Language

The term scapegoat or escape goat entered the English language with William Tyndale’s translation of the Hebrew Bible in 1525. Under the Law of Moses, the Yom Kippur ritual of atonement involved two goats. One was sacrificed to the Lord, while all the sins of the people were transferred to the other. The scapegoat was … Read more

Thomas Hobson lived between 1544 and 1631 and was the owner of a livery stable in Cambridge, England. He was a very stubborn man whom Seinfeld might have called the “Livery Nazi” because, regardless of a customer’s rank, he would rent out only the horse nearest the stable door. Hobson became famous for never renting … Read more

During the famous Scopes trial in 1925, a Tennessee schoolteacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of breaking that state’s law by teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution rather than the Biblical origins of mankind. The trial was a sensation and astonished many who had never heard that humans might be related to the apes. And it … Read more

It’s considered rude to examine a gift for value, and the expression “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” means just that. The proverb has been traced to St. Jerome, who in 400 AD wrote a letter advising a disgruntled recipient of a gift of a horse to accept it in the spirit given … Read more

A 1760 book titled The Life and Adventures of a Cat became so popular that from then on, all un-neutered male cats were called “Tom” after the book’s feline hero. A female cat that has procreated is called a “queen,” a title easily understood by any cat lover. Legend has it that one such cat … Read more

In prehistoric China, for hygiene and safety reasons dogs weren’t allowed inside the city walls. It was also forbidden to dispose of garbage within the city, and so the designated dump outside the walls was where the stray dogs found food. When undesirables and criminals were banished from the city and forced to compete with … Read more

If left to their own devices, cows in pasture will regularly show up at the barn for milking twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. The expression “’til the cows come home” first appeared in the sixteenth century when most people were familiar with the cycles of farm life. It … Read more

A “red herring” is a false clue leading detectives off the track during a criminal investigation. The term comes from a practice once used to train police dogs. When herring is smoked it becomes red, and when the young dogs were being trained to follow a scent, the trainers tossed smoked fish around to test … Read more

During the winter of 1812, while Napoleon’s army was retreating from Russia, the only available food was stale, dark bread. Although his men were dying from hunger, Napoleon ensured that his great white horse, Nicholl, always had enough to eat. This decision caused the soldiers to grumble that although they were starving there was always … Read more

Grace Hopper led the team that developed the first large-scale computer for the American Navy in 1945. After troubleshooting an unexplained problem for days, they finally found the cause to be a two-inch bug, a moth, that had gotten stuck in the relay system. And that’s how the term bug was coined. From then on, … Read more

Whether it’s a strike or an oil well, the word wildcat describes anything that is considered risky and has a good chance of failing. It comes from a time before regulations when state banks like the Bank of Michigan issued their own money. That bank’s notes had a panther on the face and were called … Read more

In the Middle Ages, people treated a dog bite with the ashes of the canine culprit’s hair. The medical logic came from the Romans, who believed that the cure of any ailment, including a hangover, could be found in its cause. It’s a principle applied in modem medicine with the use of vaccines for immunization. … Read more

In ancient times, just as today in third-world societies, dogs lived miserable lives with little or no human care. This led to the expressions for hard-times such as, “it’s a dog’s life,” “sick as a dog,” and “dog-tired.” As for the proverb “Every dog has his day,” it was first recorded as an epilogue after … Read more

The suggestion that storks delivered babies came from Scandinavia and was promoted by the writings of Hans Christian Andersen. Storks had a habit of nesting on warm chimneys and would often lift articles from clotheslines then stuff them into these nests. To children this looked like they were stuffing babies down the flue. The stork … Read more

The term nest egg usually refers to savings that compounds or grows with interest or through investments. The expression is an old one and comes from a trick poultry farmer’s use to increase a hen’s egg-laying ability. By placing a false egg, often a doorknob, in her nest, the farmer fools the chicken into laying … Read more

