Language

An argosy is a merchant vessel, especially one richly laden. The term dates to the sixteenth century, to a period when such vessels plied a brisk trade with England from a certain port in Italy. That port was Ragusa (now in Yugoslavia and called Dubrovnik). A ship hailing therefrom was, of course, “a Ragusa,” a … Read more

The word scalawag, which seems to be a true Americanism, has had several other spellings, the most common of which is scallywag, but scalawag seems to be the original and, today, is the one most favored. It was first recorded by John Russell Bartlett in the first edition (1848) of his Dictionary of Americanisms, in … Read more

The planet Saturn was named after the Roman god of the same name, but any symbolic similarity ends there. For Saturn, the god, was feasted with unrestrained merrymaking, and we still recall these riotous feasts in our term Saturnalia. On the other hand, Saturn, the planet, was the seventh and most remote planet known to … Read more

Undoubtedly there was once a pathetic story about a poor man who, painfully, saved enough money to make a down payment on a horse that he greatly desired to help him till his land. The sad part being that the horse died long before the buyer had made enough to pay the remainder of his … Read more

Maybe you think jimjams is a new word. Well, in the plural form, it is, relatively so, though it dates back about sixty years. But as a singular it goes back four hundred years. A rhymester of that period wrote: These be as knappishe knackes (knick-knacks) As ever man made, For iavells (rascals) and for … Read more

The earliest use of the term windjammer in English is reported to have been in the 1870’s, with the meaning of “a horn player.” It seems probable that the nickname was coined from the German word for wind, which has the same spelling, and from the German verb jammer (pronounced yahmmer, and from which we … Read more

Could be that under another name the hair dressing bandoline is in use today. It was a sticky aromatic ointment used by dandies of a century back for keeping hair smooth and mustache waxed and pointed and it was made from the boiled pips of the quince. Later it was also used in the making … Read more

Devil’s-darning-needle is the common name in the United States of the dragonfly (which see). We abridge it sometimes to darning-needle, and, a hundred years ago, Thoreau and others spoke of the insect as devil’s-needle. The name is fairly obvious: large staring eyes which remind one of Satan himself, and an extremely slender and long body, … Read more

The adverbial phrase tete-a-tete, implying an intimate conversation, is a direct lift from the French, and has the literal meaning “head-to-head.” The phrase has been given both adjectival and noun uses in English as applied to chairs so designed as to permit the exchange of confidences, meals served for two persons, and the like. It … Read more

Seldom encountered but “galosh” in the plural, galoshes. Nowadays it is rarely other than a rubber or rubberized-fabric overshoe, but in former days, extending back to ancient Greek times, yes, it’s a very old term, though its antique form was then kalopous, it may have been of wood, like the French sabot, or a sandal … Read more

Just think, as far as original meaning of the word “haversack” is concerned, this soldier’s carryall might just as properly have been called a “gunny sack.” That is, the original German term was haber sack, literally “sack for oats,” and it referred especially to the bag, usually of canvas, in which a cavalryman carried oats … Read more

This time our modern word “shako” shows evidence of Hungarian influence, even though the ultimate derivation seems to be from the Germans. Starting with the German Zacke, “a peak,” the trail leads next to the Hungarian csakos suveg, “a peaked cap.” This became abbreviated to csako, which was then taken into French as schako, and … Read more

Light as a feather, or better, thin as gossamer. Either of these expressions describes fairly accurately the gentleness which is characteristic of true subtlety, but “gossamer” is a close translation of the Latin word from which subtle originates. Subtle was brought into English from the Old French soutil (alternately spelled soul or sutil) with the … Read more

Lives there a man who hasn’t at some time envied the beachcomber, that wastrel who, without a care in the world, strolled some beneficent Pacific isle, taking shelter from sun or storm under a broad tree, and deriving sustenance from plentiful vegetation and marine life, free for the taking? Such, at least, was the beachcomber … Read more

