Language

This concept of absolute, perfect newness is very old in itself, dating back past medieval English to the Old Norse, in which its form was span-nyr, from spann, “a chip,” plus nyr, “new.” The allusion is to the newness of a chip freshly cut by the woodsman’s ax. Variants such as spang-new, spanking new, etc., … Read more

The verb sojourn comes to us from the French sojorner, which, with the related Italian soggiornare, has been traced to the Popular Latin subdiurnare, compounded from sub, “under,” and diurnus, “day-long” (from dies, “day”). Thus the original sense was applied to some event lasting for less than a day, especially a short visit. The sense … Read more

The term hockshop is included here simply because someone may look for it, but we can’t retail much information. Hock, in the sense of “pawn,” has been in American usage at least seventy-five years; hence, a hockshop is a pawnshop, but no one knows why. It is our supposition that our hock is related to … Read more

Despite the appearance of a compound word, the word buckram is wholly unrelated to either buck or ram. In fact, though it has counterparts in other European languages, its ultimate source is unknown. The fabric itself was originally of fine linen or cotton, costly and delicate. Such was its nature through the Middle Ages. But … Read more

We take our food fads very seriously in this country, and some continue for many years. Along about 1830, a young Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), an ardent temperance advocate, got the notion that if one lived wholly on a vegetable diet he would have no interest in any alcoholic beverage. Graham boardinghouses sprang up … Read more

Had anyone, in my youth, told us that a dornick was a kind of fabric, we would certainly have thought either that he was trying to spoof us or he was an ignoramus. In Ohio, and later in Brooklyn, it was a brickbat or cobblestone that could be, and was, hurled by hoodlums through store … Read more

A quick review of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow reveals that Irving seems not to have used the term Spindleshanks, but it would most certainly have well described Ichabod Crane. “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, . . . long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, . . . … Read more

Here, quick has its original sense of living, and the popular term quicklime for this substance is a direct translation of the Latin calx viva, “living lime,” as taken through the French chaux vive. To the chemist, quicklime is calcium oxide, and it was called “living” by virtue of its intensely vigorous reaction when brought … Read more

If we called the polliwog (immature amphibian) a polwygle as our English forebears did five centuries ago, the source of the name might be more easily identified. That is, poll, “head,” and wygle, which we now spell wiggle, a “wigglehead.” Tadpole (which see) is the usual name in England; in America we use one or … Read more

In today’s underworld slang, an assassin would be a gangster, a gunman, a gorilla, a trigger boy, or, from the murderous qualities ascribed to the tribe, an Apache. But the old term, dating to a band of Saracens in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, came from the practice by the members to dope themselves heavily … Read more

Like the other head coverings parasol and umbrella, sombrero is named to describe its benefit when worn. Thus this wide-brimmed hat from sunny Spain is so-called from the shade it affords its wearer, the Spanish for “shade” being sombra. Umbrella is similarly named, from the Latin umbra, “shade,” with a diminutive ending, hence, “a little … Read more

The name funny bone for that portion of the elbow over which the ulnar nerve is drawn has never seemed appropriate to us. To strike or be struck on that edge of bone distinctly gives rise to a tingling pain rather than to anything remotely amusing. The American synonym, crazy bone, is more fitting. But … Read more

Oddly enough, the word counterpane started life as counterpoint. This was not the musical term of the same spelling derived from Latin contra punctus relating to combined harmonies, but a corruption of an Old French term which was itself corrupted from Latin culcita puncta, meaning “a quilt.” As the early heavy quilt began to give … Read more

One could make a poor pun by asking, “Was it fur below?” But the source of the stylish flounce, furbelowof, of bygone years did not derive from a mispronounced “far below” nor from the pelt of an animal. The flounce was much more likely to have been made of silk than of fur. No, we … Read more

