Questions tagged [history]
Questions about the history and trends of the English language.
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Devil take the hindmost!
I came across the following old proverb in which I noticed that a bare infinitive verb is used after a singular subject.
Devil take ...
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The origin of the terms ' Attributive and Predicative Adjectives'
At present l am reviewing classification of adjectives: attributives and predicatives. I want to know who coined them, and when grammarians began using them. By the way, l have searched in vain for ...
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About the word 'finewirer' and researching obscure words
I can't seem to find anywhere where I can look up reliably the meaning and etymology of this word: finewirer. A quick search on Google gives you uses of this word in texts such as Terry Pratchett's ...
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History of "Above and Beyond" and other similar phrases as English and French
In an editing lecture, I learned about how some phrases are filler because they are literally just repetition of the same idea. Above and beyond is the only one I can think of now.
The lecturer said ...
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Was the word “communist” used prior to Marxist/Leninist writings?
The word 'communism' and 'communist' were certainly popularized by the title of 'The Communist Manifesto' by Mark and Engels.
But was the word 'communist' used prior to Marxist writings? Or was it ...
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What is the history of using "Jersey" for "New Jersey"?
I have long wondered the origin of calling New Jersey by the nickname "Jersey". To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever shortened New York or New Hampshire to "York" or "Hampshire", or ...
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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 ...
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"X is the last refuge of Y" - who first?
What is the source of the snowclone:
X is the last refuge of Y
Here are the following examples I could find:
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. - Samuel Johnson
Audacity is the last ...
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What do you call a person who does not stand up for themselves [closed]
What do you call a person who does not stand up for themselves? I'm looking for a word to describe how a slave thought of his kind back before the Civil War started. The word have to be a synonym to ...
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Continuous(Progressive) module in Old English
I'm curious as to the origins of the Continuous(progressive) module.
Whenever I meet texts emulating old speech, like in: video game RPGs, books like the Saxon Chronicles, Hollywood movies about the ...
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Lavatory — US terms used in the 1950s
I am trying to find out what would be natural terms to refer to the lavatory in the US in the 1950s. I am specifically interested in how a woman who was a teenager at that time in a poor working class ...
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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 ...
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Why are pubowners called landlords in the U.K.?
I just came across the fact that Brits call the owners\operators of their pubs landlords, (on the new show "The Reluctant Landlord"). Being from the USA I am only aware of the term landlord being used ...
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Why do they call it jacking off?
Where did it come from? What is the history of the idiom? I read it could from several different places but none of them seem like the right answer. Anyone got a good guess?
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First use of the expression "Spandau Ballet"
Am wondering about the known history of this term. I assume that
Spandau refers to the German MG08.
The term as a whole refers to the behaviour of massed troops being hit by machine gun fire.
The ...
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Does the English word "have" have a closer relationship with German "haben" or French "avoir"?
I see the English auxiliary verb have is very similar to Romance counterparts like Portuguese haver, Spanish haber or Italian avere and it appears to me that they have some historical relationship. It ...
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If you had a list of common words from Middle and Modern English, how many words would have been replaced?
If you compiled a list of common Middle English words and their corresponding Modern English translations, how many entries would have been replaced by an etymologically distinct word in Modern ...
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Use of degree symbol for Latinate ordinal number shorthand
I remember often having professors in college use degree symbols to write shorthand versions of Latinate ordinal numbers.
For example:
1° Primary
2° Secondary
3° Tertiary
4° Quaternary
...
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What is the origin of the "once upon a time" idiom as the way to begin a fairy tale?
"Once upon a time" is the traditional way to start a fairy tale using the English language. But how traditional is it? I'm trying to find the first uses of this expression with this purpose. So far I ...
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What is the origin of the term EPK or Electronic Press Kit on movie productions? Any history welcome!
EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit, which I am defining as "recorded cast and crew interviews and other clips that capture the making of the movie to be used for publicity." Is that right? Next, ...
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Is there a word for when fictional media makes non-English speaking characters from the past speak in an old-timey English dialect?
There are many movies and TV shows that depict characters from historical eras who would not speak English, but do for the sake of the show's audience. In those cases, they tend to use an old English ...
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When did 'Robot' start implying a machine?
The word 'Robot' originated from a Czech author, Karel Čapek. He first uses the word in a play where robots are manufactured biological entities said to lack independent thought.
However, after ...
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Have any English words been turned foreign only to be then used again in English in an altered state? [duplicate]
What are some examples of English words that got taken into use in a foreign language in a changed state, and then subsequently re-entered the English language in state B or even state C.
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Why can 'lower' be a verb but 'higher/upper' cannot?
The title is basically my question.
The word lower can be a comparative form of low as an adjective, but it can also be a verb.
However, the antonym of the word such as higher or upper cannot be used ...
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Status of 'hypophora' as a word
I participate in other SE forums where it's common practice for experienced or knowledgeable participants to simultaneously submit both a question and an answer. This can be very helpful in technical ...
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Where does the term "on the nose" come from?
Where does the term, "on the nose" (to mean accuracy) come from?