The thousand-year-old expression “bringing home the bacon” came from a common British competition of trying to catch a greased pig at a country fair. But the first time it was recorded and entered into modern use in North America was in 1910, when, after her son won a championship fight, Jack Johnson’s mother told the … Read more

Twenty-four hundred years ago, because roosters heralded the sunrise and hens squawked before laying an egg, the Etruscans thought they were soothsayers. Because the sacred fowl’s collarbone resembled a human groin, it was believed to have special powers and was called a wishbone. The Romans introduced the custom of two people pulling on the wishbone … Read more

A horseshoe’s charm comes from the legend of Saint Dunstan. Because of Saint Dunstan’s talent as a blacksmith, he was asked by the Devil to shoe his cloven hoof. Saint Dunstan agreed, but in carrying out the task, he caused the Devil such pain that he was able to make him promise never to enter … Read more

Today, a tombstone is a tribute marking someone’s final resting place. But the custom began within ancient fears that the departed spirit might rise from the grave to search out and inhabit the body of a living person. To prevent this, the coffin was nailed shut, a heavy stone was placed on its lid, and … Read more

Any group of birds, goats, or sheep can be referred to as a flock, but each feathered breed has its own proper title. Hawks travel in casts, while it’s a bevy of quail, a host of sparrows, and a covey of partridges. Swans move in herds, and peacocks in musters, while a flock of herons … Read more

The expression “frog in your throat” doesn’t come from sounding like a frog because you have a cold or sore throat. It originates from an actual Middle Ages medical treatment for a throat infection. Doctors believed that if a live frog was placed head-first into a patient’s mouth the animal would inhale the cause of … Read more

As man’s first food seasoning, and later a food preservative and a medicine, salt has been a precious commodity for ten thousand years, so spilling it was costly as well as bad luck. This superstition was enhanced by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, within which Judas has spilled the table salt as … Read more

This superstition comes from the idea that many early cultures considered a triangle to be a sacred symbol of life. For Christians, a triangle represents the Holy Trinity. A ladder against a wall forms a triangle with the ground, and so to walk beneath it would be to disrupt a sanctified space and risk divine … Read more

The number thirteen represents Judas, the thirteenth to arrive at the Last Supper. Friday by itself is unlucky because it was the day of Christ’s Crucifixion. Years ago, the British set out to disprove these superstitions. They named a new vessel HMS Friday, laid her keel on a Friday, and then sent her to sea … Read more

Called either “ladybird” or “ladybug,” the little red beetle with the black spots is the well-known and beloved subject of a nursery rhyme. It is called a “lady” after the Virgin Mary because it emerges around March 25, the time of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is also known as Lady Day. Called the … Read more

Crossing our fingers for luck predates Christianity and originally involved two people. In the pagan ritual, a close friend placed his or her index finger over the index finger of the person making the wish in order to help trap the wish at the centre of a perfect cross, which is where benevolent spirits lived. … Read more

The ancient Greeks believed a blessing might prevent evil from entering your body during its unguarded state while you sneeze. Our tradition comes from the black plague of 1665, when sneezing was believed to be one of the first symptoms of the disease. Infection meant certain death, and so the symptom was greeted with the … Read more

When kids play tag and hold a tree for safety, they are acting out a four-thousand-year-old custom of the North American Indians. They believed that because the oak was most frequently struck by lightning, it was the home of the sky god. The Greeks came to this same conclusion two thousand years later. And because … Read more

Beginning around the tenth century with the idea that the departed spirits would guide seamen on the ocean, ships were christened, or blessed, with the blood of sacrificial victims, which was splashed throughout the vessel. Eventually those who thought this too barbaric began using red wine, but the Christian church complained that this was an … Read more

The great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who died fighting with Canada against the United States’ invasion in the War of 1812, placed a curse on the American presidency. He proclaimed that every president elected in a year that ends in a zero would die during his term. Since then, every president elected in such a year … Read more

The blues were around long before African Americans put them to music. The expression originates in the belief of early English settlers that “blue devils,” or mean spirits, had followed them to their new land. These devils were thought to be the cause of sadness, and so a bout of depression was called “the blues.” … Read more

