Karen Hill

A sudden “raid” is usually over quickly, with the attackers strategically withdrawing as soon as their mission is completed. It’s always a surprise attack. Consider that the words road and rode both come from ride, as in horseback riding, and then consider that lightning-quick surprise attacks resulted from horsemen charging down a road. Rade, “a … Read more

Some highway systems are designed for use as landing strips, but they aren’t in North America. There is a legend that the Eisenhower Interstate System in the United States requires one mile in every five to be straight so that it can be used as an airstrip during wartime. But no such law exists either … Read more

The phrase “too old to cut the mustard” was popularized by a hit song during the 1940s when military expressions were uppermost in the minds of returning servicemen. Simply put, it means that one’s “salad days” are in the past. Mustard is a mispronunciation of the military word muster, which means “inspection.” If a soldier … Read more

The term right-hand man refers to someone indispensable to the person in charge and derives from the military. Today, when soldiers line up on a parade square, they are copying the alignment employed when armies used to face, then approach, each other in lines for mortal or pitched combat. The tallest or “right-marker” is the … Read more

In civilian life “on the double” means to do something in a hurry. In the military, where the expression originated, it is usually a clear command most commonly barked by a drill sergeant ordering his men to do a task “on the double,” meaning to “stop walking and start running.” Just as bugles were used … Read more

The United Kingdom’s Queen Victoria created the Victoria Cross in 1856 to recognize individual acts of gallantry by soldiers and sailors of the British Empire. The new medal came on the heels of, and was inspired by, the heroics of the Crimean War fought by Britain, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire … Read more

On August 9, 1945, navy pilot Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray became the ninety-fourth, and last, Canadian to win the Victoria Cross. He was awarded the medal posthumously for bravery during an attack on a Japanese destroyer on the final day of World War II. The first Canadian to receive the medal was Lieutenant Alexander Roberts … Read more

In law a riot is “a violent disturbance of the public peace by twelve or more persons assembled for a common purpose” and may be committed in private as well as public places. The Riot Act, which carried real weight and is the one we still refer to in the expression, became law in England … Read more

Real estate is a piece of land that includes the air above it, the ground below it, and any buildings or structures on it. The term was first used in 1666 England. In 1670 the word “realty” surfaced to mean the same thing. Real means “actual” or “genuine,” and estate, of course, means “property.” Real … Read more

Around the beginning of the twentieth century a popular casual shoe was manufactured with a sole made of gum rubber. They were very quiet and were favored by thieves who used them during burglaries and other crimes and consequently became required footwear for the detectives hunting them down. The term gumshoe stuck with private detectives … Read more

A whistle-blower is an insider who secretly reveals nefarious or scandalous wrongdoing by an organization or a government. The reference is, of course, to a referee or umpire who calls a foul during a sporting event. It was introduced to our vernacular in 1953 by the American writer Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) in his Philip Marlowe … Read more

The expression “fork it over” has a connotation of urgency to it and is often used dramatically during a criminal holdup. In fact, the expression does have origins in a long-forgotten underworld. Of course, the phrase can also be employed with humor when asking for a financial payment for goods or services rendered or for … Read more

The court often orders the chief provider of a divorcing couple to pay an allowance to the other. This sum of money is called alimony because it literally keeps the recipient alive. In Latin the word alimony means “nourishment” or “sustenance.” The term palimony was coined in 1979 to apply to the separation of film … Read more

A bailiff is a sheriff’s deputy, a subordinate magistrate with jurisdiction over a strictly defined area. He or she has responsibility over the custody and administration of prisoners. To the early English, bailiff meant “village” and derived from bail, which described the palisade or wall around a community or castle. Bailey came to mean any … Read more

A falsehood is a lie or a distortion of the truth and derives from a time before men wore hats. They used hoods to cover their heads from the elements, and these hoods were designed with fur or something else to indicate an individual’s rank within the community. If a con man wished to deceive … Read more

