Karen Hill

It may have been a deliberate attempt to “glamourize” the dish. It may have been suggested in humorous vein; or it may have been a failure to understand the country humor in the original name, but whatever the reason, the word rarebit is used only to designate the cheese dish, Welsh rabbit, normally also in … Read more

In Latin, the word vice (two syllables) meant “alternate, in place of,” and, although it had the standing of a noun, there arose the practice in later Latin, and particularly in medieval Latin, of using it chiefly as one element of a compound noun. A number of these compounds were taken into the various other … Read more

To get the original significance of the term “hoodwink” we must go back to the old, old meaning of wink, to have one’s eyes closed. Thus, in the sixteenth century, when fashion decreed head coverings of cowls or hoods, often attached to the cloak, one became hoodwinked or blinded when the hood fell or was … Read more

According to the King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 36:15 reads: “These were dukes of the sons of Esau . . .” But when John Eliot, in 1663, translated the Bible into the tongue of the native Indians of Massachusetts, he used mugquomp, meaning “chieftain,” as the equivalent of “duke.” As Mug-Wump, the word … Read more

The title “hotspur”, or designation of extreme impetuosity, was first bestowed upon Sir Henry Percy, eldest son of the first Earl of Northumberland, born in 1364. He was only a lad of fourteen when he saw active service, but it was not until six years later that gained the title “Hotspur”, a name by which … Read more

An alternative spelling of “saltpeter”, preferred in England, is saltpetre. Chemically, saltpeter is potassium nitrate, a compound essential to the making of gunpowder and also of important value as a fertilizer. The name comes from the Latin sal petrae, “salt of the rock,” so-called because it is sometimes found in nature as an efflorescence on … Read more

Hundreds upon hundreds of ant lions have their diminutive pitfalls amid orange groves of Florida or wherever ants are numerous and the soil is composed of dry and very fine sand. Properly the name should be confined to the larvae, known also as doodlebugs, rather than to the adult insect, which resembles a dragonfly. The … Read more

The art of decorative weaving seems to have been well developed in many of the Oriental countries long before it was learned in Europe, and Persia, especially, has long been known for the craft of its weavers in turning out fine fabrics. Thus it is probably from the Persian that the word tapestry stems, though … Read more

Whether your wife cooks from a receipt or from a recipe makes no difference, for today the terms are equivalent in meaning. Both are derived from the Latin, recipere, “to receive,” the former from the participial form, recepta, the latter from the imperative form, recipe, “take!” The receipt was originally any set of directions for … Read more

The long-drawn-out War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714, in which the allied armies of England, Austria, the Netherlands, and Prussia were finally victorious over the combined forces of France and Spain, was not altogether popular in England. It cost many lives; it disrupted commerce, and the expense was enormous. All this was seen by the … Read more

In this day it seems amazing that the cat-o’-nine-tails instrument of punishment was actually authorized in the British Navy until as recently as 1881. It came into use in the late seventeenth century, and was probably greatly modified from time to time according to the nature of the person commanding the punishment and its duration, … Read more

The meaning of the word “handsome” has changed a bit. Five hundred years ago the idea behind it was “somewhat handy; easy to deal with,” but that original sense has now disappeared. Or, rather, it has given place to a more miserly notion that that which is most handy, most easy to deal with, is … Read more

The “padlock” is a type of lock that dates from the fifteenth century, but the name poses a riddle. Our language contains pads of varying kinds and descriptions, but there was only one, totally obsolete now, which was in use before that date. The toad. So it may have been that the removable lock of … Read more

One wonders sometimes what sort of beverage our forebears may have been consuming when they bestowed names upon some of the odd-looking critters they found in America. These salamanders, either the hellbender or the Necturus, no more resemble a puppy than they do a cat. They have four legs, and the resemblance stops about there. … Read more

Since April is the first month of spring, when all things are green, it stands to reason that people are green then too, and, no more than half awake after a long winter hibernation, in prime condition to be easily hoaxed. The custom was apparently brought across the channel from France to England about the … Read more

