WHOPPER...Meaning "a big lie" or "a large, impressive thing", comes from the verb "whop", a corruption of "whip" as a verb, "to beat or overcome". (WHUP is a similar corruption.)
"Whopping" was used in English literature in the 1620s as an adjective for a very large object. The use of "whopper" came about between 1785 & 1791 in its present meanings as British MPs, while in session, began referring to their opponents' speeches as "being full of whoppers". A chronicler of the life of Admiral Nelson described his beauteous girlfriend, Lady Emma Hamilton as "a whapper", a corruption of "whopper"
I guess Burger King uses 'whopper' in its original meaning!
Word Origins
DINGBAT...NOT a word coined by Archie Bunker on All In The Family. The word was first used in 1838 for a type of potent alcoholic drink. It soon fell into the class of words(thingamabob, gadget, doohickey) to connote an object whose proper name wasn't clear to the speaker or writer.
The word went through a variety of uses, including ethnic slurs, and by 1905, had come to mean a stupid person. It was little-used until 'Archie Bunker' made it famous.
The word went through a variety of uses, including ethnic slurs, and by 1905, had come to mean a stupid person. It was little-used until 'Archie Bunker' made it famous.
ZAP...Its most-used meaning now is to erase electronically, cancel out. However, the word was in spoken American English by 1929, in imitation of the studio sound of a bolt of electricity or a shot from a ray gun, also as a verb, to hit with such a bolt or shot. It was first printed in 1942 in the comic strip "Flash Gordon". It has come into much-greater use in the computer age and instant communications. (And...er...use in cartain SEOP handles!)
CHICAGO...Name of a large American city. The name comes from a French-Canadian corruption of the Algonquin-language "she-kah-gahn", meaning "place of the onion" or "place of bad smell", the name the Potawatomie nation had given to both the marshes in the area and the river. When the town was founded in 1833, the river was already called the Chicago by Indians & Europeans alike, so the settlers named their town Chicago.
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Brass Tacks
The phrase get down to brass tacks is of uncertain etymology. No one knows why it was originally coined, but there are several explanations. What we do know is that the phrase dates to at least the 1890s and that it is American in origin. Beyond that, there is only speculation.
The earliest known citation is from an 1895 letter by Frederick Remington:
How little I know . . . when you get down to brass-tacks.
The most likely explanation is that brass tacks is rhyming slang for facts. This, however, is complicated by the variant brass nails, which dates to at least 1911. The variant doesn't fit the rhyming slang, but then it may have been an alteration by someone who didn't understand the rhyming slang.
Another explanation is that stores used to mark out a yard on the counter with brass tacks so that customers buying cloth could measure it by getting down to brass tacks and ensure they weren't being cheated.
Yet another is that brass tacks were used as a foundation for upholstery. So getting down to brass tacks meant getting down to basics.
The phrase get down to brass tacks is of uncertain etymology. No one knows why it was originally coined, but there are several explanations. What we do know is that the phrase dates to at least the 1890s and that it is American in origin. Beyond that, there is only speculation.
The earliest known citation is from an 1895 letter by Frederick Remington:
How little I know . . . when you get down to brass-tacks.
The most likely explanation is that brass tacks is rhyming slang for facts. This, however, is complicated by the variant brass nails, which dates to at least 1911. The variant doesn't fit the rhyming slang, but then it may have been an alteration by someone who didn't understand the rhyming slang.
Another explanation is that stores used to mark out a yard on the counter with brass tacks so that customers buying cloth could measure it by getting down to brass tacks and ensure they weren't being cheated.
Yet another is that brass tacks were used as a foundation for upholstery. So getting down to brass tacks meant getting down to basics.
FIRST-RATE (and second-rate, third-rate, etc.)...Comes from the British Royal Navy. First introduced in the 1670s, this system comtinued until the age of wooden fighting ships ended in the late 1800s. When we describe something as first-rate, we mean it's top of the line. However, in the RN, a lower rating was for smaller ships, which often compensated for fewer and smaller guns with much-better speed & handling than their bigger cousins had. It was NOT a dropoff in quality, as it is in modern usage. In fact, most British fleets of the time consisted of about 80% third-raters.
The system of ratings were for British "ships of the line". A British tactic was to form their fleet into a straight line and parade them past an enemy, each ship in succession firing upon the enemy, a tactic that worked quite well IF THE WIND WAS RIGHT. (Other nations, including France, also used this tactic.)There were six ratings classes, and only ships of the top 3 ratings were used in a line. These ratings were revised several times as ship design changed.
