Karen Hill

In 1980, Rubik’s Cube became a worldwide craze. Its Hungarian inventor, Professor Erno Rubick, had created the cube as a math aid for his students. After realizing the cube’s potential as a toy, he sold two million in Hungary alone before introducing it to the West, making him the Communist world’s first self-made millionaire. The … Read more

Bus is an abbreviation of omnibus, which is what they called the original horse-drawn vehicles used for public transportation. The busman, of course, was the driver, and because the bus was drawn by the driver’s own horses, he was very concerned about their well-being. It wasn’t uncommon for busmen to frequently come down to the … Read more

“Break a leg” comes from the First World War, when, before flying, German airmen wished each other a “broken neck and a broken leg.” Considering the dangers of combat with primitive aircraft, this was preferable to losing your life, which was all too common. After the war, the phrase was picked up by actors in … Read more

“The full monty,” popularized as a movie title, is a British expression meaning “the whole thing.” It came from illegal gambling, where the huge pot of a high stakes game was called the monty, from the Spanish word for mountain, which is monte. To win the monty meant you had won a mountain of money. … Read more

Tobacco was picked up from the natives of the East Indies and introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The English word cigar is from the Spanish cigarro, which they took from cigarrales, a Cuban word meaning a place of leisure. Stogie is an abbreviation of Conestoga. Because the drivers of that … Read more

In 1937, the Army introduced a general purpose four-wheel drive vehicle which, when abbreviated, became G.P. At the same time the very popular Popeye cartoon had introduced Eugene the Jeep as a weird little pet for Olive Oil. It communicated by calling “jeep.” The young men in the service put the little G.P. and the … Read more

The term “Frisbee” came from the name of the pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company in New England. Walter Frederick and his future wife Lucile were offered 25¢ for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth to each other on the beach in Santa Monica, California. Morrison began producing a new disc after … Read more

In 1823, the bitterness that led to the Civil War surfaced during a match race between the Northern horse American Eclipse and a Southern colt named Sir Henry. The grudge match inspired fortunes to be wagered, including that of congressman John Randolph. Randolph put up $10,000 and his entire wardrobe, which gave a newspaper the … Read more

In early Elizabethan times, theaters admitted the general public into the ground level “pit” without charge. Before the play began, a plate was passed through the mostly standing pit audience. Like a church collection, an established amount was expected for different seats and rows. For the wealthy patrons who bought private balcony boxes for the … Read more

A trump card or suit has been designated a higher rank than usual for the purposes of the game being played and will triumph over others of normally equal value. Trump is a distortion of the word triumph. If you add up the number of letters in the names of the cards, the total is … Read more

A card game called poque was introduced to America by French gamblers in New Orleans. Both the name and the game came from the German word pochspiel, which literally means “boast game,” while the derivative pochen means “to knock.” This knock on the table is still part of the many forms of poker and indicates … Read more

The word bluff is from the Dutch word bluffen, meaning to deceive, and entered English as a nautical reference to the imposing front of a warship. For the same reason, the term bluff was applied to a bold coastline that rose straight and high out of the water. By the 1830s, bluffing had taken on … Read more

In poker, five cards from the same suit is called a flush and is very valuable. The highest possible poker hand is a royal flush, or five cards from ten to ace all from the same suit. However, four cards from the same suit, or a four flush, is nearly worthless. If a person continues … Read more

Since the fifteenth century, geek or geck has described a low-life fool, or a carnival performer often billed as a wild man. For example, a geek is, in carnival slang, someone who bites off the heads of chickens or snakes. At the beginning of the computer age, the word geek took on the meaning of … Read more

Hobby is a word used to describe an avocation done for diversion or self-pleasure. Few people find fulfillment working for someone else, and so many express their individuality within a hobby. The word comes from a toy made from a stick with a horse’s head that children used to ride. It was called a hobby … Read more

Jukeboxes first appeared in restaurants and bars in the late 1930s. Juke is an African word meaning “to make wicked mischief” and came directly from American slaves. They described the illegal brothels or bootlegger shacks where they could occasionally escape their cruel lives with a jar of moonshine as “Juke-joints.” Juke had an exotic and … Read more

