Language

One gads who merely roams here and there idly or as if in meditation, but without special destination. But the gadabout, though he may have no special objective, does have a definite purpose in mind, and his roaming is rarely meditative. He seeks news. And the news he wants is that which will satisfy curiosity … Read more

Although two-by-threes and even two-by-twos are known and employed for certain purposes, the two-by-four is the smallest size of standard dimension lumber used today in the construction of frame buildings. The name refers to the nominal size, in inches, of the thickness and width, respectively, of the piece, although the actual size of the standard, … Read more

The fictitious character Milquetoast, in full, Caspar Milquetoast, was created by the cartoonist H. T. Webster. The series, continued at intervals through the 1930’s and 1940’s, depicted episodes in the life of “The Timid Soul,” episodes of harrowing nature to a non-assertive, timorous man. Thus the modern definition of the word Milquetoast is a person … Read more

You might not think it to be so, but in its original form oakum was “off-combing.” It referred to the hard, coarse strands of retted flax which were combed out before spinning, the tow. The Old English word was acumba, considerably modified in spelling down through the years. This tow, or “hards” as also called, … Read more

The Polecat is a cat, sometimes called “pussy,” that is fond of poles, not, however, the kind stuck in the ground. This pole, back in the fourteenth century, was a French word which, in modern French, is spelled poule. It means a chicken. For the polecat is a chicken thief, just as is its American … Read more

The word tabernacle first entered our language in the mid-thirteenth century as applied to the curtained tent that, in the Old Testament, contained the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred items. Its use in the broader sense of “a portable, temporary dwelling, such as a tent” began about a century later, as so used … Read more

Back in 1856, B. H. Hall, in College Words and Customs, attributed the name callithump to a noisemaking band composed of Yale College students. Maybe he was right, but if so, the callithumpians, as members of any similar band were known, had also spread out by 1830 from New Haven to New York. At least … Read more

By comparison, keelhauling, in the modern navy, constitutes a mild punishment. It actually amounts to nothing more castigating than a severe tongue-lashing. Not so in former days. The literal procedure was so severe a punishment that many a sailor failed to survive. It is said that the device was first copied by the Dutch in … Read more

Babbitt in this case has no relation whatsoever to the chief character in Sinclair Lewis’s satire of that title. This is the name of a soft, whitish alloy used to reduce friction in machine bearings and was that of its American inventor, Isaac Babbitt (1799-1862), who first produced it at Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1834. The … Read more

One of the greatest advances in the art of printing was the invention of movable type, for this permitted the printer to be free of the time-consuming process of having his plates individually engraved by hand. Yet movable type, too, had disadvantages, for it had to be carefully adjusted for even depth of impression and, … Read more

The word aftermath means consequences; especially, in current general use, ill consequences. Also, which indicates the origin of the term, a second crop of hay after one crop has already been cut. Math, a term no longer in use, meant “a mowing” in olden days, or the produce of a mowing; hay, that is. Thus … Read more

Used more or less interchangeably with the singular form. It is generally conceded that the original sense of the word sweepstakes was “winner take all,” that is, that the person winning the race or game “swept” all the “stakes” into his own pocket. Later the winnings did not accrue entirely to a single winner, but … Read more

Whether part of a harness, part of the rigging of a ship, or a gambling term, the name martingale is supposed to be connected, in some peculiar manner, with a type of stinginess characteristic of the inhabitants of the town of Martigues in Provence, France. At least such is the deduction that one draws from … Read more

Included merely to show that it wasn’t overlooked, but there is little of a positive nature to explain the origin of the word marchpane, despite much discussion. Similar forms appear in various of the languages of Europe, apparently all derived from Italian marzipani. Some say that that was derived from the name of a Venetian … Read more

A Periwig, or false hair, called phenake by the Greeks and galerus in Rome, was worn by the ancients. But, though imitated in the Middle Ages, especially in the early sixteenth century, attendants at the courts of Louis XIV of France and of Charles II of England brought the wearing of false hair into fashion. … Read more

The Gaelic is bean sidhe, “female fairy,” which, believe it or not, is transcribed phonetically as banshee in English. The Standard Dictionary of Folklore (1949) describes her as, usually, a beautiful woman, though sometimes a hag, whose appearance, according to Irish folklore, foretells the death of someone close to one’s family.

