Questions tagged [history]
Questions about the history and trends of the English language.
963
questions
243
votes
11
answers
19k
views
What is the factual basis for "pirate speech"? (Did pirates really say things like "shiver me timbers"?)
The "pirate speech" we hear/see/read, for example, on the website Talk Like A Pirate Day consists of a rhotic dialect characterized by phrases like "shiver me timbers," "ooh arh me hearties," and so ...
delete
185
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Where were "should", "shall", and "must" in the 18th Century?
According to the following Google Ngram, in the U.K. the modals should, shall, and must were virtually missing from English writing during the 18th Century (I've added will for a comparison modal ...
- 87.7k
136
votes
1
answer
15k
views
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 ...
- 5,030
124
votes
7
answers
17k
views
What’s a “handegg”?
What’s a handegg?
NOTE: This question is primarily related to the etymology of a compound noun which is not in The Dictionary.
There is a hat this year called “Handegg”, given out for a posting that ...
- 134k
96
votes
3
answers
11k
views
How did English retain its non-Christian names of the week?
It amazes me that despite centuries of religion dominating almost every aspect of life in Britain or at the very least exerting a great deal of influence on the public and private sphere, the English ...
- 2,222
85
votes
5
answers
185k
views
If the letter J is only 400–500 years old, was there a J sound that preceded the design of the letter?
I understand that the letter "J" is relatively new — perhaps 400–500 years old. But since there has long been important names that begin with J, such as Jesus, Joshua, Justinian, etc., and which ...
- 3,206
70
votes
3
answers
16k
views
What is so bad about puns?
Many times I've heard of 'pun intended' or 'pun not intended', which I see as a form of excuse in the English-spoken world. However, I can not wrap my head around why are you constantly excusing/...
- 763
68
votes
7
answers
7k
views
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?
- 1,383
65
votes
4
answers
51k
views
How did Americans greet each other before "Hi"?
I had assumed that "hi" was a somehow abbreviated form of "hello," but though both of these words appear to have originated from a noise to attract attention, hi actually predates hello. These words ...
- 27.8k
64
votes
6
answers
23k
views
What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix "ge-"?
The Germanic languages that I'm familiar with all use a prefix similar to ge- on past participles:
German: Ich habe mir den Fuß gebrochen.
Dutch: Ik heb mijn voet gebroken.
But English doesn't do ...
- 54.2k
63
votes
8
answers
8k
views
Why does legal English continue to remain archaic?
Perhaps this is a question for Law.SE if one exists, but I am asking here as there are other nice questions on English history.
There is some historical development account presented in Wikipedia, ...
- 16k
63
votes
7
answers
33k
views
When did it become correct to add an “s” to a singular possessive already ending in “‑s”?
According to my grammar book, but at variance to the answer to this question, the correct singular possessive if a word ends in ‑s is:
James’s car
The grammar book allows exceptions for historical ...
- 732
57
votes
4
answers
200k
views
Why use the word "copy" in "do you copy that"?
I notice "do you copy that?" is used in movies to ask for confirmation in telephone/interphone conversation.
I only know copy means make things duplicated, so why use it in "do you copy that"? Is ...
- 663
55
votes
7
answers
142k
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 ...
- 8,770
55
votes
3
answers
7k
views
What is the etymology of “yellow”, and why is it so different in other European languages?
It seems like most of our names for colors come from our German roots (blue/blau, green/grün, red/rot, etc.). But yellow is gelb in German, amarillo in Spanish, jaune in French, and giallo in Italian. ...
- 701
55
votes
3
answers
12k
views
How did "biscuit" come to have a distinct meaning in North American English?
The Oxford Living Dictionary makes a clear distinction between the usage of biscuit in Britain and North America:
British: A small baked unleavened cake, typically crisp, flat, and sweet.
‘a ...
- 1,163
53
votes
3
answers
25k
views
Is the etymology of "salary" a myth?
