Etymology is the history of the origin of words and phrases.
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Origin of phrase “sow wild oats”
What is the meaning of the phrase "sow wild oats"? Where did it come from?
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What does “a man among men” mean?
The phrase: "A man among men."
We have been having a debate about whether this means:
unexceptional, common, like all others, ordinary
a superior example of one in a class
We have found examples ...
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4answers
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“S'il vous plaît” = “If you please”?
In Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot detective stories, Poirot uses the phrase “if you please” a lot. Does this come from the French phrase “s’il vous plaît”?
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1answer
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Why is there a difference in the adoption of “Kindergarten” in American and British English?
As someone living in the US, I've heard the term "Kindergarten" used quite frequently. However someone from the UK was mentioning to me that the term is really not used that much in British English. ...
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Where “summat” came from
In Scottish English, I know that the word summat is used in place of standard something. But what's the etymology of this pronoun?
It seems unlikely to me that summat could be merely a variant ...
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1answer
432 views
Is the term 'Occidental' still in common usage - or is it a legacy of a bygone age?
I've heard of the word 'Occidental' or 'The Occident' used to mean the same as Oriental or 'The Orient' but applied to the European continent. This I've seen in historic fiction, such as the works of ...
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Why is “plaid” pronounced “plad”?
Why is there an 'ai' in plaid if it is pronounced "plad"? That's a word that used to trip me up when I was a little tyke. (This time, unlike my previous question, I hope I'm right in saying that ...
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1answer
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Etymology of “typeface Weight”
My boss stated that he noticed the word "weight" is used to refer to the boldness of a character, and stated that he felt this was a new occurrence.
My gut feeling is that this is an old term, ...
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Chuffed - happy or unhappy?
I was looking into the word chuffed this morning, and came across this:-
chuffed 1 /tʃʌft/
adjective British Informal.
delighted; pleased; satisfied.
Origin: 1855–60; see chuff2 , ...
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Make/take a photograph?
In English we say "take a photograph" whereas in some other languages one would say "make a photograph".
The French say "take" even though they "make" far more often than we do in English, and ...
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2answers
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Suit Yourself origins?
The young daughter of a friend of mine said, "I think 'suit yourself' comes from a lazy tailor," which cracked us up. It also got me wondering.
I did the obligatory google search and came up with ...
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1answer
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Does the word “simpleness” actually exist? [closed]
I always thought the word "simpleness" didn't exist and this was even confirmed by some American friends of mine. However, I tried to look it up on some online dictionaries and I was surprised to find ...
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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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1answer
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“Da-” and “wo-” compounds of German
Whereof, thereof, hereof
whither, thither, hither
wherefrom, therefrom, herefrom
wherewith, therewith, herewith.
Are these related to German da- and wo- compounds?
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1answer
149 views
What is swag? And where does it come from?
I'd just like to know where it comes from. This is a word that I've heard all my life but it has always been a special kind of curtain. I was baffled when kids started calling each other curtains so I ...
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Etymology of “blackguard rating” in the context of the British Army during the Crimean War
From Wikipedia:
I never had such a blackguard rating in all my life – I who have had more than any woman – than from this Barry sitting on his horse, while I was crossing the Hospital Square with ...
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1answer
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Where did the phrase “chock-full” come from?
I hear this phase spoken and rarely written, but Merriam-Webster has a definition their website. The origin states "Middle English chokkefull, probably from choken to choke + full."
Does anyone have ...
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Origin of “Homeward ho!”
In the English translation of an essay by Leon Trotsky that came out in Foreign Affairs, I read [emphasis added]:
Now it turns out that the world exchange is the source of all
misfortunes and ...
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If the plural of ‘man’ is ‘men,’ shouldn’t the plural of ‘German’ be ‘Germen’?
What makes these two words so different that 'man' is changed to 'men', but 'German' is changed to 'Germans'?
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1answer
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Are “wonder” and “wander” etymologically related?
Especially in lyric-writing, where used more figuratively than literally, e.g. (mental) wandering and wondering, the two seem often interchangeable. And I can see wondering being conceived as an ...
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3answers
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Where does the phrase “fair do's/dues/doos/does” come from?
I was researching the phrase fair do's, attempting to determine which spelling was most appropriate, and where it had come from. Unfortunately most of the information I could find was very ...
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What is the origin of the word “goodbye”?
I've heard that goodbye comes from God be with you. Is that true? If so how did it become good? Did goodbye always have the same meaning it has now?
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What is the origin of the phrase “Top of the morning to you”?
Each morning, a colleague of mine greets me with the phrase:
Top of the morning to you!
I've tried to figure out what the meaning of this really is and how to properly respond, however there ...
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4answers
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Why do we say “as it were”?
In English we often add "as it were" to indicate that a phrase is not to be taken literally; for example:
He's flown from the nest, as it were.
... would indicate that a boy has left his ...