Even a woman may be a dragoman, for the terminal syllable is not an English word, even though we do, through long custom, make its plural -men, rather than -mans, as we should. We borrowed the term from the French, who had borrowed in turn from Spain, and there it had come, through the Moors, … Read more

The Icelandic language has contributed relatively little to English, which has drawn so heavily on the various languages of the world for its present make-up, but there seems good reason to believe that ramshackle, in its present sense of “tumbledown,” or “on the verge of falling to pieces,” is derived from the Icelandic ramskakkr. Remember … Read more

Literally, “valley, or dale, of the Aire,” a river in the southern part of Yorkshire, England, joining the Ouse and emptying into the Humber. The name Airedale is applied specifically to a breed of terrier originating in this valley, wire-haired, with crown, back, and sides black, and face, throat, and limbs tan. The dog, usually … Read more

All names apply to the same natural phenomenon, which was apparently of quite frequent occurrence at one time, but is now infrequent. From printed records it would seem that the Latin term, appearing in the sixteenth century, was the earliest in English use, but it is more likely that ignis fatuus, “foolish fire,” was some … Read more

Literally, a congregation or assembly, the word Synagogue has also come to mean the place of assembly, specifically the meeting place for Jewish worship. The word comes to us through the Late Latin synagoga from the Greek synagoge, “assembly,” from synagein, “to bring together,” a compound of syn, “together,” with agein, “to lead, bring.” The … Read more

As all cool cats know, ragtime was precursor of jazz and is heavily syncopated, but with a strong beat. To its listeners in the late nineteenth century, the timing was most certainly ragged, compared to the tunes with which they were more familiar. What more logical than that this music of “ragged time” should become … Read more

Doughboy, gob, and leatherneck, as familiar designations of members of the Army, Navy, and Marine corps, respectively, of the United States, have long been subject to speculation, and still are. No one knows; the origins remain inscrutable. As to leatherneck, H. L. Mencken said at one time, “It obviously refers to the sunburn suffered by … Read more

Every generation has them, people who lose their tempers quickly, people who make more noise than they do sense, and the Romans had a name for them. The Greeks did, too, but right now it’s the Romans who concern us. The Latin term meaning “to rave, to rage” is rabo, and the petty advocate who … Read more

If it were not for the needs of crossword puzzlers, ait is rarely used word that might peacefully fade away from American dictionaries. In England, where it is still applied occasionally as a term of ancient lineage for a small island, especially in the Thames river, the spelling may be ait, eyot, or eyet, according … Read more

The etymology of the word stripling is uncertain. Most authorities suggest that it is derived from the noun strip, “a narrow piece of substantially even width,” plus the suffix -ling, “one having some specified attribute.” This derivation is based on the use of stripling as “a youth, not yet having filled out in manhood, hence, … Read more

A blue-sky law is any law enacted for the protection of suckers who, without some such safeguard, might part with cash for the purchase of hot air, scenery, or even the blue sky from unscrupulous promoters. The first of the laws that acquired the term was enacted in Kansas in 1912. Our “blue sky” in … Read more

And of all the ways in which we who speak English have altered words of other languages the word kickshaw is literally something. Yes, that is what it meant, “something.” It began as the French plural, quelque chores, which, especially when used in cookery, and, generally, with a shrug of the shoulders, indicated, “just something … Read more

It is often stated as positive fact that the phrase hocus-pocus is a conjuror’s formula. This indication of sham or trickery owed its origin to a mocking corruption of the first three Latin words of the Consecration in the Catholic Mass, Hoc est corpus meum (This is my body). There is no proof of that. … Read more

If the first syllable of numskull were spelled numb, as it once was, the sense and source would be clearly recognized. Numb in the skull, with the brain benumbed, dulled. Actually, however, if we were to follow numb back through the centuries we would find that it should be spelled num after all. Anciently, our … Read more