Nothing at all to do either with a fan or a fare, but, as still happens when we try to take a foreign word into our language, a syllable or two got lopped off the original word, some three centuries ago, and the meaning was altered. That is, the original was the Spanish word fanfarria, … Read more

As the Church of Rome grew stronger, it acquired converts in many of the lands both near to and distant from Italy, including those in Europe to the north. And, of course, to retain these converts, it was necessary to appoint representatives in these countries who would represent the Church to the natives. Now, the … Read more

We have not much to say about the word pernickety; no one knows its ancestry. It is alleged to have been born in Scotland, chiefly, I’d say, because the earliest appearance in print so far noted was in the works of Scottish writers. But the date of such appearance was 1808, and that would scarcely … Read more

None of the various word tracers has attempted to explain why the small shut-off valve was named petcock. Though a cock, it is distinctly no one’s pet. Until someone turns up with a better explanation, we suggest that pet was merely a contraction of petty or petit, meaning “small, minor, inferior.” An objection to this … Read more

To uphold means, among other things, “to maintain, to preserve intact,” and it was but a slight extension of this to arrive at “to keep in repair.” It was in this latter sense that the word upholder was coined, to apply to one who dealt in the sale, manufacture, or repair of clothing and furniture. … Read more

In English Arras is the name of a kind of tapestry richly woven with scenes and figures, and also of the hangings of this material which, in olden days, were hung around the walls of large rooms, often so spaced as to furnish concealment for an eavesdropper, a lover, or a knave The French call … Read more

A “chestnut” is an old joke or oft-repeated story. The reason for this designation has never been proved, but George Stimpson, in A Book about a Thousand Things (1946), says: “The generally accepted story is that (it) originated in a play entitled ‘The Broken Sword,’ in which the chief characters are Captain Zavier, a Baron … Read more

Suppose your wife (or mother) came home after two weeks of vacation in which you were left to shift for yourself, took one look at the house, threw up her hands and exclaimed in dismay, “This place! It’s a shambles!” Would you interpret her remark to mean: (1) “I don’t know how, but you’ve turned … Read more

One could be pardoned for thinking a pettifogger was a person who “fogged” an issue by quibbling over petty matters, which is exactly what he does. Such was not the origin of the word, however, as fog was not used in such a sense in the mid-sixteenth century when pettifogger made its appearance. Nevertheless the … Read more

Oddly enough, in the earliest use of hurry, in the last years of the sixteenth century, it was nothing more than a variant of hurly, meaning “disturbance, tumult.” That is the sense in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (Act IV, Scene vi): “His remedies are tame, the present peace, And quietnesse of the people, which before Were in … Read more

The word “Xerography” is of very recent coinage, dating only to about 1940, this, like most words in English having the initial x, is based on Greek roots. It is made up of the combining forms of zeros, “dry,” and graphein, “to write,” hence has the literal meaning of “dry writing.” Although on an etymological … Read more

The words thingum, thingumajig, thingumbob, thingummy are meaningless extensions of the word thing in its special use as a term to denote an object or person which the speaker cannot or will not name specifically. Thingum was first recorded in the late seventeenth century, the other forms followed (not in order) in the eighteenth and … Read more

The Earwig has no interest whatsoever in wigs, so why this curious name? The clue, nevertheless, lies in that second part. For many, many centuries, popular superstition had it that the insect’s chief aim in life was to enter the ear of any warm-blooded animal, chiefly man, and then by the aid of the pincer-like … Read more

Some two and a half millenniums ago, specifically, in the sixth century B.C., there lived a Greek playwright whose name was Thespis. None of his plays or poems have lived to the present, and his name is remembered almost entirely because of the generally accepted view that it was he who invented the Greek tragedy. … Read more

We say, somewhat fatuously, that the hiccup is an echo of the sound, yet, strangely, the French idea of the same sound, written hoquet, is pronounced “aw’keh,” and the Spanish idea, written hipo, is pronounced “ee’po.” We also spell our term hiccough, though without affecting the pronunciation. Prior to the seventeenth century our English ancestors … Read more

