Use this tag for questions about the history of a term or phrase.
3
votes
2answers
48 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
47 views
“As if” & “As would be the case if”; Also, “As though”
On a Q&A site in Japan, I read an expression that as if comes from as (would be the case) if.
Are both about the same thing?
Is this claim historically true?
If so, what does "as though" come ...
4
votes
0answers
60 views
Is “qo” a step in the evolution of the question mark?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark
According to the wikipedia article I've linked to above, "qo" was sometimes used in the middle ages to abbreviate the latin word "questio" in the way that we ...
0
votes
0answers
106 views
Reform of English writing?
As is commonly known, English is quite notorious for having a writing system that is far removed from the actual way it is most commonly pronounced. I understand that there are important historical ...
5
votes
1answer
114 views
Pool or billiards in 1890s American South?
Which term is more likely to have been used in Georgia around 1893? I found a British website which explains the origin of the modern game known as American pool ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
Any idea of the origin of using the term 'gucci' for parts?
A number of the guys who ride near me and have been riding bikes (mtb) since the 90s still refer to high spec parts as being 'gucci'. It's an effective term and easy to understand what they mean but ...
1
vote
0answers
67 views
What were fedoras called in the 1890s? [closed]
I am aware that fedoras were just coming into fashion in the 1890s. Were they called "fedoras" or was there some other name for them used back then?
2
votes
2answers
145 views
What’s the word for the habit of writing “play’d” or “revolv’d”?
I’m working on an 18th-century manuscript, and I’m trying to explain to others the use of ’d in past tense verbs.
Is there a word that encompasses the usage of ’d in early 18th-century manuscripts? ...
-2
votes
1answer
72 views
What is another word for “tuxedo” that was used in the 1890s American South? [closed]
A young man from a wealthy Macon, Georgia family attends a formal dinner at his college in 1893. What was his formal suit called back then? I'm thinking he probably wore a tailcoat, but I want to know ...
3
votes
3answers
97 views
What is the history of the word “lobby”?
I would like to know if the word "lobby" would have been used in 1890s Georgia (United States) and to what exactly this word would have referred in that time.
2
votes
4answers
176 views
“Hot cakes” or “flapjacks” in 1890s American South?
Which term is more likely to have been used by my main character, a young man from a wealthy Macon, Georgia family, in 1893?
1
vote
1answer
137 views
How to guess the pronunciation of some inconsistencies in English?
I’m not a native English speaker, and I have a lot of problems when is comes to pronouncing words like archive, archon, zealot, heal, health.
Why is the ch sometime pronounced like a k?
Why is the ...
1
vote
0answers
71 views
Origin of actual order pattern in English [closed]
It is well-known, or better said, well-accepted, that the ancestral language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was a OV language with a very limited (or nonexistent) use of subordinate clauses. In ...
2
votes
1answer
66 views
Cologne or toilet water?
I am writing a novel set in 1890s Georgia (United States), and I am wondering whether the main character, a young man of eighteen, would refer to eau de toilette as cologne, toilet water, or something ...
4
votes
4answers
175 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 ...
3
votes
3answers
111 views
Is “great” used by native speakers to describe calamities any more?
I know that "great" used to be used to indicate "very large" for disasters and other calamities, such as the Great Fire of London, the Great Chicago Fire and the Great War. Is it common for native ...
0
votes
3answers
171 views
When we will use soft and hard sound in 'c'? [closed]
Sometimes we use the soft sound, and sometimes the hard – but why? Is there any rule?
4
votes
4answers
144 views
Decadence of the word decadence
Everyone who is not from the US that I know gives the same quizzical look when some food commercial claims that a TV dinner is decadent.
When did it start being used to mean luxurious? And why? (Our ...
10
votes
1answer
232 views
Etymology of “crush”?
How did crush come to be used to mean "an intense but usually short-lived infatuation"?
0
votes
2answers
134 views
Was “their being followed” replaced by “they're being followed” over the years?
I was reading A Study in Scarlet yesterday and noticed the following sentence:
They must have thought that there was some chance of their being followed, for they would never go out alone, and ...
0
votes
1answer
97 views
In the phrase “common sense”, in what sense of the word is “common” used?
As I understand it, there are several definitions of common, but I can't find any source that can highlight the etymology of the phrase.
The linked definitions are pretty rigorous, but a less strict, ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
Where do we get “queen” from? [closed]
King comes from Old Norse konungr, and prince is from French principle, but I have found no definite etymology for queen as we know it. I have found assumptive connections such as to keenan and gna, ...
1
vote
2answers
81 views
Meaning (and History?) of “back of”?
I've come across the term "back of" (meaning "behind" in a physical or metaphorical sense) in a number of different works from around the turn of the 20th century*. Was this a linguistic fad of some ...
2
votes
2answers
668 views
When did “World War 2” start being called “World War 2”?
When did World War 2 start being called a "world war" and when did it start being called World War 2? Thurber's The Last Flower (copyright 1939) makes reference to World War 12 so I'm curious as to ...
11
votes
2answers
140 views
Art cold? To what extent can pronouns be dropped in English?
Many European languages conjugate their verbs, thus:
I am
You are | Thou art
She is
We are
You are
They are
The form of the verb changes, depending on the person. In some languages ...
1
vote
1answer
46 views
Is there any difference at naming of inverted comma and quote?
There is one symbol ‘ . . .’ that can be called as quote or inverted comma.
Is there any difference between these names? What is the origin of term inverted comma?
I think it's legacy of our ...