Dictionaries such as Oxford Dictionaries list the expression both under "nose" and on its own page, but the only etymology they list ...
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How did kid + nap come to mean abduct? [closed]
Why do the words kid and nap become kidnap as a meaning of abduct, when did that take form and why?
Additionally, if nap is really nab, why did nab become nap?
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Historical connections between "carnival" and "cannibalism"?
This may be a somewhat disturbing question, but as a non-native speaker, the word carnival seems very similar to a totally different word called cannibalism.
I’m well aware of the difference between ...
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"solder" and "salve" phonetics between AmE and BrE
Many will know that there are differences in AmE and BrE pronunciation of the words "solder" and "salve".
On the topic of "solder", there are already two questions here asking about the correct ...
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Why does "No" mean "Number?" [duplicate]
I frequently see the abbreviation "No" to mean "Number" (or "Nos" to mean "Numbers") instead of the much more common meaning of the word (a negative statement or denial). Sources cited here say it's ...
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"Sassanian" vs. "Sasanian": Which one is more accurate? With one "s" or two?
Sassanian: Webster.
Sasanian: Wikipedia.
I am really confused which one is more accurate... Even the pronunciations are different.
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Artisanal whaling!? When did the use of artisanal start being used for activities not involving making fine products?
Wikipedia, Omura's whale uses the phrase Artisanal Whaling to describe hunting of whales by natives in the vicinity of the Mindanao Sea.
Artisanal whaling
As early as the late 19th century, ...
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When did 'some one' turn to 'someone'?
I was recently reading a book from sometime in the first half of the 20th century and I noticed that the word ‘someone’ was spelled separately as ‘some one’.
Was there an official change at some ...
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Tennis: When and where did 30-all (and 15-all) start transitioning to the counterintuitive 30-up (and 15-up)?
At my tennis club in the suburbs of DC, about half the players (when serving) call 30-up when the score is 30-30, and the rest call out the more intuitive 30-all.
To my mind, 30-up logically means ...
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History of additional sounds introduced to English
Today I was curious about the rarity of the consonant cluster sr in the English language. I found a WordReference forum from 2006 that asked about the matter.
The general response is that because ...
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What's so idiomatic about "unrequited"?
Unrequited, according to the most influential dictionaries, is a term mostly used in reference to love. As the following source notes:
Unrequited is used almost exclusively in the context of ...
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From "breath of life" to “rescue breath”
While watching a YouTube video called How to Perform CPR, I was struck by the expression used by the instructor, “give one rescue breath” (1.52) and “to perform a rescue breath” (2.00).
“Rescue ...
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Which came first: "do much of anything" or "do much if anything"
I came across the following online:
I'm not actually sure this project will do much if anything to help since ...
Since there are no commas, I first read it as
I'm not actually sure this ...
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Origins of the 'editorial we' and its counterpart, the 'editorial I'
In researching an unrelated EL&U answer, I came across this commentary in an item titled "Hobart Town" in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (November 10, 1829):
These ...
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Did "user" have positive or negative connotation in 1950?
Since the advent of ubiquitous technology, the meaning of "user" is best know as the person sitting in front of the computer or similar device.
I am studying the history of computing and want to ...
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What is the origin of the phrase “frank and fearless”?
The phrase “frank and fearless” is commonly used in Australia to describe the way public servants should advise the politicians they work for. This is said to be an aspect of the Westminster tradition....
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History of Clean-Slate phrase
What was the phrase clean-slate originally used for? Or did it always refer to restart in something?
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a-verb-ing construct (e.g. a-hopping) [closed]
I sometimes here casual phrases in English like a hipping and a hopping (a hippin and a hoppin).
How exactly does this fit into English grammar and what is the history of the construct?
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Origin of figurative use of 'ugly American' in the pejorative sense of 'ignorant, arrogant U.S. citizen abroad'
The expression "ugly American" evidently became famous through a novel—William J. Lederer & Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American (1958). The title character, Homer Atkins, although ...
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Has "thanks" always been as common of a courtesy as it now is?
I'm watching the series Boardwalk Empire, a period drama set in the early 1920s, and an odd thing I notice is that people often do not say "thanks" or "thank you" when I'd expect them to–for example, ...
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Is there a word such as "history" that refers to a personal past without traditional "historical" connotations?
I am creating an application that gives information about old buildings. The app has two modes: History mode and Requested Word mode.
History mode would include buildings that are thought of in the ...
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What’s the origin and history of the phrase “ten foot pole”?
According to Dictionary.com the phrase, ‘Not touch (something/someone) with a ten-foot pole’, dates back to the mid-eighteenth century:
This expression dates from the mid-1700s, when it began ...
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Where does "nickel tour" come from?
I heard "Nickel tour" is to show you around.
From usingenglish.com we can read:
If someone gives you a nickel tour, they show you around a place.
('Fifty-cent tour' is also used.)
I also read it ...
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Why did we merge "can" and "not" but not "do" and "not" to make *"donot"?
This is very illogical. If I cannot write * donot to mean "do not", it annoys me greatly. Is there a good reason we do not say * donot, or is it simply by chance that we cannot?
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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-...
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