Coming to us directly from the French, in which it has the same meaning, “a trifle,” the word soupcon has gone through several spellings as the French language itself was evolved. It stems from the Late Latin suspectio, which comes, in turn, from the Latin suspicio, “a suspicion.” A soupcon, therefore, is a quantity so … Read more

As used today, a soothsayer is a person who can, or at least is alleged to be able to, forecast the future accurately. This is not a new meaning, it has been in use for about three hundred years, but it is not in agreement with the original sense. Sooth was, to start with, an … Read more

This reminds one of the noted comment on oats in Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755): “A grain which in England is commonly fed to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” Buckwheat in Europe has been grown for many centuries as a grain for cattle, horses, and poultry, but in the United States … Read more

The term sitz bath, describing both the process of taking a bath while in the sitting position, with the legs and feet outside, as well as the tub in which this uncomfortable process may be accomplished, is taken directly from the German word for the same. The curious feature of the term is that it … Read more

One of those curious words which have entered English with both Romance and Teutonic backgrounds, stockade comes to us through the French estacade from the Spanish estacada, “a fortification consisting of a row of stakes.” But estacada is from estaca, “a stake,” which is derived from the Teutonic root stak-, a variant of the verb … Read more

Quatchgrass is a variant form, of minor importance, of the common name for various grasses, especially Agropyron repens. This is only one of several onomatopoetic names for the same thing. Others include couchgrass, quitchgrass, quackgrass, and twitchgrass, or just couch or quitch. This last is the oldest known form, and it seems to be related … Read more

Now and then difficulties are presented in stating the sources and original meanings of some of our words, especially, as here, of words which through use in a different sense have become completely respectable in our language. Thus, in America, poppycock is merely an equivalent of “stuff and nonsense; bosh,” but among the Dutch ancestors … Read more

The spelling cockswain, sometimes used, better indicates the source of the word coxswain. Five hundred years ago a cock was a small rowboat, often called a cockboat. Such a boat was usually carried on a larger vessel for the use of the captain, to take him ashore or the like. And the swain in charge … Read more

Pollyanna was the “glad” girl. She was created by Eleanor Hodgman Porter in a novel of that name published in 1913, with a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up, in 1915. She was an orphan, turned over, after the death of her missionary father, to live with a stern puritanical aunt. But Pollyanna steadfastly practiced a game … Read more

The usual sense, of course, is “threefold,” and in this sense the word is fully equivalent to triple. Whereas treble came to us from the Old French, of the same spelling and meaning, which, in turn, was derived from the Popular Latin tripulus, triple came directly from the latter source. The original Latin form was … Read more

In the eleventh century, there lived an Italian monk and musician, one Guido d’Arezzo, who proposed the group of syllables that is now known as “Guido’s scale,” or the “Aretinian syllables.” These were to be used, in lieu of words, in singing exercises, one for each note of the scale, now known to every school … Read more

Greek mythology tells us of a terrific struggle between the gods and the rebellious Titans, a race of giants, led by the powerful Atlas. When defeated, Atlas was compelled in punishment to bear the heavens upon his shoulders through all eternity. Ancient artists pictured him as supporting an enormous globe, and a copy of such … Read more

In the mid-sixteenth century, when the term dovetail was used in joinery and carpentry first appeared in print, the joint was also known as “swallowe tayle,” to follow the spelling of the period. You can see an example of the joint on well-made bureau or desk drawers. It is composed of a series of wedge-shaped … Read more

The definition of the word honeymoon in an old dictionary, Blount’s Glossographia (1656), on our shelves delights us: “Hony-moon, applyed to those marryed persons that love well at first, and decline in affections afterwards; it is hony now, but will change as the moon.” Thomas Blount, however, merely paraphrased the definition in Richard Huloet’s Abecedarium, … Read more

Sometimes called pons asinorum, which, perhaps more politely, says exactly the same thing in Latin. Germans translate the Latin into Esels-briicke; French use pont aux lines, but they all refer to the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid: If a triangle has two of its sides equal, the angles opposite these sides are … Read more