If you're interested in the British rating system that was in use during the Napoleonic Era, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_sys ... Royal_Navy
The system of ratings were for British "ships of the line". A British tactic was to form their fleet into a straight line and parade them past an enemy, each ship in succession firing upon the enemy, a tactic that worked quite well IF THE WIND WAS RIGHT. (Other nations, including France, also used this tactic.)There were six ratings classes, and only ships of the top 3 ratings were used in a line. These ratings were revised several times as ship design changed.
If you're interested in the British rating system that was in use during the Napoleonic Era, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_sys ... Royal_Navy
IN THE LIMELIGHT...This term, used for people or things that have become the center of attention, comes from an intense form of lighting , called the Drummond Light, after its 1826 inventor, Scottish engineer, Robert Drummond. It consists of a stick of calcium oxide lime heated by a flame of oxygen and hydrogen. This lime can be heated to white-hot incandescence without melting or rapidly burning up, and was by far the most brilliant man-made light source of its time. It was first used in a theater in 1837, in London's Covent garden Theater, and its popularity mushroomed. Soon, theater people made a spotlight from it that could swivel to follow a performer or group of performers.
Obviously, the limelight, with its great heat and use of highly-explosive hydrogen, carried plenty of inherent danger, and it took practice to keep the flame adjusted & the lime stick at the right height as it burned away. Not to mention that pure oxygen and hydrogen in those days was EXPENSIVE. When the more-intense, much-safer & easier-to-operate arc light came along, theater people adopted it almost overnight in the 1880s, but even today, some stagehands refer to theater spotlights as limelights.
Obviously, the limelight, with its great heat and use of highly-explosive hydrogen, carried plenty of inherent danger, and it took practice to keep the flame adjusted & the lime stick at the right height as it burned away. Not to mention that pure oxygen and hydrogen in those days was EXPENSIVE. When the more-intense, much-safer & easier-to-operate arc light came along, theater people adopted it almost overnight in the 1880s, but even today, some stagehands refer to theater spotlights as limelights.
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Brownie Points
This term derives from the girl scouts. That organization had (has?) a system of points that the girls would accumulate toward advancement.
The phrase entered the general language from WWII in military slang. Uniforms, the army's tendency to have soldiers do things that seemed silly and child-like, and evocation of brown-nose all contributed to the popularity of the phrase.
This term derives from the girl scouts. That organization had (has?) a system of points that the girls would accumulate toward advancement.
The phrase entered the general language from WWII in military slang. Uniforms, the army's tendency to have soldiers do things that seemed silly and child-like, and evocation of brown-nose all contributed to the popularity of the phrase.
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Bumper Crop
To the modern ear this phrase sounds odd. How did bumper become associated with agriculture?
The original bumper was a large cup, filled to the brim with wine, and used for toasting. Why it is called a bumper is a bit uncertain, but could be from the idea of knocking such glasses together during a toast. From Thomas D'Urfey's Madam Fickle of 1676:
Full Bumpers crown our Blisses.
Bumper eventually came to refer to anything large or abundant. From Gentleman's Magazine of 1759:
In some of the midland counties, anything large is called a bumper, as a large apple or pear.
By 1885 it was associated with crop, from the Times of London of 2 October:
The floods will have the effect of giving a "bumper" rubbee crop.
To the modern ear this phrase sounds odd. How did bumper become associated with agriculture?
The original bumper was a large cup, filled to the brim with wine, and used for toasting. Why it is called a bumper is a bit uncertain, but could be from the idea of knocking such glasses together during a toast. From Thomas D'Urfey's Madam Fickle of 1676:
Full Bumpers crown our Blisses.
Bumper eventually came to refer to anything large or abundant. From Gentleman's Magazine of 1759:
In some of the midland counties, anything large is called a bumper, as a large apple or pear.
By 1885 it was associated with crop, from the Times of London of 2 October:
The floods will have the effect of giving a "bumper" rubbee crop.
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Buy The Farm
To buy the farm is to die, usually in a battle or aircraft accident. It has spawned several false explanations of its origin. The phrase as we know it dates to the 1950s, but has its roots in older variants. The farm in the phrase is a metaphor for a grave, the last plot of land a soldier will own.
The earliest variant is the phrase to buy it. From W. N. Glascock's Naval Sketch-Book in 1825:
Never mind, in closing with Crappo, if we didn't buy it with his raking broadsides.
