Karen Hill

Diplomatic negotiations between countries are traditionally carried on with the utmost of politeness and in courteous language. When, however, an impasse is reached, the “mailed fist in a velvet glove” is extended, by one side or the other, in the form of an ultimatum. The word itself is the neuter singular of the past participle … Read more

Though the useful device we know as the monkey wrench is little more than a hundred years old we can’t even be sure whether it was of English or American origin, let alone how it came by its name. Stimpson, in A Book about a Thousand Things (1946), believed that it was devised by a … Read more

Perhaps a good covering definition of the word moonshine would be an operation or a product achieved in the light of the moon. In England, the operation is that of smuggling spirits into the country without the payment of excise. In America, the end objective is the same and the product is also spirits, but … Read more

The Greeks had the notion that if one were bitten by a rabid dog, hydrophobia or madness could be averted by promptly chewing the leaves of this plant. Accordingly they gave it the name alyssos, from the negative prefix a and lyssa, “madness,” hence, “preventive of madness.” The meaning was preserved in the Roman alteration, … Read more

Neither portion of fantan is an English word; the whole merely approximates the Chinese name of a simple game of chance. In the native form a small heap of coins is covered by a bowl and the players then place bets, not on the number of coins so concealed, but on the remainder, one, two, … Read more

Backgammon is game of considerable antiquity, believed to have been invented in the tenth century, but possibly related to the game Ludus duodecim scriptorum, “twelve-line game,” played in ancient Rome. In England the game was always called tables prior to the seventeenth century, when the new name was introduced. Apparently the name was made up … Read more

The Greeks reckoned their calendar from the twelve principal constellations as they took their turns in the sky overhead, but the calendar was represented graphically by a circle in which figures representing the constellations were entered. This representation was called zodiakos kyklos, “the circle of the figures,” from zodion, “a figurine” (diminutive of zoon, “animal”), … Read more

Thule (pronounced thew’-lee or thoo’-lee, with th as in thank) is the ancient Greek and Latin name for the most northerly habitable place in the world, said to be six days’ sail north of Britain. Although it was presumably named for a real place, there is considerable uncertainty as to just what place was that … Read more

The word “sundown” itself is presumed to be a contraction of “sun-godown” or perhaps the archaic “sun-gate-down,” and a sundowner is either a person who times a certain action relative to sundown, or a deed performed at sundown. There are at least three quite distinct applications of the term. The oldest is an Australian usage … Read more

The word nightmare is a relic of ancient superstition dating in England at least from the eighth century, but, under the name incubus, known to the Romans of Caesar’s time. People thought this kind of mare, said to appear only at night, to be a female monster, spirit, or goblin. She sat upon the bosom … Read more

If the name tadpole for the early stage of frog or toad had gone along with other changes in our language through the centuries, no explanation of its source would be needed. Tad is merely a survival of the way toad was spelled and pronounced four hundred years ago, and pole was a seventeenth-century substitution … Read more

In college speech cantilever becomes, “Can’t I leave her?” Though most certainly this interpretation has no bearing whatsoever on this type of “flying-lever bridge,” no satisfactory source of the canti- element has been determined. As a term in architecture, the name appeared in the seventeenth century, pertaining to a masonry bracket of much greater length … Read more

The aromatic spice we know as allspice was not known in Europe before the discovery of the West Indies. The Spanish name was pimienta, “pepper,” and because of that and the place of origin the dried seeds of the berry were known to English traders as “Jamaica pepper.” However, because the housewives of England thought … Read more

Apparently on the theory, “If an audience will swallow this joke or yarn it won’t gag on anything,” gag developed, some hundred and fifty years ago, as an improbable story, some tale or yarn taxing the credulity of the listener, or, eventually, a joke that would bring forth hearty laughs from the hearers. In the … Read more

The word Viking is found in Anglo-Saxon, with the spelling wicing, as early as the eighth century, but, curiously, it is not found in modern English until the early nineteenth century, having been introduced then from the Norwegian vikingr. However, the evidence indicates that it was the Anglo-Saxon term that was the earliest ancestor, having … Read more