Since, perhaps forever, I had always ‘known’ that the English word salary was derived from the Latin salarium, to the time when Roman soldiers were paid in salt for their service. Salt was a highly-...
- 90.3k
52
votes
6
answers
129k
views
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 ...
- 2,737
51
votes
5
answers
12k
views
What did we say before "clockwise"?
Before there were clocks, what did people say to describe the clockwise and anti/counter-clockwise directions?
Whilst we're on the subject, when was the word "clockwise" first used?
- 14.2k
51
votes
4
answers
48k
views
Why doesn't "its" have an apostrophe?
I know that its is the possessive and it's is the contraction, and know when to use them. But why doesn't the possessive have an apostrophe?
"The bear's eating a fish." [contraction]
"The bear's ...
- 658
50
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Have "choir" and "deer" ever rhymed?
It’s that time of year when the dodgy rhymes of Christmas carols abound, but I find the chorus of "The Holly and the Ivy" particularly intriguing.
The rising of the sun
And the running of ...
- 7,211
49
votes
10
answers
20k
views
What do we call a person in a war who holds the army's flag?
I am translating a history context talking about the Cold War and I am stuck with a word for the person in a war who holds the army's flag. This flag is used to show the mates that the army is still ...
- 871
46
votes
10
answers
7k
views
Around 1960 in Britain "Have you a camera?" or "Do you have a camera?"
Around 1960, when we began learning English in Japan, we were taught British English. To our great surprise, we were forced to change into American English in the next grade. Japanese English teachers ...
- 819
45
votes
5
answers
8k
views
Who is Jesus H. Christ?
When used as an expletive, the name Jesus Christ often gets an H inserted into the middle of it for some reason. I've heard lots of guesses about what the H stands for, the most popular one being ...
- 54.2k
44
votes
1
answer
6k
views
In old books, why is the first word of the next page printed at the bottom of this page?
In old books from the 16th to 18th centuries, the first word from the next page is often printed right justified on its own, at the end of the current page. It's not in every book of this period, but ...
- 67.2k
43
votes
8
answers
8k
views
Paucity of words for relationships
Please refer the following questions asked elsewhere on this site:
Is there a word that means "the wife of one's brother"?
What is the relationship name of my wife's brother to me?
...
- 4,012
41
votes
4
answers
15k
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? ...
- 30.9k
40
votes
6
answers
11k
views
How did "Jew" become pejorative?
For some reason, the word Jew often carries a pejorative or offensive connotation, which the related adjective Jewish does not carry. This is most obvious when either word is used as an attributive:
...
- 54.2k
40
votes
6
answers
4k
views
Pronunciation of the English alphabet
Why are there inconsistencies in the pronunciation of the consonants of the alphabet? For example: 'b' is pronounced like 'bee' but 'm' is pronounced as 'em' rather than 'me'. The pronunciation of 'h' ...
- 3,745
40
votes
4
answers
14k
views
Why are Leicester & co pronounced as they are?
What is the origin of the pronunciation of words like Leicester, Gloucester, Worcestershire? Presumably, the spelling predates the pronunciation but what is the history here? What language do the ...
- 21.4k
38
votes
2
answers
44k
views
Use of “f ” instead of “s” in historic, printed English documents
I was at a museum in London yesterday, and one of the items on exhibit is a document from the eighteenth century. It uses the letter f a lot where s should be used—for example, in Majefty.
Did the ...
- 507
37
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How far back in time could I travel and still be understood?
I have seen several times on TV documentaries where the presenter is taken to something like a library archive, and shown a book which they proceed to read an excerpt from.
On a couple of occasions ...
- 887
36
votes
5
answers
13k
views
At what point did "gross" come to mean "disgusting"?
The first time I heard "gross" being used to mean "disgusting" was probably around the late 1980s, and at the time I felt it was some sort of a corruption of "grotesque"...
I'm wondering if there is ...
- 447
35
votes
3
answers
11k
views
What does "Dis sho' am good" mean in this old advertisement?
