Professor Muffit's Word Births!!!

[Muffit]

Good morning class!!! Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI, we will be studying the origins of words and phrases! Don't you all wonder where we get these crazy expressions??? Well, wonder no more!!! Each day I will add one or more replies to this thread with a unique word birth explanation. Feel free to add your own!!!

Today's lesson - "Red Tape". Where the heck did that come from? I have yet to see any tape of the crimson persuasion on my legal docs. Well, it seems that around the turn of the century, government officials and lawyers used to bind their plethora of papers with red ribbons. This became very commonplace. And since that paperwork was the ridiculous overkill of way too much wasted effort just to apply for something simple, any practice of such a kind was soon dubbed, "red tape".

And one more ruby rant to add, the origin of "Red Herring". Ah, well back in the good old 1700's, it was common to cure herring, which gave it a reddish color. The result was a stinky bunch of fish. Criminals on the run often stole these and erased their tracks with them, and the stinky scent threw off any bloodhounds. Eventually, any wasted search became called a "red herring".

There goes the bell!! Don't forget to leave teach' an apple!!! :thumbsup:
Prof. Muffit
:muffit:

[BST]

Thanks, Professor Muffit.

I am so enlightened, can't wait for tomorrow's class!!!! :D

http://www.thefruitpages.com/pictures/redapple.gif

[shiningstar]

Good morning class!!! Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI, we will be studying the origins of words and phrases! Don't you all wonder where we get these crazy expressions??? Well, wonder no more!!! Each day I will add one or more replies to this thread with a unique word birth explanation. Feel free to add your own!!!

Today's lesson - "Red Tape". Where the heck did that come from? I have yet to see any tape of the crimson persuasion on my legal docs. Well, it seems that around the turn of the century, government officials and lawyers used to bind their plethora of papers with red ribbons. This became very commonplace. And since that paperwork was the ridiculous overkill of way too much wasted effort just to apply for something simple, any practice of such a kind was soon dubbed, "red tape".

And one more ruby rant to add, the origin of "Red Herring". Ah, well back in the good old 1700's, it was common to cure herring, which gave it a reddish color. The result was a stinky bunch of fish. Criminals on the run often stole these and erased their tracks with them, and the stinky scent threw off any bloodhounds. Eventually, any wasted search became called a "red herring".

There goes the bell!! Don't forget to leave teach' an apple!!! :thumbsup:
Prof. Muffit
:muffit:

Thanks Muffit. I love the posts! :thumbsup:

[julix]

Thank you my dear muffitt..... :thumbsup:

[The 14th Colony]

Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI
You can have a degree of DUI? You wouldn't want to get pulled over after driving your car from that school. :eek:

[bsg1fan1975]

Uh oh Muffit's been let loose again! :LOL:

[Muffit]

Hi all! And thanks for your kind replies!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson we will learn about birds and where they get their names.


First off, where the heck did "penguin" come from? Well, as it turns out, its name was given by Welsh fisherman, from in their language "pen" meaning "head" and "gwyn" meaning white (hey! I wonder if that's where Gwynevere gets her name?). Actually, they were looking at auks, which aren't really penguins at all. But the name stuck for some reason for Antarctic formal wear and there you go...

Next "pelican". This was actually a mistake. Poor St. Jerome was translating the Bible and thought it was a woodpecker, so he called it pelican (from Greek pelekys or "axe-beak"). Like the American "Indian" we just never bothered to fix it. Pbb...


Mother Goose - she actually existed!!! It seems from 1665-1757 there lived a woman named Elizabeth Foster, who married one Isaac Goose - she inheriting no less than 10 stepchildren, and then bearing 6 more!!! Yikes! 16 kids!!! Talk about the old woman who lived in a shoe!!! Guess you can figure where a lot of her rhymes come from! Her daughter married a famous printer, and the rest is, as we say, history. I wonder if "foster parent" is somehow /related/ to all this (aaarrrggghh)...

Toodles for tonight!!!
:muffit:

[Flamingo Girl]

Neato.

Thanks.

[Archangel]

I'd ask where you get all this information but... :D

[shiningstar]

Hi all! And thanks for your kind replies!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson we will learn about birds and where they get their names.


First off, where the heck did "penguin" come from? Well, as it turns out, its name was given by Welsh fisherman, from in their language "pen" meaning "head" and "gwyn" meaning white (hey! I wonder if that's where Gwynevere gets her name?). Actually, they were looking at auks, which aren't really penguins at all. But the name stuck for some reason for Antarctic formal wear and there you go...

Next "pelican". This was actually a mistake. Poor St. Jerome was translating the Bible and thought it was a woodpecker, so he called it pelican (from Greek pelekys or "axe-beak"). Like the American "Indian" we just never bothered to fix it. Pbb...


Mother Goose - she actually existed!!! It seems from 1665-1757 there lived a woman named Elizabeth Foster, who married one Isaac Goose - she inheriting no less than 10 stepchildren, and then bearing 6 more!!! Yikes! 16 kids!!! Talk about the old woman who lived in a shoe!!! Guess you can figure where a lot of her rhymes come from! Her daughter married a famous printer, and the rest is, as we say, history. I wonder if "foster parent" is somehow /related/ to all this (aaarrrggghh)...

Toodles for tonight!!!
:muffit:

Thanks for the interesting, mindbending tidbits Muffit! :thumbsup:

I love it :D

[Muffit]

Thanks FG Archangel and Shiningstar!! And yes, Archangel, I'm getting these from a book, called Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. It's HUGE. It's got like 100,000 entries, maybe more. I've been dying to get it for years, and finallly found it at Barnes and Noble.

Today's topic, military ranks!!


General - in the old days, the leader of an army was actually called a "captain general", meaning, generally over the whole shebang. Later the captain part was dropped, so we just have generals today, meaning nonspecific, LOL.



Major - another adjective that has strangely become a noun. Originally there were "sergeant majors", or "great" sergeants. Now they are simply majors.

Colonel - this was actually a mistake. The head of a column, spelled "colonne" in French, was a "colonel". But the Spanish messed it up and called it "coronel". Despite numerous attempts to get people to pronounce it right, they finally gave up cuz people are just plain fickle. Hence you will hear LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes say "co-lo-nel" while most Americans say "kernel".

Lieutenant - this one actually makes sense. In French it is two words, "lieu" or place, and "tenant", or holding. So a lieutenant was someone temporarily holding the place of a captain.

Corporal - no one is quite sure, but probably it is from the Italian "corporale", or body of men.

Sergeant - this one is pretty odd, you don't pronounce it anythin like it's spelled. They think it came from "servente" or servant of the King. It was mispronounced "sergente" and hence our weird name today.