In 1933, during the Great Depression, radio station WXYZ in Detroit introduced The Lone Ranger. His faithful Native companion, Tonto, was supposed to have been from the Potawatomi tribe, but linguistic scholars were stumped by his reference to the Lone Ranger as Kemo Sabe. Co-creator Jim Jewell eventually confessed that he had made up the … Read more

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, a bobtail referred to a horse with a tail cut very short, while a long but neatly trimmed tail has been called a bangtail. The “bang” refers to the quickness of the cut. The Americans abbreviated bangtail to bangs in 1878 when hair cut straight across the human … Read more

When Scottish inventor James Watt received a patent on his steam engine in 1755, horses were being used to draw coal to a mine’s surface. After calculating that one horse had the power to haul 330 pounds 100 feet in one minute, he proved that one steam engine could replace an entire herd of horses. … Read more

Cool, like groovy, was a very popular expression of satisfaction during the 1960s and early ’70s, but only the former lives on. Cool surfaced in the early nineteenth century and, like groovy, which meant “in the groove,” as in a smoothly played vinyl record, it was popularized in the modern era by bebop jazz musicians … Read more

Jazz may be an American art form, but the word predates any application to music or sex. It first appeared in print in 1831 as jazzing, meaning the telling of fun stories. The first American use of jazz was in baseball as slang for enthusiasm in 1913. Its first musical use was a year later, … Read more

The Tony Awards are named in honor of the prominent Broadway personality Antoinette Perry, whose nickname was Tony. The Tony Awards began in 1947, the year after her death. When the Emmy Awards were introduced in the 1940s they were called Immies, after the word image in “Image Orthocon Tube,” an important part of a … Read more

The yellow smiley face, with its dotted black eyes, first appeared with a slightly crooked smile as a promotion for the deejays of radio station WMCA in New York in 1962. However, in 1963, commercial artist Harvey Ball introduced the version that’s still with us when he curved the smile as a promotion for a … Read more

Charlie Brown first appeared as a character in a syndicated cartoon in September of 1950, which was named Li’l Folks. The most popular children’s television show at the time was Howdy Doody. The syndicator insisted that the strip be renamed for the kids in Doody’s cordoned-off area for his live children’s audience, which was called … Read more

In the 1960s, Reuben Mattas, a Polish-born American from the Bronx, was struggling to sell his quality ice cream when he took note of the popularity of all things Danish modern. He decided to tap into the fad by putting a map of Denmark on his cartons and calling it Haagen-Dazs. Of course, there’s no … Read more

The Singing Chipmunks were inspired by a near accident. Their creator, Ross Bagdasarian, had to swerve sharply to miss hitting a chipmunk while driving on a country road. He named the trio Alvin, Simon, and Theodore after three record company executives. As for Rocky and Bullwinkle, their creator, Jay Ward, named them after fighter Rocky … Read more

Shopping centers mushroomed in the 1950s but weren’t called malls until 1967. The word Mall comes from the popular sixteenth-century Italian ball and mallet game palamaglio, which came to England as pall-mall, pronounced “pell mell”. By the eighteenth century the game had been forgotten, except on the name of a London street where it had … Read more

“Gotham City” is a nickname for New York and was introduced by Washington Irving in 1807 as the home of fast-talking know-it-alls. Irving got the name from a legend about King John, who wanted to build a regal estate near the actual Gotham in England. He was discouraged when the citizens, not wanting to pay … Read more

In 1929, Charles L. Grigg of St Louis began selling a lemon-lime soft drink under the slogan “Takes the Ouch out of Grouch,” and it became a sensation. One of the soft drink’s key ingredients was lithium, a powerful anti-depressant, which was removed in the 1940s. The “7” in the name means seven ounces, while … Read more

Back in the day, American slaves communicated secret codes past their white masters with music. And in 1951, when Alan Freed coined the phrase “rock and roll,” he was doing the same thing. In blues and jazz, the words mean “having great sex”, Good Rockin’ Tonight, 1948, and My Man Rocks Me With One Steady … Read more