The trick may have been practiced in the time of the Pharaohs; if not, probably some variant of it was. Certainly someone then knew that the hand is quicker than the eye. In England it was known as “the thimble trick” two and a half centuries ago, and then, as now, the trickster at horserace … Read more

It was the Roman poet Horace who coined the very long adjective “sesquipedalian” that is used to define a word that is very long. It appears in line 97 of one of the last of his works, published shortly before his death in 8 B.C., the Epistle to the Pisos, better known as Ars Poetica … Read more

Somewhere along the line someone with a cleft palate or a mouthful of mush must have been responsible for this word. Its Latin name, in the thirteenth century was pulegium, corrupted along with French usage to puliol. To distinguish it from wild thyme, rial, “royal,” was added. But then, along in the sixteenth century, Mr. … Read more

Among the four or five words spelled f-l-a-g recorded in your dictionary may be: (1) a banner; (2) a plant; (3) a wing feather of a bird; (4) a coin; (5) a flat slab of stone. And, though there are some differences of opinion, your dictionary may indicate that these flags are independent of one … Read more

The fiddler crab is also known just by the simpler name, fiddler. The reason? Merely because it brandishes its outsize larger claw in a manner suggestive of the action of a violinist handling his bow.

Shake, which comes ultimately from the Teutonic skakan, at one time during its life in our language had the meaning “move away from, travel, wander.” From this sense it acquired the meaning of “take away without permission, steal.” This, in turn, led to the coining of shakedown in the sense of extracting unwilling tribute, as … Read more

The “spit-box” and the “spittoon” were known early in the past century, the former usually containing sand or sawdust and more or less immovable, and the latter of earthenware or metal, small enough to be cleaned from time to time. They were reasonably necessary adjuncts to a saloon or club frequented by men who chewed … Read more

A battledore was originally a paddle-shaped wooden bat used by women as a mangle, or “beetle,” for linens, back in the fifteenth century. There is no certainty as to the origin of the name, but it might then have been a play upon words, battle instead of beetle, and because beetle was also the name … Read more

The earliest of pirates’ flags was, when displayed, no more, likely, than a plain black sheet. Later some of the pirates began to embellish them with designs in white of grinning skull and crossbones, and by the mid-nineteenth century such was the general ensign. To the English, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the … Read more

Someone whose identity will never be known dreamed up the word flabbergast about the year 1770. At least it was reported as a new word in 1772, “Now we are flabbergasted and bored (another new word) from morning to night.” Possibly the inventor coined it by joining forcibly the two words flabby and aghast, but … Read more

Though originally, fifteenth century and later, this denoted a cake or pie of light pastry containing cheese, the custard-like preparation used as filling by today’s good cooks may or may not include cheese in the composition. But the modern product is delicious. And because it also delights the eye, users of American slang have applied … Read more

The phrase “Argus eyed” means extraordinarily vigilant. This, too, comes from Greek mythology. The goddess Hera, wife of the supreme god Zeus, jealous of his affection for the nymph Io, turned her into a cow and then appointed Argus, possessed of a hundred eyes and able to see in all directions, as guardian and caretaker. … Read more

One of the many meanings of to stop is “to dam, to plug up,” as in “to stop a leak,” or “to stop a drain.” And a stopgap, even in its modern sense of some temporary measure to fill a need, is, both literally and figuratively, something to “stop” a “gap.”

A love apple is just the ordinary common tomato, but many people were averse to eating it. In rural Ohio, it was known only as love apple and, believed to possess aphrodisiac properties, was therefore feared by virtuous maidens. The reason for the name, with the properties suggested by it, was entirely due to a … Read more

Shilling is a purely Teutonic word, found in all languages of the Germanic group with appropriate spelling in each. In English, it dates back to the Anglo-Saxon scilling, from there to the Gothic skilligs. It has been adopted into most of the Romance languages, again with appropriate changes in spelling. The root is uncertain, but … Read more