My, but how the learned scholars of the 1750’s did rave and rant against this neologism. After the coinage of the word humbug, out of whole cloth, presumably, it must have sprung into immediate popular favor. But here is what was said of it by one writer, probably Thomas Warton, in The Student: “I will … Read more

The casual student of etymology may well be intrigued by various compound words starting in quarter, as there seems a good likelihood that certain of these may have odd and unusual beginnings. But quarterback, for instance, is found to be, in football, the back whose position is one-quarter of the way between the line and … Read more

Although the initials O.K. are now known and used around the world and have been in common American usage for a hundred years, the source was a matter of great disputation through most of that period. Some attributed it to illiteracy displayed by Andrew Jackson, who, they said, wrote O.K. as the initials of “Oll … Read more

The etymology of sabotage is clear, it is derived from the French sabot, “a wooden shoe,” which, in turn, has been traced to the Spanish zapato, “a shoe,” probably from the Biscayan zapatu, “to tread.” The origin of the present-day meaning of sabotage, though, is less clear. It has been suggested that it may have … Read more

Almost any kind of small round flower the petals of which present a jagged appearance goes by the name bachelor’s button. Why? Because garments anciently worn were held by buttons of cloth which, in the case of helpless bachelors, became frayed around the edges.

One can’t be certain about this, but the prevailing opinion among the word-delvers is that the word akimbo arose from a corrupted pronunciation of the medieval phrase in kene bowe, meaning “in a sharp bend,” just as is the shape of one’s arm when the hand rests on the hip, the present usual sense of … Read more

England knows the firecracker, which is a jubilant explosive, as merely a cracker, though if part of a pyrotechnic display, such as a set piece, it is there, as here, a firework. Both terms have been in use from the sixteenth century. But with us, especially with a child, a cracker is first of all … Read more

Through the fact that some of the practices of certain religious devotees, especially of India, appear to be quite fictitious, clever trickery, the word fakir is sometimes considered to be merely another spelling of faker. It isn’t; it’s an Arabic term and, strictly speaking, it should be applied only to those followers of Mohammed who, … Read more

Some of the dictionaries say, “Source unknown.” We’ll agree with that as to the dory element, but, considering that the common meaning of the American term hunky-dory is “Quite satisfactory; all safe and secure,” the hunky element is logically explainable. Though not recorded until a hundred years ago, to be “all hunk” was probably as … Read more

He was only fifty when he died, in 1736, and only twenty-eight when he introduced the mercury-filled thermometer and devised the scale for measuring temperature still called by his name, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, a German citizen, born in Danzig. His father was a merchant, and the son had been trained to follow that pursuit, but, … Read more

Ladybug is the usual American name; ladybird is the usual name in England. So named, not, as childish fancy may have assumed, because these beneficial insects are all female, but in honor of “Our Lady,” the Virgin Mary.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the petticoat was a garment that was actually, as the name indicates, a “little coat.” At first it was a man’s coat, worn under his armor as a protection against chafing. Later he wore it as an undergarment beneath his doublet, as a waistcoat or sort of vest. And … Read more

Nowadays the name “Jack in the box” is usually applied to a toy, a box from which a frightening figure, such as a dragon, serpent, clown, or the like, springs out when the fastening of the lid is released. The toy, however, is a very modest proxy for the original box of the sixteenth century, … Read more

We must thank Oliver Goldsmith for developing the word cantankerous from an older source. In She Stoops to Conquer, he proclaims, “There’s not a more bitter cantanckerous road in all christendom,” meaning that the road would try one’s soul, is perverse, contrary, ill natured. Apparently Goldsmith dug up a word of similar meaning, long since … Read more

Neither of the living nor yet of the dead, a vampire is a reactivated corpse doomed, not to peaceful rest in its tomb, but to spend each night in search of a living victim of whose blood to drink. Belief in vampires is virtually world-wide, but the Slavic countries and their neighbors are the center … Read more