Being fired is usually an unpleasant experience. Even though it’s sometimes a disguised blessing, it never reaches the cruelty of its medieval Celtic origins. If a clan leader wanted to get rid of a petty criminal without killing him, or if someone was found guilty of stealing from his employer, especially from the mines, he … Read more

If, after an argument, it is concluded that the point made is irrelevant, it’s called moot. The word moot is an Old English word that means “an assembly of the people for making judicial or political decisions.” That’s how the word took on the meaning of a discussion or a debate. By the sixteenth century, … Read more

Today the phrase “trial by combat” is generally used as a reference to lessons learned through experience. For example, a soldier who has seen action in battle, but the term was, in fact, from a legitimate legal process also known as “judicial combat.” In medieval Christian cultures it was agreed that God decided the outcome … Read more

The caricature of an Englishman used to include an umbrella, a brief-case, and a bowler hat. Although this is an outdated image, it still recalls a class system that defines the British character. The first bowler was designed in the mid-1800s by London hatters James and George Lock as a protective riding hat for Thomas … Read more

Although our prehistoric ancestors wore leather loincloths that have been excavated from more than 7,000 years ago, underwear as we know it didn’t become “normal” until the thirteenth century when it was tied at the waist and knees. The ancient Greeks didn’t wear underwear, though their slaves sported a kind of loincloth. The G in … Read more

In the mid-nineteenth century, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822-1911) revolutionized women’s wear by designing and wearing a clothing style that did away with voluminous dresses and tightly laced corsets. She suggested that women wear a jacket and knee-length skirt over a pair of trousers tucked into boots. The cause was taken up by magazine editor … Read more

A short coat is called a jacket for the same reason that Jack is used generically to mean any male stranger, “hit the road, Jack”. It was the French who began using Jacques this way as a reference to any common or unsophisticated male. The word took on the meaning of a peasant or ordinary … Read more

In the seventeenth century, bibs were introduced to protect men’s clothing from the consequences of their own bad table manners. Women did the same, but their bibs were fancier and were made of lace or muslin with frills to frame their faces. Because these bibs were tucked into the tops of low-cut dresses, they were … Read more

The Sandman is an elf who sprinkles sand in children’s eyes to make them sleepy. The character is derived from the remarkable mind of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), the Danish writer famous for his fairy tales. Andersen’s Sandman was a device to explain to children the reason for the grit or “sleep” in their eyes … Read more

Recipients of the Academy Award, commonly known as the Oscar, always seem to be surprised at its weight. The Oscar was designed in 1928 by Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s chief art director. The statuette depicts a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a crusader sword. Originally, Oscar was made of gold-plated bronze. … Read more

The word lace began its route into thirteenth-century English as the Latin word lacere, which means “to entice.” On its way through Spanish and French, lace became a hunting term meaning “rope net,” “snare,” or “noose.” In 1555, because fancy lace reminded someone of a hunting net, the word lace was employed to describe an … Read more

“Yesterday” has had more airtime than any other song in history. The Beatles’ Paul McCartney said the song came to him in a dream. While writing it he used the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” When McCartney recorded the song in 1965, none of the other Beatles were in the studio. He was alone with his … Read more

Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was the first pop singer to experience primal teenage female screaming and tearful shrieking during a musical performance. These legions of young women and girls were called bobbysoxers because they were the first generation to wear short or cutoff stockings, leaving their nubile bare legs to disappear beneath a shorter rather than … Read more

LEGO is a trademark name for a child’s plastic construction set derived from a 1934 invention by a humble and struggling Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958). The company name LEGO comes from the Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well.” There is a myth that Christiansen didn’t realize that lego in Latin means … Read more

A buffoon was first called a “Tom fool” in 1650 because Tom was a nickname for a “common man.” Although fool once meant “mad” or “insane,” by the seventeenth century it was a reference to a jester or a clown. The name Tom became influenced by “Tom the cat” in the 1809 popular children’s book … Read more