Although the word “Bigwig” is humorously employed nowadays to designate a person of real or self-fancied importance, the start of the allusion was in fact indicated by the size of the wig a man wore. That was back in the times of Queen Anne of England and Louis XIV of France. Wigs had been courtly … Read more

If we count only three generations to a century, our ancestors were carrying their children or others pick-a-back twelve generations ago and calling the manner by that name, or one very like it. That is, in the original dialect the term may have been pick pack, which may have referred to a pack picked (pitched) … Read more

Strange that New York thought it had to create a new word for its cross-state toll road, the Throughway. Beyond the temporary distinction of application to that one highway, there is nothing in the word that does not already exist in the long-established, six hundred years, word thoroughfare. Thorough is the ancient spelling of through; … Read more

They did it first with cords twisted tighter and tighter by a stick, a method copied from carriers who thus secured loads upon their mules. The stick itself was the garrote. “They” were the Spanish Inquisitors of the fourteenth century and later, who sought and employed all sorts of methods of torture to extract confessions. … Read more

The literal sense of the word “hidebound” related first to cattle which, under conditions of extreme emaciation resulting from disease, lost the fatty tissue normally lying under the skin. After death, then, the hide of any such animal cannot be loosened from the ribs or backbone. The condition, using this term, was first described in … Read more

The verb of which kempt is the past participle is kemb, “to comb,” and it derives from the Anglo-Saxon cembam and ultimately from the Old Teutonic kembjan. The only modern survivor of the verb is this form as it appears in the combinations unkempt and well-kempt, but the meanings most often implied in modern usage … Read more

Although one authority cites a purported Southern United States meaning of “A sharp blow on the shins,” this may only be a transferred meaning, from the appearance of the word “shindig”, to an accidental kick received during a spirited dance or party. It seems much more likely that a shindig is a U.S. alteration of … Read more

Nowadays a bluenose is (a) a person of puritanic habits, such as, allegedly, those of the Back Bay area of Boston, or (b) a Nova Scotian to whom this term is applied. But in the first quarter of the nineteenth century it was applied generally to one from northern New England or adjacent provinces of … Read more

The chop is English, in the sense of “chipped” or “cut,” but the suey is Chinese sui, “bits.” Like the term itself, the concoction or comestible is of mixed origin. As explained to us, forty years ago, it was first devised by a Chinese operating a restaurant in Brooklyn, who composed it of bits of … Read more

The Ferris Wheel was first seen at the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, the “World’s Fair,” and was the greatest attraction of all the amusements then offered. No doubt larger ones have since been built, but this first one, rotating between two pyramids, was a framework of steel, 250 feet in diameter, and … Read more

In Turkey the title of bashaw or pasha is applied to military officers and civil servants of high rank, being comparable to general, admiral, or governor. There are three grades of bashaw, and it was formerly the practice, especially during military maneuvers, to designate the grade by tying an appropriate number of horse tails to … Read more

Thank fortune, one may be bald without being piebald. The element pie, in this case, relates to the magpie, a bird with feathers splotched with two colors, a bird called pica by the Romans, whence the English pie. Originally one of the two colors was, as with the bird, always a white spot, having thus … Read more

When first recorded (1674), the air of indecision expressed by the term shilly-shally was rendered in much more recognizable form. The picture we have is of some Caspar Milquetoast of the day standing irresolutely and murmuring, “Shall I? Shall I?” In the course of literary evolution, the question became reduced to shally-shally, but was accompanied … Read more

Mr. Bartlett, in the fourth edition (1877) of his Dictionary of Americanisms, decided that the word “Dingbat” owed its origin to a bat, or piece of wood or metal, that could be dinged, or thrown. Well, maybe so. That’s probably as good as any explanation, though the source of any bit of slang is, usually, … Read more

The derivation is somewhat obscure, although some authorities believe that the name for this emergency anchor comes from shot-anchor, or shoot-anchor, since, if an emergency actually came about, it would have been “shot” (dropped quickly) from its supports. To bolster this theory, attention is called to the derivation of shoot, which came into the language … Read more

