Tagged Questions
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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?
10
votes
4answers
2k views
“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” [closed]
With Neil Armstrong's death today, many news sites are posting articles that quote Neil Armstrong as "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.".
My question is, does the quote ...
2
votes
2answers
334 views
Where and when did the negative connotations of “manipulation” appear?
When we think of manipulating objects, we might think of a juggler, magician, chef, etc.
When we think of manipulating people, however, it almost always comes with negative connotations. These ...
4
votes
3answers
333 views
Why is it “the day is young”, not “still early”? What is the history of the phrase?
Mark Halperin’s article on the Missouri Congressman and Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin’s gaffe in August 20 Time magazine ends up with the lines:
“So far, not publicly calling for Akin to ...
7
votes
1answer
163 views
Does “tapall” or “tappies” mean “mail” in English?
I had been wondering about a non-native word in Tamil: Thabal, meaning post. This word has origins from elsewhere, and I had not been able to figure out the etymology. Searches in Internet had also ...
6
votes
1answer
547 views
The history and use of the term “moth hour”
I had never heard or read the term moth hour before, but am reading the American author Jan Karon's book "In the Company of Others" and she uses it several times. The book is set in Ireland, and there ...
1
vote
0answers
421 views
What does “dictated not read” mean in a literary sense? [closed]
There have been letters ended with the phrase:
Dictated, not read,
This means that the secretary printed and distributed it without review from the author. But, when this is emphasized in ...
7
votes
2answers
275 views
'Artisanal': what is its modern cultural history?
As an AmE speaker, the word 'artisanal' sounds very new to me.
I see it every where nowadays on advertising and packaging for grocery store items like bread, cheese, olive oil, and I've seen it ...
-2
votes
3answers
1k views
Meaning of “whoa” [closed]
Some dictionaries define whoa as Stop! while some define it as an expression of surprise/astonishment. Is there such a word as whoa, where did it originate from and what is its actual meaning?
6
votes
3answers
945 views
What is the meaning and origin of “set-piece battle”?
The definition I've found that makes the most sense is Wikipedia's:
In warfare, a set piece battle may involve large formations moving according to a plan and responding to the opposing force also ...
7
votes
3answers
173 views
What is the likely definition of a women's “'health' west” from 1891?
In an 1891 newspaper advertisement (published in Manitoba, Canada) there is a reference to "wool 'health' wests in girls and ladies" which on first glance looks like a spelling error but is repeated ...
3
votes
1answer
664 views
Origin of Tootsie or Tootsy (foot) [closed]
I was just sitting thinking I had cold tootsies meaning my toes or feet!
This got me wondering, where on earth does the word tootsie/tootsy come from?
I did google this and got definitions ...
35
votes
5answers
7k views
What did “google” mean in the 1900s?
I know that Google got its name from the word googol (10100), and that Google/google referring the search engine/using the search engine are recent additions to the dictionary. Their definitions are ...
2
votes
1answer
230 views
When did the alternative meanings of 'beard' start being used?
I read that beard can mean something like "confront someone".. When did a word that means a little facial hair turn into a hostile verb?
2
votes
1answer
138 views
Fashionable photographers
I saw somewhere this quote from Wodehouse's Meet Mr. Mulliner (1927):
"Statistics show that the two classes of the community which least often marry are milkmen and fashionable photographers – ...
7
votes
1answer
248 views
What is the meaning of the idiom “Like the Nation”?
In the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are several curious references to "the nation". For example, in chapter 22:
And at last, sure enough, [...] the horse broke loose, and away he ...
4
votes
3answers
382 views
Is the term “antagonym” widely used to describe a word that is its own antonym?
There are several words which have contradictory meanings. They may have one meaning now, and have had a different meaning in the past. For example, the current definition of peruse is:
to look ...
1
vote
3answers
340 views
Use of the term Hans in an American name in the 1700's
I'm doing some research on family history. I am trying to track some people that came to the U.S from Germany in 1737 on the ship "Charming Nancy". Here's the link:
...
7
votes
4answers
441 views
Has “dilemma” ever been restricted to two options?
I was surprised to discover my dictionary had this entry for dilemma:
a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, esp. equally undesirable ones
The ...
1
vote
3answers
3k views
What does “everything's gone pear-shaped” mean?
I've recently heard this phrase spoken twice on a British television show, and I assume it means something along the lines of, "everything's fallen apart," generally meaning, things are bad right now. ...
3
votes
2answers
11k views
Can someone explain the phrase “All is fair in love and war”?
What are its origins and what does it really mean?
7
votes
5answers
669 views
When and how did “momentarily” come to mean “in a moment”, rather than “for a moment”?
"Momentarily" used to mean "for a moment" only, and not "in a moment". Thus, newscasters could be divided into two clear groups: those who would say "we'll be back momentarily," and those who would ...
10
votes
5answers
20k views
What is the origin and history of the word “motherf---er”?
I'm not a native English speaker, but I would like to know how and why people started using mother fucker. Today it seems it has lost its meaning because people use it all the time, but was there a ...
14
votes
3answers
3k views
How does the “be-” prefix change the words to which it is applied? How did it come about?
What does the be- prefix change when applied to adjectives and verbs? There are many such words that seemed to be coined of this process, for example:
behold, beget, befallen, beridden, ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
What does the “right” in the “The Right Honourable” mean? Why is it there?
I don't think the right in the "The Right Honourable" means "correct", because I can't see how that makes sense in context. I considered right as a British slang intensifier that means "really", but ...
4
votes
3answers
294 views
Which meaning of “to conceive” came first?
"To conceive" has two primary meanings
to give birth
to originate (an idea)
Either one could be a metaphor for the other. MW just gave the etymology of the Latin parts without giving a history ...
12
votes
2answers
946 views
Why did Old Testament scholars choose to employ “to know” in a sexual sense?
For those of us not familiar, the verb to know once had an archaic sexual sense, often found in the Old Testament, and as illustrated in the following story found in Genesis 19:
4 But before they ...
1
vote
2answers
3k views
Origin and meaning of “damn straight”
The phrase "damn straight" is now used as a way to emphatically agree with a statement, but where does it come from, and what did it mean originally?
5
votes
1answer
964 views
Which of these meanings for the word “pet” came first?
The word "pet" has a few different definitions (my own paraphrase):
n: An animal kept for companionship.
v: To affectionately caress.
My question is, which of these usages originated first? Do we ...
16
votes
7answers
10k views
Why is a woman's purse called a “pocketbook”?
It's not a book, and it doesn't fit in anyone's pocket. Why does my brother-in-law insist on calling his wife's purse a pocketbook?
I'm interested in the etymology, and in the chronological and ...