Ancient Roman spectators in the Coliseum did use their thumbs to show their decisions on whether a losing gladiator should live or die, but not in the manner we see expressed today. It was the movies that gave us the simple “thumbs up or thumbs down.” The thumb symbolized the weapon of the victor. “Up” … Read more

In the late 1800s, shows featuring small animals began touring little North American farming towns that weren’t on the larger circuses’ itineraries. These traveling shows were made up of dogs and ponies that did tricks. Some, like the Gentry Brothers Circus, were very successful, using up to eighty dogs and forty ponies in a single … Read more

The first Ferris wheel was built by and named after George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-1896) and was constructed as an attraction for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Ferris had set out to build a structure that would rival the Eiffel Tower built four years earlier for the Paris Exposition. The two towers that … Read more

All musicians refer to an informal and exhilarating musical session as “jamming,” but the term first surfaced in the jazz world during the 1920s. “Jam” in jazz is a short, free, improvised passage performed by the whole band. It means pushing or “jamming” all the players and notes into a defined free-flowing session. And just … Read more

The French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s statue commonly called The Thinker (Le penseur) is one of the best-known pieces of art in the world. Yet when Rodin (1840-1917) first cast a small plaster version in 1880, he meant it as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (circa 1265-1321) pondering his great allegorical epic The … Read more

Many great artists have been influenced by a muse, a person whose very existence inspires them to reach beyond themselves. It literally means the inspiration a man receives from a special woman. The word muse, as it is used in this case, comes from any of the nine beautiful daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each … Read more

The phrase “winging it” usually implies the same thing as having your first swimming lesson by being thrown into the deep end of a pool. It takes courage and sometimes ability you didn’t know you had. It’s an exercise familiar to good salespeople. The expression derives from an unprepared stage actor standing in the “wings” … Read more

The ballad “Greensleeves” was first published in 1580, but no doubt had been known long before that. One early lyric, “Lady Greensleeves” was a love song to a well-dressed woman, possibly a prostitute. The music’s first application to Christmas appeared in New Christmas Carols of 1642 and was entitled “The Old Year Now Is Fled.” … Read more

Today a bully is generally a description of a brute who intimidates someone weaker or more vulnerable. But in the United States the positive power of the presidency is often referred to as the “bully pulpit.” In the 1500s, the word in its positive sense entered English from the Dutch boel, meaning “sweetheart” or “brother,” … Read more

Digs comes from Australian gold prospectors who used the word diggings to describe their mining claims, which usually included makeshift lodgings. In 1893 the word “digs” first appeared as a slang term for rooms and small apartments in boarding houses that were strictly supervised by landladies who usually forbade visits by the opposite sex. Students … Read more

To babble means to speak foolishness. It is a verb rooted in the French and Scandinavian languages and was used to describe baby talk in the months leading up to a child’s first words. Babble has many different forms and circumstances, for example, squabble, blather, and charlatan, all of which, to some degree, mean “chattering … Read more

If a joke or expression works, especially for a comic or a public speaker, it is usually overused and is consequently called “an old chestnut.” The expression comes from a British play, The Broken Sword, or The Torrent of the Valley, written by William Dimond (1780-1837) and first produced in 1816 at London’s Royal Covent … Read more

When someone is given “A for effort,” it is usually a backhanded compliment meaning “even though what you did sucked, we know you gave it your best!” In elementary schools, “A for effort” is used so as not to discourage failing students or their parents. The reason A is used instead of E is found … Read more

When people fall “head over heels” in love, their world has been turned upside down by romance. The word fallen suggests helplessness, and the metaphorical “head over heels” is intended to expand the illusion. However, consider that having your head over your heels is, in fact, the normal standing position! You can blame American frontiersman, … Read more

Some familiar Yiddish words are: chutzpah, “audacity or boldness”; schmuck, “a jerk or a foolish idiot” (literally meaning schmok, “penis” or “family jewels”); klutz, “a clumsy person”; putz, “an unclean, stupid person”; mensch, “a good and decent human being”; l’chaim, “joyful toast to life”; schlemiel, “an inept or incompetent person”; goy, “a Gentile, a person … Read more

