Etymology is the history of the origin of words and phrases.
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What are the origins of the word “nice”?
The word "nice" tends to be used in rather a wishy-washy sense these days. In general use it tends to mean anything that is satisfactory.
But what are the origins of this word? What did it originally ...
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Why is it “on *the* one hand”?
According to all dictionaries I can see and everyday use by native speakers, this is the correct way:
On the one hand, it's larger; on the other hand, it's more expensive.
What makes no sense to ...
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Etymology of “medicine” and its Native American usage
What is the etymology of the word medicine and how did it come to be used by Native Americans to describe something that does not strictly meet the denotative meaning of medicine?
Or is that just a ...
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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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Etymology of the phrase “Shiver my timbers”
I've been trying to search for the origin and meaning of the phrase "Shiver my timbers," but can't seem to find anything.
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“Stick it in the boot.” “Er, don't you mean the trunk?”
Does anyone know the etymological history or the reason behind the different names that British and American speakers use to refer to the automobile's largest storage receptacle, or more plainly, the ...
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“Battery” and “Battery”, why are they called the same?
This post made an interesting point about what would be understood when the word battery is used.
In the U.S. at least, the word battery
is so rarely used outside the legal
phrase assault and ...
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What is the meaning and etymology of “ruthless?”
A "standard" definition is something like "cruel," or "remorseless."
But what does this have to do with "ruth" (or lack thereof)? Is this a reference to a kind person named Ruth?
Perhaps a clue may ...
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Why does “tell me about it” not mean “tell me about it”?
A commonly used American phrase, but one that still baffles me if I stop and think about it. Why does "tell me about" actually mean, "I understand what you're talking about as I have experienced it ...
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What is the origin of the phrase “egg in your beer”?
The phrase "egg in your beer" refers to wanting a bonus or something for nothing. Its common usage is: "What do you want? An egg in your beer?" However, this does not seem to make much sense, as an ...
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Origin and meaning of “Hello the fire!”
My father just used an interesting phrase: hello the fire. He said it was a way to let me know he was coming without startling me. I've never heard this phrase, and I can't find anything about it ...
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Suffixing by “-rama”, “-orama” or “-arama” — how did this begin?
Suffixing by -rama, -orama or -arama — how did this begin? I mean words like futurama, foodarama, etc.
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Where does the term “Smurfing” come from?
In multiplayer online gaming, the term "Smurf" (noun) is used to refer to an experienced player who creates a new account for the purposes of being matched against inexperienced players for easy wins. ...
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Meaning of “match Greek with Greek”
From Christmas Storms and Sunshine by Elizabeth Gaskell (4th paragraph):
Jenkins had his wife too. Wives were wanting to finish the
completeness of the quarrel, which existed one memorable ...
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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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“-gram” vs. “-graph”
What’s the difference between the suffixes -gram and -graph? Is there any difference? Even if they are completely synonymous, what’s the difference in etymology?
For example, pictograph vs. ...
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Origins of the gaming term “cheese strategy”
In a gaming scene the word cheese is used to describe strategies or ways of playing that are really powerful and do not require much skill from the players side at the same time. The term is widely ...
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Gay (homosexual) and gay (happy)
When did the main meaning of the word 'gay' shift from happy to homosexual? How did the meaning evolve, if there is a relation between the two?
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The curious etymology of “pie”
The English have been enjoying pies for centuries. But where does their name come from? For such an apparently humble word, pie has a mysterious etymology.
pie pastry c.1300, from M.L. pie "meat ...
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Meaning of “candle” in “I now call to mind that there was a letter in the candle three days ago”
In the book The Trumpet Major, by Thomas Hardy, there is the following paragraph:
That was Budmouth postmaster, and he says there's a letter for me. Ah, I now call to mind that there was a letter ...
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What is the origin of the counting prefixes: uni-, bi-/di-, tri-, quad-, etc.?
Many English words use the prefixes uni-, bi-/di-, tri-, quad- and so on to mean one, two, three, and four. For example:
A unicycle has one wheel, a bicycle two, and a tricycle three.
I presume ...
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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 ...
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What's the origin of the word “geezer”?
From Oxford Dictionaries:
geezer noun
1. a man (British informal)
he strikes me as a decent geezer
2. an old man (North American informal , derogatory)
I think in British English ...
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Etymology of “goon”
The etymologies of "goon" that I've looked up seem to center on Alice the Goon, a "slow-witted and muscular (but gentle-natured) character" created by E.C. Segar (Popeye's daddy).