The word blizzard didn’t mean a snowstorm until 1870, when a newspaper editor in Estherville, Iowa, needed a word to describe a fierce spring storm. The word blizzard had been hanging around with no particular origin for about fifty years and was used to describe a vicious physical attack, either with fists or guns. After … Read more

The Indians taught the first European settlers the value of a buck. Like gold, deer or buckskin was used in trading as a unit of value against which everything else was assessed. That’s how a dollar was called a “buck”. The phrase, “The buck stops here” is a different story altogether. That expression came from … Read more

Today, mourners wear black as a symbol of sadness and respect for their lost loved ones, but it didn’t start out that way. Many years ago it was believed that the spirit of the departed, fearing harsh judgment, would try to remain on earth by inhabiting a familiar body. The mourners wore black and stayed … Read more

In the days of their empire, British tourists traveled by ship from England to the warmer climates of India and the Mediterranean. Wealthy passengers on these voyages demanded cabins shaded from the sun, which meant being on the port side on the way out and the starboard side on the way home. Tickets for these … Read more

Early railroads had only a single track between destinations. Problems arose when a train was met by another going in the opposite direction or was about to be overtaken by a faster one. This dilemma was solved with the creation of sidings, short lengths of track built parallel to the main line where one train … Read more

The custom of a “honeymoon” began over four thousand years ago in Babylon. When for a full lunar month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the honey-beer he could drink. It was called the “honey month.” The word honeymoon didn’t enter our language until 1546, and because few people … Read more

In the primitive days of navigation, the helmsman stood at the stern of the ship, controlling the vessel’s direction by hand with a rudder. The rudder was on the right side and called a steer board, or as the Anglo-Saxons called it, a “starboard.” The left side of the ship is called the “port” side, … Read more

Along with space exploration came new expressions that are now everyday language. Astronauts said “affirmative” for yes, “check” to confirm a completed task, and “copy” to indicate that an instruction was understood. The word “Glitch,” for an unexplained computer malfunction, was first used to describe the Mercury space capsule’s frustrating tendency to signal an emergency … Read more

The derrick, an instrument used for heavy lifting, got its name from a famous London hangman. In the early 1600s, Godfrey Derrick built a sturdy gallows from which he would execute some three thousand souls by hanging. Because items hung and swayed from the cranes used to load ships, longshoremen called them “derricks” after the … Read more

In the 1850s, when Levi Strauss ran out of tent canvas for the pants he was selling to California gold miners, he imported a tough material from Nimes in France called “serge de Nim”. Americanized, “de Nim” became “denim.” The word “jeans” comes from the French phrase “bleu de Gênes”, which literally means “the blue … Read more

The dandelion and the daisy are both named for a particular physical characteristic. The English daisy, with its small yellow centre and white- or rose-coloured rays, closes at night and reopens with daylight like the human eye, and so it was named the “day’s eye.” The dandelion, because of its sharp, edible leaves, was named … Read more

In the Greek and Roman theatres, actors wore masks to indicate the different characters they were playing. The Latin word for mask, persona, came to mean a personality other than that of the actor. Today, persona, or personality, still refers to the mask a person wears to hide his or her true character while playing … Read more

The word curfew comes from the French word “couvre-feu”, which means “cover-fire” and was brought to England by William the Conqueror. The original Curfew Law minimized the tremendous risk of fire by ordaining that a bell be rung at eight o’clock each evening, signaling everyone to either extinguish or cover their home fires. During political … Read more

While a backlog of work might be a burden, it’s better than no work at all, and in business it guarantees survival. Before stoves, or even matches, the kitchen fireplace was kept burning around the clock. This was done by placing a huge log, or back log, behind the fire that would keep smoldering once … Read more