French is not the only language to suffer mutilation when lifted bodily into English. Latin has also suffered. In Roman times a plant, the centaury, was known to possess properties which could soothe a feverish person. For that reason the plant was also known as febrifugia, from febris, “fever,” and fugctre, “to drive away.” Passing … Read more

We are so accustomed to the use of chafe in the sense of “to abrade; to fret,” as to overlook that its earliest meaning (derived from Latin calefacio) was “to make warm.” And the chafing dish, or chafer, as first called, was designed for that purpose. They were used and so named five hundred years … Read more

Though natives and residents of Kansas now proudly proclaim themselves to be Jayhawkers, such publicity a hundred years ago was likely to be followed by a fight and bloodshed. Among the settlers of the territory they were abolitionists, men chiefly from non-slaveholding states who fought against pro-slavery settlers to keep Kansas free. Who coined the … Read more

It’s a long way ’round, but the name of the plant known as the Daffodil and its flower were originally and properly still should be asphodel, though the later name denotes a kind of narcissus rather than a true asphodel. In the fifteenth century, perhaps at first in imitation of some king or prince who … Read more

St. Elmo, even though described in some reference works as the patron of navigators, seems likely to be a figment of the imagination, although it has been suggested that his name may be a corruption of St. Anselm, St. Erasmus (the patron of Neapolitan sailors), or of Helena, the sister of Castor and Pollux. In … Read more

Sorry, but there was no Jack who had a hand in naming the American brandy derived from cider, nor any John either, unless it may have been John Barleycorn. Perhaps the tippler who first discovered that cider would ferment just happened to use the John-apple, so named because it ripened on or about St. John’s … Read more

Now, any man or boy who apes his betters or pretends to be more than he is. Apparently, however, this was originally an extended meaning of the earliest application, perhaps when memory of the first use had faded. That is, the first historical use was derisive, applied to William, Duke of Suffolk, when that knight … Read more

The phenomenon of a spell of warm, bright, pleasant weather occurring well after the official start of autumn is known to people in many parts of the world, and the event, known to North Americans as Indian summer, is known by many names. Thus, St. Martin’s Day is November 11, and when the summer-like weather … Read more

In times past, the only source of vinegar generally known was wine that, on turning, became sharp and acrid to the taste. And it is precisely this that is shown by the name, for it comes from the Old French vyn egre (which led to the modern French vinaigre). Vyn, or yin, comes from the … Read more

The French word roue (no accent) means “a wheel.” A roulette, of course, is “a little wheel.” And all those who have played the game of chance of the same name are well aware that it is a little wheel that governs the destinies of the players.

Whether it be straw hat or chicken is all the same. The original of either was produced at Legorno, Italy, or, as the English had previously misnamed it, Leghorn. Even yet, though the Italians have renamed it Livorno, it remains Leghorn on British and American maps.

As an essential of a soldier’s field equipment, both knapsack and haversack are now obsolete. Whereas the latter carried his field rations, the knapsack was for personal items, such as changes of clothing. However, such were not in accord with the original German military usage. The haversack, as stated elsewhere, carried grain for a cavalryman’s … Read more

There’s no evidence that we have found of the actual hanging of any dog nor of the actual appearance of any person who had committed such an act. So the only inference that can be drawn is that someone gifted with high imaginative powers, about three centuries ago, figured that a dog, if hung, would … Read more

Jerry, whoever he was, was a bad egg, or at least one held in contempt. He first appeared on the literary scene in the early eighteenth century as jerrymumble or jerrycummumble in some such sense as a tumbler or one who is knocked about. Scott, gruesomely, has a jerry-come-tumble dancing at the end of a … Read more

We picked the word chaparajos up from our Mexican neighbors and have abbreviated it to chaps. Rightly, we should say chaparreras, a term used by Mexicans for a kind of leather breeches worn over the trousers to protect the legs when riding through chaparral, a dense tangle of dwarf oak and thorny shrub common in … Read more

The word “whippersnapper” itself is merely a balanced extension of whip-snapper, “one who cracks a whip.” Its use is most often in the sense of “one who cracks a whip loudly to make a fearsome noise because he himself would have no attention paid to him otherwise.” In other words, “an insignificant, impudent nobody.”