Captain - humorously enough, the latin word for "head of a body" was "caput", from which we get captain today. In German "kaput" means washed up, LOL. Similar to the military acronym CINCUS which the Navy quickly dropped because of it's homonym entreaty for the enemy to destroy their ships, LOL.

Field Marshal - this is an old one, coming from the old Medieval "mareschal", which was a blacksmith or tarrier. Since the horse-shoer of the King quickly rose to a great deal of importance, so did a marsschal, or marshal.

Private - comes from the Latin word "privus", which originally meant an individual person, and later, an individual devoid of rank.

Petty Officer - this can be traced back to the French "petit" meaning "small or minor". Hence our word petty.

Admiral - Admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning commander of the seas. Crusaders carried the word back with them around 1000 AD.

And there you have it folks!!! Trivia for the day!!!!!!!!!!!

Professor Muffit, doting daggit of DUI
:muffit:

[bsg1fan1975]

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!

[shiningstar]

Thanks FG Archangel and Shiningstar!! And yes, Archangel, I'm getting these from a book, called Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. It's HUGE. It's got like 100,000 entries, maybe more. I've been dying to get it for years, and finallly found it at Barnes and Noble.

Today's topic, military ranks!!


General - in the old days, the leader of an army was actually called a "captain general", meaning, generally over the whole shebang. Later the captain part was dropped, so we just have generals today, meaning nonspecific, LOL.



Major - another adjective that has strangely become a noun. Originally there were "sergeant majors", or "great" sergeants. Now they are simply majors.

Colonel - this was actually a mistake. The head of a column, spelled "colonne" in French, was a "colonel". But the Spanish messed it up and called it "coronel". Despite numerous attempts to get people to pronounce it right, they finally gave up cuz people are just plain fickle. Hence you will hear LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes say "co-lo-nel" while most Americans say "kernel".

Lieutenant - this one actually makes sense. In French it is two words, "lieu" or place, and "tenant", or holding. So a lieutenant was someone temporarily holding the place of a captain.

Corporal - no one is quite sure, but probably it is from the Italian "corporale", or body of men.

Sergeant - this one is pretty odd, you don't pronounce it anythin like it's spelled. They think it came from "servente" or servant of the King. It was mispronounced "sergente" and hence our weird name today.

Captain - humorously enough, the latin word for "head of a body" was "caput", from which we get captain today. In German "kaput" means washed up, LOL. Similar to the military acronym CINCUS which the Navy quickly dropped because of it's homonym entreaty for the enemy to destroy their ships, LOL.

Field Marshal - this is an old one, coming from the old Medieval "mareschal", which was a blacksmith or tarrier. Since the horse-shoer of the King quickly rose to a great deal of importance, so did a marsschal, or marshal.

Private - comes from the Latin word "privus", which originally meant an individual person, and later, an individual devoid of rank.

Petty Officer - this can be traced back to the French "petit" meaning "small or minor". Hence our word petty.

Admiral - Admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning commander of the seas. Crusaders carried the word back with them around 1000 AD.

And there you have it folks!!! Trivia for the day!!!!!!!!!!!

Professor Muffit, doting daggit of DUI
:muffit:

Thanks for the INFO Muffit :thumbsup:

;)

[shiningstar]

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!

:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

:D

[Muffit]

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!
ROTFL! :laugh:

[bsg1fan1975]

Come to think of it You should probably hide the dictionary too! Never know when that daggit is going to use those big words! :LOL:

[Archangel]

I thought I knew some weird stuff, but compared to Muffit and Senmut, I'm nothing more than a rank amateur :cry: :D

[Flamingo Girl]

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

[Archangel]

Not just the British, America is pretty unique in that area ;)

[shiningstar]

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

:eek: ME TOO!!!!!!! :eek:

[shiningstar]

Not just the British, America is pretty unique in that area ;)

In truth .......I haven't seen that Archangel ........:P:

But given the different dialects from TX to BOSTON I wouldn't be surprised
if it's been happening ;)

[shiningstar]

I thought I knew some weird stuff, but compared to Muffit and Senmut, I'm nothing more than a rank amateur :cry: :D

((((((((((((ARCHANGEL))))))))))))))))))))

We're ALL Rank amatuers next to MUFFIT :rose:

Don't take it so hard ;)

You're good at making me laugh that counts for alot :)

[Archangel]

In truth .......I haven't seen that Archangel ........:P:

But given the different dialects from TX to BOSTON I wouldn't be surprised
if it's been happening ;)

What I meant was that in the English-speaking world, Leftenant is the norm for pronouncing that rank. Lootenant is pretty much an American idiosyncracy. :D

[Flamingo Girl]

Hey....where's Muffit's Tuesday post?

[Archangel]

And today's (Wednesday)

[Muffit]

Hi all! Sorry FG, I was watching The Black Hole with my family - we just LOVE that music!!!


Okay, here's some for today...

Influenza - this word was first used back in 1743 when an outbreak of a "contagious distemper" afflicted Rome. It was believed back then that pestilence outbreaks were caused, or "influenced" by the stars. The word influenza is the English-ization of the Italian word.

Jukebox - originally, the islands off Carolina Georgia and Florida were home to a number of West Africans. Their anglicized word "jook" comes from their Gullah word "dzug" which meant to live a wild and wooly life. In the Americas, brothels were called jooks or "jukes" as a result. They had the first coin operated music boxes, so the name stuck even after the machines were put into less, shall we say, supine accommodations.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more trips down morpheme lane!!!
:muffit:

[onepath]

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

well hope you dont mind but here is a brief explaination for you:

"A lieutentant acted in place of his immediate supervisor. This word dates back to the 14th century, when it entered English from French lieutenant, which was formed from lieu "place" and tenant "a holding" (whence English tenant). Lieu came to French (and also English, in the 13th century, within in lieu of) via Latin locus "place". Lieutenant was sometimes spelled with an f as far back as the 14th century, indicating that the British pronunciation is quite old. It is thought that such pronunciation was influenced by the word leave, perhaps as a lieutenant's superior had to leave before the lieutenant could serve his purpose. Some cognates are lieu, local, and tenant."

"Where did “lef” come from? No one knows for sure. The 1998 New Oxford Dictionary of English speculates that the “f” sound emerged at some point before the 19th century – probably when the “u” at the end of the Old French word lieu was misread and pronounced as a “v.” Over the years, the “v” sound eventually became an “f,” even though the original spelling was maintained."


It was recorded as "leeftenaunt" in 1387, but is reported in the late 1700's as "lef" being more popular, but "loo" being correct.

However meanwhile at reality HQ it has shown that nowadays they are mostly ex public school boys, wet behind the ears who realy do need the education of life before education of their surrounding peers.

hope that enlightens??