The distress call “mayday” comes from the French, who were leading pioneers in flight. In 1911 there were 433 licensed aviators in France, compared to just 171 in Britain and even fewer in the United States. Flying was a risky business, and it wasn’t until parachutes and radios were introduced that the French call “M’aidez,” … Read more

Norman Mailer introduced the word factoid in his 1973 book Marilyn. He invented it by combining the word fact with “-oid”, a scientific suffix that means “resembling but not identical to.” In other words, it’s something that looks like a fact, but isn’t. Factoids are built from rumors and used by irresponsible journalists to create … Read more

The hard pavement surface we now call asphalt was discovered by chance when an Englishman named E. Purnell Hooley accidentally spilled tar onto some crushed stone. Hooley named this new black pavement by taking the last name of Scotsman John MacAdam, who had developed the use of crushed stone for a firm, dry highway, and … Read more

The word boycott, meaning to ostracize an oppressor, originated in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. As punishment for falling behind in rent, poor tenant farmers in County Mayo were being tossed from their homes by Captain Charles Boycott, who was acting as the agent of an absentee English landlord. The tenants eventually forced Boycott’s … Read more

On June 24, or St. John’s Day, early Britons lit chains of huge fires to support the diminishing sun. These fires were fed with the clean bones of dead farm animals and were called “bone fires,” which evolved into the word “bonfires”. There were bone fires, wood fires, and a mixture of both wood and … Read more

In medieval times, houses didn’t have roof gutters to carry off rainwater. Instead they had “eaves,” which are the lower wide projecting edges of a sloping roof. These eaves protected the mud walls from damage from the rain dropping from the roof. If, during a sudden shower, someone sought cover by standing under an eave, … Read more

Legend has it that in 1617, King James I of England coined the term “sirloin” during dinner and after a few goblets of wine. The King suddenly stood and drew his sword and, laying it across the entrée, declared: “Gentlemen, as fond as I am of all of you, yet I have a still greater … Read more

European settlers brought their money with them to America, and coins made of precious metal were accepted everywhere at face value. The Spanish peso was divided into eight silver coins, which the English called bits, or pieces of eight. Two bits was one-quarter of a Spanish dollar. When money was printed and minted in the … Read more

If there is “blackmail” then one would assume that there must be “white mail.” Mail was a Scottish word for rent or tax, and during the reign of James I, taxes or mail were paid in silver, which, because of its color, was called “white mail.” During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, bandits along the … Read more

The reason why the written records of a meeting are called the minutes is because, in order to keep up, the minute-taker wrote in a shorthand or abbreviation. The word used to describe this condensed writing was minute (my-noot), meaning “small,” and because the spelling is the same, the minutes (my-noots) became minutes. The same … Read more

When the Normans conquered England, they introduced the open hearth for cooking and heating. At each corner of the hearth was a large container for heating liquids. It was called a “hob.” Near the fire was a table where the hob was placed for convenient serving. They called this table a “nob.” When friends gathered … Read more

In the ancient world a talent was a unit of weight used to value gold and silver. Today’s use of the word comes from the Book of Matthew, wherein three servants are given equal amounts of money, or talent, by their master. Two invest wisely and profit while the third buries his and doesn’t. That … Read more

In early English, a stock was a tree trunk, and by the fourteenth century it figuratively meant the family tree or the consequences of breeding. For example, someone might be from “farming stock” or “good stock,” while an animal’s breeding line was traced through their “livestock.” If someone calls you a laughingstock, they are insulting … Read more

Up until 1765, diners were offered only what innkeepers chose to serve. But then, a Paris chef named Boulanger began offering a choice of nourishing soups to passersby and on a board hanging over the door he painted the word “Restaurant,” meaning “to restore.” Boulanger was so successful that throughout the world dining rooms still … Read more

Like cloche in French, the word clock literally means bell. When the large mechanical clock was invented in the fourteenth century it didn’t tell time with a face and hands, but rather by sounding bells on the hour and eventually the quarter and half-hour. This time device was named a clock because it told time … Read more