Easterners and Englishmen may rarely hear the word hackamore, but it is common among horsemen and cattlemen of the West. No one ever accused the forty-niners in early contact with California Mexicans of a close ear for the Spanish words they adopted, but it is now generally accepted that hackamore was intended to represent the … Read more

The word taciturn has nothing to do with any other kind of a turn, but comes to us almost unchanged from the Latin taciturnus, “silent,” through tacitus, the past participle of tacere, “to be silent.” Although taciturn, today, rarely implies the absolute silence suggested by its ancestor (meaning, rather, “disinclined to conversation, uncommunicative”), the expression … Read more

Undoubtedly, in the sense of “to beg,” the word panhandle originated among the hoboes or vagrant tramps of the United States in the late nineteenth century. The significance is by no means evident, but we see no likelihood that it had any direct reference to any of the geographical regions known as “Panhandles,” such as … Read more

We are indebted to Dr. Nellie Payne for this tale of the origin of the common name of the wild carrot, Daucus carota. She recalls having read it in a child’s primer published perhaps some fifty years ago. It seems that a ward of the Queen, learning to tat, had chosen the delicate flower of … Read more

Hamfatter is theatrical slang, of course, now often abridged to ham or altered to ham actor. Whatever you wish to use, it is applied somewhat contemptuously to an actor or actress who may wish ardently to succeed on the stage, but who just can’t act. A writer in Century Magazine in 1882 said the term … Read more

The Americanism rambunctious, possibly brought to us by Irish immigrants seems to be a variant of the British term of equivalent meaning, rambustious. The latter, it is suggested, may have been coined from ram plus bust. To ram, of course, is “to butt, strike,” and generally to behave in the manner of a frolicsome male … Read more

It is the boy beneath who is the frog, his bent back, chin on chest, somewhat resembling a ranine attitude. The sport of leapfrog is not recent. Shakespeare speaks of it when, writing Henry V, in 1599, he has the king say to Katherine of France that he would marry, “If I could winne a … Read more

Long years before radio gave Amos and Andy, and their pal, the Kingfish, to the American audience kingfish was a name bestowed upon any of several fish notable for size or importance. It is for similar cause that king became the first element in such terms as kingbolt, kingpin, kingpost, king snake, kingwood, etc.

There is nothing particularly tricky about the word eggnog. It, like the concoction it designates, is a combination of egg, the product of the hen, and nog, “strong ale,” the product of the brewer. Originally, that is, strong ale was the spirituous ingredient, but it is often replaced by wine, rum, cider, or other spirits. … Read more

The first record of a related word is found in a book, The discouerie of witchcraft, by Reginald Scot, printed in 1584, where the author speaks of a ventriloqua (feminine of ventriloquus, “a ventriloquist”), and of her “practising hir diabolicall witchcraft and ventriloquie.” It is not surprising that men of that time thought of witchcraft … Read more

A dash more bald than others of its kind? No, the fact is that no one knows for a certainty how the word “balderdash” originated. When, in the late sixteenth century, it first appeared in print it referred apparently to a light frothy or bubbly liquid, “barber’s balderdash” was the term used. Not long after, … Read more

No one now knows the source of the word “catawampus”. It showed up in print shortly after 1840 and, most likely, had already been American slang for ten or fifteen years before that. With humorous reference to General Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War, the New York Herald carried … Read more

Originally, apparently, one of the retinue attached to an estate, for the word “villain” stems from the Latin villanus, from villa, “a country house,” and this meaning was largely retained in an alternate spelling of the English word, villein. But, progressing from the general sense of “a peasant,” in which sense the word dates back … Read more

In its original sense in English, sad had the meaning “fully satisfied, sated.” From this sense it underwent alteration, as so many English words do, and came to have the meaning of “solid, heavy, dense.” It is in this sense that it is used in the sadiron, which is a heavy, solid flatiron used for … Read more

Three days (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) of fasting observed quarterly in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Though the first is but a week after Ash Wednesday, the term ember has no relationship to the ashes of a fire. It is, in fact, only a corruption of the Old English word ymbrene, meaning “quarterly,” or … Read more