Crappo in this quotation is a slang word for the French, especially used in reference to French sailors.
This is still in use today. From Noble's With a Bristol Fighter Squadron, 1920, in reference to the WWI:
The wings and fuselage, with fifty-three bullet holes, caused us to realize on our return how near we had been to "buying it".
WWI also saw nouns paired with the verb to buy. From Frasier & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words of 1925:
Packet, a bullet wound, e.g. it would be said of a wounded man:–He "stopped a packet" or "bought a packet"–i.e., got hit by a bullet. Also, any trouble or unexpected bad luck.
And Longstreet's Canvas Falcons of 1929 includes this reference to 1917 air combat:
"The major bought one," I said, climbing out, covered with my own slime.
Partridge's Dictionary of Catchphrases records become a landowner as WWI slang meaning to die, the first use of the metaphor of acquiring land meaning death.
7 March 1954 sees the New York Times record in an article on Air Force slang:
Bought a plot: Had a fatal crash.
The same year sees in Harvey's Jet:
Those jet jockeys just bought the shop, didn't they?
Finally, in 1955 the form buy the farm is recorded. It first appears in print in an article in American Speech, along with a false explanation of its origin:
Buy the farm; buy a plot, v.phr. Crash fatally. (Jet pilots say that when a jet crashes on a farm the farmer usually sues the government for damages done to his farm by the crash and the amount demanded is always more than enough to pay off the mortgage and then buy the farm outright. Since this type of crash [i.e., in a jet fighter] is nearly always fatal to the pilot, the pilot pays for the farm with his life.)
From the earlier variants on the phrase, it is clear that the notion of the government buying land damaged in a crash is not the origin of the phrase. A variation on this myth is that the phrase is linked to a soldier's insurance, which would allow his family to pay off the mortgage on their farm if he died. Similarly, this is also false.
Buy the farm is only one of a long list of variants that dates back nearly two centuries.
To buy the farm is to die, usually in a battle or aircraft accident. It has spawned several false explanations of its origin. The phrase as we know it dates to the 1950s, but has its roots in older variants. The farm in the phrase is a metaphor for a grave, the last plot of land a soldier will own.
The earliest variant is the phrase to buy it. From W. N. Glascock's Naval Sketch-Book in 1825:
Never mind, in closing with Crappo, if we didn't buy it with his raking broadsides.
Crappo in this quotation is a slang word for the French, especially used in reference to French sailors.
This is still in use today. From Noble's With a Bristol Fighter Squadron, 1920, in reference to the WWI:
The wings and fuselage, with fifty-three bullet holes, caused us to realize on our return how near we had been to "buying it".
WWI also saw nouns paired with the verb to buy. From Frasier & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words of 1925:
Packet, a bullet wound, e.g. it would be said of a wounded man:–He "stopped a packet" or "bought a packet"–i.e., got hit by a bullet. Also, any trouble or unexpected bad luck.
And Longstreet's Canvas Falcons of 1929 includes this reference to 1917 air combat:
"The major bought one," I said, climbing out, covered with my own slime.
Partridge's Dictionary of Catchphrases records become a landowner as WWI slang meaning to die, the first use of the metaphor of acquiring land meaning death.
7 March 1954 sees the New York Times record in an article on Air Force slang:
Bought a plot: Had a fatal crash.
The same year sees in Harvey's Jet:
Those jet jockeys just bought the shop, didn't they?
Finally, in 1955 the form buy the farm is recorded. It first appears in print in an article in American Speech, along with a false explanation of its origin:
Buy the farm; buy a plot, v.phr. Crash fatally. (Jet pilots say that when a jet crashes on a farm the farmer usually sues the government for damages done to his farm by the crash and the amount demanded is always more than enough to pay off the mortgage and then buy the farm outright. Since this type of crash [i.e., in a jet fighter] is nearly always fatal to the pilot, the pilot pays for the farm with his life.)
From the earlier variants on the phrase, it is clear that the notion of the government buying land damaged in a crash is not the origin of the phrase. A variation on this myth is that the phrase is linked to a soldier's insurance, which would allow his family to pay off the mortgage on their farm if he died. Similarly, this is also false.
Buy the farm is only one of a long list of variants that dates back nearly two centuries.
Let's look at just a few American English terms that have come to us from the British Royal Navy:
SCUTTLEBUTT...This term for rumors or gossip comes from the drinking-water barrel on a ship that was called a scuttlebutt. When a group of sailors gathered near the scuttlebutt for a water break, they exchanged gossip and rumors.