The Barbie Doll was designed by Ruth Handler and named after her daughter. However, she didn’t realize that the original moulds came from an existing German doll named Lili, a popular cartoon prostitute of the time. At first stores refused to stock the anatomically correct doll, until it was neutralized in 1959. By the way, … Read more

When Arthur Conan Doyle began writing mystery novels, he chose one of his medical school instructors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as his sleuth’s model and named him Sherrinford Holmes. His assistant, Watson, took his name from one of Bell’s assistants, but not before being briefly named Ormand Sacker. Incidentally, in none of the stories does Holmes … Read more

Tony Pastor introduced vaudeville in New York in 1861. The word vaudeville is an Americanization of Vau de Vire, the valley of the Vau River in Normandy, which became famous in the fifteenth century for the comedic songs of Olivier Basselin. An 1883 vaudeville bill from Boston’s Gaiety Museum featured a midget named Baby Alice, … Read more

The name “Hollywood” is a synonym for fantasy for some and decadence for others. Yet the dream capital acquired its name from strangers on a train and became a gesture of love between a husband and a wife. In 1887, Mrs. Harvey Wilcox, whose husband owned the California land, overheard the woman next to her … Read more

Filmmaking requires precision teamwork, and each credit is well earned. In movie language, a gaffer is the chief electrician; it evolved from the German word granfer, meaning “grandfather.” A grip requires strength, because he or she builds and dismantles scenery and handles other physical chores that require a strong grip. A best boy is the … Read more

The word dude originated as a Victorian slang word for a man who was effeminate. It’s a variation of dud or duds, from the Arabic word “dudde”, which means cloak, and was a reference to fancy or foppish clothes. When vain, fashion-conscious city slickers wanted a taste of the West, they went to a Dude … Read more

Margaret Mitchell was a first-time writer when in 1936 she submitted a manuscript of Civil War stories told to her by her grandfather. The title of the manuscript was “Tomorrow Is Another Day”, featuring a Southern belle character named Pansy O’Hara. The publisher convinced her to change the book’s name to Gone With The Wind. … Read more

After a victory at sea the Romans customarily removed the decorative prow or rostrum from defeated enemy ships to be returned to Rome as symbols of their supremacy on the high seas. These rostra were displayed on the speaker’s platform in the Roman Forum until there were so many that the stage from which a … Read more

A ghost writer is a craftsman who writes speeches or books for another person who gets the credit as author. Although well paid, they’re called “ghosts” because they’re invisible. In the fourteenth century, while there were warhorses and draft or workhorses, an ordinary rented riding horse was known as a “hackney” or a “hack.” The … Read more

Many early highways had entrances that were blocked by a pike, or long pole, which was “turned,” or opened, after a toll was paid. These highways were called turnpikes. Those who walked these roads were sometimes vagrants and very often unsophisticated farm boys on their way to seek their fortunes in the city. If you … Read more

Uncover the origins of the term “straw boss,” delving into its intriguing evolution as a designation for a work supervisor. Explore the cultural and historical threads that shape this expression. Key Takeaways: Trace the historical roots of the term “straw boss” and its emergence in the context of work supervision. Understand the cultural nuances that … Read more

The “blacklisting” of artists by the American Congress during the 1950s was a shameful and well documented reign of terror. But blacklists and little black books are still quietly with us, especially among those who see enemies everywhere. The practice began with King Henry VIII of England, whose infamous black book recorded so-called abuses in … Read more

Someone who is weak and indecisive is often called a wimp, which is a short form of the word whimpering. The origin of wimp is a series of children’s books written in the 1890s by Evelyn Sharp, which featured characters called Wymps who loved playing practical jokes on others but who would cry when jokes … Read more

Since the 1880s, “taking a fall” has meant to be arrested or imprisoned. To take a fall now figuratively means to be taken down for something you may or may not have done, but a fall guy, like a professional wrestler, has been paid or framed to take punishment. On a movie set, a fall … Read more