It is generally conceded that the first part of the word tatterdemalion (which dates to the early seventeenth century) is nothing more than tatter, or, more probably, tattered, “ragged.” With respect to the second element, it has been suggested that it may have come from the French maillot, from Old French maillon, “swaddling clothes,” also, … Read more

Our remote forebears went all out at a burial, and this is just one of the reminders. The lich (rhymes with rich) was the corpse, borne from house to churchyard. It was carried over a lich way or path to the solemn sound of a lich bell, and at the lich gate, or roofed entrance … Read more

An Argonaut is an adventurer, especially one who sails the seas in search of fortune or adventure. This present-day interpretation arose from those so called who, in 1849, lured by reports of vast gold fields in California, endured great hardship to reach that land of promise, especially those who went by sea first to Central … Read more

The ancient gambling game Teetotum was played by spinning a top-like device having four sides or segments which were marked, respectively, with the letters A, T, N, D. The players spun the device one after another, and their fate was established by that face of the toy that lay upward at the end of the … Read more

A frequent name in America for this insect is granddaddy longlegs, as any reader of Mark Twain knows. In England it is sometimes called father-long-legs or Harry-long-legs, the latter possibly in allusion to a fancied resemblance to his Satanic majesty, the Lord Harry. But the paternal or patriarchal name, applied without any regard whatever to … Read more

One rarely knows through what influence a word has been created. Possibly some little Alfrida of the fifteenth century at her mother’s knee could not rightly say “linen,” and the mother and father, thereafter humoring the child, also said linsey. No one knows. But, if we add to the fanciful story, we may then also … Read more

Darby and Joan is typification of marital contentment. Names and allusion are assumed to be from a set of verses appearing in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1735 under the title, “The Joys of Love Never Forgot: a song.” The author was presumably Henry Woodfall, though that is not certain. The third stanza reads: Old Darby, … Read more

The term itself is merely repetition, as, six centuries ago, a hobby was a horse, a small horse, probably a nickname for Robin. But hobbyhorse comes to us from the sixteenth-century morris dance, commonly held throughout England at Whitsuntide, mid-May. Although the characters in these festivals chiefly represented Robin Hood and others of his company, … Read more

Ancient Greeks had some of the most peculiar and original notions. Heaven knows wherein anything in the nocturnal skies to warrant the names they gave to many of the constellations, and here again they seem to have let imagination run riot. This small lizard-like reptile, for reasons one can’t even guess, rejoices in the Greek … Read more

We are all impressed by those, like the “private eyes” of television and whodunits, who remain calm, cool, and collected amid the greatest stress. This time it was the French who had a word for it, actually, two words telescoped by frequent use into one. Sangfroid is a direct lift into English from the French, … Read more

If the term “hardtack” were not already available it is possible that today’s mariner would invent a term of similar import, such as “hard grub,” as all that was intended by tack, a hundred years ago, was food of any sort. Hard tack was literally hard food, or, that is, biscuit of more than ordinary … Read more

So similar in appearance, so similar in etymology (both are derived from the Latin sanguis, “blood”), these words are quite different in meaning, and care must be exercised not to use one when the occasion requires the use of the other. Sanguine, literally “bloody,” has been used to describe something that was actually bloody or … Read more

Bambino is Italian for “infant, baby,” and applied specifically to images of the infant Jesus in swaddling clothes now exhibited generally at Christmas. The term has the same root as Greek bambaino, “to stutter,” and was probably suggested by the prattle of an infant.