STRANDED...This term meaning to be abandoned or "stuck" somewhere comes from "strand", a rise of land in the sea near a beach, often underwater at high tide. If a ship struck a strand, it was often "stuck" until high tide, if it could be moved at all; thus it was said to be stranded.
POOPED...This term for being tired out comes from the poop deck of a British ship, which was an upper stern deck. Sailors often had to work on this deck, even in rough weather, and sometimes a wave would wash over this deck. Any sailor unfortunate enough to be caught by such a wave was usually knocked down and battered about the deck. He was said to have been "pooped". Obviously, he wasn't very energetic after having been knocked about.
BUZZ...When used to mean "a rumor", it comes straight from the RN, and is still used in the RN today in that sense.
CRASH, CRASH OUT...When used for "go to sleep", comes directly from current RN usage.
HEAD...for toilet. On wooden RN ships, the toilet was almost always directly underneath the figurehead, where it could discharge directly into the sea.
IN THE LURCH...Sometimes a ship would be smitten broadside by a wave, causing it to suddenly heel over, often knocking down sailors below who didn't know the wave was coming. They were said to be 'caught in the lurch".
AT LOGGERHEADS...This term for being in sharp disagreement with another person comes from a tool used on RN ships. The loggerhead was a pair of iron balls connected by an iron rod. The balls were heated, so a boatwright, holding them by the rod, could seal leaks in the hull by melting pitch into them by applying the heated ball to it. Sometimes, sailors would get into a fight, and a fave weapon was a loggerhead; thus they were said to be "at loggerheads".
SCUTTLEBUTT...This term for rumors or gossip comes from the drinking-water barrel on a ship that was called a scuttlebutt. When a group of sailors gathered near the scuttlebutt for a water break, they exchanged gossip and rumors.
STRANDED...This term meaning to be abandoned or "stuck" somewhere comes from "strand", a rise of land in the sea near a beach, often underwater at high tide. If a ship struck a strand, it was often "stuck" until high tide, if it could be moved at all; thus it was said to be stranded.
POOPED...This term for being tired out comes from the poop deck of a British ship, which was an upper stern deck. Sailors often had to work on this deck, even in rough weather, and sometimes a wave would wash over this deck. Any sailor unfortunate enough to be caught by such a wave was usually knocked down and battered about the deck. He was said to have been "pooped". Obviously, he wasn't very energetic after having been knocked about.
BUZZ...When used to mean "a rumor", it comes straight from the RN, and is still used in the RN today in that sense.
CRASH, CRASH OUT...When used for "go to sleep", comes directly from current RN usage.
HEAD...for toilet. On wooden RN ships, the toilet was almost always directly underneath the figurehead, where it could discharge directly into the sea.
IN THE LURCH...Sometimes a ship would be smitten broadside by a wave, causing it to suddenly heel over, often knocking down sailors below who didn't know the wave was coming. They were said to be 'caught in the lurch".
AT LOGGERHEADS...This term for being in sharp disagreement with another person comes from a tool used on RN ships. The loggerhead was a pair of iron balls connected by an iron rod. The balls were heated, so a boatwright, holding them by the rod, could seal leaks in the hull by melting pitch into them by applying the heated ball to it. Sometimes, sailors would get into a fight, and a fave weapon was a loggerhead; thus they were said to be "at loggerheads".
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Booze
The word has been around since the fourteenth century. It comes from the Middle Dutch verb busen, meaning to drink heavily, and first appeared in English as a verb spelled bouse. This is from a manuscript dating to around 1325:
Hail ye holi monkes . . . Late and rathe ifillid of ale and wine! Depe cun ye bouse.
And from Spenser's 1590 The Faerie Queene, I.iv.22:
And in his hand did bear a bouzing can,
Of which he supt so oft, that on his seat
His dronken corse he scarse upholden can
Folklore has it that this term for liquor comes from a Philadelphia distiller named E.C. Booz who prospered around 1840 by selling a popular spirit in bottles shaped like a log cabin. This is not correct. In addition to the British citations dating back to the fourteenth century, it has been in use in America since the early eighteenth century. Benjamin Franklin used the term boozy from 1722 and Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary has entries for boose and bouse meaning "to drink hard; to guzzle," and for boosy meaning "a little intoxicated; merry with liquor."
The word has been around since the fourteenth century. It comes from the Middle Dutch verb busen, meaning to drink heavily, and first appeared in English as a verb spelled bouse. This is from a manuscript dating to around 1325:
Hail ye holi monkes . . . Late and rathe ifillid of ale and wine! Depe cun ye bouse.