There are different degrees of frightening dreams, but the most terrifying cause sensations of suffocation and paralysis. Literature best describes the sleeper’s sensation in the stories of Dracula, but there was also a common female demon known as “the night hag.” Mare is an Old English term for demon and comes from the same root … Read more

The word Utopia was created by the English philosopher Sir Thomas More in 1516. It was the title of his book that compared the state of life in Europe at the time with an imaginary ideal society. Utopia is from Greek word meaning nowhere. The thrust of More’s message was that an ideal world, or … Read more

An eleventh-century alchemist translated into Latin the original eighth-century writings of an Arabian alchemist named Jabir. If his work had been discovered he would have been put to death, and so he wrote Jabir’s formulas in a mystical jargon of his own creation. To anyone other than the author, the Jabir translations didn’t make sense. … Read more

Among the many slang expressions for denominations of money are deuce, originally a mild curse of the devil when the number two showed up in dice or cards, and the Yiddish fin for a five. The term sawbuck for a ten-dollar bill comes from the frame of a sawbuck, or sawhorse, on which farmers held … Read more

In 1910, the rotating slot machine appeared as a device for dispensing chewing gum and gave us the symbols still used on slot machines today. The spinning flavors were cherry, orange, and plum. Each wheel had a bar reading “1910 Fruit Gum,” and three of those in a row paid off in a jackpot of … Read more

The chain of events set in motion by a major occurrence is often called an aftermath. The word “Math” is from an old English word meaning “to mow.” The second, smaller crop of hay that sometimes springs up after a field has been mowed is called the aftermath, or “after mowing”. Although this hay is … Read more

School children in the sixteenth century worked lessons on a thin wooden board that hung from their belts. On it were printed the alphabet, the numbers, and the Lord’s Prayer. Because it was preceded by a Maltese cross the alphabet was called the Christ-cross-row. Students reciting from the board always began with the prayer, “Christ’s … Read more

Sometime during the sixteenth century, British farmers moved from sleeping on the ground to sleeping in beds. These beds were little more than straw-filled mattress tied to wooden frames with ropes. To secure the mattress before sleeping, you pulled on the ropes to tighten them, and that’s when they began saying, “Goodnight, sleep tight.” As … Read more

The “noon hour” has shifted several times throughout history, and at one time, when Christians prayed twice a day, it meant both midday and midnight. In the original Old English the noon hour was the hour for prayers, which at the time was the ninth hour of daylight, or three o’clock in the afternoon. The … Read more

In the eighteenth century, a British sailor’s sparse diet consisted of a breakfast and lunch of little more than mouldy bread and water. If he were lucky, the third meal of the day included meat and was served on a square tin platter. Because of the shape of that platter, they called it their “square” … Read more

The word blurb means an inspired recommendation. It comes from an evening in 1907 during an annual trade dinner of New York publishers where it was customary to distribute copies of new books with special promotional jackets. For his book, humorist Gelett Burgess caused a sensation with a cover drawing of a very attractive and … Read more

“Getting the sack” has come to mean getting fired or dismissed from anything, including a love affair. The expression entered the language long before the industrial era, at a time when workers carried their tools from job to job in a sack. When the job was done, or the laborer was discharged, the boss or … Read more

In their early days, Lloyd’s of London used an “A list” to classify sailing ships for insurance purposes. Only vessels meeting strict specifications would go to the top of that list, where they were said to be in A1 condition. When Lloyd’s began covering everything from Mary Hart’s legs to Jennifer Lopez’s derriere as a … Read more

Chow is a Mandarin Chinese word meaning to cook or fry, while in Cantonese, chow means food. The chow chow is a breed of dog that was in fact originally bred by the Chinese to be eaten. In the early days of North American settlement, Chinese immigrants were often put to work cooking for the … Read more

“Hanging out” usually means getting together for no particular reason other than to pass time and see what’s happening. The expression comes from a time before commercial signs, when English shopkeepers set up poles in front of their stores from which they would hang flags describing their goods. These flags were called hangouts, and they … Read more