We have all been called a moron at one time or another and understood it to mean we’ve done something foolish. The reason is that in 1910 Dr. Henry H. Goddard (1866-1957) proposed the word to the American Association for the Study of the Feeble minded to describe an adult with the mental capacity (IQ … Read more

We have probably all heard “bite the dust” for the first time while watching an old western B movie when a cowboy hero does away with a pesky varmint to impress the schoolmarm. The phrase was first used in English literature in 1750 to imply wounding or killing by satirical novelist Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) in … Read more

A proverb is an ancient expression of practical truth or wisdom. Proverbs existed before books, were the unwritten language of morality, and are treasures of the oral tradition of all mankind. They offer a deep insight into the everyday domestic life of the culture of their origin and resonate as truth through all time. Japan: … Read more

Something “in the offing” isn’t about to happen in the present, or even soon, but it will certainly happen before too long. Offing is an early nautical term that describes the part of the ocean most distant from the shore but still visible. So someone who is watching for a ship would first see it … Read more

A compliment intended as an insult is termed a “backhanded compliment” and is directly tied to the ancient belief that the left side of the body was under the influence of the devil. A backhanded slap would generally come from the right hand of the majority of people. It is similar to the backhand stroke … Read more

The phrase “cut to the quick” is often used in two ways. It sometimes means (a) “get to the point,” or “cut to the chase,” but more often it implies (b) “causing deep emotional pain.” The quick in both cases is the flesh of the finger beneath the nail. Either way the expression means cutting … Read more

Overcoming an awkward moment in either business or social circles sometimes requires a little levity to “break the ice” in order to make progress. The expression originally meant to smash the melting ice that hindered commerce during the long winter freeze. It was first used literally in its figurative modem way in 1823 when, in … Read more

When people leave in a frantic hurry, they are “hightailing it.” The expression grew out of America’s Old West after cowboys noticed that both wild horses and deer would jerk their tails up high when frightened as they dashed to safety. The lifting of the tail by both animals was a signal to the rest … Read more

The phrase “Hail fellow well met” is an archaic reference to someone who is always cheerful but who is perhaps overdoing his or her enthusiasm. The expression began pleasantly enough as the medieval Scottish greeting hail, which is how the Scots pronounced heal. “Hale fellow” meant “health to you, friend.” In the sixteenth century, the … Read more

The most common word used in written English is the, followed in order of use by of, and, to, a, in, that, is, I, it, for, and as. The most common spoken English word is I. The most common word in the King James Bible is the.

When a typists hands take the standard position taught around the world, the left hand controls fifteen letters, including the most frequently used, E, A, T, R and S. The right hand controls only eleven keys, although it also controls the comma and the period. The left hand makes about 56 percent of the strokes … Read more

A thimble is more than a token in a Monopoly game. The thimble was originally called a thumb-bell, which is how it got its name. Before the seventeenth century, when it was invented in Holland, pushing a sewing needle through skins or fabric often required the use of a small block of wood or bone. … Read more

The first use of the X brand was on casks of English beer. It indicated that the contents had been properly aged and had passed government approval after paying a ten-shilling duty, illustrated by the Roman numeral X. Some brewers added extra Xs to suggest a more potent content, and smut peddlers followed suit. When … Read more

Ancient Celtic warriors used to place the severed heads of their enemies around the top of their fortresses as a warning. In time these inspired architects to add the twisted faces of gargoyles to prominent buildings. Gargoyles had the practical purpose of collecting rainwater and dropping it clear of the walls through their throats. In … Read more

Doors generally open outward on public buildings as a precaution against fire. If dozens of people have to rush for the exit, they won’t have to fight to pull the door inward against the crush. The exceptions are those institutions fearing robbery, which have doors opening inward to delay the getaway. Like the doors of … Read more