The Sackbut is a musical instrument, a precursor of the trombone in that it contained a hairpin-shaped bent tube which was slid in and out to vary the tone, may have derived its name from the Old Norman French saqueboute, a lance with a curved hook at the end, which was used to pull riders … Read more

The terms “Gaffer” and “Gammer” did not break into print before the latter end of the sixteenth century, but both must have been in common dialectal speech many long years earlier. And, of course, dispute reigns as to what were the original words. As now used, almost wholly only in rural England, they are usually … Read more

The word pantywaist is an American appellation for an effeminate young man is not much more than thirty years old. The idea, however, takes us back to about 1890. Small American children, then, and some perhaps not so small, were encased in a sleeveless undervest, bedecked with buttons at the waistline, to which their panties … Read more

Bits of our language have been picked up from almost every people with whom our English forebears came in contact. Thus, in remote times, when Norse vikings made settlements along the coasts of England, the Norse gala, “to sing,” entered the native speech. Thus nahtigala, the early name of the bird Nightingale, merely meant “night … Read more

Although the early settlers on our New England shores knew this plentiful fish by the name alewife (New Plymouth Laws, 1633), so many other pronunciations were also used in the early years that to this day there is no certainty of its source. Some think that an Indian name was adopted which sounded something like … Read more

The small bird known as the Nuthatch, of several varieties, got its name from certain of its feeding habits. Although it eats a profusion of insects, it is especially notable as an eater of acorns and the nuts found in pine cones, the shells of which it breaks with its sharp beak. Our ancient forebears … Read more

Hum, yes, because that which is humdrum has the monotony of the humming of a bee or other insect. But drum, well, did this added syllable, back in the sixteenth century, also convey the monotone of a drumbeat? It is doubtful, though such could have been the case. But it is more likely that drum … Read more

Whatever the present application, the original term hallmark has designated the official stamp or mark of the Goldsmith’s Company of London or other assay office applied to gold and silver articles to indicate their purity. Such stamping was introduced by order of Edward I in the year 1300, and there have been but few changes … Read more

The word falderal had no basic meaning; originally used just as a refrain in songs, probably first in Scotland about three hundred years ago. But just because it was so often employed as a meaningless termination to silly little songs it did eventually come to be employed for a flimsy trifle, an empty bit of … Read more

Sorry, but there’s not much we can do with the word nincompoop. It was coined sometime in the last half of the seventeenth century, though variously spelled nicompoop, nickumpoop, nincumpoop, but no source has been established. Dr. Samuel Johnson, in his dictionary of 1755, believed it to have been a corruption of the Latin phrase, … Read more

Lifted directly from the French over three hundred years ago, table d’hôte literally means “the host’s table.” The original sense was that of a common table set for the guests at a hotel or other eating place, but from this has come the more usual meaning today, which is the complete meal served at a … Read more

No, no one ever thought the beast known as the camelopard was a cross between the camel and the leopard, but the Greeks of old gave it the namekamelopardalis, simply because its body somewhat resembled that of the camel and its spots were like those of the pard or leopard. We call the animal by … Read more

Although derived from the Anglo-Saxon streawberige, the word strawberry is curious in that its parallel is not found in other Teutonic languages. A synonymous Anglo-Saxon word was eorthberge (earthberry), which failed to live in English, but is related to the German Erdbeere of the same meaning. Both straw and berry, though, have living relatives in … Read more

Related forms of the word yesterday are to be found throughout the entire group of the Teutonic languages, and, indeed, more distant relatives are known in many of the languages of the large Indo-European family of which the Teutonic and Romance are two important branches. In English, the word goes back to the Anglo-Saxon geostrandæg … Read more

Many years ago some enterprising naval architect, perhaps tired of the squared-off look of the vessels of his day, or perhaps to increase the deck area of his ship, designed a craft with bow and stern at sharp angles fore and aft of the keel, literally reaching out over the water. To our forefathers, a … Read more