In France, back in the sixteenth century and earlier, a portemanteau was an officer in the king’s service who carried the mantle (manteau) of the king when traveling, the royal mantle bearer, we might call him. The mantle or cloak was precious, of course, and was accordingly carried in a case of soft leather. Eventually, … Read more

The term cracker is now used with pride by native whites of Florida as a distinction from the influx of residents from other states, but also applied in other Southern states to ignorant, shiftless white people, commonly called “poor whites.” Among various explanations, one often recurring is that the term originated from the “cracker” or … Read more

We should properly call the groundhog, the largest member of the squirrel family, a marmot, or even a woodchuck, for there is definitely nothing hoggish about him. Or her, as the case may be. It is a “her” who rears her young annually under the pantry of my summer home. Because there is American usage, … Read more

Roger Williams (he who settled Rhode Island) called squash “vine apples,” and described them as being about the size of apples, and as quite tasty. From this it can be inferred that the gourds which the Narragansett Indians called asquutasquash were a sort of melon, especially since the Indian word, literally translated, means “that which … Read more

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, it was still fashionable for men to wear knee breeches, this fashion prevailing both in this country and in Europe. The laboring class of France, largely responsible for the first French revolution of 1789, sought for some symbol of dress which would distinguish them from the aristocracy … Read more

The Oxford English Dictionary calls the word avoirdupois “a recent corrupt spelling,” and adds: “The best modern spelling is the 17th century averdepois; in any case de ought to be restored for du, introduced by some ignorant ‘improver’ c 1640-1650.” The term was borrowed from France about the year 1300. Though its literal meaning was … Read more

This matter of cousinship is sometimes made more complicated than it should be. German is now rarely used in such relationship, replaced by the more readily understood first or full, coming from Latin germanus, denoting such relationship. My brother’s son is my son’s cousin german, or first or full cousin. My brother’s grandson is my … Read more

Yes, the word greenhorn did at first apply to horns that were green, green, that is, in the sense of young and tender, such as those of a young ox. Then the term was next applied in a more figurative sense to raw, untrained, and inexperienced soldiers, those who might be characterized as not yet … Read more

Years ago, the verb spoon had a now obsolete meaning, “to run before the wind, to scud.” The origin of this sense is not known, but the similarity in sound to spume (from the Latin spuma, “foam”) led to an alternate spelling, spoom. Then, through some confused process of reasoning quite difficult to reconstruct, the … Read more

We of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction have always been of an independent spirit, unwilling to be “beholden” to anyone, and, by the same token, taking it for granted that a neighbor or companion is of the same spirit. In consequence, though far from any justifiable accusation of ungenerosity, we expect that anyone fully able to pay … Read more

The original sense was “to pass beyond or across,” and the word trespass comes to us from the Old French trespasser from the Medieval Latin transpassare, “to pass beyond.” This is made up of trans, “beyond” (which became tres in French), and passare, “to pass.” Modern French has developed a derivative meaning, “to pass away, … Read more

Most of the dictionaries agree that we Americans got the name cranberry from the Low German kraanbere, “crane berry,” from the fact that the plant flourishes in marshy lands frequented by cranes. But Dr. Mathews, in Dictionary of Americanisms, questions this assumption. The name, he points out, was used by John Eliot in Day-breaking, written … Read more

Now we call it “cottage cheese,” probably because the old-fashioned names, pot cheese, bonnyclabber, and smearcase (which comes to us from the German Schmierktise, “spreading cheese”), are no longer sufficiently elite for the modern dining room. But in grandmother’s time the curds were separated from the water by heating the coagulated milk in a pot. … Read more

That’s what a greenroom was, originally, a room near the stage in a theater, the walls and, sometimes, the furniture of which were painted or covered with green cloth. Some say that color was selected for the relief of the eyes of the actors, who rested in that room between appearances on stage, from the … Read more

