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Results tagged with etymology
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user 319429
Questions about tracing out and describing the elements of an individual word, as well as the historical changes in form and sense which that word has experienced over its history. Please use the 'phrase-origin' tag for phrase/expression origins.
2
votes
Accepted
When was "rush" first used to describe a sudden intense feeling?
It developed in the 18th and 19th centuries from a term meaning a rapidly growing emotion to something closer to the modern sense of a sudden, overpoweringly intense feeling.
The modern sense is what …
- 10.8k
1
vote
Accepted
How might've "then" become "than"?
The OED says of "than" in comparative expressions:
Its employment as the connective after a comparative (= Latin quam,
French que) is a pre-English development, existing already in West
German.
How t …
- 10.8k
3
votes
Origin of the phrase "Float The Idea"
As with many expressions, the origin is complex and multifaceted. "To float an idea" became popular in the 1970s, with no apparent nautical connection, but there are occasional older uses. The modern …
- 10.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of "out of sight" or "outa sight" in the sense of amazing/unbelievable?
It means "beyond the range of sight" and hence very high, very far, or great, exceeding limits or boundaries; this isn't the same as meaning hidden. In this metaphorical sense (not relating to sight), …
- 10.8k
1
vote
Accepted
Is there any etymological link between template and contemplate
Short's Latin Dictionary (online at Tufts' Perseus) doesn't provide an etymology for the latter, and I can't find one elsewhere. So there's no proof they're connected although it's possible. … Contemplate comes from the Latin word templum for temple (Online Etymology Dictionary). …
- 10.8k
7
votes
Origin of the term "level up"
Levelling up is based on the idea that you can achieve equality in two ways: either by making the rich worse off or the poor better off. Levelling down is where you take money away from the rich, leve …
- 10.8k
2
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of "interview loop"?
There is a Stack Exchange for workplace topics, https://workplace.stackexchange.com/ if you want ask about what interview loops involve (rather than questions about meaning or etymology). …
- 10.8k
2
votes
What does sartorial connote?
Sartorial comes from the Latin sartor meaning tailor, and in the narrow sense it refers to tailoring and tailored clothes. (Merriam-Webster) However it is used more generally to refer to clothes in ge …
- 10.8k
36
votes
When and how did the criminal sense of 'grooming' arise?
It almost certainly comes from slightly older senses of groom, meaning to tend and prepare.
In the words of the OED, "groom" can mean:
To tend or attend to carefully; to give a neat, tidy, or ‘smart’ …
- 10.8k
3
votes
What is the origin of the phrase "hit rock bottom"?
As far as I can tell, there is not a particular source for rock bottom=worst as a metaphor from any one field, but it follows from other metaphorical uses of rock bottom to refer to something low or b …
- 10.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Word and etymology for "small of one's back"
The small of the back refers to the narrow part of the back at the waist, and derives from the original meaning of small as meaning narrow or (to quote the OED) "of no great extent laterally in compar …
- 10.8k
0
votes
What is the original superlative form of well?
The answer is: there wasn't one. The OED says:
Like that of good adj., the Germanic base of well adv. appears to have had no regular comparative or superlative, these forms being supplied by formatio …
- 10.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Who coined the phrase "play the hand one is dealt"?
Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Catch Phrases, Scarborough House, 1992 (1977), in the entry "you play the cards you're dealt", says it's c. 1910, from the USA, especially used in the West. Like most wo …
- 10.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the etymology of the sense of 'key' in 'key a surface', 'provides a key for the paint'
This derives from many other senses of key as referring to an object or method used to join two things together, of which they keystone in an arch might be the best-known.
The OED gives one meaning of …
- 10.8k
1
vote
Accepted
What's the etymology of "noddle"? And is "noodle" a derivative?
Nobody knows.
The OED says "noddle" is "of uncertain origin"; it dates back to around 1425. It suggests there might be a relation to "nod" (around 1390, origin unknown but probably Germanic) or "noll" …
- 10.8k