Etymology is the history of the origin of words and phrases.
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Did English ever have a formal version of “you”?
From the top of my head, Danish "de" (practically never used), German "Sie", Chinese "您", French "vous", Spanish "usted" are a formal way of addressing someone, especially if one isn't familiar with ...
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What is the origin of ZOMG?
I have looked in a number of places, with contradicting results.
The Urban Dictionary provides a whopping 73 "explanations", of which I will quote just a few. (Original spelling and punctuation ...
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Is there a word for a person with only one head?
Reading this article by the fantastic Douglas Adams I came across this interesting quote:
‘[I]nteractivity’ is one of those neologisms that Mr Humphrys likes to dangle between a pair of verbal ...
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Did English ever have a word for 'yes' for negative questions?
The Germans have doch and the French have si as a word that means "yes" in response to a negative question, such as:
Don't you want some ice-cream?
Yes [I do]!
In English, we only have yes (as ...
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Is “believe you me” proper English?
I understand the phrase "believe you me" to be an emphatic version of "believe me" but how did it come to be? Is it a poor translation into English?
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How come 'ou' was reduced to 'o' in the US?
Americans write color and favorite, when others say colour and favourite. How/why did this happen?
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History of “X is dead. Long live X”
What is the history of "X is dead. Long live X"?
For example,
Location is dead. Long live Location.
JavaScript is dead. Long live JavaScript.
I feel like I'm missing out on a joke.
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Where did “cc” and “bcc” come from?
I've just realised that CC is "carbon-copy" and BCC is "blind-carbon-copy". Basically I'm wondering, where did these terms come from?
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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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Where did the term “OK/Okay” come from?
I've heard lots of varying histories of the term "OK".
Is there any evidence of the true origin of the term?
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Why is it “geometric” but “theoretical”?
I just came across a course name: Geometric and Theoretical Optics. The mismatched endings bug me. Why do we have both -ical and -ic endings?
Is there any difference in meaning between, say, ...
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How “macro” in computer programming came about
The prefix macro- is normally used for large things like macroeconomics and macroscopic. How did it come to be used to describe text macros in the programming world?
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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 ...
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Trolling: billy goats gruff or fishing reference?
Where does the internet jargon "Troll" come from?
The way I see it. If it's a fishing reference, then you can't accuse someone of "Being a troll" and if it's a mythology reference then someone isn't ...
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Was “book” to “beek” as “foot” is to “feet”?
"Foot" is a curious word in English because it is pluralized in an unusual way; the "oo" in the word is changed to "ee". Did this once use to be a standard way of pluralizing things in English (or a ...
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Where does the “quint” in “quintessential” come from?
Doesn't "quint" mean "five"? What does that have to do with the meaning of "quintessential"?
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Origin and exact meaning of the phrase “I have to go see a man about a dog” [closed]
I hear my older coworkers use this idiom/phrase occasionally. It seems possibly to be a humorous way to get out of a conversation. Even as a native English speaker, I've never figured out the exact ...
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Origin and evolution of “hapless”
I would like to know what the origin of hapless is.
For example,
He is a hapless person
means
He is an unfortunate person.
Has it got anything to do with the fact that hapless people live ...
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Why do I give my pets “food” but my livestock “feed”?
When I feed my cat or my dog, the package tends to say "Dog Food" or "Cat Food."
In contrast, I give my chickens "chicken feed" or "poultry feed." Likewise, a cow's silage is her "feed."
Why does ...
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Why does Polly want a cracker?
Where does the expression "Polly wants a cracker" come from? Why is the parrot named Polly, and why doesn't she want seeds?
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Why do eleven and twelve get unique words and not end in “-teen”?
In short, why is it not oneteen and twoteen, and we start at thirteen in English?
In another thread, I supposed that despite that fact that people have ten fingers, amounts of items leading up to and ...
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Why “job” in “nut job”
Why are crazy people called nut jobs? Why are they called a job? Wiktionary is of no help here.
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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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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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What did we say before “clockwise”?
Before there were clocks, what did people say to describe the clockwise and anti/counter-clockwise directions?
While we're on the subject, when was the word "clockwise" first used?
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Why does “bananas” mean “crazy”?
I wanted to know when the word "bananas" came to be associated with "crazy". There was nothing detailed on Etymonline, but thanks to OED, I came to know that this book is the origin of this usage.
I ...
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Why is a “splash screen” so called?
Wikipedia describes a "splash screen" as such...
"A splash screen is an image that appears while a game or program is loading."
and its purpose...
[Splash screens] are typically used by ...
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Where does the phrase “dry run” come from?