But it seems like ...
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Why does “whence” have “when” in it?
No definition or usage of whence relates to time, but to place. One would therefore expect it to be some form of where, not of when. What caused when to pertain to time, and whence to pertain to ...
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Origin of the chess term “checkmate”
An attack on a king is called "check", why is an attack that guarantees the capture of a king called checkmate? What is the origin?
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When and why did “patronize” gain the meaning of condescension versus being a customer?
To patronize an establishment is generally a good thing, but to be patronized is bad. I assume that the former meaning was the original, but when did the other come into being and why?
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Where did the “juices” in “creative juices” come from?
Where did the "juices" in "creative juices" come from? Isn't that just a little weird? I don't think juices would be the first word to mind, if I hadn't heard the phrase before, and was ...
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{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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What is etymology of the term “right up the Wazoo”?
I'm sure everyone here has heard the expression "right up the Wazoo", meaning "in large or excessive quantities, to disgusting excess". I was wondering if anyone knew exactly where "the Wazoo" ...
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Bourbon whiskey, Bourbon monarchy: is there a connection?
Is there any connection between bourbon, the name of the American whiskey, and Bourbon, the French monarchy, or is it just a coincidence?
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How did “at once” get to be used to mean “immediately”?
How did "at once" become an idiom meaning "do this immediately" or "as soon as possible"?
I just thought of this question after seeing this old UK WWI Propaganda poster in the link below. I glanced ...
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Where does the phrase “the bee's knees” originate from?
So the phrase "the bee's knees" approximately means "it's fantastic" (my definition at least!). But how did this phrase come about?
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“That's okay” to mean “no” or “don't bother”?
Growing up, I became accustomed to using the phrase "that's okay" to mean "no" or "don't bother." For example:
Waitress: Yous guys want any dessert?Patron [shaking head to mean no]: That's ...
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How does a word come to have two completely opposite meanings?
Words like "cleave" and "egregious" have meanings that are completely opposite other meanings of the same word. How did such a bizarre, confusing state of affairs ever develop?
I mean, I just can't ...
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How did 'anyway' become 'anyways,' anyway?
All of the time I see people use these two words synonymously. For example:
Why did he move there anyway?
Versus:
Why did he move there anyways?
I always assumed that there was once just ...
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What is the meaning of “hypos” here in this passage from Moby Dick?
Yesterday, I asked a question over at the Gaming StackExchange, and eventually received an answer whose primary thrust was this wonderfully written passage from Moby Dick:
My questions are: What ...
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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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Preventative vs. preventive
In this answer about the non-word disabilitated, the word preventative is compared (unfavourably, if my reading of the implication is correct) to preventive.
However, I have always used preventative, ...
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Why isn't “muscle” pronounced “muskle”?
It comes from the Latin musculus (meaning mouse) and Latin has only hard c's. The "c" has somehow become soft or silent during evolution. Why did this happen?
Also, if muscle is pronounced mussle, ...
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Is it true that “tuppence” refers to a woman's vagina in British English slang? If so, why?
I was looking up a definition online, as I often do, in this case the British slang word tuppence; I got the standard "a slang reference to a coin denomination" definition from Wikipedia, but stumbled ...
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Where does the term “cold calling” originate from?
Did it exist before The Telephone - has it always been associated with 'sales'?
Here is an example.
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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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Is “holiday” derived from “holy day”? [closed]
I'm just curious if the word "holiday" is derived from "holy day".
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Why “motherboard” is used to refer to main board of computer
Why is motherboard used to refer to the main board of a computer? What is the relationship with the word mother here?
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Where does the term “Monad” come from?
I understand how monads work, and I use them on a routine basis.
However, I've been wondering where the term actually comes from and what does it mean?
Edit: To clarify, I'm specifically referring to ...
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Where did “snuck” come from?
Ages ago, I remember typing snuck into a word processor and being surprised to see it flagged as not a word. My current computer seems to be okay with it and my local dictionary has this in its ...
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“Decimate”: has it been used in the “classic” sense in modern writing?
In this question, I learned that "to decimate" meant to reduce by 10% (hope I got that right).
And it is lamented that no-one uses it in this sense anymore.
Now, given that I never until today knew ...
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Why is it called a semi-truck? Doesn’t “semi” mean “part”?
I was wondering why semi-trucks are called that. Doesn’t semi mean “part of”? A semi-truck is a whole truck if I ever saw one!