The word sputnik which leaped into the headlines of just about every newspaper in the world is not, as may have been felt, a pet name coined by the Russians to describe their man-made moon, but is actually the Russian word for “satellite.” In the nonastronomical sense, it means “a companion or associate.” Sputnik is … Read more

In medieval times, the retainers and servants of any given nobleman were clothed in livery of distinctive color and design for easy recognition. If, as might happen under the stress of war or of sharp political differences, it became expedient that a man not be recognized as associated with another, it was a simple matter … Read more

General Sir Samuel James Browne was a British army officer of the nineteenth century who was born, and later served, in India. It may be presumed that some time during his career he became annoyed at the drag of his sword on his belt, which most certainly caused the belt to go askew, marring his … Read more

The common grandfather of the trombone, trumpet, and tuba seems to have been the straight bronze war trumpet of the ancient Romans, which they called a tuba. The word is undoubtedly related to the Latin tubus, “a tube.” It has been suggested that, in passing into the modern Romance languages, there took place a threefold … Read more

For six hundred years, at least, a hogshead was a measure of liquid capacity has been in our language (and taken into other Teutonic languages, with hog sometimes changed to bull or ox), but as yet the mystery of its source or a plausible reason for the name remains unsolved. One guess, quoted by the … Read more

Anyone who has ever had occasion to use green soap, in the treatment of impetigo or other skin affection, knows that its color is brown, not green. Nevertheless the name is a reminder that the color was formerly green. Possibly to make the appearance less repulsive, indigo was added to the soft soap, imparting a … Read more

The term holystone for the soft sandstone formerly used by sailors for scouring the wooden deck of a vessel has led to all sorts of speculation. Why holy? One opinion was that holy was just a humorous corruption of holey, the stone being full of holes like a sponge. Admiral Smythe, in The Sailor’s Word … Read more

The more recent etymology of the word trousers is fairly certain; the earlier is somewhat cloudy. The turning point comes with the medieval Irish and Scottish Gaelic triubhas, pronounced triwas. This was taken into English in the sixteenth century, and became trouse. Although the term describes the entire garment, the word has the appearance of … Read more

Sorry, but the name of the cowslip plant has nothing to do with the lip of the cow. The English wildflower, the primrose or Primula veris, to which the American plant is allied, commonly grows in cow pastures, and the name pertains to the slip, anciently slyppe, “dung,” among which the plant flourishes.

In her book, Tenting on the Plains (1887), Elizabeth Custer, wife of the General, says, “A doughboy is a small, round doughnut served to sailors on shipboard, generally with hash. Early in the Civil War the term was applied to the large globular brass buttons on the infantry uniform, from which it passed, by natural … Read more

A sponge is characterized as “readily absorbing fluids and yielding them on pressure.” It is the latter part of this that led to one of the slang senses of sponge, the noun, “an object of extortion,” and the verb, “to deprive one of something.” It is this meaning of extortion that resulted in the coining … Read more

The candy butterscotch, also known as toffee in England, does not concern Scotland nor the Scottish people, nor does it contain any of the liquid known as “Scotch.” No, the chief ingredients are just butter and sugar. Where does the scotch come in? Well, all directions for the preparation of this candy after it is … Read more

The spelling of the word coxcomb, though common from Shakespeare’s time, conceals the source. The original was cock’s comb, the comb or crest of a cock, and, back in the time of Queen Elizabeth I and later, it denoted the cap worn by the professional fool or jester, having the cut and color of such … Read more

No fireplace has less than two, one firedog on either side for supporting logs or grate. But today, possibly because the name sounds more highfalutin, we speak of them as andirons. Formerly, however, the dogs, as they were then called, were of utilitarian iron, serving as supports, and the andirons, in households that afforded them, … Read more

Originally, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, a porterhouse was a house at which porter was served. This porter was a kind of dark brown beer or ale favored by porters and ordinary laborers, often called porter’s beer or porter’s ale. The porterhouse steak is supposed to have been introduced about 1814, according to … Read more

Agate is a gem or semiprecious stone of quartz, waxy in texture and marked by bands of color. The name was formerly and should still be achate (pronounced ak’ate), after the Sicilian river Achates, near which, according to Pliny, the stone was first found.