The 1920s was a breakout decade for young women in America who had just won the right to vote. The era evokes images of young flappers like the cartoon character Betty Boop, who was only sixteen, wildly dancing to the Charleston. They were called flappers because of the way they resembled a baby duck flapping … Read more

After discarding dozens of suggestions, Canada took its name from the Native American word kanata. The most popular of the names considered by the United States was Columbia, which is why the nation’s capital is located in the District of Columbia. But because they couldn’t make a final decision, the people of the United States … Read more

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Godfrey Irwin published American Tramp and Underworld Slang, within which he explained the difference. Bums loaf and sit; tramps loaf and walk; but a hobo moves and works. The word “hobo” is derived from “hoeboy”. The term originated because many of the young men traveling the rails were … Read more

“John Doe” is the name used to describe someone within legal circumstances when the real name is either unknown or protected by privacy laws. The practice dates back to British courts in the early nineteenth century, when John and Jane Doe were used as names for unknown or unclear defendants in real estate eviction disputes. … Read more

A fink, whether in prison or not, is a derogatory reference to someone who seeks favor from the authorities for information that they have learned in confidence. It’s said that a fink is someone who sings to the police or the boss like a canary, which all becomes logical when you realize that fink is … Read more

Homer created the ancient Greek myth of fierce women warriors known as Amazons. Amazon is made up from A, meaning “without,” and mazos, meaning “breast,” because legend has it that they removed one breast to better throw a spear or use a bow and arrow. Amazons only visited men to become pregnant, and at birth … Read more

Whether it’s a chairman or a chairwoman, that person is in the seat of authority and has been since the fourteenth century. At that time a chair was a throne, it came from the Greek word ‘cathedra, leading to the word cathedral for the place housing the seat of the bishop. In business, the person … Read more

In 1945, Earl Tupper produced his first polyethylene plastic seven-ounce bathroom tumbler, so called because it could fall or tumble without breaking. But a “tumbler” drinking glass had already been around for centuries before Tupperware. It was specially designed with a round or pointed bottom so that it couldn’t stand upright and had to be … Read more

Meteorology became the science of forecasting weather during the fourth century B.C. When it was believed that dramatic heavenly events were the cause of everything, especially weather, and there was nothing more dramatic than the arrival of a meteor. In Greek, meteorology means “a discourse from high in the air.” Studying meteors to predict weather … Read more

The physicians of ancient Greece considered hysteria to be an exclusively female problem caused by a disorder within the woman’s distinctive internal organs. Hystera is the Greek word for womb and survives today in the medical procedure hysterectomy. Men suffer the antisocial symptoms of hysteria less frequently than women, but when they do, they are … Read more

During the period when settlers spent a lot of time cutting wood, if a son looked or acted like his father he was called a “chip off the old block”. It meant that except for size, the two were as clearly related as a chip cut from its original block of wood from the family … Read more

“The Old Guard” suggests an outdated group defending something whose time has passed, but the expression began in glory at the battle of Waterloo. Known for their fierce loyalty to Napoleon, the Imperial Guard was composed of the Young Guard, the Middle Guard, and the Old Guard. It was the Old Guard from this group … Read more

In 1838, Massachusetts outlawed the sale of hard liquor, causing drinkers to find creative ways to buy and sell booze. One entrepreneur set up a booth with a sign offering, for a small fee, a glimpse of an amazing striped pig. Those who paid to enter found a glass of rum standing next to a … Read more

In India, the British encountered a sinister sect that worshipped the Hindu goddess of death. Known as thags in Hindi, they robbed their victims then strangled them with a silk scarf. Indian authorities wouldn’t suppress them, and so in the 1830s, the British wiped them out by hanging four hundred and imprisoning thousands. The American … Read more

Every November 5, the British celebrate the 1605 foiling of a plot to blow up the parliament buildings by Guy Fawkes. As part of the festivities, an effigy of Fawkes dressed in rags and old mismatched clothes was paraded through the streets and then burned on a bonfire. By 1830, any man who was badly … Read more