[Muffit]

Thursday's Lesson!!!

Atom: This comes to us from the Greek "atomos", which means indivisible, or cannot be divided anymore. (Unfortunately, we have since discovered may sub-atomic particles, yet we still call the parent, an atom).


And our bonus word, don't you ever wonder where we get the "Galactica" part of Battlestar Galactica? The root word, "galaxy" comes from the Greek word "galaxis", which means, incredulously, "circle of milk". No doubt stemming from the same source as our expression "the Milky Way".

Howsomever, that leaves us with a rather embarassing definition for our favorite show - somehow Battlestar Lactose-Free doesn't ring quite so ominously, LOL!!!

Hey!!! Maybe we should commandeer that big buzz expression, "Got Milk???" ROTFL!!! http://thomas7g.com/battlestar-galactica/smilies/colonial-laugh.gif

:muffit:

[Archangel]

Does that come with or without corn flakes??? :D

Educational as always, muffit :)

[Flamingo Girl]

Would it be all right if i were to share these with some friends on another board?

[Muffit]

Of course FG!!! Feel free to share anywhere! P.S. Sorry I missed Friday, but my family and I trekked all the way to Frisco for a true mini-vacation, and didn't get back till after midnight.


Saturday's Lesson!!!

Ever wonder where our stars get their names from? It seems that Dirk's last name fits him to a tee even better than the Starbuck appellation. "Benedict" stems from the venerable saint and means a bachelor of marriagable age! LOL!!


Spam - you Monty Pythoners out there will appreciate this one. Back in 1936, Hormel faced a lot of copying for its popular mixture of pork shoulder, ham, salt, sugar and sodium nitrate, often called "special ham". So it held a contest, and one Kenneth Daigneau won (a mere $100) for his conjunction of "s" for shoulder, "p" for pork and "am" from ham (or did he just cheat and combine "special ham"?). Hormel has since sold over 5 /billion/ cans of the stuff!!!


Salary - you may not believe this, but our word actually comes from "salt". In Roman times, salt was very highly valued, and soldiers were often paid their wages in salt, hence our word "salary".

Paradise - this actually comes to us from ancient Persia. In that arid inhospitable land, the Persian kings often built lush garden getaways, truly something special in a land of deserts. The Greeks borrowed the term and made it their "paradeisos", or "park". The translators of the Septuagint, being Greek, then used it for the Garden of Eden, and later biblical scholars used it as a euphemism for heaven.

See you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!
:muffit:

[Ethan]

Ethan raises his hand in class-
I heard an explanation for "minding your P's and Q"s" the other day referring to Irish drinking. Is this true? Do you have an alternate explanation for this?
Ethan

:blush:

[The 14th Colony]

Howsomever, that leaves us with a rather embarassing definition for our favorite show - somehow Battlestar Lactose-Free doesn't ring quite so ominously, LOL!!!

Hey!!! Maybe we should commandeer that big buzz expression, "Got Milk???" ROTFL!!!
:D That should be Apollo's battle cry in the BSG continuation movie, to the Cylons, "Got milk?" and then "Fire torpedos, give 'em milk!" :LOL:

[The 14th Colony]

I have to say, Muffit, you are a mind boggling always ready to spill, vessel of packed knowledge! :thumbsup: :salute:

[Muffit]

Hi Ethan! I love questions! Go to the head of the class!!!


Yes, many do believe that "mind your p's and q's" came from the pints and quarts of English pubs. My skeptical resource notes here that barroom anecdotes are often attached to things, and that this is not for certain, although it is possible of course.

It cites that it was, in fact, an admonition to English schoolchildren to be careful not to reverse the stems on their p's and q's, since when we are learning to write that often happens.

Where exactly it comes from we may never know, but it sure is fun to guess!!!

:muffit:

[thomas7g]

In the days of sail when Sailors were paid a pittance, seamen drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many salts were illiterate, keepers kept a tally of pints and quarts consumed by each Sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person's name, a mark was made under "P" for pint or "Q" for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught.

On payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his P's and Q's" or he would get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, Sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of "mind your P's and Q's."

;)

[Muffit]

Thanks Thomas! Yep, I've heard that too. I tend to think pints and quarts is the right origin myself, the thick book I'm using tends to diss a lot of stuff most of us have always believed. Maybe the author just wants to be contrary(?) So Pints and Quarts it is!!!!!!!!! Thomas, go to the head of the class!!! :thumbsup:

[shiningstar]

I don't know but "I" Want MORE posts :eek:

You there Muffit? :rose:

[Muffit]

Hi Shiningstar!! Yep, I will be back this afternoon with more goodies!!! :heart:

[shiningstar]

Hi Shiningstar!! Yep, I will be back this afternoon with more goodies!!! :heart:

Excellent I'm waiting :D

[Muffit]

Eeks! I lost track of the time! I have been visiting with a retired naval chief and got so caught up in his stories of WWII I completely forgot the time!


So I'll have to do yesterday AND today!!!



Sunday:
=====
galoot - 19th century sailor's term for a landlubber, now used mainly as "big galoot" for any clumsy person


gaffer - very old term for an old man, probably a contraction of "grandfather". In England there is also a "gammer" for grandmother, but we yanks never use it. In film, the gaffer is the chief electrician...


pupil - from the Latin word pupullus, or "little boy", since girls did not attend school back in ancient Greece and Rome.



Monday:
=====
pomegranate - from the Latin "many-seeded apple". We still call them Chinese apples today. And "grenade" also comes from this root, a shortening of the French word "pomegrenade", since early grenades used to be filled with seed like powder.

grog - oddly, this term has come to mean a strong and nasty brew that pirates drank. In truth, it was the opposite - Sir Edward Vernon, of George Washington's acquaintance, used to wear a grogram cloak he wore on deck in all kinds of weather (they called him "Old Grog"). Upset that his men got into fights after their ample ration of rum, he diluted it to almost nothing and even then spread the rations out 6 hours apart. His men, clearly upset (because life aboard ship in the early 1700's was ONLY ameliorated by rum, LOL), nicknamed the contemptable stuff "grog" after their Admiral. So grog originally meant the equivalent of watered down beer rather than a strong brew as we know it today :)


groovy - this heralds back to the old phonograph days of the 30's to 50's. When a phonograph was playing well, the needle stayed "in the groove" rather than jumping out and skipping, hence our modern term. Oddly, in England it meant the opposite, as in being in a rut.


See ya again tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!
Professor Muffit
:muffit:

[Archangel]

Pretty cool, Muffit! :thumbsup:

[shiningstar]

Eeks! I lost track of the time! I have been visiting with a retired naval chief and got so caught up in his stories of WWII I completely forgot the time!