I was looking through this list of old, racist advertisements.
Here's one of them:
What is "Dis sho' am good" supposed to mean? I'm assuming it's some sort of attempt at stereotypical vernacular ...
- 3,305
34
votes
3
answers
4k
views
When did double superlatives go out of fashion in English?
Today I learned that the correct/recommended form of English, only a few centuries ago, required using "more" and "most" together with adjectives that were already in (respectively)...
- 4,885
34
votes
4
answers
16k
views
Why did only English undergo the Great Vowel Shift, making pronunciation stray so far from spelling?
Lots of people have wondered why English seems to be one of very few languages with such irregular spelling, far from its pronunciation. The answers include the Norman invasion, and the Great Vowel ...
- 1,113
33
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Is there a historical trend towards shorter sentences?
From my own reading of older books (eg. 18th, 19th century) in various styles (novels, philosophical treatises, scientific publications), it seems that sentences were longer back then.
Is there good ...
- 2,777
33
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Meaning of "I have often seen Essex cheese quick enough"
John Heywood (c. 1497–1580) once wrote:
I never saw Banbury cheese thick enough
But I have often seen Essex cheese quick enough. 1 2
The first line alludes to how a Banbury cheese was very ...
- 2,632
33
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Why is the zh (ʒ) sound so infrequent in English?
I've always heard that the "zh" (ʒ) sound (e.g. in "vision", "usually") was an uncommon sound in the English language. A quick Google search returns multiple results (...
- 924
33
votes
3
answers
21k
views
“Fire” a weapon before firearms existed?
Did the verb “fire a weapon” exist before the actual introduction of firearms on battlefields?
More specifically, does it make sense for a creative work to have archers (or whatever ranged weaponry) ...
- 477
32
votes
5
answers
9k
views
During the "Cold War", did Americans/Westerners call it such?
I am old enough to remember the fall of the Soviet Union, but not old enough to have had any interest in world affairs in the times before.
Did Americans/Westerners refer to the "Cold War" by that ...
- 781
32
votes
3
answers
441k
views
Can someone explain the phrase "All is fair in love and war"?
What are its origins and what does it really mean?
user9879
32
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Why is there a distinction between "its" and "it's"?
While I know technically the English language has a distinction because when there's a conflict between the possessive form and a contraction, the contraction wins. That is:
Its is the possessive ...
- 1,940
31
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Why did the letter “o” disappear in the word “pronunciation”?
The verb pronounce has the letter o in its second syllable, but in the noun pronunciation, that same letter disappears from the corresponding position.
Why is that?
- 1,299
31
votes
5
answers
56k
views
Is "from whence" correct? Or should it be "whence"?
I just saw a parody on the Lord of the Rings, where one of the characters says:
it must be cast back in the fire from whence it came!
This struck me as odd, since I expected them to say "whence it ...
- 539
31
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Why have the subjunctive and indicative converged in Modern English?
It is to me a curious fact that the subjunctive mood of verbs in English has so nearly disappeared in modern times. In fact, even the correct form and usage of the subjunctive in Modern English barely ...
- 13.2k
31
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Of Yuppies and Yippies and Hippies
While innocently passing by on my way to Big Rep City, I happened to overhear (alright! I was dropping eaves) a dialogue in some podunk Commentary Cafe wherein two fellow ELU consumers were debating ...
user98990
31
votes
6
answers
13k
views
19th century English texts occasionally use Germanic-style number words, such as "four-and-twenty". When did this fall out of use?
19th century English texts occasionally use Germanic-style number words, such as "four-and-twenty", but the same text would also have the modern "twenty-four" in places (see e.g. Conan-Doyle for ...
30
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Why are knobs called "pots" by some sound designers?
I was recently introduced to the term "pots" to mean "dials" or "knobs" in the field of sound design and audio engineering. (It rather took me by surprise; I had no idea what the sound designer was ...
- 719
30
votes
3
answers
49k
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, bedazzled, ...
- 21.7k