ】す = start talking

> I can see why 滑り出し could mean beginning (imagining myself at the top of a
> large waterslide) but I'm curious to know if there is any historical context
> behind this.

It seems to me that すべりだす is just another construction along the above lines,
something like "get the ball rolling" in English.
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2020-03-10T23:07:04.760
74952
2020-03-10T23:07:04.760
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answer
I checked two corpora:

  * [青空文庫全文検索](http://myokoym.net/aozorasearch/) (includes public domain literary works roughly in 1850-1950)
  * [BCCWJ](https://pj.ninjal.ac.jp/corpus_center/bccwj/) (includes contemporary Japanese text in 1970-2005)

According to the former, 滑り出す as an ordinary compound verb ("to start to
slide/slip") has been commonly used regardless of the age. But as an idiomatic
noun meaning "beginning", its first appearance was in [this
novel](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001670/files/55689_61572.html) published
in 1954.

> こゝまでは平次の探索の **滑り出し** は、極めて快適に行きましたが、それから先は恐ろしい暗礁に乘り上げてしまつたのです。

And the next appearance was in [this
essay](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/001395/files/51364_66549.html) in 1964.

> その数日後に領主は、臣下一同に対して、自由にキリシタンとなって好いという許可を与えた。こうして伝道の **滑り出し** は非常に順調に行った。

Today, 滑り出し is a very common idiom, and BCCWJ has many examples of 滑り出し as an
idiomatic noun. So it looks to me like this idiom came into use somewhere in
the post-WWII period. This is my wild speculation, but this may have something
to do with [the first ski boom in the
1950's](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=oQfhwcLz6NQC&lpg=PA8&ots=g2jdNHglEg&dq=%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%96%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%20%E6%88%A6%E5%BE%8C&hl=ja&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%96%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%20%E6%88%A6%E5%BE%8C&f=false).
滑り出し is a difficult and important moment in skiing.
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2020-03-11T12:18:11.090
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answer