So I'll have to do yesterday AND today!!!



Sunday:
=====
galoot - 19th century sailor's term for a landlubber, now used mainly as "big galoot" for any clumsy person


gaffer - very old term for an old man, probably a contraction of "grandfather". In England there is also a "gammer" for grandmother, but we yanks never use it. In film, the gaffer is the chief electrician...


pupil - from the Latin word pupullus, or "little boy", since girls did not attend school back in ancient Greece and Rome.



Monday:
=====
pomegranate - from the Latin "many-seeded apple". We still call them Chinese apples today. And "grenade" also comes from this root, a shortening of the French word "pomegrenade", since early grenades used to be filled with seed like powder.

grog - oddly, this term has come to mean a strong and nasty brew that pirates drank. In truth, it was the opposite - Sir Edward Vernon, of George Washington's acquaintance, used to wear a grogram cloak he wore on deck in all kinds of weather (they called him "Old Grog"). Upset that his men got into fights after their ample ration of rum, he diluted it to almost nothing and even then spread the rations out 6 hours apart. His men, clearly upset (because life aboard ship in the early 1700's was ONLY ameliorated by rum, LOL), nicknamed the contemptable stuff "grog" after their Admiral. So grog originally meant the equivalent of watered down beer rather than a strong brew as we know it today :)


groovy - this heralds back to the old phonograph days of the 30's to 50's. When a phonograph was playing well, the needle stayed "in the groove" rather than jumping out and skipping, hence our modern term. Oddly, in England it meant the opposite, as in being in a rut.


See ya again tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!
Professor Muffit
:muffit:

LOVE IT Muffit! keep Posting!

[Muffit]

It's Tuesday class!!! Time for a pop Geometry Quiz!!!


1). Connect the dot .


That's it!!! Did you pass???

Okay, now for some word trivia!!

"Little Jack Horner" - this is actually based on the actions of the steward to the abbot of Glastonbury, who was delivering some land documents hidden in a pie to Henry VIII. He "stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a PLUM", and what a plum it was!! He then became owner of all that land.


"Leave no stone unturned" - this actually came from the advice of the famous Oracle of Delphi in ancient times. The Theban general Polycrates asked the oracle how to find the treasure of teh vanquished Persians, and that was her reply. It worked, and has been with us ever since. Oh, Ogden Nash made a nice pun for this, about throwing rocks at seabirds: "I leave no tern unstoned" :D

:muffit:

[Archangel]

LOL! Excellent!

[shiningstar]

LOL! Excellent!

I soooooooooo agree :D :thumbsup:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
:LOL:

[Muffit]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

Oops! I slipped again, Teach' forgot to teach yesterday!!!

Wednesdays Words:
==============
"Okay/OK" - this is believed to have come from the nickname of Martin Van Buren, who rose from potboy (isn't that the kid who holds the pot while drunks pee?) in a tavern to President. In an attempt to mudsling, the now famous "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign nicknamed him "Old Kinderhook", from his hometown. The Democratics abbreviated it to try and undo its meaning, and even formed a rallying cry out of it. Thus O.K. came to be "okay", rather than derogatory. :)


"Shot in the arm" - no, believe it or not, this did not come from hospital usage. An anonymous drug addict coined it in the early 20's cuz his fixes were a "pick me up"


Thursday's Words
============
"deadline" - this comes from the Confederate prison of Andersonville. There was a line drawn 17 feet from the camp fence. Any prisoner who crossed it was shot dead. Reporters later borrowed it to mean a story not turned in early enough.

"ginseng" - this aphrodisiac stems ;) from the Chinese term "jen-shen", or "man-herb"

"hat trick" - from the 1800's sport of cricket. A bowler who bowled down 3 wickets with 3 successive balls was awarded a new hat, or a hat was passed around to award him money.

"manure" - oddly, this actually came from the French word for manual labor. Originally meant to imply the cultivation of the soil, it later meant the fertilizing of it.

See ya tomorrow!!!
Professor Muffit

[shiningstar]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

Oops! I slipped again, Teach' forgot to teach yesterday!!!

Wednesdays Words:
==============
"Okay/OK" - this is believed to have come from the nickname of Martin Van Buren, who rose from potboy (isn't that the kid who holds the pot while drunks pee?) in a tavern to President. In an attempt to mudsling, the now famous "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign nicknamed him "Old Kinderhook", from his hometown. The Democratics abbreviated it to try and undo its meaning, and even formed a rallying cry out of it. Thus O.K. came to be "okay", rather than derogatory. :)


"Shot in the arm" - no, believe it or not, this did not come from hospital usage. An anonymous drug addict coined it in the early 20's cuz his fixes were a "pick me up"


Thursday's Words
============
"deadline" - this comes from the Confederate prison of Andersonville. There was a line drawn 17 feet from the camp fence. Any prisoner who crossed it was shot dead. Reporters later borrowed it to mean a story not turned in early enough.

"ginseng" - this aphrodisiac stems ;) from the Chinese term "jen-shen", or "man-herb"

"hat trick" - from the 1800's sport of cricket. A bowler who bowled down 3 wickets with 3 successive balls was awarded a new hat, or a hat was passed around to award him money.

"manure" - oddly, this actually came from the French word for manual labor. Originally meant to imply the cultivation of the soil, it later meant the fertilizing of it.

See ya tomorrow!!!
Professor Muffit



COOL! Thanks .........Love the lessons Muffit! :thumbsup:

[Archangel]

Learn something new every day... :D

[shiningstar]

Learn something new every day... :D

I have to agree with you on that :D

[Muffit]

Friday!


"Hem and haw" - dates back as early as Shakespeare's days, Onomatopoeia (http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/onomat.htm) for the sounds a person makes when trying to say something and can't quite get it out.


"Hot dog" - attributed to the sports cartoonist T.A. Dorgan after he sampled them. Many people believed they were made from dog meat at the time, and concessionaires called them "red hots". So yes, Virginia, they may have originally been dogs!


"Jinx" - as early as Greek times, there was a bird, the "iynx" (Greek for jynx), which was really bizarre looking and acting, and so its feathers were often used to make charms or spells on people.


"Lacrosse" - this one is pretty funny. A Fench priest in the 1700's saw the Algonquin Indians playing a sport with these funny-shaped sticks, which to him looked like a bishop's cross. Which in French back then must've been "la crosse", (today it's la croix).

See ya tomorree!!! :D
Professor Muffit

[Muffit]

Saturday!
=======

"cahoots" - derives from the old French word "cahute", or cabin. American and French fur trappers in North America often lived together in cabins, and hence were partners. So to be sharing a cabin was to be "in cahoots".