The word “tattletale” is an American colloquialism, but its antecedents are well established in English The first part, tattle, dates back to 1481 with the publication of Caxton’s translation of Reynard the Fox from the Flemish. As then used, the word had the meaning “to speak hesitatingly, to stammer,” being Caxton’s rendering of tatelen (“tattling”), … Read more

There are a few words native to the Teutonic languages which, in these, are spelled with w, but which, on having been adopted into the Romance group, were spelled with a g, or, perhaps, with gu. One of the latter is represented by our word guard. This started in Old Teutonic as warda and was … Read more

Nowadays used contemptuously or at least disrespectfully of a person or thing as useless or needless as an extra wheel for the support of a vehicle ordinarily running on four. But in original use the term “fifth wheel” was applied to a metal wheel or circular plate (sometimes a segment of one) having an important … Read more

The third edition (1737) of Nathan Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary, first published in 1721, contains “A Collection of the Canting Words . . . used by Beggars, Gypsies, Cheats, House-Breakers, Shop-Lifters, Foot-Pads, Highway-men, etc.,” and carries this entry: “A BAM, a Sham or Cheat; a knavish Contrivance to amuse or deceive.” Bamboozle, a verb … Read more

The chapbook still circulated when we were kids, though it was begun in the early nineteenth century. It and its kind were, in a way, the forerunners of the modern “comic” books, though the reading matter in any that came our way, at least, could never be called lurid. The contents, short stories, poems, tales … Read more

For the past six or seven hundred years, the common name in England for any of the flatfish, skate, flounder, plaice, turbot, or whatever, has been butt. The most highly prized of all, the one formerly reserved for eating upon holy days, was the largest of the flatfish, so large that some run up to … Read more

Historically, Sanhedrin is the correct spelling for this ancient Jewish council, but the spelling Sanhedrim is often seen. The word comes from the Greek synhedrion, “council,” which is made up of syn, “together,” and hedra, “seat,” hence, literally, “seat together.”

Strongly divergent views appeared in 1945 in relating the origin of the term jerkwater. James L. Marshall in Santa Fe, the Railroad That Built an Empire says that that railroad was so named because the crews “jerked water” by bucket from wayside streams to fill the locomotive tender. But the Engineman’s Magazine in September of … Read more

To treat a man with soft sawder is to flatter him, to “butter him up.” But why? Well, sawder is an obsolete spelling of solder, and is still a phonetic spelling of a dialectal pronunciation of the word. And solder, a low-melting alloy used for uniting certain metals, is derived from the Latin solidus, “solid.” … Read more

Probably the best and, according to the Dictionary of Americanisms, the first printed description of the word “hillbilly” appeared in the New York Journal, April 23, 1900: “A Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as … Read more

There are various accounts of the origin of the word teetotal, all more or less well documented, and the evidence indicates that it probably came into being both in America and in England, independently, within the space of a few years, early in the nineteenth century. The earliest use, though, seems to have been American, … Read more

In the old, old tales of the exploits of Reynard the Fox, fragments of which have been traced to the tenth century, chanticleer was the proper name of the cock, “So sawe they comen doun the hylle to hem chauntecler the cock,” in the first printed edition by William Caxton in 1481. The name, taken … Read more

The gremlin was born during the early stages of World War II, sired by British aviators, but otherwise of uncertain parentage, though possibly from the womb of the Irish term gruaimin, “an ill-natured runt.” He was very small, though wholly invisible. And it was his delight to ride in anyone’s airplane and perform mischievous tricks … Read more

True sarcasm wounds the one against whom it is directed as deeply as though it were the flesh rather than the spirit receiving the attack. The Greeks recognized this, and invented an appropriate metaphor. From the word sarx, “flesh,” they had already coined sarkazein, “to tear the flesh in the manner of a dog.” And … Read more

The wain, four-wheeled wagon, of Charles the Great, and this is the name applied by some, even back around the year 1000, to the constellation, the Great Bear, Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. To some eyes, that is, the bowl of the Dipper had the appearance of the huge wagons of old, the stars in … Read more

Fifty-fifty means: In equal amounts. It is an Americanism which, since early in the twentieth century, has had the contracted meaning of 50 per cent for you (or one person) and 50 per cent for me (or another person).