A snob is someone who pretends wealth and demands respect he doesn’t deserve. Universities only educated children of the nobility until Cambridge opened its doors to commoners in the seventeenth century. These new students were required to register in Latin as Sine Nobilitate, which means “without nobility.” Abbreviated, this Latin phrase is S.Nob, pronounced “snob,” … Read more

In the eleventh century, a bachelor was a low-ranking knight without the means to raise an army. To indicate this he flew a pointed banner, whereas a full knight had a flag without a tip. The bachelor was a junior, which is why a bachelor’s degree refers to the lowest rank from a university. Because … Read more

The name bluebloods refers to the pallor of the Spanish ruling classes after the conquest of the darker skinned Moors. After the blood in them loses oxygen while flowing back to the heart, the veins of fair or untanned people whose skin is never exposed to the sun appear blue. The veins of those with … Read more

Women who are sisters within a strict religious order today are called nuns, a word that has evolved through time to mean compassion and kindness. In Sanskrit, nana meant “mother,” and it is often still used today as an endearment for grandmothers. In Latin, nonna means “child’s nurse,” again still used in the form nanny. … Read more

During the prohibition period of the 1920s, those who sold illegal booze became very wealthy. But the term bootlegger came out of the nineteenth century, when it was the fashion for horsemen to wear very high boots. These boots were commonly used to conceal pints of illegal bottled moonshine by both the purveyor and the … Read more

The famous schooner on the Canadian dime took its name from the natives of the province of Nova Scotia, who are called Bluenosers. The reason for this is that at one time, the province’s chief export was a type of potato that featured a protruding blue end, which resembled a nose. As for the proud … Read more

A dunce still means someone we consider out of step, and it derives unfairly from Duns Scotus. Duns Scotus was a brilliant thirteenth-century Scottish philosopher who, along with his followers, who were called “Duns men”, resisted the thinking within the Renaissance that swept the Middle Ages. In a practice as unfair as the sight of … Read more

In eighteenth-century London there was an actors’ drinking club called The City of Lushington. The club may have taken its name from Dr. Thomas Lushington, a prominent drinker from the seventeenth century whose descendants became brewers of fine ale. Lush, the abbreviation of Lushington, became a common slang reference for beer in early England. It … Read more

It all starts in kindergarten, a German concept meaning “children’s garden,” where the atmosphere for learning should be as pleasant for a child as being in a garden. School follows the same philosophy and is from a Greek word for leisure. When university students refer to their alma maters, they are speaking Latin for “nursing … Read more

In the early days of the railroad, steam trains made quick stops in small towns for water or to pick up passengers and cargo. The crew would use this time to dash to the saloon or to make a quick visit to the local brothel. While doing their business, the trainmen would hang their lit … Read more

When New York City was only a town, its growth was restricted by the shape of Manhattan Island. The word uptown first appeared in about 1830 and was used to describe the residential area growing up the Island away from the southern business centre. Within a few years, downtown appeared to describe the opposite of … Read more

Cornbread, or “Johnny cake,” is a country comfort food that was given to the first North American settlers by the Natives. The cake was and is made principally of maize or corn and was baked on a heated flat stone from an open fire. The white trappers who first tasted cornbread were guests of the … Read more

A mug is a large drinking cup with a handle and is most commonly used to drink coffee, although it’s not unknown to beer drinkers. “A mug” is also slang for the face. In the eighteenth century, drinking vessels were shaped and painted to look like the heads of pirates or local drunks or even … Read more

Toronto became “Hogtown” in the 1890s, when meat packing was one of the city’s principal industries. Animals of all kinds, including the squealing hogs, were off-loaded at the railway yard to be processed and shipped back out as hams. The central, upper-class, urban area known as “Cabbagetown” took its name from the gardens of the … Read more

In the early days of the railroad, huge tanks were built along the routes where the steam engines could stop and refill by pulling, or jerking, a spout into place, allowing the water to flow from the tank to the engine. The tiny community that grew up around the tank was called a “jerkwater” town. … Read more

African Americans of the Old South highlighted their social season with a dancing contest called a cakewalk. The contestants often practiced for months and included couples of all ages. The prize was a huge cake which was set in the center of the hall and around which the dancers exhibited their skills. A panel of … Read more