“A cut above” dates from the eighteenth century and literally means the quality of the cutting or fashioning of a person’s clothing. The superior appearance or station in life of someone with a good tailor or milliner is obvious when compared with a common man or woman, making them a “cut above” the ordinary. The … Read more

Whistling backstage became bad luck during a time in England when stagehands were most often sailors without a ship. The curtain, flies, and props were moved manually by a system of ropes, so the sailors communicated as they did at sea, by whistling. If someone not involved in the intricate backstage maneuvers were to whistle, … Read more

Whether it’s “Ups-a-daisy,” “Whoops-a-daisy,” or “Oops-a-daisy,” you are speaking loving nonsense, usually to a child. “Up-a-dazy” dates back to 1711, and by 1862 it had mutated into “Up-a-daisy,” spelled the same as the flower. The original meaning was an encouragement for a child to get up, and dazy was an endearing reference to lazy, an … Read more

The old song, with every verse ending in “Pop goes the weasel,” is a tale of Victorian London working-class poverty. The Eagle of the lyrics was a famous pub. The City Road still exists. “Pop” means to pawn something for cash, while a “weasel” in cockney rhyming slang is a coat. After spending his money … Read more

Born in 1926 in the Swedish village of Agunnaryd, Ingvar Kamprad got his start by riding his bicycle from farm to farm selling wooden matches. Once everyone had a supply of matches, Ingvar wisely decided to diversify his offerings and soon was pedaling around the countryside delivering Christmas tree ornaments, ballpoint pens, and, though it … Read more

A company name ending in Ltd. means that the amount of risk or liability for its shareholders for any corporate failure or debt is limited to the amount of their personal investment in that company. In an incorporated company or corporation, also known as Inc., the business is recognized as a single entity, and the … Read more

To put “dibs” on something, like a piece of cake, or Dad’s car, is to express first claim to a share of that object. The word dates from before 1700 and comes from a very old children’s game called dibstone. The game was a forerunner to marbles, which was played with either sheep knuckles or … Read more

When medieval noblemen were looking for a sport to replace their brutal jousting tournaments, they turned to a training exercise of catching rings from horseback, known in Spanish as carossela, meaning “little war.” The word “carossela” gave us carousel. In time, live horses were replaced with hanging revolving seats, which in turn gave way to … Read more

Hopscotch was brought to Britain by the Romans, who used it as a military training exercise. The courses were one hundred feet long, and the soldiers ran them in full battle gear to improve their footwork. Children copied the soldiers by scratching out small courses of their own and creating rules and a scoring system. … Read more

A “goody two-shoes” is an unbearably self-centered little girl and comes from a nursery rhyme, “The History of Little Goody Two-shoes.” “Goody” was a common nickname for married women and came from the word goodwife. In the nursery rhyme, Goody owned only one shoe. When given a pair, she ran around showing them to everyone, … Read more

In 1806, Jane Taylor published “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” simply as “The Star.” The tune was already in use for “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and the Alphabet Song. The melody for all three came from a French rhyme called “Ah! Vous dirais-je Maman” in 1765. Both Mozart and Haydn have incorporated the melody into two … Read more

Flying a kite is a good way to see which way the wind is blowing. In the nineteenth century, when a man was looking for employment or searching for investors, he would send out letters to strangers in much the same way as people send out resumes today. “Go fly a kite” meant “I can’t … Read more

Having “guts” or “pluck” means having courage or backbone, while having neither means lily-livered cowardice, and they are all references to intestinal fortitude. Guts, of course, are internal organs while pluck is collectively the heart, liver, and lungs. Lily-livered comes from the belief that fear drains blood from the liver, making it white. It was … Read more

“Eeney, meeney, miney, moe” is a children’s rhyme where, with each word, the person counting or reciting points at one of a group of players to establish who will be “it.” The ritual was handed down from the Druids, who used the same counting formula to choose human sacrifices. The precise meanings and origins of … Read more