The creature known as the Dormouse is certainly not a dor, or beetle, nor related to anything that flies, nor is it exactly a mouse, though small and a member of the rodent family. In fact, the source of its name has long been a matter of speculation and is still obscure, though in use … Read more

There’s no doubt that the term Highball has long been used by American railwaymen as that of a signal to the locomotive engineer to proceed. The signal itself was a ball large enough to be plainly visible which, when hoisted to the top of a mast at the approach to a small station, indicated that … Read more

“To lick one’s chops,” usually interpreted as indicating supreme pleasure, such as that from lapping the last taste of gravy or the last crumb of cake from one’s jaws, not only shows us the meaning of chop in the term chopfallen, but also pictures the exact opposite, the antonym, of the whole term. One who … Read more

The Daystar is usually Venus, though it may at times be Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, or Mercury. At any rate it is the planet that appears in the eastern sky shortly before the sun rises, accordingly also called the morning star.

The kind of loop now attached to this hole is seldom used or heard of any more. In the late Middle Ages, however, a loop was a narrow window, in a castle or other fortification, through which an archer could direct his missiles, but so narrow as to be a baffling target for an opposing … Read more

The Romans of Caesar’s day are remembered for, among other things, their fondness for good wines, so it may be fitting that Caesar’s title has been perpetuated, even though indirectly, in the common table wine we know as Sherry. For the name Caesaris was given to a town in Spain in his honor, but the … Read more

Belladonna means “Beautiful lady,” but why this name for the deadly nightshade? Two highly contradictory accounts have been given. The English naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) said that a cosmetic made from the juice of this plant was used by, especially, Venetian ladies to enhance their beauty. This is probably the true origin of the name. … Read more

Who first used the expression Dilly Dally, or when, is not known; probably some harassed mother back in the sixteenth century, annoyed with the dalliance of a loitering son, or husband, made dally more emphatic by duplicating it with dilly. At least, the dilly prefix has no separate meaning of its own, any more than … Read more

Maybe the dog or horse with coat of the color that we call flea-bitten has been at some time infested with fleas, but, whether so or not, that is unessential. The color term originated back in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Some discerning groom or dog fancier saw that the reddish flecks on … Read more

Big Ben is is the great deep-toned bell which strikes the hours of the clock in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, London. The tower carries five bells in all, the other four striking the quarter hours in the famed Westminster chimes. The great bell, weighing thirteen and a half tons, was cast … Read more

The term sub rosa means: under the rose; i.e., confidentially, in secrecy. Legend attributes the origin to a rose handed by Eros to Harpocrates, god of silence, accompanied with an injunction not to reveal the love affairs of Venus. Accordingly, in the customs of ancient councils, said to date back to the fifth century B.C., … Read more

One wonders whether coming generations will think that we, in this day of countless new inventions, have shown like imagination and poetry in the coining of names as that given to our early forebears. It does not so appear. Certainly not in such words as telephone, automobile, airplane, radio, television, electric refrigerator. But consider the … Read more

You may spell the word “Gantry” gauntry if you like, or even gauntree, but the present preference is gantry. Nowadays the chief application of the name is to a traveling crane, a wonderfully ingenious device mounted on overhead rails in machine shops or the like by which the operator is able to hoist and transport … Read more

In Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia (1788) he says that the instrument we know as the Banjo is “proper to the blacks, which they brought hither from Africa, and which is the original of the guitar, the chords being precisely the four lower chords of the guitar.” But your dictionaries tell that banjo is probably … Read more

There has been a great deal of controversy, which has still not been resolved, over the origin of the word “Skedaddle”, and even some difference of opinion as to whether it was born in England or in America. The earliest recorded use for the American skedaddle, “to flee precipitously,” that has been found is 1861, … Read more

We take into our speech words from all manners of strange sources. Thus when Canadian and American reached the Chinook tribes dwelling north of the Columbia River in the far West, they adopted many terms known to all the tribes, combining them sometimes with French and English words. Among the Indian phrases, according to Charles … Read more

“Chucklehead” has the same meaning as chowderhead, but the first element is from the dialectal word chuck, meaning “a chunk,” such as “a chunk of coal; a chunk of bread,” any lump, that is, which is of irregular size.