The word Arctic relates, of course, to the region around the North Pole, but the ancient Greek astrologers and mariners called it by this name from the constellation that circumscribes the area of the heavens above it, the Bear, which in Greek is arktos. That about the South Pole then became antarktos, from anti, “opposite,” … Read more

Many years ago there existed, in Old English, a verb that was the negative of will, “to desire, to be in an acceptable or purposeful frame of mind.” This verb of negation was nill, “to be unwilling, not to will.” It is known to have existed as early as the ninth century in Anglo-Saxon, and … Read more

Charterhouse is the name of one of the great public schools of London. But whether or not the institution has a charter, the fact has no bearing on its name. Its site was originally that of a Carthusian monastery, an order which derives its name from that of the French village where it first arose. … Read more

Literally, a sucker is “one who or that which sucks.” In this sense, one application is to the not-yet-weaned young of any animal, and it is this application that has led to the figurative meaning of “dupe, simpleton.” For the greenhorns, those “not yet dry behind the ears,” are by this term endowed with the … Read more

Prudery is always with us, only the subjects about which we are prudish vary. Often it is difficult, even impossible, for a later generation to understand the reason for some particular prudery of its ancestors. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, for example, it became impolite to mention the words trousers or breeches. Since … Read more

It was mumbly-peg in our childhood, probably contracted from mumblety-peg from an earlier mumble-the-peg. But the game mumble-peg seems to have disappeared from the American scene entirely. We don’t know why, unless it may be that mothers are more fearful lest their young roughnecks cut themselves with a sharp knife. The name derives from the … Read more

The bandbox had nothing to do with a company of musicians, and is a common misconception. But, back in the seventeenth century, it was a box of thin wood, chip, it was called, in which lords and ladies kept the very wide collars or “bands” of lace or plain linen that were then in vogue. … Read more

Dictionaries hazard merely the guess that the wild hyacinths known as harebell, so common in England and Scotland, were “perhaps” so named because they grow in places frequented by hares, but we prefer to think the ancient Saxons had a more poetic notion. “Yes,” they may have said, “they are plentiful where hares abide, and … Read more

An old pun has it that there are three ways to spread news rapidly: telegraph, telephone, or tell a woman. But the French inventor Chappe had no pun in mind when he gave this name to the instrument which he had devised in 1793, for transmitting messages by means of a sort of semaphore. It … Read more

Actually an aromatic liquid having the odor of a ripe banana, chiefly employed as a solvent for lacquers. Chemically it is isoamyl acetate, if you know what that is. But when your young son says, “Aw, that’s just banana oil,” in terms of derision or of praise, his slang usage is that he regards the … Read more

A “daredevil” is one so reckless as to be willing to dare the devil himself. Curiously enough, though we’ve had all sorts of foolhardy, devil-may-care, harebrained madcaps throughout history, it was less than two hundred years ago that the term daredevil was pinned upon such an individual. And, as is so disheartening to the researcher, … Read more

It may surprise many of the younger generation, those who grew up in this age of mechanization, to learn that the term roughrider was not coined specifically as a name for Teddy Roosevelt’s cavalry regiment of the Spanish-American War. Instead, the word originally was used to describe a man who specialized in breaking horses to … Read more

Often, because of the similar pronunciation, misspelled “straightlaced.” The first element was streit in Middle English, having been introduced in about the fourteenth century. It came from the Old French estreit, “tight, close, narrow,” and similar words (Spanish estrecho, Portuguese estreito, Italian stretto) are to be found in the other Romance languages. All are derived … Read more

The pocket as an ordinary adjunct of man’s outer attire is not very old, dating back only a few centuries. Before that time anything that a man carried with him had to be in his hands or hung about his person. And money was just as necessary an evil then as it is now. And, … Read more

As “dauphin” is French for “dolphin,” one may be excused for the thought that its use (from 1349-1830) as the title of the eldest son of the King of France was in playful jest. That was not so. It was originally the title of the lords of the province of Dauphine, the last of whom, … Read more