"Incas" - oddly enough, the Incas did not call themselves Incas. "Inca' was their word for King, literally, "of royal blood". The dumb Spaniards took it to mean any of their people.


"Lollipop" - there are 2 possible origins. One has it that an American candy manufacturer named his original candy on a stick at the start of teh 20th century after a famous racehorse, Lolly Pop. Alternatively, a type of sucking candy (but not on a stick) had long existed in England, and was called by the same name, for Lolly or tongue and pop for the sound it made when you took it out.


Sunday!!!
=======

"mob" - from the Latin "mobile vulgas", or unruly crowd, shortened over time by the English.


"pittance" - originally, this meant "pietas" or piety, a very large offering given to the church by someone wealthy. Over time, those offerings got smaller and smaller, leading eventually to our definition of a meager amount.


"slap-happy" and "punch-drunk" - from the 1920's, referring to the severe mental damage done to many, many boxers.

See ya tomorrow!
Professor Muffit

[Archangel]

I like learning! It makes me think I'm in school again :P: Thanks Muffit. informative as always :D

[Muffit]

Thanks Archangel!! :) :heart:

[Flamingo Girl]

Hey, where did my lessons get to?

[Muffit]

Hey, where did my lessons get to?

Eeks! Sorry gang! Seems like I keep missing a day!!!
Here we go...


MONDAY'S WORDS
============
"Port wine" - this sweet vintage was so named because it first came from Oporto in Portugal


"Protestant" - you're not gonna believe this... but this actually comes from the word for testicles in Latin "testiculi". The latter really means, "little witnesses", ROTFL!!! So much so that a women's magazine said it made no sense for a woman to "give her testimony", but instead should give her "ovarimony", LOL!


TUESDAY'S WORDS
=============
"Threshold" - this stems from the ancient task of threshing wheat, which seemed similar to wiping one's feet at the door so... Hmm, next time ladies your groom carries you across the threshold, remember, you're just a stack of wheat... LOL!!!

"Tijuana" - many people think this comes from the Spanish, "Tia Juana", or Aunt Jane. Actually, it's from the Indian word "tiwana" which means "by the sea"

"Crap" - it is believed to have come from the Dutch word "krappe", for "scraps". By unbelievable coincidence, the English inventor of the modern toilet during WWI was named, of all things, Thomas Crapper! Even more bizarre, they even wrote a book about him called, get this, "Flushed with Pride" LOL!!! You can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1851459782/qid=1094010328/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-2902132-7676018?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Check out the price!!!!

See ya tomorrow- if I remember that is!!! :)
Professor Muffit

[The 14th Colony]

That is too funny Muffit! I'll bet ol' Thomas' kids were proud, to have been born from the Crapper!

[Archangel]

...all the little Crappers around the house... :D

[The 14th Colony]

^ LOL


I get these things in my mailbox everyday. I sent this one to Muffit, because I like how it is similar to the way she thinks and writes. She liked it, and asked me to post it here for her. So, here it is, my contribution, which came to me by way of Mountain Wings. Enjoy! :)

MountainWings A MountainWings Moment
#1150 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
-------------------------------------------------

Facts of Life
==============
Facts Of Life In The 1500s

Next time you are washing your hands and complain because the
water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how
things used to be.......in the "good old days"!

Here are some facts about life in the 1500s:

1) Most people got married in June because they took their
yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June.
However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a
bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of
the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all
the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-
last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you
could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying,
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

2) Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw, piled high, with no
wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm,
so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice rats, and
bugs), lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and
sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof-hence the
saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

3) There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.

This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other
droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a
bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some
protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

4) The floor was dirt.

Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying
"dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get
slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh on the
floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they
kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would
all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the
entry way-hence, a "thresh hold."

5) They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung
over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to
the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot
to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.

Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite
a while-hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,
peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

6) Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite
special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their
bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could
bring home the bacon."

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all
sit around and "chew the fat."

7) Those with money had plates made of pewter.

Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach
onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened
most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so,
tomatoes were considered poisonous.

8) Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a
piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often
trenchers were made from stale paysan bread which was so old and
hard that they could use them for quite some time. Trenchers
were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the
wood and old bread. After eating off wormy moldy
trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

9) Bread was divided according to status.

Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the
middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

10) Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey.

The combination would some times knock them out for a couple of
days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead
and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would gather around
and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up-hence
the custom of holding a "wake."

11) England is old and small and they started out running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would
take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When
reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to
have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been
burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string
on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up
through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to
sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to
listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell"
or was considered a "dead ringer."


~Author Unknown~


Still in a big hurry to get back to "The Good Old Days?"

When you hear people talk about how terrible things are these
days, email them a copy of this and remind them that you
couldn't have even sent them this in the good old days, unless
you sent it by horse.

Note: Many of these are not historically verifiable and may not
be true, but you get the point. Each age has plusses and minuses.

Also see the issue, The Good Old Days
http://www.mountainwings.com/past/3007.htm

[bsg1fan1975]

very interesting.

[Flamingo Girl]

I'm telling you people, snopes.com is a place of beauty.

[Muffit]

Hi all! SInce 14th was so nice to post his wonderful word births for me tonight, and especially since I'm really tired (just got back from a 6:00 to 10:00 night class of Adult/Child CPR/First Aid, plus an hour drive each way), we'll let 14th teach the class for tonight.


Will be back tomorrow though!!!
Tired Profesoor Muffit :)

[Flamingo Girl]

Yeah...but...it was all false information...

*quivers chin*

[The 14th Colony]

LOL, looks like I'm teacher's pet today! :D

[The 14th Colony]

Yeah...but...it was all false information...

*quivers chin*
To quote my man Yoda,
So certain are you? Always with you it could not be fun. ;)

[Muffit]

Hello all! And welcome to Thursday's lesson!!! I'm gonna do this now cuz later I'm gonna be beaucoup busy!


"Flack" - this comes from the WWII German acronym for "Flieger ahwehr Kanonen" or "aircraft defense gun". It fits well as a noun describing any large amount of dissuasion.

"Flashy" - in the 1800's, there were men from the village of Flash in Derbyshire who went from fair to fair causing no good. They often wore bright gaudy clothing. Hence our use of it today.


"It's the pits" - you would logically think this came from grape or orange pits, since they are so distasteful. Au contraire mes amies!!! It actually comes from the drug junkie community. The last and most unpleasant place to hide their needlemarks were their armpits...

Toodles!
Professor Muffit
:muffit:

[shiningstar]

I'm glad to see the continueing post. :rose:

By the way I love your new avatar :D

[Flamingo Girl]

Since Miffit has been neglaecting this thread for two days, I have a couple bits to offer that i stumbled across.

