Etymology is the history of the origin of words and phrases.
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Why “sense of humour”?
I always had this question in my mind: Why people use the phrase "sense of humour" for the quality of being humorous and funny?
The word sense suggests it is about perceiving and receiving something. ...
1
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0answers
102 views
Origin of plurals and possessives
What is the origin of English plurals and possessives? English plurals look more French plurals, but I am not sure that is where they come from. As for possessives, I don't know where they come from.
11
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3answers
354 views
Is “Dutch wife” one of those “Dutch words”?
The term "Dutch wife" is listed as having several somewhat related meanings. Wiktionary describes it as meaning 1) a body-length pillow, 2) a wicker or bamboo tube that someone sleeps in (also called ...
3
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1answer
156 views
What do you call a past participle+noun construction clause such as “No offense meant” “Your point taken,” “With that said,” and “Given that”?
In reference to my question about the usage of “No offense meant/taken,” I noticed that there are a lot of shortened forms like “No offense meant/taken,” “Your point taken,” “That said,” and “Given ...
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2answers
59 views
When did the expression “Poor man's <noun>” originate?
Just wondering where the expression comes from and who is considered responsible for coining it.
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1answer
62 views
Where does the phrase “doctored” originate?
This is a phrase I’m particularly confused about, because it’s used often when something is manipulated or changed.
For example, sometimes images surface online that are clearly Photoshopped, but ...
4
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2answers
1k views
Origin of “pull your socks up”?
I was pulling my socks up this morning, in the literal sense of the term, when I started to wonder about why pull your socks up came to mean what it does:-
to make an effort to improve your work ...
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3answers
169 views
What’s the etymology of “beholden”?
I know the word behold means to look upon. So why does beholden mean obligated, indebted?
Can someone tell me how this phrase came about?
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3answers
2k views
“Glaringly obvious” vs. “blaringly obvious”
I've heard both phrases in everyday speech, so there's little doubt in my mind that the answer is both. I suspect, though, that one of these phrases is more the original than the other, and the other ...
2
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1answer
61 views
tom todger meaning
I have been researching the meaning of "tom todger" as used by New Zealand/Australian author Ruth Park in her autobiography A Fence Around the Cuckoo (Penguin Books 1993 pb Page 90). Her Irish ...
6
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4answers
637 views
Origin of “the wrong end of the stick”
If someone has the wrong end of the stick it means they've misunderstood something.
If they've got the shitty end of the stick it means they've got a bad deal in some bargain or share-out. This ...
5
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4answers
268 views
What is the origin of the phrase “hate your guts”?
Where does the phrase "hate your guts" (for example "I hate your guts") come from?
I've heard the phrase used as a way to convey extreme and deep dislike of another individual. However, it seems ...
11
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3answers
516 views
How did the word “lid” come to mean “poor operator” (in the context of telegraphy and amateur radio)?
This sense of lid is still common today in Amateur ("Ham") Radio (in the United States, at least), usually as "they're a lid", meaning "they're being a rude or unobservant person." It doesn't refer to ...
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1answer
7k views
Why “meth-”, “eth-”, “prop-”, when there is “uni-”,“di-”,“tri-”?
In chemistry, the homologous series for hydrocarbons uses the following prefixes:
Meth-
Eth-
Prop-
But-
Pent-
Hex-
Hept-
Oct-
Why are these prefixes used, instead of just ...
11
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2answers
738 views
{wend, went, went} changed into {go, went, gone}
I have heard that the verb go used to be wend in olden days. I am curious if there is any historical or other explanation why the past form of wend, i.e. went, is still in use while the simple present ...
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1answer
45 views
Etymology of the word “remove” [closed]
What is the origin of the word "removed?" It appears to have the prefix "re-", which generally means "repeating something again," although that does not seem to fit. "Moving again" would actually be ...
4
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1answer
156 views
Origin of the double meaning of “Swear”
It's always been on in mind, how can a single word have two meanings so opposite as "Swear" has?
More specifically, how did the word "Swear" assumed its good and bad face?
Was it born as good and ...
3
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1answer
155 views
Origin of using “gets to”
As I was writing an email to someone today, at the end of the message in jest I wrote:
Well, I best gets to workin’.
After I wrote it I looked at the phrase I best gets to. It came to me as if ...
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2answers
115 views
What is the origin and meaning of the term 'Chubby Chubs'?
I have this expression stuck in my head and can't figure out where I've heard it. I think it can be a term of endearment for 'plump babies'. But not sure if it has any other connotations because of ...
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1answer
208 views
Does the suffix -ion in “invention” mean the same in “station”?
Is the suffix -ion in the word invention the same as in the words direction, nation, fiction, station?
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1answer
84 views
History of the words “conservative” and “liberal”
I’m curious in the history of political parties of the USA. Initially in 1861 Abraham Lincoln was the first President to represent the Republican party which has always been stated as conservative ...
1
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1answer
70 views
What's the origin of the phrase to “do one”?
The phrase to "do one" — essentially an insult meaning to "do a disappearing act" (if the Urban Dictionary's definitions* are anything to go by) — seems to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Where ...
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2answers
575 views
Where did the expression “to up the ante” come from?
I know what it means, but I cannot understand where it could have come from.
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4answers
886 views
Is there anything wrong with the word “denigrate”?
A few years ago there was a controversy over the word niggardly — a perfectly innocent word that unfortunately sounds like a racial slur.
Given that controversy, is it safe to use denigrate, which ...
9
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2answers
3k views
Where does the word “dog” come from?
I discovered on a quiz show the other day that the word "dog" appears to have come from nowhere and displaced the German word "hund".