When we were very young, we would apply this dressing to our rather scuffed shoes, by natural logic the inference was that the oil gave one a neat foot, hence the name. But not so. Though now so rare as to be called obsolete, neat was formerly a general term for cattle, more especially for … Read more

Six hundred, even four hundred years ago, the bird we know as the peacock was just called a po, though by the latter time pokok and pocock had begun to come into favor. The female was the pohenne or pohen. But the o, sounded as in “cost,” gave rise also to the spelling paa. Carelessness … Read more

Although the word “umpire” has been in the language since the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, it is a variant of a still older word, noumpere, which entered the language in the mid-fourteenth century but lasted less than a hundred years. For a noumpere became altered to an oumpere, which then underwent many changes … Read more

You may run across the word “fearnought” in your reading of tales of the sea especially. That is, it is the name of a heavy woolen cloth, or the outer clothing made from it, that is specially adapted for use by sailors aboard ship in inclement weather. Those wearing it “fear nought” from the elements. … Read more

Completely unrelated to talesman (which see), despite all similarities of spelling, the word “talisman” comes to us through the Romance languages from the Arabic tilsam, “a magic charm.” The earlier derivation is from the Greek telesma of the same meaning, but having had the former meaning of “a religious rite,” and coming from telein, to … Read more

There is some uncertainty about the origin of yard. It is known to be descended from the Anglo-Saxon gierd of which there are related forms in the Teutonic languages generally, and it has been suggested that the ultimate origin may be either the Latin hasta, “spear,” or the Russian zherd’, “a thin pole.” Either, though, … Read more

The name of the children’s game Jackstone comes from its similarity to the older name, chackstone, which in its turn came from chuck-stone, in Scotland called chuckiestone. Nowadays, in America at least, the game is played with five or six six-pointed (or knobbed) small iron pieces which are tossed or chucked into the air by … Read more

Certainty is lacking of the source of this American name, known since the early eighteenth century. Obviously jack was not employed in the sense of smallness, for the true jackknife is always large. This has given rise to the surmise that the American name is a corruption and contraction of the Scottish (later also English) … Read more

“The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,” said the Hebrew psalmist. And from early Greek and Roman times, Selene of the Greeks and Luna of the Romans, goddesses of the moon, were also believed to be capable of affecting the brains of mortals. Those, especially, who slept with head … Read more

Nothing to do with “fate”; the expression is Italian for “the fairy Morgana,” and you’ll see it in French as Morgan le Fay. By English legend she was the fairy who reported to King Arthur, her brother, the love affair between his wife, Guinevere and the knight Lancelot. But the fairy appears in many medieval … Read more

This is recorded merely for the benefit of those who don’t know one kind of hammer from another. But this one is used chiefly by metalworkers. It is one in which the side opposite the face or flat surface of the hammer or sledge is rounded or ball-shaped. Peen, that is, also sometimes spelled pane, … Read more

According to ancient Greek myth, the people dwelling in a certain region in northern Africa derived particular enjoyment from the fruit of a tree which the Greeks called lotus. The fruit itself was pleasant to the palate, but a wine made from it was especially enjoyable. Those who partook of it forgot all cares and … Read more

One of the words describing a process or product that was named after the inventor (like daguerreotype and pasteurize), the talbotype is named after W. H. F. Talbot, an English inventor, who, in 1841, patented his discovery of making photographic images directly upon sensitized paper. Talbot himself called his process calotype (from the Greek kalos, … Read more

“Litterbug” is a term coined by an unknown person, probably about 1945, and now designating one who strews litter wherever he goes. The term was descried in 1950 on the back of a truck by Mrs. Henry W. Land, a member of the Mount Dora, Florida, Lakes and Hills Garden Club, and it was suggested … Read more

In our own Southern states this is now a misnomer. In Spain, back in the sixteenth century, spelled gelosia, and later in France as jalousie, both indicating “jealousy,” the term jalousie denoted a kind of slatted blind somewhat similar to the modern Venetian blind. It was then made of wood, however, and the immovable slats … Read more