3
votes
3answers
275 views
Why is the feminine equivalent of an earl a countess rather than an earless?
A comment by Tim Lymington notes that the wife of an earl is a countess. Why is this so? Shouldn't it have been earless? Was this perhaps a conscious decision due to its homography with ear-less?
Did ...
4
votes
1answer
167 views
Why king and queen rather than king and kingess?
Dukes have duchesses, counts countesses, princes princesses, mayors mayoresses, and even emperors empresses. Yet kings have queens rather than say, kingesses. Why is this so? If this was due to some ...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
What's the origin of the phrase “God's clean earth”, and how long has it been around? [closed]
"It isn't every day a man wakes up to discover he's a screaming bender with no more right to live on God's clean Earth than a weasel."
- Dr. Leech, "Blackadder II"
What's the origin of that ...
0
votes
0answers
98 views
Why are apostrophes so important? [closed]
Why are apostrophes so important? Where did they come from? Wouldn't it be better to just get rid of them altogether?
1
vote
1answer
133 views
Reference request: the pronunciation of Law French?
Would anyone happen to know of a systematic account of the English pronunciation of legal and parliamentary terms and phrases of Anglo-Norman French origin, or more generally, of Law French? When it ...
6
votes
2answers
347 views
Why do American and British English use different quotation marks?
American English uses double-quotes, while British English uses single-quotes:
"This is a quote."
'This is a quote.'
Why do we use different quotation marks? When did this difference ...
10
votes
3answers
456 views
If a “tittle” sits atop an “i” or a “j” (“ı” or “ȷ”), then where do “jots” sit?
In the KJV translation of Matthew 5:18, it reads:
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
If a ...
2
votes
1answer
254 views
Why do we use Roman numerals for some page numbers but Arabic ones for others?
Why is it that certain pages in English-language books are numbered using Roman numerals, but other pages are numbered using (so-called) Arabic ones?
Has it always been this way? Or was the split ...
3
votes
2answers
154 views
Why are I and O always capitalized, but a is not?
There are three single-letter words. They are the article a, the pronoun I, and the interjection O.
The pronoun I and the interjection O are always capitalized, but the article a follows normal ...
10
votes
3answers
322 views
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
For example, possessive nouns (both proper and common) are written with a apostrophe before the final s:
...
7
votes
3answers
158 views
“He rolled his toilet things into his housewife”
From C.S. Forester's Hornblower and the Hotspur:
[The naval captain] rolled his toilet things into his housewife and tied the tapes.
ODO does provide a second definition for housewife which ...
13
votes
3answers
193 views
History and usage of “dooryard”
I have been interested in the expression "dooryard stop" recently. This is an expression that is used to describe a short visit in someone's dooryard (driveway) that often means not staying long ...
6
votes
2answers
207 views
Meaning of “Y-o-u-u Tom!”
In the opening chapter of Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom's aunt Polly calls out to him in a rather peculiar fashion:
She went to the open door and stood in it, and looked out among the ...
4
votes
5answers
297 views
Was there textspeak before texting?
2b |! 2b, < = ?
With such a rich history of inventive writing and puns, it seemed bizarre to me that the idea of writing in txtspk would be a new one. I found a brief degree of truncation in ...
2
votes
2answers
182 views
Etymologies of “basilisk” and “basilica”
I recently confused a "basilica" with a "basilisk", with the former being a church building and the latter being a mythical snake-like creature.
The similarities of the two words made me curious of ...
13
votes
5answers
1k views
Origin of “Put up your dukes”
This link claims that one cannot be sure of origin of this phrase. Three explanations are given here, but they are not very convincing (I am not a native speaker).
In one of our newspapers, ...
4
votes
1answer
104 views
When does “part” mean “quarter”?
‘Behind us in the caves of the Deep are three parts of the folk of Westfold, old and young, children and women,’ said Gamling. ‘But great store of food, and many beasts and their ...
3
votes
2answers
195 views
What is the origin of the different pronunciations of C and G before different vowels?
In English the letters C and G usually have different pronunciation before a/o/u and before e/i. The same is true for Romance languages - French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian etc.
What is the origin of ...
2
votes
1answer
262 views
Did English use to have capitalization rules similar to German's current rules? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Capitalisation of nouns in English in the 17th and 18th centuries
I was looking up an article of the constitution of the United States of America, and I noticed in the ...
4
votes
1answer
101 views
What a pluperfect a##hole
From The Silence of the Lambs (1988):
"Marilyn Sutter saw it upstairs. Chilton was blowing off about "The Search for Billy
Rubin." Then he went to dinner with a television reporter. That's ...
11
votes
2answers
750 views
How and when did American spelling supersede British spelling in the US?
Considering that Webster published his first dictionary in 1806, is there a recognised tipping point (year, decade, etc.) that marked the move from traditional British spelling to Webster's American? ...
9
votes
2answers
273 views
When did British and American crochet terms diverge?
In crochet basic stitches are called different things. For example a single crochet in America is called a double crochet in the UK, a double crochet in America is called a treble crochet in the UK, ...
6
votes
1answer
135 views
What do references like “Docc Rom.” and similar mean? [closed]
In the book Giordano Bruno: His Life and Thought, by Dorothea Waley Singer, references often have a form of
18 Doc. Ven. XV.
or
49 Docc. Rom. XX, XXI.
How to decipher them?
6
votes
5answers
200 views
Is there a word for fake company history?
I'm looking for a word to describe history made up by a company for marketing purposes.