And from Spenser's 1590 The Faerie Queene, I.iv.22:
And in his hand did bear a bouzing can,
Of which he supt so oft, that on his seat
His dronken corse he scarse upholden can
Folklore has it that this term for liquor comes from a Philadelphia distiller named E.C. Booz who prospered around 1840 by selling a popular spirit in bottles shaped like a log cabin. This is not correct. In addition to the British citations dating back to the fourteenth century, it has been in use in America since the early eighteenth century. Benjamin Franklin used the term boozy from 1722 and Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary has entries for boose and bouse meaning "to drink hard; to guzzle," and for boosy meaning "a little intoxicated; merry with liquor."
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Bullpen
One of the mysteries of the game of baseball is the origin of the term bullpen, the name for the area in which relief pitchers warm up. Several competing theories vie for the origin. About all we know for sure is the earliest recorded use of the term to refer to the pitchers' warm-up area was not until 1915, in Baseball Magazine, in Edward Nichols's "Baseball Terminology." Another 1915 use is from Lester Chadwick's Baseball Joe in the Big League:
He took the ball, and nodding to Rad, who was not playing, went out to the bullpen.
The theory that is best supported by the linguistic evidence is that the baseball use of bullpen is simply a specialized use of the term which already carried the meaning of a waiting area. Bullpen has a long use meaning an enclosed holding area, dating back a more than a century before the baseball sense arose. In 1809 making a reference to 1780, Parson Mason Weems, in his Life of General Francis Marion wrote:
The tories were all handcuffed two and two, and confined together under a sentinel, in what was called a bull-pen made of pine trees, cut down so . . . as to form . . . a pen or enclosure.
Bullpen was used throughout the 19th century to mean a jail cell or prison. By the beginning of the 20th century, the term was being used to refer to any enclosed waiting area. From O. Henry's 1903 Works:
Unlock him . . . and let him come to the bull-pen . . . the warden's outer office.
The association of relief pitchers with both big, strong animals and convicts undoubtedly had appeal for some as well. So the term would work on several levels.
But there is also evidence of the waiting area sense being used in baseball in the 19th century as well, only not for the relievers' warm-up area. In some 19th century ballparks, spectators would be admitted to a fenced-off area in foul territory (where many modern bullpens are today) where they could stand and watch the game. This area was known as a bullpen. From the 7 May 1877 Cincinnati Enquirer:
The bull pen at the Cincinnati grounds with its "three-for-a-quarter" crowd has lost its usefullness.
Another popular theory is that around the turn of the century relievers would warm up near the outfield fence, where signs for Bull Durham Tobacco. The picture of the bull, associated with the pitchers, who were usually the largest and strongest members of the team, was enough to create the imagery for the term. Beginning in 1909, Bull Durham ran a promotion offering $50 to any player who hit one of the signs with a fairly batted ball during a game. That year there were 50 parks with such signs. The next year there were 150 such parks.
The 1988 movie Bull Durham depicts such a sign in a modern minor league park and a prize of a steak dinner for a player who hits it with a ball:
Catcher "Crash" Davis: Look at that, he hit the fucking bull! Guy gets a free steak! You having fun yet?
Pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh: Oh, yeah. Havin' a blast.
Davis: Good.
LaLoosh: God, that sucker teed off on that like he knew I was gonna throw a fastball!
Davis: He did know.
LaLoosh: How?
Davis: I told him.
Given the earlier uses of bullpen to mean a waiting area, especially the 1877 Cincinnati citation, it seems unlikely that the Bull Durham signs were the origin of the term, although it is easy to see how people could associate the name of the area with the sign and the signs may have played a role in popularizing the term.
Finally, no less than Casey Stengel weighed in on the subject. Stengel's explanation is probably more indicative of his opinion of relief pitchers than of the term's origin. So we'll just leave off with Stengel's own words from 1967:
You could look it up and get eighty different answers, but we used to have pitchers who could pitch fifty or sixty games a year and the extra pitchers would just sit around shooting the bull, and no manager wanted all that gabbing on the bench. So he put them in this kind of pen in the outfield to warm up, it looked like a place to keep cows or bulls.