It’s the genius of any language, we suppose, to alter an adoption from another language into familiar syllables. It was the famous grapes of Shiraz in Iran, or rather, the wine from those grapes, to which we owe the word carboy. The wine was put up in large bottles of green or blue glass, which, … Read more

Shortly after the War Between the States, in the North, the Civil War, hordes of gentry, mostly poor whites, piled their paltry belongings into the traveling bag of the period, its sides made of carpet, and moved South. Their intent was to pick up what they could, financially, socially, and politically, with the aid of … Read more

Greatly remembered, not so much by what she lovingly tried to do, but by what she wore while trying. She was unable, you remember, “to get her poor dog a bone,” because the cupboard was bare. But she was not. At least, according to the crude illustrations adorning the pages of Mother Goose’s Melodies of … Read more

Heaven grant that the garment known as the farthingale doesn’t come into style again, but it may, of course, though it can have nothing to recommend it. It was a kind of hooped skirt, extending from hips to feet, and as nearly a perfect cylinder as skill could make it, the top covered by flounces. … Read more

Yes, hamlet does mean “a little ham,” but the ham therein has nothing to do with any member of the Sus, or hog, family. It had originally, that is, to do with members of Homo sapiens, those who, in the times of Alfred the Great, lived in a small collection of cottages, a small village, … Read more

The term haberdasher is so old and so beguiling in appearance that there really should be a good story behind it. We have record of its continuous use through more than six hundred years, back to the early fourteenth century. John Minsheu, a dictionary compiler of around 1617, derives it from the German, Hab’ Ihr … Read more

Diplomatic negotiations between countries are traditionally carried on with the utmost of politeness and in courteous language. When, however, an impasse is reached, the “mailed fist in a velvet glove” is extended, by one side or the other, in the form of an ultimatum. The word itself is the neuter singular of the past participle … Read more

Though the useful device we know as the monkey wrench is little more than a hundred years old we can’t even be sure whether it was of English or American origin, let alone how it came by its name. Stimpson, in A Book about a Thousand Things (1946), believed that it was devised by a … Read more

Perhaps a good covering definition of the word moonshine would be an operation or a product achieved in the light of the moon. In England, the operation is that of smuggling spirits into the country without the payment of excise. In America, the end objective is the same and the product is also spirits, but … Read more

The Greeks had the notion that if one were bitten by a rabid dog, hydrophobia or madness could be averted by promptly chewing the leaves of this plant. Accordingly they gave it the name alyssos, from the negative prefix a and lyssa, “madness,” hence, “preventive of madness.” The meaning was preserved in the Roman alteration, … Read more

Neither portion of fantan is an English word; the whole merely approximates the Chinese name of a simple game of chance. In the native form a small heap of coins is covered by a bowl and the players then place bets, not on the number of coins so concealed, but on the remainder, one, two, … Read more

Backgammon is game of considerable antiquity, believed to have been invented in the tenth century, but possibly related to the game Ludus duodecim scriptorum, “twelve-line game,” played in ancient Rome. In England the game was always called tables prior to the seventeenth century, when the new name was introduced. Apparently the name was made up … Read more

The Greeks reckoned their calendar from the twelve principal constellations as they took their turns in the sky overhead, but the calendar was represented graphically by a circle in which figures representing the constellations were entered. This representation was called zodiakos kyklos, “the circle of the figures,” from zodion, “a figurine” (diminutive of zoon, “animal”), … Read more

Thule (pronounced thew’-lee or thoo’-lee, with th as in thank) is the ancient Greek and Latin name for the most northerly habitable place in the world, said to be six days’ sail north of Britain. Although it was presumably named for a real place, there is considerable uncertainty as to just what place was that … Read more

The word “sundown” itself is presumed to be a contraction of “sun-godown” or perhaps the archaic “sun-gate-down,” and a sundowner is either a person who times a certain action relative to sundown, or a deed performed at sundown. There are at least three quite distinct applications of the term. The oldest is an Australian usage … Read more

The word nightmare is a relic of ancient superstition dating in England at least from the eighth century, but, under the name incubus, known to the Romans of Caesar’s time. People thought this kind of mare, said to appear only at night, to be a female monster, spirit, or goblin. She sat upon the bosom … Read more