I've heard the phrase "dry run" being used with the meaning of rehearsal, experiment or test exercise in various contexts. For example:
They did a dry run of the demonstration before showing it to ...
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What does the “s” in “thanks” mean?
I'm teaching English in a non-English-speaking country where plural "s" and third-person "s" get confused a lot with no "s" at all. The dialogue in the textbook was explaining how you should respond ...
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Is there any relation between the suffix “-ship” and actual ships?
I am curious if there is actual relation between all nouns ending in -ship, such as relationship, citizenship, sportsmanship, etc. with the vessel for transporting people or goods over the sea?
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Terms for collections of animals
As I watched the murder of crows sitting on the line above my house this evening, I got wondering where all of the collective nouns for animals (pod of whales, gaggle of geese, pride of lions) came ...
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What does “P.U.” (in reference to stinkiness) stand for?
"What does {holding nose} P.U. mean?" my son asked me tonight. I told him I didn't know, and he laughed and said "It means stinky, Mommy!" Very funny and well said, but it left me wondering.
A ...
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Hip Hip Hooray!
I am looking for the etymology and history of the cheer “Hip Hip Hooray”. I’m curious due to its interesting entry in Wikipedia, which reads thusly:
The call was recorded in England in the ...
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Apart from place names, are there any Native American words used in English?
Apart from place names, are there any Native American words used in English?
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What is “won't” a contraction of?
"Don't", "wouldn't", "couldn't" and "isn't" are all contractions of "do not", "would not", "could not" and "is not"... So what's "won't" a contraction of?
It appears to be "will not", but if so, why ...
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Is there a difference between “arse” and “ass”?
From a comment here, in frequent usage, arse and ass are often interchangeable when used to refer to buttocks or to a person of dubious charms. However, although “to arse about” has a vague connection ...
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“Oriented” vs. “orientated”
What are the origins of the word orientated?
As far as I know, the correct spelling is oriented and orientated is not an alternative spelling but an error that is in common use.
Is it for example ...
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Why do you drive on a “parkway”, and park on a “driveway”?
I've always been fascinated by these two words, as they seem to have the exact opposite meaning as expected. Is it because of the etymology? Or perhaps the meanings were switched at some point in ...
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How did the letter Z become to be associated with sleeping/snoring?
In cartoons and comics it's not uncommon to see a series of Zs to indicate that a person is in deep slumber, such as in the following political cartoon.
How and when did the letter Z become to be ...
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Why is “hard water” and “soft water” so called?
I can't think of anything else to say. All I can find via Google is that it's because it's harder to create lather with hard water, but that doesn't seem very convincing to me.
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What does the phrase “Does the Pope sh** in the woods?” mean?
I heard this phrase in the GTA San Andreas game. Sounds pretty offensive, nonetheless I don't really get what he meant to say.
The context was something like:
"Hey do you wanna make some money?"
...
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Origins: “try and” over “try to” — how did we get there from here?
In written and standard semi-formal (and above) spoken English, one would use "try to":
Try to be a better person.
Try to get the fishhook out of my thumb, please.
Try to find a pharmacy ...
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Why are clothes hung and men hanged?
I've heard it said that clothes can be 'hung' but men are 'hanged'. Is this correct, and, if so, why?
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Why is 'sheep' the same when talking about one or more than one?
I am trying to find out why sheep has the plural sheep. I have found different explanations, such as, "it is because they were seen as uncountable, as in 'a herd of sheep'", "because it comes from ...
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Where did the expression “my two cents” come from?
I've seen "$.02", "2¢", "just my two cents", etc, similar in meaning to IMHO, except usually appended to the main text.
As the Ngram shows, it is only "two cents" that is popular in this usage:
...
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Where did “elbow grease” come from?
I was reading a French blog the other day and I came across the phrase l'huile de coude, meaning "elbow grease." Since "elbow grease" is something I've known about in English all my life (parental ...
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Origin of the term “driver” in computer science
According to Wikipedia:
… a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device.
What is the origin of the term ...
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What is the origin of “hot” as “good-looking” or “attractive”?
I'm not sure if "hot" as "warm" or "heated" existed before "hot" came to mean "good-looking" or "attractive", but if so, how did this new meaning come to be?
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What is the name for the process which turned “iced cream” into “ice cream”?
There are several words (mostly related to food) which are shortenings of their historical forms. For example, the cold treat ice cream was originally known as iced cream in the 1680s. The -ed ending ...
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What is the origin of “daemon” with regards to computing?
Daemon has an interesting usage in computing. From my local dictionary:
a background process that handles requests for services such as print spooling and file transfers, and is dormant when not ...