Codswallop. Nonsense. Untruths. "Oddly enough, the word 'Codswallop' is probably of US origin. It is thought to come from the inventor of a new kind of bottle in the late 19th century. The inventor's name was Hiram Codd and the bottle had a small ball (rather like a marble) as a stopper which one had to strike smartly (or wallop) in order to get at the drink - hence Codd's Wallop - Codswallop!" (contributed by Dr. Matthew J. Williamson, University of Brighton)



The term bonfire is derived from 'bone fire' because, originally, bones were the primary material burnt on Bonfire Night. (For the non-Brits, on the 5th of November every year, Britain commemorates the Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy (Guido) Fawkes and other extremist Catholics plotted (but failed) to blow up James I and his Parliament. People have firework parties or attend organized displays, and effigies of Guy Fawkes (known as "the guy") are burned.)

[shiningstar]

Love it Flamingo girl! Thanks :thumbsup:

[Muffit]

Thanks Flamingo Girl! BTW, if anyone ever wants to add theirs to mine, please do!! I must apologize for missing, but have been unbelievably busy. Last night I just had to say, heck with it, and get some rest.


Friday's Lesson!
==========
"Mayonnaise" - this gets its name from the French. After Richelieu successfully attacked the island of Minorca, he and his men were ravenously hungry. They stormed the nearest kitchen ashore and just threw everything they could find into a pot (mostly spices). When this tale got back to Paris, the chefs there copied it and dubbed in "Mahonnaise", after the port of Mahon where it was "discovered".

"Mazel tov" - although it literally means "good luck" or "congratulations, "mazel" actually is Yiddish for "star". It originally meant "May a good star shine upon you".


Saturday's Lesson
============
"Mazda" - you'd think a Japanese car company would derive its name from something Japanese. Actually, "Ahura Mazda" was the Persian god of light. This deity is believed to have created the 486,000 "lucky" stars.

"Ohio" - taken from the Iroquois word, "Oheo" which means "beautiful water", referring to the Ohio river.

"Nebraska" - taken from the Omaha Indian name "ni-bthaska", which means "river in the flatness", or Platte river.

"California" - this is still debated, however it may come from the old Spanish romance tale of "Califia" who ruled over the "island" of California (remember on Spanish maps, CA was an island). It may also come from the Catalan word meaning "hot oven" (which Californians want very much to deny!).

Toodles!
Professor Muffit

[shiningstar]

Yikes Mazda is PERSIAN and NOT Japanese???????? For SHAME! :D

Thanks for posting your newest lessons :thumbsup:

I love them :rose:

[Muffit]

Presenting... Professor Muffit!!! :D

---------------> http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif <----------------

[thomas7g]

LOL!!!! Congratulations on your degree!!!!!

[shiningstar]

Mozaltov On your Degree :balloon:

[Archangel]

DUI finally came through did it? :D

[shiningstar]

DUI finally came through did it? :D :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

[Muffit]

http://thomas7g.com/battlestar-galactica/smilies/colonial-laugh.gif!!!


Sunday's Lesson!!!
============

School on Sunday? Of course!!! Hey, our prince might come today! How can that be you say? Well, you remember the old Disney saying and song...

:music: "Sunday my prince will come..." :music: :D :D :D

"Role" - this actor's term comes from the French word "rolle", meaning simply, a roll of paper. Originally, actors learned their parts from scrolls, which are of course rolls of paper. Over time, the parts themselves became known as roles.

"Rodeo" - this comes from the Spanish word "rodear", which means to surround. Originally a rodeo was simply a once yearly roundup of all the cattle. Later it came to be the contest it is today.

"True" - our English word comes from the old English "treow", meaning loyalty or tree. To be a true person is hence to be as firm and upright as a tree.

"Waffle" - folklore holds that this concoction came from an accident around 1200AD. A knight accidentally sat on a cake of flour and squished it flat, leaving the checkered imprint of his rear armor on it. LOL!

Toodles!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

Keep them coming :D

[shiningstar]

Love it Muffit! MORE Please:D

[Muffit]

It's Labor Day!!! Which is kinda weird cuz nobody actually works on Labor Day... hmm...

"Popsicle" - actually, we might still call this the "Epsicle" if the guy who invented it (Frank Epperson) hadn't gone broke and sold his idea to a company which quickly changed the name to "Popsicle". He invented it when he was 11, near the turn of the century. He accidentally left a glass of lemonade outside on a cold San Franciscan night and awoke the next morning to see the juice frozen around the spoon. Wow!


"Potato" - this was actually named completely wrong. When the Spanish discovered Haiti, they first learned of "batatas", aka sweet potatoes. This later got perverted to patatas and finally potato in English. ( :music: "You say potayto, I say potahto... :music: ). When they later encountered the Peruvian white potato, they mistakenly called it the same thing, different as it was. The white variety was quickly adopted in Europe (originally it was used as animal fodder only).


"Poppycock" - you might wanna think about it before using this derogatory term in the future. It comes from the DUtch "pappekak", which means "soft sh*t", which in turn comes from the Latin "pappa" (soft food) and "cacare" (to defecate). ROTFL!

Happy Labor Day!
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[shiningstar]

That is COOL thanks for the lesson PROFESSOR Muffit :thumbsup: :D

[Muffit]

Good afternoon class, welcome to Tuesday's lesson!


"Nevada" - comes from the Spanish word for "snowed upon". Guess they never went to Las Vegas :D


"Oregon" - couple possibilities, perhaps from the Spanish "oregones", meaning "big-eared men" (don't ask :) ). Or, my fav, "place of the beaver" due to a mispelling on a French Map. Oregon is known as the Beaver State, ROTFL!! :beaver: :beaver: :beaver:


"Utah" - it's too bad, the submitted beautiful name "Deseret" (honeybee) was rejected by Congress. Instead it was named for the fierce Indians that once lived there, the Utes. The name Utes means "hill-dwellers".


"Idaho" - this may well be the silliest name for a state yet. It comes from a Kiowa Indian curse directed at the Comanches, "Idahi". Literally translated, it means "those who eat sh*t" ROTFLMAO!!! :laugh:

Byeeeee!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[shiningstar]

Actually in Las Vegas one year .......and it DID snow :LOL:
The Pointer sisters were Photographed playing outside in it.
I wish I saved the Newspaper clipping :D

[Muffit]

Okay, teach' is back from a 3 day sabbatical (buried in work, LOL). I'll try and catch up!!!


Wednesday
=======
"immolate" - although this means to sacrifice by fire, it comes from the Latin "immolare", which means, "to sprinkle with meal". That's because the Romans sprinkled sacred cake crumbs on potential human sacrificial victims (and you thought ony the Aztecs and Maya did that!!)