If the name tadpole for the early stage of frog or toad had gone along with other changes in our language through the centuries, no explanation of its source would be needed. Tad is merely a survival of the way toad was spelled and pronounced four hundred years ago, and pole was a seventeenth-century substitution … Read more

In college speech cantilever becomes, “Can’t I leave her?” Though most certainly this interpretation has no bearing whatsoever on this type of “flying-lever bridge,” no satisfactory source of the canti- element has been determined. As a term in architecture, the name appeared in the seventeenth century, pertaining to a masonry bracket of much greater length … Read more

The aromatic spice we know as allspice was not known in Europe before the discovery of the West Indies. The Spanish name was pimienta, “pepper,” and because of that and the place of origin the dried seeds of the berry were known to English traders as “Jamaica pepper.” However, because the housewives of England thought … Read more

Apparently on the theory, “If an audience will swallow this joke or yarn it won’t gag on anything,” gag developed, some hundred and fifty years ago, as an improbable story, some tale or yarn taxing the credulity of the listener, or, eventually, a joke that would bring forth hearty laughs from the hearers. In the … Read more

The word Viking is found in Anglo-Saxon, with the spelling wicing, as early as the eighth century, but, curiously, it is not found in modern English until the early nineteenth century, having been introduced then from the Norwegian vikingr. However, the evidence indicates that it was the Anglo-Saxon term that was the earliest ancestor, having … Read more

Easterners and Englishmen may rarely hear the word hackamore, but it is common among horsemen and cattlemen of the West. No one ever accused the forty-niners in early contact with California Mexicans of a close ear for the Spanish words they adopted, but it is now generally accepted that hackamore was intended to represent the … Read more

The word taciturn has nothing to do with any other kind of a turn, but comes to us almost unchanged from the Latin taciturnus, “silent,” through tacitus, the past participle of tacere, “to be silent.” Although taciturn, today, rarely implies the absolute silence suggested by its ancestor (meaning, rather, “disinclined to conversation, uncommunicative”), the expression … Read more

Undoubtedly, in the sense of “to beg,” the word panhandle originated among the hoboes or vagrant tramps of the United States in the late nineteenth century. The significance is by no means evident, but we see no likelihood that it had any direct reference to any of the geographical regions known as “Panhandles,” such as … Read more

We are indebted to Dr. Nellie Payne for this tale of the origin of the common name of the wild carrot, Daucus carota. She recalls having read it in a child’s primer published perhaps some fifty years ago. It seems that a ward of the Queen, learning to tat, had chosen the delicate flower of … Read more

Hamfatter is theatrical slang, of course, now often abridged to ham or altered to ham actor. Whatever you wish to use, it is applied somewhat contemptuously to an actor or actress who may wish ardently to succeed on the stage, but who just can’t act. A writer in Century Magazine in 1882 said the term … Read more

The Americanism rambunctious, possibly brought to us by Irish immigrants seems to be a variant of the British term of equivalent meaning, rambustious. The latter, it is suggested, may have been coined from ram plus bust. To ram, of course, is “to butt, strike,” and generally to behave in the manner of a frolicsome male … Read more

It is the boy beneath who is the frog, his bent back, chin on chest, somewhat resembling a ranine attitude. The sport of leapfrog is not recent. Shakespeare speaks of it when, writing Henry V, in 1599, he has the king say to Katherine of France that he would marry, “If I could winne a … Read more

Long years before radio gave Amos and Andy, and their pal, the Kingfish, to the American audience kingfish was a name bestowed upon any of several fish notable for size or importance. It is for similar cause that king became the first element in such terms as kingbolt, kingpin, kingpost, king snake, kingwood, etc.

There is nothing particularly tricky about the word eggnog. It, like the concoction it designates, is a combination of egg, the product of the hen, and nog, “strong ale,” the product of the brewer. Originally, that is, strong ale was the spirituous ingredient, but it is often replaced by wine, rum, cider, or other spirits. … Read more