For centuries it was believed that the pupil of the eye was solid and spherical like an apple, so that’s what they called it. Therefore, anything or anyone compared to it would indeed be very special. In the Bible, the expression is part of a song spoken by Moses: “He found him in a desert … Read more

“Humble pie” is an Americanization of the original English expression “umble pie,” a staple in the diet of very poor people during the eleventh century. After bringing down a deer, only the men could eat the choice meat from the kill. Women and children were fed the innards, or the umbles, which they seasoned and … Read more

While Europeans were still cutting up carcasses on the dinner table, the Chinese had for centuries considered the practice barbaric. A Chinese proverb, “We sit at the dinner table to eat, not cut up carcasses,” dictated that eating should be simplified. And so food was cut into bite sizes in the kitchen before serving. The … Read more

Back in the fifteenth century a spud was a short-handled spade that had a general use but was best known for digging up potatoes. People who sold potatoes were called spuddies. In Britain, taters means cold, and, as is suggested in the rhyme “potatoes in the mould equals cold”. Potatoes when grown in the mould, … Read more

Since the adoption of the metric system, pints have become rare in Canada. Liquids are usually measured in liters, but the American pint is smaller than the one in Canada. The reason is because in 1824, when the British introduced the imperial gallon to the world, including Canada, American pride refused to go along with … Read more

Look around you after a party the next time you have a chance. Most likely, there will be a lot of “dead soldiers,” or empty beer bottles, lying around. They are said to be dead because the alcohol, or spirit, has left their bodies. The spirit, like the soul, was considered the independent and invisible … Read more

When the Gauls found that some food tastes could be improved through aging or the passing of the seasons, they called it saisonner. After being conquered by the Normans in 1066, the British called the new aging process “seasoning.” With the introduction of Middle Eastern spices from returning Crusaders in the thirteenth century, seasoning took … Read more

The name “sardines” is used in reference to over twenty species of fish, and so they are found everywhere. A can of sardines is filled with one of dozens of species of immature ocean fish that happen to get caught in a trawler’s net, including pilchard and herring. Pilchards are small, oily fish related to … Read more

Today, piping hot usually means comfortably warm food straight from your own oven to the table, but it took a few centuries to evolve into that meaning. There was a time when everyone bought freshly baked bread every day from a neighborhood or village baker. When the bread was ready, the baker would signal from … Read more

Canadian beer might taste and feel better than American beer, but its fuller taste comes from its ingredients. Canadian beer is brewed with 50 percent more malt barley than its watery American cousin, which relies more on corn. Regular Canadian beer has an alcohol-by-volume content of 5 percent, while American beer is 4.5 percent. A … Read more

The ancient Sumarians buried their dead in woven baskets that the Greeks called kophinos, giving us the word coffin. Because people feared that the departed soul was looking to possess a new body, or re-enter his own, the coffin bearers wore hoods and black clothes. They then hid the coffin under a black cloth that … Read more

The rosary, or “wreath of roses,” first appeared in fifteenth-century Europe. But the practice of reciting prayers with a string of beads or knots goes back about five hundred years before the dawn of Christianity. The word bead comes from the Anglo-Saxon word bidden, meaning “to ask.” The principle for both Christians and Muslims is … Read more

The evolution of the sausage began in Babylon. Modern incarnations of the food item include the Viennese wiener and the frankfurter, which was shaped in the form of a Frankfurt German butcher’s pet dachshund. The Dachshund Sausage Dog became very popular in America, where the bun was added in 1904. In 1906, cartoonist Ted Dorgan … Read more

Although lemon enhances the taste of fish, that isn’t the original reason the two were served together. Six hundred years ago, lemon was introduced with fish as a safety precaution. People believed that if someone swallowed a bone, a mouthful of lemon juice would dissolve it. We now know that this isn’t the case, but … Read more

When the fork surfaced in the eleventh century, the only eating utensil was a knife, which was used by the right hand to cut and deliver food to the mouth. The left hand was assigned the new fork, which is why it’s set on the left. In the mid 19th century, forks finally reached the … Read more