"to learn by heart" - in ancient times, everybody thought the brain was useless and the heart was the seat of emotion and memory. Hence our expression today. You might have known that, but did you know that "record" also stems from this? "Re" means again and "cor" means heart in Latin.


Thursday
======

"Lean over backwards" - this comes from 18th century English law. It seems, previous to this time, judges and so forth always "leaned toward the Crown" in their judgments, in other words, the accused didn't stand a chance. But by the late 18th century many judges were leaning instead toward favoring the accused, hence, "leaning over backwards".


"Missouri" - most likely from the Sioux word for "people with big canoes" LOL :D


Friday
====
"Texas" - another Indian word, meaning "friends or allies". The Spanish regarded the indigenous inhabitants of the Lone Star State as allies against the fierce Apache.


"10 Gallon Hat" - if you've always thought this came from the sheer water holding volume of it, you're way off! Actually, it comes from the Spanish word "galon", which means "braid". That's because these hats were frequently covered by a large number of decorative braids.


That's it! Long time coming but on the bright side, lots more than normal to chew on!!! :D

Byeeeee!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Muffit]

Ah, Saturday. Good thing it's not spelled Sadder-Day!


"Bazooka" - oddly, this was originally the name of a home-made musical instrument. It was basically a pair of plumbing pipes tied together. The name comes from "bazoo", slang for loud talking. In 1943 U.S. Army Major Zeb Hastings decided to call the new army weapon by the same name, since they looked so similar.

"Tank" - actually, this was the code name Churchill gave their new WWI weapon, the word "tank" having nothing to do with anything in particular.


"Bomb" - this one makes sense. It comes from the Latin word "bombus", meaning "a booming sound".


"Jet" - this isn't in my book, but I'm willing to bet it comes from the French jete, "to throw or launch"

See ya tomorrow!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

coooool! :D

[Muffit]

Sunday - hmm, wonder what you call it when it's raining ;)


Ancient Tie-dye - our word for "bandanna" actually comes from an ancient Hindu pratice of tying a silk scarf before dyeing it so that some parts would retain their original color ("bandhnu"). When the practice was brought to Europe, it was applied to any silk scarf used to tie the hair.


A Rosary by any other name - our word "bead" comes from Old English "bede", meaning "a prayer". Hence though we now call them Rosaries, they used to be called simply, prayers.


Glad I don't live in that county... - our modern word "bunk" comes from a long-winded Congressman, who, in 1820, bored our poor House to death with gibberish for hours on end. When confronted with his time-wasting blathering, he said simply, "I am talking for Buncombe" (his home county). That got shortened in time to "bunkum" and now any waste of time and political nonsense is simply, "bunk".

Sweet dreams!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Muffit]

My, my! Where does the time fly? Between fighting over the computer with my daughter, and workload, this poor thread must feel abandoned!! Let's see if I can catch up...


Monday
=====
"orangutan" - probably derived from the Borneo expression, "orang" (man) and "butan" (jungle).


"Ozarks" - people believe this came from the French "aux arcs", meaning "with bows", after the Indians that dwelt there.


Tuesday
=====
"Ozone" - this actually comes from Greek "ozein", or stinking air, LOL. And yep, it sure does...


"Overwhelm" - this comes from the Middle English "whelven", meaning to capsize a boat.


Wednesday
=======
"Ragamuffin" = from Middle English "raggi" (ragged), and Middle Dutch "muffe" (mitten). Hey! Does that mean Muffit comes from "muffe"??? Are you saying I'm a raggedy mitten, hmmmmm???? Where's a good Nazi book-burning when you need one!!! :D

"Schnauzer" - this German dog name comes from the German word for "growler".


"Sing a different tune" - this stems from the Medieval minstrels' habit of conveniently substituting one lord's name in their songs for someone else's as they traveled from kingdom to kingdom, singing songs praising the exploits of local kings and noblemen.

Sweet dreams!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

cool! :thumbsup: :D

[shiningstar]

Muffit I truely love your lessons ....please,.........please keep posting :thumbsup:

[Flamingo Girl]

Yes, when I couldn't access the forum for two days, I had to do my own research to share with my friends who have been enjoying the C&P I've been sharing with them.

[Muffit]

Thanks so much Flamingo Girl, Archangel and Shiningstar! You all get a GOLD star on your forehead today! (Our kindergarten teacher used to do that - but I NEVER got one, just a red one once, cuz I was always the class clown...(even then??? :D) )

Thursday
=======
"Craps" - although dice have been found even in ancient Egyptian tombs, this particular game dates to around 1800. It seems the nickname for a famous French gambler was Johnny Crapaud (crapaud was slang for any Frenchman - in WWII they were often called "froggie" or crapaud). His dice game became very popular so they called it Crapaud's game, and later, simply craps.


"Cowlick" - those stubborn hairs that stick up at the back of your son's head are truly named after cows. Cows tend to have a ridge of hairs just like that - because they like to lick them into that position. LOL!


"Franfurter and Hamburger" - yep, you guessed it, these were named for the cities in Germany that invented them, Frankfurt and Hamburg. Lucky for us doughnuts aren't named after a city called Nuts in Germany (although a famous American DID say "Nuts!" to the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge!!!)

Toodles!!!
Sweet dreams!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

LOL! :laugh:

[Muffit]

Friday
=======
"Ciao" - this Italian expression (pronounced "chow"), popular everywhere even the US, means hello of course. But did you know it comes from the old Italian word, "schiavo" - "I am your slave???" LOL!


"Chutzpah" - this word which today means an admirable quality of guts and sheer optimism in the face of adversity, used to mean in Hebrew "insolence and audacity". The Joys of Yiddish defines chutzpah as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is now an orphan", LOL! :)

"Wowser" - this popular Inspector Gadget exclamation actually means a puritanical fanatic who wants everybody to be as "pure" as he/she is. Probably comes from an Australian prohibitionist movement called "We Only Want Social Evils Righted" (take the first letter of each word)

Toodles!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

AAAARGH! Knowledge----Head exploding---

pop!

That's it??? :wtf:

Thanks, Muffit :D

[Flamingo Girl]

This was what I used to keep them entertained while I was away:

America

Most people know that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, but few know why. Two myths about Vespucci are common. The first is that Vespucci was a fraud who never traveled to the New World. The second is that he was the first European to set foot on mainland America. Both are untrue.

Vespucci made two trips to the New World as a ship's navigator, the first in 1499. Then in 1503 and 1504 he published two letters he had written to Lorenzo de Medici. In the letters he put forward the idea that what Columbus had discovered was not in fact a new route to Asia, but rather a new continent. Vespucci also published the first letter under the title Novus Mundus, or New World, thereby coining that phrase. The letters were a media hit (but whether because of his innovative navigational theories or his description of the sex lives of American Indians is unknown), and Vespucci became a celebrity.