It was formerly the practice (and may still be in some places) to make up a trial jury in whole or in part of men selected from among the bystanders in the court. Men of law, like doctors, like to express things in Latin when possible, and people drawn on to fill a jury in … Read more

The term Paris green, which dates at least to the 1870’s, seems to be of American origin, but has spread to Europe by this time. Today, it refers to the compound copper aceto-arsenite, which has had extensive use both as an insecticide and as a pigment, and which is better known in Europe as Schweinfurt … Read more

Though we might honestly say that a landlubber is one who “lubs de land,” we would rightly be called a punster, rather than a tracer of origins. The fact is that a lubber, even six hundred years ago, was a clumsy lout, one who didn’t know B from a bull’s foot. And so he was … Read more

The poet Keats, who knew these delicate pastries back in 1820, called them lady’s-fingers. Both of these were fanciful names, however, merely indicative of size. As applied to the modern bakery-made American product the name is distinctly inappropriate. The name finger biscuit, also in early use, would be more fitting: the finger could be that … Read more

Taken directly from the French vinaigrette, “vinegar sauce,” a condiment prepared with vinegar, from vinaigre, “vinegar.” The word vinaigrette, though, became transferred to the container rather than to the sauce, and to similar containers, finally being settled on a container of smelling salts.

Though the word “amateur” was derived from Latin amator, “a lover,” the French gave it a slight alteration in sense, which we have adopted, “a lover or devotee of an art, pastime, sport, or the like.” And, nowadays, we have even extended the sense to include one who is a dabbler or tyro, one without … Read more

Entered merely not to skip a curious word, though little can be said about it. Two hundred years ago the name “catboat” was applied to vessels of four to six hundred tons, built according to Norwegian design and used in the British coal trade, but no reason has been found for the designation and none … Read more

Perhaps the term “huggermugger” should be passed over in silence, for its source is certainly as concealed and secret as is meant by huggermugger itself. Undoubtedly the rhyming term in one or another of its several variations, hoker-moker, hocker-mocker, hucker-mucker, or even hudder-mudder, had long been in colloquial use before the sixteenth century, but it … Read more

The “evil,” scrofula, was not possessed by a king, but, because the kings of France and those of England were all anointed with consecrated oil, it was formerly a popular belief that, merely by a touch, “the king’s touch”, a person afflicted with scrofula would be cured. In France, the power of so healing le … Read more

Correctly, we should always spell “Javelle water” Javel water, and even more properly call it eau de Javel, as the encyclopedias generally record it and as it appears in French. The chlorinated bleaching agent known by the name was first produced by the Javel works near Paris in 1792.

As any Frenchman knows, “ambergris” is a misspelling of ambre gris, meaning “gray amber,” and is used to distinguish the soft, animal secretion of the sperm whale, gray in color, from the hard, fossilized resin, ambre jaune, “yellow amber.” But at one time, because both of these were found along coasts of the sea, the … Read more

Originally, about three hundred years ago, those using the metaphor hand-in-glove worded it hand and glove, that is, being on terms of intimate relationship comparable to that of one’s hand and the glove for it. But whether through elision, hand ‘n’ glove, or through deliberate intent to indicate even closer intimacy, a snuggling intimacy as … Read more

True, Harold, Dach does mean “roof” auf Deutsch, but what, then, will you do with shund? It’s meaningless. No, the first element is not Dach, but Dachs, and the meaning of that is “badger.” This low-built hound (Hund), in other words, was especially used in Germany for hunting badgers, during the years long gone by … Read more

The original of the word “catchpole”, back in the twelfth century, was the surname of mixed language, cassa pullum, “the fowl catcher,” denoting a legitimate occupation, such as “cowboy” does today. But the fowls so caught were seized for the payment of taxes. Hence, in time the catchpole or catchpoll became a minor court officer, … Read more

Identical in sound though it may be with the words “cast a net,” the word “castanet” comes through Spanish castaneta from Latin castanea, “a chestnut,” probably from resemblance in form, faint though it may be. The instrument, used as an accompaniment to dancing, was introduced to Spain by the Moors, but is actually a variation … Read more

Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, wrote of the wild ride of Tam o’Shanter (Tom of Shanter), when Tam rode through a furious storm “whiles holding fast his gude blue bonnet.” Tam’s bonnet, presumably, was the wide floppy hat favored by the Scottish Lowlanders and faintly resembling a beret. Just why is not clear, … Read more

It is too often true that men of infamy tend to live in history longer than do men of good will, and so it is with Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade, usually called the Marquis de Sade. The Comte was a French soldier who lived from 1740 to 1814, but he is better known … Read more

The eighteenth-century jurist, Sir William Blackstone, really told the whole story: “Eaves-droppers, or such as listen under walls or windows or the eaves of a house to hearken after discourse, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tales, are a common nuisance, and presentable,” he adds, “at the court leet.” Regrettably, however, the old “court … Read more

It was previously stated that, “The source of the name (kangaroo court) is mysterious, for it is American, not Australian.” In fact, the term may not have originated in Australia. Efforts were, at first, wholly fruitless, seeming to substantiate the belief expressed earlier. Ultimately, however, the query was published in the Melbourne Age (April 22, … Read more

The only excuse for the present formation of the word “andiron” is that the object itself is usually, though not always, composed of iron. The name of this device for supporting wood in an open fireplace came into the language from Norman French and, properly, we should still be calling it andier or the equivalent … Read more

The name of this extremely poisonous snake, whose bite is most likely to be fatal, actually indicates the shape of the headier, “head” or “iron,” de lance, “of the lance”; i.e., lance head. But it might also indicate the speed with which the serpent strikes or the fact that it springs at its victim like … Read more

Descriptive of any novelty, whether true or flimflam, that might literally “catch a penny.” Its first use, two hundred years back, was of any printed matter that might conceivably inveigle a purchaser to the investment of a penny.

Etymologically speaking, there seems to be little doubt that tambourine, which comes to us from the French, is the diminutive of tambour, “a drum.” The actual instrument, as we know it, though, is that which was known in France as tambour de Basque, because of its popularity in Biscay. Tambour is apparently a variant spelling … Read more

We are so accustomed to the thought of a ham as consisting of that part of the upper leg which includes thigh and buttock as to forget entirely that this is, literally, an extended meaning. Originally the ham of a man or beast was only that part of the leg directly back of the knee. … Read more

Jeremiah, in the King James Version of the Bible, says: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” But, so says the Oxford English Dictionary, “The term ‘balm of Gilead’ is modern, and . . . originated in the assumption that this is the substance mentioned in the Bible as found in … Read more

Inasmuch as, nowadays, even American kindergartners appear in “cap and gown” upon the eve of stepping into the first grade, to say nothing of youngsters about to take the great step of entering high school, it may be well to know what the mortarboard they wear as a cap originally indicated and why it was … Read more

Frederick Marryat, in Poor Jack (1840), thought the spelling should be P-jacket: “A short P-jacket (so called from the abbreviation of pilot’s jacket),” he wrote, “reached down to just above his knees.” But Marryat was wrong. The original first element was pee, back in the fifteenth century, taken from Dutch pi j, and that was … Read more

In England, perhaps because all Irishmen (each known as “Paddy”) have no love for the English, a paddywhack generally denotes a towering rage or, sometimes, the kind of thrashing that is most likely to accompany such a rage, a real, genuine, downright whacking. But in America, where “Pat” or “Paddy” may be less given to … Read more

“Annus mirabilis” literally means a wonderful year. It now means any year which the speaker regards as especially outstanding, notable. But, in England particularly, the term refers to the year 1666, the year that marked two notable events: a victory over the Dutch fleet and, in September, the great London fire in which a large … Read more

According to Lorenzo D. Turner, in the dialect of the Negroes living on the islands lying off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, a dialect called Gullah, juke is associated with anything connected with a place of ill repute; a juke house (sometimes just a juke) is a disorderly house. From his researches … Read more