Although, today, sir is commonly used as a title of respect for any man, when it first entered the language in the late thirteenth century (as a shortened form of sire, which preceded it by a scant hundred years) it was employed solely as the title of a knight or baronet. With the growth of … Read more

As a familiar form of John, one of the most common of English masculine names, Jack was early applied to any male representative of the common people, especially to a serving man, a laborer, sailor, odd-jobs man, etc. Thus came such names as steeplejack, jack-tar, etc. Through association of the name with common labor it … Read more

Taken into English directly from the Italian, without change of spelling or meaning, the word stucco seems originally to have come from a Teutonic rather than a Romance background. Specifically, the Italians apparently adopted the Old High German stucchi or stukki, one of the meanings of which was “crust,” although the more common meaning was … Read more

A Draggletail is just what it appears to be, a tail, especially a skirt tail, that drags, and particularly the person thus dragging her skirt in wet and mud. And inasmuch as one so careless of appearance is likely to be careless in morals as well, the term has frequently denoted a woman of loose … Read more

Either of two fishing villages in Scotland is credited with the first source and naming of the delicacy finnan haddie, but no report has been circulated that either has claimed first honors. The delicacy, if your taste runs that way, is merely smoked haddock, haddie to the Scots, haddock usually smoked with green wood. Sir … Read more

As Mencken has so amply documented, Americans are well known for their adroitness in coining a catchy and appropriate phrase, yet they seem to have been a little slow in connecting the elasticity of caoutchouc with the craning of the overcurious. Rubber, as a contraction of India rubber, first appeared in print at least as … Read more

Early settlers in New England found that the Indians prized the quahog, a bivalve, for a twofold reason. First, the succulent meat provided many a welcome feast; finally, the dark spot on the inside of the shell was cut out and used for money, black wampum. Our word is a contraction of the Narraganset poquauhock, … Read more

“In Adam’s fall We sinned all,” ran the first stanza of the seventeenth-century New England Primer. His “fall” has since been marked on all mortals, by superstitious belief, by a projection on the fore part of the neck representing, ’tis said, a piece of the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden that stuck in … Read more

Although originally a corruption of hotch-potch, taking over most of the sense of the older term, the word hodgepodge became the more common form from the seventeenth century onward, probably because hotch was assumed to be an altered form of the proper name Hodge, nickname for Roger. But hotch-potch was itself a rhyming corruption of … Read more

Damp in the word firedamp has nothing to do with moisture, as we ordinarily associate it, but rather with deadening, or choking, or stifling. In fact the earliest meaning of damp when it mysteriously appeared in the language in 1480 was as a kind of noxious gas exhaled by a goat. “After this dragon,” wrote … Read more

The word syllabus is a word created by a printer’s error, but which is now firmly fixed in the language. Cicero had written, in his Epistles to the Atticans, “indices . . . quos vos Graeci . . . sittubas appellatis” (indexes, which were called sittubas by the Greeks). The key word was misprinted syllabos … Read more

One seeing the word isinglass for the first time could not be blamed if he thought it to be “is in glass.” Nor did we, comprehend that the thin, transparent, noncombustible material through which fire could be seen in the pot-bellied parlor stove, and which we called isinglass, was not isinglass at all, but sheets … Read more

It is likely that few of the so-styled literati who speak with authority are aware of the fact that a kaleyard (also spelled kailyard) is nothing more nor less than a cabbage patch or kitchen garden. The Scottish authors, Barrie, “Ian Maclaren” (John Watson), S. R. Crockett, and others, who wrote, a half century ago, … Read more

