Language

Acrobats have been doing the somersault for years, and the word has been in the language at least since the sixteenth century. It came to us from the Old French sombresault, which is from the Provengal sobresaut. An obsolete English spelling of equal age is sobersault. But to get back to the derivation. The Provençal […]

Sorry, there doesn’t seem to be any valid explanation of the animal prefix. A botanist of the seventeenth century called the European plant the dogberry tree, because of its dark purple berries, but that throws no light on the “dog” element. One writer only gives this explanation: “It is called Dogwood, because a decoction of […]

Taken into English directly from the French, in which trousseau is the diminutive of trousse (from which we get truss), “a bundle, a pack.” If taken literally, then, it would seem that a bride’s trousseau would be “a little bundle,” presumably consisting only of a few of her most needed personal effects and household linens.

The Earl of Strafford, in the seventeenth century, wrote of the dish known as Bonnyclabber, “it is the bravest, freshest drink you ever tasted,” a verdict with which we agree. But our friends agree with Ben Jonson, who, at about the same period, called it “balderdash.” What is it? Just milk that has coagulated in […]

Stark, in many of its senses in English, is closely, sometimes very closely, related in meaning to the German word of the same spelling and with the meaning “strong.” But this is not the case with stark-naked, for here stark is a corruption for the original term in the phrase, which was start. Start-naked dates […]

Though in our impious youth one was considered as very clever who could work this in as, “Let her cofferdam head off,” it really has no connection with an oath. A coffer is merely a tight chest, as for the storing of valuables. By extension, it denotes a watertight box or caisson. And a cofferdam […]

We think our American male ancestors of a hundred-odd years ago took keen delight in playing with the word devil. It sounded just short of a swear word, and probably annoyed their wives. At least it is certain that farmers especially took to calling various mechanical implements which, in early stages of development, acted erratically […]

Belial is the Anglicized form of the Hebrew b’li-ya’al, from b’li, “not,” and ya’al, “worth, profit.” Thus the original sense of belial was merely “unprofitable.” From this sense, though, the term Belial came to have the meaning of “wickedness,” and the many references in the Old Testament to a “son of Belial,” “daughter of Belial,” […]

Touch-, in each of the words touchhole, touch-powder, touchwood, has the special sense of “to set fire to” or “readily ignited”, a sense not found in other uses of “touch” either alone or in combination except those derived from the above. There are two distinct theories to explain the origin of this special meaning, but […]

Hunters, almost since time immemorial, have made use of a variety of tricks and ruses devised to enable them to approach their quarry (or vice-versa) without being noticed. One of the oldest of these is the stalking-horse. At first, as the name indicates, it was an actual horse, behind or alongside of which the hunter […]

The brothers Bowie, John J., Rezin P., and James, enjoyed better reputations after death than in life. The three, that is, were in the slave trade in Louisiana in the 1820’s, smuggling Negroes into the country from Jean Lafitte’s stronghold on Galveston Island. But James was among the defenders of the Alamo, butchered on his […]

The Sphinx name comes to us from the fabled monster of Thebes, which had a woman’s head on the winged body of a lioness. This creature would stop passers-by and propound to them the riddle, “What is it that in the morning travels on four feet, during the day on two feet, and in the […]

In the slang of the submarine arm of the navy, a torpedo is called a “fish,” and in applying this nickname our sailors are more nearly correct than they are probably aware with respect to the origin of the name. For the object which was the first torpedo was indeed a fish, in particular, that […]

The verb to tread is one of the oldest words known in the English language and its forebears, being found in that most ancient of Anglo-Saxon writings, Beowulf, which dates to the seventh century A.D. It, or rather, its close relatives, are also known in all the languages of the Teutonic group, with the general […]

A Corn Dodger is made of corn meal, all right, plus a little salt and water or milk, and then fried in a hot skillet, three or four at a time, and it’s perfectly delicious, especially served hot at breakfast. Why it is virtually unknown north of the Mason-and-Dixon line is a mystery, as it […]