A somersault is a stunt in which a person tumbles head over heels. It can be very difficult, as when performed by a circus acrobat, or very simple, as when performed by a child on a front lawn. The word has two Latin derivatives, supra, meaning above and saltus, meaning “leap.” The word entered England … Read more

Teachers will often tell students to “put on their thinking caps” when they want them to take time to think things over. Caps have been associated with academics, jurists, scholars, and clerics for centuries. One of the most familiar of these caps is the mortarboard worn at graduation, so called for its similarity to the … Read more

“In a nutshell” indicates a drastically reduced summary. Long before modern electronics, a few scholars made attempts at condensing massive literary works so they could be more easily stored. It became an obsession to some to see just how small they could write. For example, a copy of the Qur’an was reduced on a parchment … Read more

The phrase “If had my druthers” means, of course, “If I had my way.” Druthers is always plural and indicates that there are a number of options other than what is offered. It’s rural American slang; it began as “I’d rather,” which, when shortened by dropping the “I” becomes “drather.” With a country accent, “drather” … Read more

It’s the room we most often frequent, but good manners dictate that we avoid direct references to the toilet at all costs. It’s a restroom, a powder room, a washroom, and a loo, which is derived from the French word l’eau for water, as in water closet. “Seeing a man about a dog” comes from … Read more

If someone sells himself short, he’s probably nervous about the future, and for good reason. The expression comes from the stock market. “Selling short” means that you’re selling shares you don’t yet own. If an investor believes a stock is on the decline, he might gamble by selling it before purchasing it in the future … Read more

To be footloose and fancy-free means to be free from any responsibilities, or in other words, to be single. The expression started appearing in print around 1700 with footloose simply meaning your ankles were unshackled so you could go anywhere you wanted. Fancy was a sixteenth-century word for being attracted to someone of the opposite … Read more

“To take the heat” is the literal translation of “to bear the brunt,” because brunt and burn mean the same thing. From the Anglo-Saxon word brenning, or burning, brunt was a vivid reference to the hottest point of conflict during a battle. It took on a more general meaning to describe contentious domestic and business … Read more

Shakespeare introduced the expression, meaning “the ultimate or most important solution,” as dialogue for Macbeth. Macbeth thinks about killing Duncan and wonders “that this blow might be the be-all and the end-all”, MacBeth I vii. IV. Macbeth then says he would risk his status in the afterlife if it were true. Today, Shakespeare’s second “the” … Read more

When metal nails were introduced to construction, they were hand tooled, which made them very rare and equally expensive. When an aging house or barn with metal nails was torn down it was important to collect and reuse the nails. Because previous carpenters had bent the sharp end of the doornails for safety and to … Read more

In a simpler time when birds could be heard above traffic or construction noise, a single clear note sounded by a church bell could be heard over a wide area. The bell was used to communicate time, to announce a celebration or important event, or even to warn of an impending attack. When the bell … Read more

The Expression “the bitter end” has been used to describe the conclusion of something distasteful since the mid-nineteenth century. It’s a play on the word bitter, as in “sour,” and the nautical bitters, the posts on a ships deck where cables and ropes are wound and tied. When securing the ship to the dock, or … Read more

Pipe dreams are often schemes that just won’t work. Like daydreams, pipe dreams dissolve like smoke rising into the air, which is appropriate, because the metaphor comes from smoking opium. The phrase can be traced to print in the late nineteenth century, when it was fashionable for hedonists and the upper classes to escape reality … Read more

Have you ever heard the Biblical quotation about how a rich man’s chances of getting to heaven are about the same as a camel passing through the eye of a needle? An eye is an ancient reference to an opening in a wall or a gate, because you could see through it. If there is … Read more

If someone is beside himself, he is extremely distraught. You might even say he is out of his mind, because the ancients believed that under extreme distress the soul left a man’s body and stood beside the human form, which left the subject literally “beside himself.” This absence of the soul gave the Devil an … Read more