Has any research revealed how it arrived in the English language?
...
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1answer
97 views
Etymology of the name “Stimpson”
An Irish Canadian poet told me that my last name, Stimpson, comes from "to glimpse". I'm hoping for some verification. I also wonder when it first appeared in the English language.
2
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1answer
114 views
What is the difference in meaning between 'nonchalant' and 'insouciant'?
OED defines them as:
nonchalant adjective (of a person or manner) feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm
insouciant adjective showing ...
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5answers
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Etymology of “Easter”
I’ve heard claims that the word Easter has the same Bronze Age root as east, Ishtar, Astarte, and ultimately star.
Is this the correct etymology of the word Easter?
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6answers
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What's the origin of the stock phrase “tall, dark, and handsome”?
Most everyone has probably heard the phrase "tall, dark, and handsome" being used to describe the physical qualities of a perfect male romantic match. Where did this phrase come from, and who, if ...
3
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1answer
177 views
Is “what in hejudas?” a common idiom or phrase?
I noticed the following phrase used in another question:
Is this a common idiom? If so, what in hejudas inspired such a phrasing?
Obviously, this is similar to the phrases “what in hell” or ...
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3answers
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When does a word become a 'word'? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Creating a new word
The rule of thumb used to be that when a word hit the Oxford Dictionary, it was considered to be an accepted word - this, however, seems to have ...
4
votes
1answer
175 views
Does “bloodripe” actually exist as a word?
I’ve come on the adjective bloodripe in Nabokov’s Lolita (bold emphasis added):
. . . it had become quite a habit with me of not being too attentive
to women lest they come toppling, bloodripe, ...
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1answer
73 views
Is 'promptus' a valid word? [closed]
I did a Google:define on Promptus and think it has Latin origin. But since I don't see it in the English dictionaries, I am not sure if I can use it at all in my conversation.
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3answers
204 views
What does “flustrated” mean, and is it a word?
What does the flustrated mean? Is it even a word? I am using Lingea Lexicon and it doesn’t know this word, but the Internet is full of it.
I find myself hating people for using it both in English ...
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7answers
1k views
What is the origin of “hissy fit”?
I can't seem to find any definite earliest example of this expression, or a reason why "hissy" was chosen to describe a tantrum. Does anyone hiss when they are angry? When and why was the phrase ...
8
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4answers
363 views
Original Meaning and Derivation of “Ever and Anon”
A question posted today asks about the Use of “ever” in non-negated sentence, and one answer happens to mention the phrase "ever and anon." That phrase, with the meaning "occasionally or repeatedly," ...
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3answers
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“Clean as a whistle” — why is a whistle considered appropriate for describing cleanliness?
Every time I hear this idiom, I cogitate to no avail as to its sense. Why is it a whistle, and not a lantern, or an axe?
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4answers
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What is the oldest common English word?
I'm trying to formalize What is the oldest still-in-use English word? which was closed as vague.
Consider the "age" of a word to be the length of time since it was first used with the (more-or-less) ...
3
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0answers
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Un-(adjective) but In-(noun) — does it ever go the other way?
Many pairs of words use un- as a prefix for the preferred adjective but in- as a prefix for the preferred noun (e.g. unstable/instability, unequal/inequality, unable/inability, unjust/injustice, ...
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1answer
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Why “unequal” but “inequality”?
The opposite of "equal" is "unequal", yet there is no word "unequality". Why do we use "inequality" instead?
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0answers
662 views
What is the oldest still-in-use English word? [closed]
I recently looked up the origin of "mooch", and the root of the word is apparently very, very old:
Whatever the distant origin of mooch, the verb *mycan and its cognates have been part of European ...
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1answer
82 views
Does the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” exist? [closed]
I have heard about the word countless times. However, when I looked up the dictionary, I could not find it. So I would like to ask if the word even exists at all. If so, what does the word actually ...
11
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3answers
871 views
How did “chopped liver” come to mean “of little value”?
Where did the phrase "chopped liver" originate?
Why does it mean "of little value"?
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3answers
5k views
What is the etymology of “happy as a sandboy”?
"Happy as a sandboy" is obviously a simile for happy / content. Where does it come from and what is the eponymous "sandboy"?
13
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1answer
431 views
Can the word Gentoo be used in a derogatory way?
I was reading a Wikipedia article on Gentoo Penguin and came across the following Paragraph.
The application of Gentoo to the penguin is unclear. The Oxford
English Dictionary notes that Gentoo ...
10
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2answers
2k views
Origin of “spick and span”
I recently described my room as being spick and span and I realized I had no idea what that really meant.
It occurred to me that it might stem from a derogatory term (spick), so I thought I'd ask ...
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4answers
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Why is the word “whatnot” a construction of “what” and “not”?
I've done some online etymological research on the word "whatnot", but I've been unable to figure out why it is a construction of "what" and "not".
How does the combination of the words "what" and ...
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6answers
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What is the origin of the saying, “faint heart never won fair lady”?
Having heard the phrase, "faint heart never won fair lady" for the third time in very short span, I'm determined to find out its origin. Unfortunately, when I Google, I'm getting a bunch of ...
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4answers
170 views
What is the origin of the word “whitewash” in the context of sports?
The term whitewash is used in sports to describe a situation where the opponents are beaten in a series of matches failing to register a single win.
Merriam-Webster defines it as :-
to hold (an ...
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5answers
517 views
Are camp followers prostitutes?
My own understanding of the term camp followers was that it was synonymous with prostitutes who followed armies around plying their trade. However, according to Wikipedia:
Camp-follower is a term ...