One of the mysteries of the game of baseball is the origin of the term bullpen, the name for the area in which relief pitchers warm up. Several competing theories vie for the origin. About all we know for sure is the earliest recorded use of the term to refer to the pitchers' warm-up area was not until 1915, in Baseball Magazine, in Edward Nichols's "Baseball Terminology." Another 1915 use is from Lester Chadwick's Baseball Joe in the Big League:
He took the ball, and nodding to Rad, who was not playing, went out to the bullpen.
The theory that is best supported by the linguistic evidence is that the baseball use of bullpen is simply a specialized use of the term which already carried the meaning of a waiting area. Bullpen has a long use meaning an enclosed holding area, dating back a more than a century before the baseball sense arose. In 1809 making a reference to 1780, Parson Mason Weems, in his Life of General Francis Marion wrote:
The tories were all handcuffed two and two, and confined together under a sentinel, in what was called a bull-pen made of pine trees, cut down so . . . as to form . . . a pen or enclosure.
Bullpen was used throughout the 19th century to mean a jail cell or prison. By the beginning of the 20th century, the term was being used to refer to any enclosed waiting area. From O. Henry's 1903 Works:
Unlock him . . . and let him come to the bull-pen . . . the warden's outer office.
The association of relief pitchers with both big, strong animals and convicts undoubtedly had appeal for some as well. So the term would work on several levels.
But there is also evidence of the waiting area sense being used in baseball in the 19th century as well, only not for the relievers' warm-up area. In some 19th century ballparks, spectators would be admitted to a fenced-off area in foul territory (where many modern bullpens are today) where they could stand and watch the game. This area was known as a bullpen. From the 7 May 1877 Cincinnati Enquirer:
The bull pen at the Cincinnati grounds with its "three-for-a-quarter" crowd has lost its usefullness.
Another popular theory is that around the turn of the century relievers would warm up near the outfield fence, where signs for Bull Durham Tobacco. The picture of the bull, associated with the pitchers, who were usually the largest and strongest members of the team, was enough to create the imagery for the term. Beginning in 1909, Bull Durham ran a promotion offering $50 to any player who hit one of the signs with a fairly batted ball during a game. That year there were 50 parks with such signs. The next year there were 150 such parks.
The 1988 movie Bull Durham depicts such a sign in a modern minor league park and a prize of a steak dinner for a player who hits it with a ball:
Catcher "Crash" Davis: Look at that, he hit the fucking bull! Guy gets a free steak! You having fun yet?
Pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh: Oh, yeah. Havin' a blast.
Davis: Good.
LaLoosh: God, that sucker teed off on that like he knew I was gonna throw a fastball!
Davis: He did know.
LaLoosh: How?
Davis: I told him.
Given the earlier uses of bullpen to mean a waiting area, especially the 1877 Cincinnati citation, it seems unlikely that the Bull Durham signs were the origin of the term, although it is easy to see how people could associate the name of the area with the sign and the signs may have played a role in popularizing the term.
Finally, no less than Casey Stengel weighed in on the subject. Stengel's explanation is probably more indicative of his opinion of relief pitchers than of the term's origin. So we'll just leave off with Stengel's own words from 1967:
You could look it up and get eighty different answers, but we used to have pitchers who could pitch fifty or sixty games a year and the extra pitchers would just sit around shooting the bull, and no manager wanted all that gabbing on the bench. So he put them in this kind of pen in the outfield to warm up, it looked like a place to keep cows or bulls.
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Caesarean Section
A Caesarean section, also spelled Caesarian or Cesarean and often without the upper case C, is the surgical delivery of a child. It is a term with an interesting etymology and lots of associated folklore.
First the etymology, with a bit of non-etymological folklore mixed in. The term comes from the name of Julius Caesar, who according to legend was delivered by this method. From R. Jonas's 1540 translation of Roesslin's Byrth of Mankynde:
They that are borne after this fashion be called cesares, for because they be cut out of theyr mothers belly, whervpon also the noble Romane cesar the .j. of that name in Rome toke his name.
Although this is where the term Caesarean comes from, this legend about Julius's birth is almost certainly false. While surgical deliveries were known in ancient Rome, they invariably resulted in the death of the mother and Julius's mother, Aurelia, lived well into her son's adulthood. It is possible that one of Julius' ancestors was delivered in this fashion and bequeathed the name to the family. Although Pliny reports that the name comes from caesaries, or hair, as the future dictator of Rome was born with a full head of hair.
The term Caesarian section dates to 1615, first appearing in Helkiah Crooke's A Description of the Body of Man:
Concerning this Cæsarian section.
A Caesarean section, also spelled Caesarian or Cesarean and often without the upper case C, is the surgical delivery of a child. It is a term with an interesting etymology and lots of associated folklore.