Not too long ago, an inept actor or group of actors might have been driven off the stage by being pelted with an assortment of fruits and vegetables thrown by the disgruntled audience. If the play were a satirical one, the object of the satire would, figuratively, also have been the recipient of the barrage, … Read more

Known in our language for some four hundred years, the term “Quacksalver” nevertheless was soon felt to be unmanageably long and was reduced to quack, with which we are more familiar today. The quacksalver was originally an unscrupulous or false physician, one who quacked (hawked, or bragged of) his salves (ointments). Today, the quack is … Read more

When cloth is fabricated, it is necessary or desirable to stretch the piece in order to even out the threads and to make the material straight. Before the development of modern machine methods, whereby this is accomplished in the mill as a part of the routine of manufacture, it was the practice to stretch the … Read more

Travelers in England must have, at least, known of the confection we know as the Lollipop, for it has been familiar to English children, and perhaps their parents, for more than a hundred and fifty years. But to the best of our knowledge and belief it remained unknown to American children until the early twentieth … Read more

Although Noah Webster tried hard to determine the sources of words included in his dictionary of the English language, a hundred-odd years ago, he went far astray at times. And the term galligaskins, rarely used in America but formerly common in England, was an instance. It is the name of the wide, very loose breeches … Read more

Obviously, lodestar indicates the star or other force or attraction that points the “lode.” But if that isn’t clear, perhaps it should be explained that, early in our language, lode carried the meaning “way” or “course.” Similarly, a lodestone, now more frequently spelled loadstone, was originally a piece of stone containing strongly magnetized iron which … Read more

The Hedgehog is one of the European members of the porcupine family. Or rather, it is the English name of that member, as its French name is herisson, which might be translated “bristler,” and its German name is Igel. But despite the hog part of the name, neither it nor the porcupine is remotely related … Read more

Tell and tale are closely related in an etymological sense, one being the verb form and the other the noun form of the same word. The original sense was in the concept of counting, and related parallel terms are found in the Anglo-Saxon tellan, talu; Dutch tellen, taal; German zahlen, Zahl (number); Old Norse telja, … Read more

As far as has yet been ascertained, no Jew had anything to do with the introduction of this so-called musical instrument into England, with its naming, or with its previous invention, or with the slightly earlier name, jew’s-trump. Both names date from the sixteenth century, and both are peculiar to the English language, the latter … Read more

Now political slang expressing exchange of support upon favored legislation, the word “logrolling” found its birth in an honorable custom among neighboring American frontiersmen establishing a new settlement. A house of some sort was, of necessity, the first consideration. It might be temporary and of rude construction. But as soon as opportunity permitted, a site … Read more

The 1864 edition of Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language (G. & C. Merriam) offers the following etymology for the word “wigwam”, and most other authorities are in general agreement: From Algonquin or Massachusetts wek, “his house,” or “dwelling place”; with possessive and locative affixes, wekou-om-ut, “in his (or their) house”; contracted by the English … Read more

Even if you know your French, but have never actually seen this vehicle, the name “char-a-bane”, “car with bench,” will not give you much of a picture of it. Actually this “benched carriage” strongly resembled the motor bus that has replaced it. It was long and narrow, and the transverse “benches” or seats faced forward.

Authorities disagree here. Some have it that, of Old French origin, the expression “pell-mell” was a combination of pesle, a “shovel,” and mesle, “to mix.” Hence, “mixed as with a shovel.” But others, though agreeing with the source of the second element, take it that pell was never more than a reduplication. The French coiners, … Read more

First appeared in the literal sense of “having tender feet,” as applied to horses, and recorded in this sense in the late seventeenth century, in England, as the adjective tenderfooted. The use of the word as applied to a person is conceded to be an Americanism, and probably arose also in the literal sense, referring … Read more

An old dictionary in our possession, Thomas Blount’s Glossographia (1656), has this to say of the origin of the word “harlot”: “Metonymically”, a word used as a substitute for another, “from Arlotta and Harlotha, Concubine to Robert Duke of Normandy, on whom he begat William the Bastard, Conqueror, and King of England; in spight to … Read more