Here again, as in hobbyhorse, we find hob as a nickname, this time as a variant form of Rob, the diminutive of Robin. And the allusion was to the tricksy sprite of ancient superstitious belief, Robin Goodfellow. But whereas hob, among our remote ancestors, was rarely more than mischievous, when they united his name with […]

In 1889 the Federal Government decided to throw open the Territory of Oklahoma for settlement, and those in charge took great pains to try to see that no potential settler received any unfair advantage over another with respect to the more choice land. The borders were closed, and policed to keep them closed until the […]

If those who seek to entice us into a movie theater with repetitions of the word glamour knew its source, perhaps they would use it less freely. Or more freely. Who knows? But originally it was just a Scottish mispronunciation of grammar. The reference was then to Latin grammar, the only grammar that anyone knew […]

Along about 1830 a lively dance originated in Bohemia which speedily took all of Europe and America by storm. It was named Polka, meaning a Polish woman, just as Polak means a Polish man. So popular did the dance become that tradesmen vied with one another to attach the name to jackets, hats, gauze, and […]

Because brimstone was formerly the common name for sulfur, one would suppose that it was so called because it could be stone taken from the brim, say, of a volcano. But, no; brim is just the surviving form, in this word, of a dozen ways in which burn was spelled four and five centuries ago. […]

The Draper’s Dictionary (1882) blandly says, “The name corduroy is of French origin, where it was originally corde du roi, the king’s cord.” But, alas, no such name has ever been used in France. The French name for the material is velours a cotes, “ribbed velvet.” First mention of the fabric was in the 1790’s, […]

Ever since mankind began to practice chicanery upon his fellows, it has been found necessary to develop techniques for ascertaining the true value of those materials that are to be found in the marketplace, particularly gold and silver. Long ago it was discovered that if suspected gold were rubbed on the mineral known as basanite, […]

The dictionaries try to satisfy consultants by saying, “Origin unknown,” or something of similar import. It might be more honest to confess, “I don’t know.” A lot of speculation by brainy men has been given, but no one knows yet whether the term hobbledehoy came into England from some other language, or whether it was […]

Today most of us think of the term four-in-hand only as a necktie, to be tied in its own special loop. But the horsemen among us may have another notion. To them it means four horses harnessed to a single vehicle and driven by one person. And it is to these sportsmen of the nineteenth […]

St. Augustine, one of the most renowned fathers of the Christian Church, was, in his youth, rather a dissolute profligate. After embracing Christianity in his early thirties, though, he became a most devout member of the faith, eventually being awarded a bishopric. He was always a prolific writer, and many of the books of his […]

A dogwatch is a two-hour vigil on shipboard, so arranged as to alternate from day to day the regular four-hour watches of the divisions of a crew. That is, instead of dividing the twenty-four hours of the day into six periods of four hours each, they are divided into five such periods and two of […]

The “curtal friar,” Friar Tuck, of the Robin Hood ballads, was merely so called because the frock worn by the friar was short, curtal being derived from the Latin curtus, “short.” Other things were also “curtal” four hundred years ago, especially a horse whose tail had been bobbed, a “bobtailed horse,” we would say now. […]

We don’t use the word hobnob as Shakespeare did. With us it is a verb, to hold intimate conversation with (another); to be convivial with. But Shakespeare used it (Twelfth Night, III, iv) as an adverb: “He is (a) knight . . . ; but he is a diuell in a private brall; . . […]

A slipshoe was, at one time, the name used for a shoe or slipper that fitted loosely and was worn for comfort, within the home, rather than for street wear. However, it happened that even back in the sixteenth century, when the term was in vogue, there were certain of the citizenry who valued comfort […]

Attempts have been made to give the term country-dance a French background, insisting that it was first the contre-danse of French, Italian, or Spanish origin. Such is not so. It was the other way round. Those dances were eighteenth-century adaptations from the English country-dances. It is not known when nor in what part of England […]

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., […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, . . . […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]