First the etymology, with a bit of non-etymological folklore mixed in. The term comes from the name of Julius Caesar, who according to legend was delivered by this method. From R. Jonas's 1540 translation of Roesslin's Byrth of Mankynde:
They that are borne after this fashion be called cesares, for because they be cut out of theyr mothers belly, whervpon also the noble Romane cesar the .j. of that name in Rome toke his name.
Although this is where the term Caesarean comes from, this legend about Julius's birth is almost certainly false. While surgical deliveries were known in ancient Rome, they invariably resulted in the death of the mother and Julius's mother, Aurelia, lived well into her son's adulthood. It is possible that one of Julius' ancestors was delivered in this fashion and bequeathed the name to the family. Although Pliny reports that the name comes from caesaries, or hair, as the future dictator of Rome was born with a full head of hair.
The term Caesarian section dates to 1615, first appearing in Helkiah Crooke's A Description of the Body of Man:
Concerning this Cæsarian section.
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- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:47 am
Chairman
A chairman is the leader of a committee or parliamentary body. The origin is, as one might guess, a compound of the words chair + man. The chair is a reference to a seat or position of authority and the man is, of course, a reference to the person who occupies it. The word dates to 1654 when it appeared in John Trapp's Commentary of the Book of Job:
I sate chief, and was Chair-man.
In more recent times the word has come under criticism for being sexist as not all such leaders are male. A backlash by those who want to preserve the old patterns of speech has resulted in some propagating a false etymology that states the -man is not a reference to a person at all and is, therefore, not sexist. This ill-informed view states that the -man comes from the Latin manus, meaning hand, that the chairman is the hand of the one sitting in the chair guiding the meeting. This is complete bunk. Whatever one's view of whether or not such words are sexist, to invent false etymologies to bolster that view is dishonest.
A chairman is the leader of a committee or parliamentary body. The origin is, as one might guess, a compound of the words chair + man. The chair is a reference to a seat or position of authority and the man is, of course, a reference to the person who occupies it. The word dates to 1654 when it appeared in John Trapp's Commentary of the Book of Job:
I sate chief, and was Chair-man.
In more recent times the word has come under criticism for being sexist as not all such leaders are male. A backlash by those who want to preserve the old patterns of speech has resulted in some propagating a false etymology that states the -man is not a reference to a person at all and is, therefore, not sexist. This ill-informed view states that the -man comes from the Latin manus, meaning hand, that the chairman is the hand of the one sitting in the chair guiding the meeting. This is complete bunk. Whatever one's view of whether or not such words are sexist, to invent false etymologies to bolster that view is dishonest.
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BubbleGumTiger
- SEOPS Hippo
- Posts: 104408
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:47 am
Indian Giver
Indian giver is playground slang for a child who takes back a gift after he or she has bestowed it on someone. The term has its roots in the 18th century when white settlers in North America became confused over Native American systems of trade and barter.
Native Americans, without a system monetary currency, conducted trade via barter. To an Indian, the giving of gifts was an extension of this system of trade and a gift was expected to be reciprocated with something of equal value. Europeans, upon encountering this practice, misunderstood it, considering it uncouth and impolite. To them, trade was conducted with money and gifts were freely given with nothing expected in return. So this native practice got a bad reputation among the white colonists of North America and the term eventually became a playground insult.
The term Indian gift first appears in Thomas Hutchinson's 1765 The History of the Colony of Massachusets Bay:
An Indian gift is a proverbial expression, signifying a present for which an equivalent return is expected.
Indian giver appears nearly 75 years later in the New-York Mirror of 23 June 1838 in a discussion of school children:
Among them are distinct species of crimes and virtues. I have seen the finger pointed at the Indian giver. (One who gives a present and demands it back again.)
Some have politically correctly (but historically incorrectly) reinterpreted the term to actually refer to whites. The whites would give things to the Indians, only to take them back; these, according to this reanalysis, were the true Indian givers. While European dealings with Native Americans were often duplicitous, this is not the origin of this term.
Indian giver is playground slang for a child who takes back a gift after he or she has bestowed it on someone. The term has its roots in the 18th century when white settlers in North America became confused over Native American systems of trade and barter.
Native Americans, without a system monetary currency, conducted trade via barter. To an Indian, the giving of gifts was an extension of this system of trade and a gift was expected to be reciprocated with something of equal value. Europeans, upon encountering this practice, misunderstood it, considering it uncouth and impolite. To them, trade was conducted with money and gifts were freely given with nothing expected in return. So this native practice got a bad reputation among the white colonists of North America and the term eventually became a playground insult.