Pinkeye designates an inflamed eye, but pink-stern has nothing to do with color. It names a type of small boat, one with its stern shaped like that of a sailing vessel known as a pink or pinky. Both names are corrupted from the Middle Dutch pincke, first applied to a flat-bottom sailing vessel which was … Read more

One’s immediate interpretation of the sense of the word “Highbinder” is largely sectional. In eastern America it is associated with a ruffian, a gangster, and that was its earliest application, a member of a gang of rowdies in New York City who, in 1806, called themselves Highbinders. But, especially in California and later in New … Read more

In its earliest sense, as in Shakespeare’s day, the word “Madcap” meant simply one who was crazy, a maniac. Cap, just because it covered the head, was sometimes used for “head,” and mad, used literally, meant “crazy.” Of course it was also used, and still is, somewhat playfully, in describing one who acted impulsively or … Read more

The best we can do is to say “probably.” That is, the term “Hubbub” for a confused din, an uproar of sound from a multitude of voices, was probably taken from an ancient Irish war cry. The cry itself appears to have been abu! abu!, repeated over and over from the throats of yelling hordes. … Read more

The Flittermouse isn’t a mouse, for it has wings, and mice don’t. But it does fly rather swiftly and dartingly, so it can be said to flitter, and being a mammal with a body not unlike that of a mouse in size, and sometimes in color, it is not surprising that this creature was known … Read more

Just why the gate, once an entrance to the old city of London, was known as Billings, even back in the thirteenth century, cannot be determined. Presumably that was the name of its builder, but Newcourt’s map of the city in 1658 says the gate was “Founded by Belen ye 23th Brittishe Kinge.” At any … Read more

The expression “Bandy Legged” means bowlegged; having the legs shaped for greater comfort in riding a horse, parenthesis-fashion. The term probably arose, back in the seventeenth century, through a comparison of legs so shaped with the curved stick, then called a “bandy,” in the game of hockey as then played.

He, or quite often she, frequently a child or street Arab, gathers a living from the gutter, or less literally, from discarded rags, trash, or other refuse, including food. His mode of living, that is, resembles that of the snipe which pokes its bill into the mud lining a body of water for its food. … Read more

Our English forebears just partly anglicized a German term back in the sixteenth century. The word that came to them was klappholt, in which holt (modern Holz) meant “wood, board,” and klapp apparently referred to the clacking sound from boards smacking together. This klappholt and the early clapboard was used by coopers in making casks … Read more

A tropical American plant now cultivated commercially for the nutritious starch obtained from the root. The name, however, according to Sir Hans Sloane, a British naturalist who wrote of this plant in 1696 in his catalogue of Jamaican plants, arose from its use by Indians to counteract the effect of poisoned arrows. “But,” says the … Read more

Many sources have been suggested for the Americanism “Shenanigan”, which seems to have been originated in California during or soon after the Gold Rush. The first recorded use was in that state in 1855. As the word has the sense of “trickery, deceit,” most possible sources suggested have had similar meanings, such as the Spanish … Read more

We are so accustomed to the term “Knickerbockers” that we can scarcely realize it is barely a hundred years old. It seems that it must date back to the days of Peter Stuyvesant, when the Dutchmen on Manhattan Island all wore flaring breeches now called knickerbockers. But, though the name of this garment is often … Read more

The ancient Greek physicians believed that there were four humors, or primary fluids, which governed the body, the blood, or sanguis; the yellow bile, or chole; the black bile, or melas chole (giving our word melancholy); and the phlegm, or phlegma. A superabundance of chole in one’s system was supposed to cause that individual to … Read more

In early colonial days there were both poverty and hard work, the work being of such a nature that cuts, bruises, and blows could well have been the daily fare of our forebears. When the injury was to the shin, it was usual to apply a poultice of sorts, and, among the poorer classes, this … Read more