One is tempted to parody Shakespeare: “Who was Susan? what was she?” All that we have learned is that this “Susan” appeared on the American scene perhaps seventy-five years ago and probably in New England. She, or rather it, was the successor of the dining-room article which, in both England and America, had been called … Read more

Commodore Perry’s expedition of 1852-54, which played so great a part in bringing Japan into the fellowship of the world’s nations, brought back with it the Japanese word taikun, “great prince,” the descriptive title of the army’s commander-in-chief, whose military title was shogun. Upon being taken into American English, the word was respelled phonetically, becoming … Read more

Perhaps it’s too obvious. The word milksop means: just an infant, or one of infant-like caliber, who sops up milk; hence, one unfit by temperament for conflict. But of interest is the fact that this term for one lacking in spirit is very old in our language. It was used, not only by Chaucer, but … Read more

Political campaigns have rarely been entirely free of invective and diatribe regarding the candidates for office, and the presidential campaign of 1844 was no exception. Widespread publicity was given by those opposing the election of James Polk to a purported book by a mythical Baron von Roorback (sometimes Roorbach), in which certain unsavory practices involving … Read more

Without by-your-leave or even the courtesy of an attempt to observe the original pronunciation, we “borrowed” the phrase aide-de-camp from the French. Literally it means “an assistant of the field”. Hence, one upon whom a general officer relies, on the field of battle, to receive and transmit orders. However, the duties of such a confidential … Read more

The New Orleans Times-Picayune Magazine of June 19, 1949, as quoted by Dictionary of Americanisms, reported a statement to the effect that there had been an estimated “4000 actual cases in which the application of the Mad Stone brought about instant relief and final cure of snake bites, black widow spider stings, bee stings, and … Read more

The Hellbender, a peculiarly repulsive amphibian looks not unlike an uncouth young crocodile, and we can well imagine that the first white men to run across it in the valley of the Allegheny thought it a salamander direct from hell. Why the bender part of the name is not certain, but it may be that … Read more

Whortleberry is a general name for the fruit (or the plant) of a number of the members of the genus Vaccinium, in particular V. myrtillus. An earlier name for the fruit was hurtleberry, from which the present form was derived, and the shortened forms whort and hurt are also known. There have been several suggestions … Read more

Actually these small, hollow, globular, stony balls, varying in size from a golf ball to a man’s head, were named eaglestones by the Greeks, aetites, which, translated, is “eaglestone.” According to Pliny, that is, this early name arose from a belief that unless the eagle were able to transport one of these stones into its … Read more

Literally, of course, a streetwalker is merely a pedestrian, anyone who is out for a walk either in or along a street. Even though this sense of the word is known and has been used for many years, a still older use is the one applied to a woman of easy virtue, and again the … Read more

Those who have read Robin Hood and other adventure tales of the same period will certainly recall the quarterstaff, a ubiquitous weapon of the period. One theory is that it got its name from its having been constructed by quartering the bole of a young tree lengthwise, yielding a quartered staff. It seems more generally … Read more

If there ever was an Andrew whose jokes and antics were so remarkable that all other men of like disposition would subsequently be known by his name, it’s a doggone shame that the history books overlooked him. An attempt was made by Thomas Hearne in 1735 to tie the first Merry Andrew down, but it … Read more

A sack coat is not (or at least, is hardly ever) made of sackcloth, but, because it is a loosely fitting garment, hanging straight from the shoulders, is so-called simply because it gives the impression of having been fashioned from a sack. Sackcloth is just that, a coarsely woven cloth from which sacks are made.

In Shakespeare’s youth the mooncalf was a figment of the imagination, a monster of some horrendous sort conjured up by moonlight in the eye of a frightened person too scared to see straight. But by the time Shakespeare wrote The Tempest (1613), he or others took it to be an actual being, a congenital monstrosity … Read more