The term Indian gift first appears in Thomas Hutchinson's 1765 The History of the Colony of Massachusets Bay:
An Indian gift is a proverbial expression, signifying a present for which an equivalent return is expected.
Indian giver appears nearly 75 years later in the New-York Mirror of 23 June 1838 in a discussion of school children:
Among them are distinct species of crimes and virtues. I have seen the finger pointed at the Indian giver. (One who gives a present and demands it back again.)
Some have politically correctly (but historically incorrectly) reinterpreted the term to actually refer to whites. The whites would give things to the Indians, only to take them back; these, according to this reanalysis, were the true Indian givers. While European dealings with Native Americans were often duplicitous, this is not the origin of this term.
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BubbleGumTiger
- SEOPS Hippo
- Posts: 104408
- Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 6:47 am
Lollygag
The origin of this odd term is unknown. It is an Americanism dating to the middle of the 19th century, but beyond that we don't know much about its origins.
Lollygag, or as it is often spelled lallygag, has had several meanings. The earliest seems to be something of no worth, nonsense, foolery. From a poem about a dead milk cow that appears in the Sparta Democrat (Wisconsin) on 14 September 1859:
22 Kwarts of milck she give,
As true as Eye dew liv,
but now er 12 Kwart bag
Aint wuth a lallygag,
Poor old thyng!
And from the August 1862 issue of Harper's Magazine we have:
Mr. Biggs paused and turned the flesh of the succulent lobster over with his finger. The gentleman inside addressed him:
". . . Try er lobstaw, bossy?"
"Ain't got no money,’ said Mr. Biggs, still fingering the morsels.
"Oh, come now, none o' that ere lallygag," responded the gentleman.
The word quickly came to mean to flirt and engage in public displays of affection, a meaning it retains to this day. From the Northern Vindicator (Iowa) of 27 February 1868:
The lascivious lolly-gagging lumps of licentiousness who disgrace the common decencies of life by their love-sick fawnings at our public dances.
This sense of flirting gave rise to the what is today the most common sense of the word, to dawdle or dally. The Northern Vindicator, again, of 30 December 1868:
Present appearances indicate that winter will "lollygag" in the lap of spring.
The origin of this odd term is unknown. It is an Americanism dating to the middle of the 19th century, but beyond that we don't know much about its origins.
Lollygag, or as it is often spelled lallygag, has had several meanings. The earliest seems to be something of no worth, nonsense, foolery. From a poem about a dead milk cow that appears in the Sparta Democrat (Wisconsin) on 14 September 1859:
22 Kwarts of milck she give,
As true as Eye dew liv,
but now er 12 Kwart bag
Aint wuth a lallygag,
Poor old thyng!
And from the August 1862 issue of Harper's Magazine we have:
Mr. Biggs paused and turned the flesh of the succulent lobster over with his finger. The gentleman inside addressed him:
". . . Try er lobstaw, bossy?"
"Ain't got no money,’ said Mr. Biggs, still fingering the morsels.
"Oh, come now, none o' that ere lallygag," responded the gentleman.
The word quickly came to mean to flirt and engage in public displays of affection, a meaning it retains to this day. From the Northern Vindicator (Iowa) of 27 February 1868:
The lascivious lolly-gagging lumps of licentiousness who disgrace the common decencies of life by their love-sick fawnings at our public dances.
This sense of flirting gave rise to the what is today the most common sense of the word, to dawdle or dally. The Northern Vindicator, again, of 30 December 1868:
Present appearances indicate that winter will "lollygag" in the lap of spring.
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WellstonRocketsFan
- Freshman Team
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 12:56 pm
Misteroby wrote:REDNECK
This term, now meaning a rural ignoramus, is much-older than Jeff Foxworthy. And for my generation, it was old when hippies adopted it to mean a man with short hair who was in some kind of authority. Its first known use was in the 1830s, in a novel, Southern Tour I, by Ann Royall. She gave it to some Presbytarian farmers who often worked with their necks exposed to the sun while protecting their faces & throats. At the time, it carried no negative connotations nor implications of ignorance. The term lay dormant until the days of the carpetbaggers after the Civil War, when it was first used in a disparaging way by Southern blacks. (Those same people also made "cracker' a racial slur for whites at the same time.)
Redneck is derived from an abnormal pigmentation in the skin...
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