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origin of new meaning of whitewash
I recently came across "whitewash" used to refer to a (racist) practice of erasing visible minorities in film and advertising by making them appear more white (or even replacing them with white ...
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What is the origin of the word “stamina”?
What is the origin of the word stamina, used in sentences like "he has a lot of stamina"?
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First known occurrence of the word “technique” in English
I’m trying to track down the first printed use of the word technique in English. Can anyone tell me the name, author, and date of the publication in question? It would be especially valuable, on top ...
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2answers
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Eleusian vs. Eleusinian (and, to a lesser extent, Elysian)
Both Eleusian and Eleusinian are used in relation to mysteries. I've only seen Elysian used in relation to Elysian Fields.
Given that the suffix -ian denotes "of or belonging to," I'm wondering if ...
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3answers
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Origin of “clip” in “clip around the ears”
"Clip" commonly refers to a device for holding things together. One dictionary says it's "of unknown origin, first occurring in the 15th century." In such phrases as "giving him a clip around the ...
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1answer
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Etymology of “here goes nothing”?
I was reading my child a manga story today and one character said, "here goes nothing." I hadn't heard that expression since I myself was a kid, and I always took it to mean "here goes my best try." ...
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4answers
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Why are there so few English words that begin with the letter X?
If one reads a lot of children's books, it is obvious that X is a real thorn in the side for those authors looking to have each letter of the alphabet represented in their books. Most of them either ...
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2answers
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What is the origin of the colloquial term “bum” meaning a homeless person?
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering about the history of the term "bum" meaning a homeless person, not the UK version referring to someone's posterior.
Bonus: If you know the background on "Hobo" ...
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What are the jimmies that are being rustled?
This rustles my jimmies
seems like a commonly used idiom recently to denote being annoyed, angered, touched. Still, every idiom has some origin, and I wonder what is the original meaning of this ...
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First printed use of the word “diagram” in English
I’m trying to track down the first printed use of the word diagram in English. Can anyone tell me the name, author, and date of the publication in question? It would be especially valuable, on top of ...
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1answer
401 views
What is the origin of the word “parlor”?
What is the origin of the word parlor, as in an old fashioned sitting room? I suspect it's French, but I'm missing a step to get to the meaning.
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What's the origin of the figure of speech “call the shots”?
I'm well aware that when someone says "he's the one who calls the shots" it means that that person is the one in charge, the one who takes all the relevant decisions.
But what's the origin of this ...
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Why is a “fountain pen” so called?
I was accused of using a fountain pen the other day (guilty as charged). Does anyone know why it is called so? The mess of ink I get on the page, the table, my person, etc when refilling it is ...
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What is the origin of the phrase “Eastern Seaboard”?
Today upon hearing reports about how Hurricane Earl was going to hug the Eastern Seaboard I couldn't help but think how strange this phrase is. Is "seaboard" used in any other contexts? What is the ...
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1answer
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How did “replace” come to mean “put something in the place of”?
Replace has several meanings, but a common one is "to put something in the place of," as in, "After drinking your cola, I replaced it with a beer."
The way in which replace, which seems to most ...
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What is the meaning and origin of the common phrase “the world is your oyster”?
What does the world is your oyster mean, and where does it come from?
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1answer
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Provenance of 'deprecated' (in the programming sense)
What are some early uses of "deprecation" in computer science? When did the word enter common usage in the field of programming? Are there any particularly well-known examples of early deprecations ...
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2answers
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Is “re-rendezvous” repetitive?
I recently used the word re-rendezvous in conversation with several people, meaning for two entities to come together again after having initially met and gone their separate ways. (This was a ...
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Etymology of "rhyme'' [closed]
Rhyme probably comes from Greek arithmos ("mumber"). But how is it connected with today's meaning?
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Etymology of “x” in “pixel”? [closed]
Does anyone know how the word "pixel" (..a minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of many from which an image is composed) came about?
I've once heard it's the abbreviation of "picture ...
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832 views
“The crying baby gets the milk”
Where does the saying "The crying baby gets the milk" come from? I don't think it's from English.
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1answer
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Why is the noun form of “permit” “permission”?
The noun form of permit is permission instead of permition. Why isn't it permition?
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4answers
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Origin and correctness of “ain’t no”?
In contemporary American English usage, I come across sentences like:
I ain’t got no money.
Ain’t no man like him.
Saying ain’t no sounds incorrect to me because it is a double ...
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Origin of “-ing”
What is the origin of the suffix -ing used to form gerunds and present participles?
Why is the suffix the same in both cases?
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What is the etymology of “bugger-lugs”?
I have recently heard the phrase bugger-lugs used to refer to a person present, as in "How much do I owe you, bugger-lugs?". I have also heard it used to refer to a moderately mischievous child ("what ...
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How did “snookered” become a slang word for “to cheat or to steal”?
In this question we discussed the etymology of the word "snooker" as a noun, based on a game played on a pool table. But dictionary.com references a form of the word, "snookered" as a slang verb that ...