Handkerchief is an incongruous word, when you come to analyze it. The chief is an early misspelling of Old French chef, “head,” and ker is a corrupt contraction of Old French covrir, “cover.” Thus kerchief, back in Chaucer’s time, was a square of cloth used as a head covering, though, approaching the Norman French, he … Read more

The name of the American insect known as the Katydid is customarily said to be due to the repetitious sound produced by it, as if, over and over again, it were saying Katie did! It does our heart good to be able to record that others also have not detected this flat statement in the … Read more

In the United States, we refer to “a slice of bacon”; our British cousins more commonly would order “a rasher of bacon,” and expect to receive the same portion implied by our term, a single thin slice. Some have suggested that the rasher is so-called because, being thin, it may be cooked rashly (“quickly”). Others … Read more

St. Anthony, “The Great” (A.D. 251?-356?), was an Egyptian ascetic, and one of the pillars of the early Christian Church. During his life he was reportedly tempted sorely by the devil, who took many forms, including that of a pig. It was through this temptation that St. Anthony became the patron of pigs, which, in … Read more

Our present adjectival use of the word tantamount, which dates to the mid-seventeenth century, was preceded by a noun use, of slightly greater age, and a verb use some 350 years older, both now obsolete. It is to the verb use that originated in the tongue known as Anglo-French that we must look for the … Read more

A caterwaul is just the waul or alluring musical call (or howl), musical, presumably, to the female, that is, of a courting tomcat. Chaucer has the Wife of Bath say, in the Prologue: “Thow saist thus that 1 was lik a cat; For who so wolde senge the cattes skyn, Than wold the catte duellen … Read more

This story goes all the way back to the ancient Sanskrit, in which language was the word sakta, “attached,” the past participle of sanj, “to adhere.” This led to the Greek sattein, “to fasten,” which later became, “to pack, to put a burden on a horse,” from which was derived sagma, “a pack saddle.” The … Read more

There was no definite source; the word fiddle was in the language and, four hundred years ago, it had taken on the meaning “to act aimlessly,” so, just like such duplications as flip-flop, jimjams, helter-skelter, and the like, someone turned it into fiddlefaddle. Thus since the sixteenth century this nonsense word has implied aimless or … Read more

The first element of the word larboard, lar, is often assumed to have been a corruption of lade, thus making larboard the side of a vessel for loading, the side opposite the “steering side” or starboard. The assumption is logical, but the sad fact is that it cannot be traced, as a lawyer would say, … Read more

Which of the Southern states is your preference? The invention of this comestible, or at least the name for it, has been claimed by most of those south of the Potomac, though never even approximately dated by any, so you may make your own choice. The account of the origin of the name, however, is … Read more

Back in the days when criminals, real or fancied, were punished by being put to torture, the French word roue (no accent mark), meaning “wheel,” and derived from the Latin rota, came to have the special meaning “torture wheel.” From this, in turn, was coined the verb rouer, “to torture ( break) on the wheel.” … Read more

Many of the saints’ names have become associated in folklore with vagaries of the weather, some with actual occurrences (cf. St. Martin’s summer) and some with respect to weather to be anticipated. Swithin (sometimes Swithun) was Bishop of Winchester in the ninth century A.D., and upon his death was buried in the churchyard. According to … Read more

The peanut is so called only because the nut somewhat resembles a pea in size. In the early days of American colonization it was known as the ground-nut or ground-pea, because it developed under the surface of the ground, and those names still occur, especially in England. Another name is earth-nut. Discovered first in South … Read more

They used to call the Dandelion lion’s-tooth in England before the sixteenth century, but someone then got fancy notions and began to use the French name of this common European weed, dent de lion, though it has the same meaning. Of course, it didn’t make sense to the average Englishman to spell something dent de … Read more

A mariner’s term, “fife rail” now indicating a rail round the mainmast of a sailing vessel with holes into which belaying pins may be inserted. Originally, however, according to Admiral W. H. Smyth’s The Sailor’s Word-Book (1867), it formed “the upper fence of the bulwarks on each side of the quarter-deck and poop in men-of-war.” … Read more