In Victorian times, to “go to The Devil” was to visit a bar on Flat Street near the London Civil Courts. The Devil was a favorite pub for lawyers, who seemed to spend more time in that bar than in their offices. If a client thought his money had “gone to The Devil” to pay … Read more

During the nineteenth century, Bristol, England, was the busiest seaport in the world. While local sailors were at sea, tradesmen would extend credit to their wives until the very day their husband’s ship returned to port. Because the ship meant her family’s livelihood, women referred to their husband’s vessel as “my ship”. And when asking … Read more

During the frontier days, peddlers travelling between settlements had to move as silently as possible through the hostile forest. But when they approached a homestead or town they would take out their muffled bells and hang them on their horses’ necks to announce their arrival. The peddlers’ arrival “with bells on” brought news, letters, and … Read more

In the Middle Ages, simple survival meant working long and hard from sunrise to sunset, so any break, such as for a religious festival, was a very special day. Called “holy days,” these feasts were marked on the calendar in red, giving us the expression “red letter day.” Around the fifteenth century, “holy days” became … Read more

Pin money became an English phrase to describe extra cash set aside by wives to run the household at the turn of the twentieth century. It was a time when pins were rare enough to be sold on just two days of the year, January 1 and 2. Although through time pins became more commonplace … Read more

Sailing ships are controlled with an intricate system of ropes, called “halyards,” “lines,” and “sheets,” whose function it is to move or hold things in place. Sheets are the ropes that control the sails. If one is loose, the sails will flap in the wind. Two loose sheets will affect the ship’s steadiness. “Three sheets … Read more

The original meaning of the word brand was a fire burning within a furnace or forge. To say an item, whether pottery or forged metal, was “brand new” meant it was fresh from the fires of its creation. This usage dates back to the sixteenth century. The verb to brand comes from the same source … Read more

Thousands of years ago, before money was introduced, workers and soldiers were often paid with a negotiated quantity of salt. More than as a seasoning, salt’s value was in its use as a preservative or cure for meat, as well as a medicine. The early Romans called this payment a “salarium,” which gave us the … Read more

In the days of the general store, cloth came in bulk and was sold by the yard. The storekeeper, who quickly became expert at measuring, often used the length of his arm as a measure of each yard being purchased. If the measurement was challenged, the seller would remeasure the cloth against two brass tacks … Read more

In the mid-1700s the ancient London Cathedral of St. Paul’s was falling apart. The strain on the treasury was so great that it was decided that it would merge with the diocese of the newer St. Peter’s Cathedral in order to absorb and use their funds to repair the crumbling St. Paul’s. The parishioners of … Read more

During the days of travelling vaudeville shows, there were featured stars, and there were fillers. The fillers were the comics who were hired to keep the audience amused by telling jokes within a song and dance routine until the next headliner was ready to come on stage. Since then, any well-rehearsed routine that is intended … Read more

Sirius, the “dog star,” is within the constellation Canis Major and is the brightest in the heavens. The ancient Egyptians noted that the dog star’s arrival in July coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, which was important for a good harvest. The Romans believed that, because of its brightness, the dog star Sirius … Read more

The purpose of a pirate ship’s flag was to signal a merchant vessel that if it didn’t surrender, it would be boarded and plundered by force. Pirates used a variety of flags. One was an hourglass that signaled time was running out. The skull and crossbones is of course the most famous flag, and it … Read more

In 1814, after a night in a pub, Francis Scott Key was taken prisoner during the war between Canada and the United States. When he saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry he was inspired to write his famous lyrics with one particular barroom song, “To Anacreon In Heaven,” still in his mind. … Read more

In the Australian song “Waltzing Matilda,” a billabong is a pool of stagnant water. A swagman was someone who carried around everything he owned in a knapsack. Waltzing meant hiking, and Matilda wasn’t a woman but rather an Australian word for a knapsack. So Waltzing Matilda means: walking with my knapsack. The original lyrics were … Read more