In 1507, the cartographer Martin Waldseemueller published a map that designated the new world as America and the name was coined. Like many Italians of his era, Vespucci used the Latinized version of his first name, Americus, in formal writing. Waldseemueller used the feminine form of the name, America, because the names of Europe and Asia were also in the feminine.

So, America is named after the man who first recognized that it was a new continent and not just a part of Asia. Rather fitting actually.

There is a legend, common in Britain, that America is actually named after a 15th century Bristol merchant named Richard Ameryk, who had some tenuous and vague connection with Cabot's voyages of exploration (exactly what role he played is not known, but it was probably minor). While Ameryk did exist, there is no evidence to indicate the New World continents are named after him. Waldseemueller's notes clearly indicate that he named the continents after Vespucci and most of the claims by supporters of the Ameryk hypothesis are not supported by anything other than a coincidence in spelling and a fierce, English patriotism that wishes the tale were true.

[Muffit]

Thanks FG!


Saturday's Lesson
===========
"Bunt" - this baseball term actually derives from the action it connotes, which is to "butt" the ball. I guess they didn't want to confuse proctologists with the big scoreboard showing "Runs Hits Errors & Butts" so they added an "n"... :D


"Anemone" - this plant gets its name from the Greek words "anemos" for wind and "mone" for habitation. It's main characteristic is that it flutters in the wind (either of sea or air currents).


"Dirt-eater" - hey! I'm not alone! There is actually a word for this, geophagists, and it is practiced all over the world! It is believed people who do so have a mineral deficiency. Although from personal experience, I can tell you that sometimes it's a heck of a lot better than Mom's "eggplant surprise"... :D


"Lord and Lady" - we like to think our history of expressions lead back to something noble and special, but I was surprised to find these two are about as flattering as finding out your great grandfather was a shoe salesman from New Jersey. "Lord" comes from old English "hlaford", which meant, "protector of a loaf of bread", LOL! And "Lady" comes ignobly enough from "hlafdige", or "kneader of that [lowly] dough". Yikes, you've come a long way, baby... :D :D :D


Happy weekend!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Flamingo Girl]

The name "California" came from a knightly romance book that was published in 1510. It was about an island paradise near the Indies where beautiful Queen Califia ruled over a country of beautiful black Amazons with lots of pearls and gold. Men were only allowed there one day a year to help perpetuate the race. Cortez's men thought they found the island in 1535, because they found pearls. Later, Francisco de Ulloa found that the island was really a peninsula.

[shiningstar]

The name "California" came from a knightly romance book that was published in 1510. It was about an island paradise near the Indies where beautiful Queen Califia ruled over a country of beautiful black Amazons with lots of pearls and gold. Men were only allowed there one day a year to help perpetuate the race. Cortez's men thought they found the island in 1535, because they found pearls. Later, Francisco de Ulloa found that the island was really a peninsula.

Fantastic Flamingo Girl thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

[Muffit]

Thanks again FG!

Sunday
====
"Carol" - this word comes from the French "carole", or "ring", because early Christmas carolers used to dance around in a ring as they sang


"it's all over but the shouting" - most likely this comes from old English elections, which appear to have been quite noisy. When a candidate was sure to win, the shouting was so loud they remarked with this expression



"ream" - this term for 500 sheets of paper comes from the Arabic "risma", or "bundle of clothes". This may seem odd till you realize paper used to be made from old rags rather than wood or papyrus



"read between the lines" - most likely this comes from secret code writers, who used invisible ink between the lines on a page


See ya tomorrow!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Archangel]

eye luv thees postes, thanx Muffit :D

(Just having a little fun... ;) )

[Flamingo Girl]

I was looking up the history of California when I stumbled across that tidbit, and thought it would fit nicely in here.

[Muffit]

Tuesday
======
"Tea caddy" - you'd think this was named from the same source as a golf caddy, but it's not. It comes from Malayan "kati", meaning a weight of 21 ounces. By no coincidence, tea used to be packed in 21 ounce boxes.


"Taste" - actually, this word used to mean "to touch" about 800 years ago and before. Much later it came to mean our present form, probably cuz the only way to taste is to touch with the tongue. Besides, you wouldn't want to say, "let me tongue it first" :D


"Tarnation" - comes from the old English expletive "Tarnal!", which in turn sprang from "eternal!".


Wednesday
========
"Tart" - this comes from the Latin word of the same name and meaning. However used as slang, it actually used to be a term of endearment for sweethearts. Funny how it now is very derogatory in that regard


"Turn over a new leaf" - nope, this has nothing to do with trees (well, perhaps distantly). It springs from turning over a new page in a book, a blank page usually, to start righting anew. Of course, books did indeed used to be made of things like palm leaves, so th epages were once called "leaves". Think about that next time you opene a loose-leaf notebook!!! (Gee! I didn't know leafs were "loose"!!?? Talk about judgmental!!! :D )

See ya tomorrow!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[Flamingo Girl]

Oh, and I almost forgot...

"ream" - this term for 500 sheets of paper comes from the Arabic "risma", or "bundle of clothes". This may seem odd till you realize paper used to be made from old rags rather than wood or papyrus

Some (more expensive) paper is still made from rags. Paper is 'an aqueous deposit of cellulose fibres' so theoretically any source of cellulose could be used.

Originally a 'ream' was 480 sheets and it still is - if you ask a stationer or a bookbinder. Printers' reams contain 500 sheets, partly to round the number up and partly to provide 'overs' for setting up the presses on sheet-fed work.

[shiningstar]

Thanks Flamingo girl :rose:

[Muffit]

Well, well, by now you all have realized I am gonna miss a day here or there, depending on my workload - hope you understand!!! No point in listing 4 days, but I WILL include a whole bunch of word births tonight!!


"High on the hog" - an American south expression, springing from the fact that the best pork bits are on its upperworks, rather than its belly/knuckles/feet/etc.


"High seas" - no, the ocean has not been smoking that loco stuff, LOL. High in this sense means "chief" or "principal".


"Highlight" - this stems from the 17th century observation that the brightest parts of a painting were most noticeable.



"Mackerel" - from the French "maquereau", or "pimp". Named thusly because the lowly mackeral is attributed with leading female fish to their mates in the spring!



"Play a hunch" - gamblers used to believe that rubbing a hunchback's hump would bring good luck. Note that gamblers evidently are an awful odd bunch!!!


Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[BST]

(clears throat)...... Why, thank you, Professor Muffit! I am feeling most educated today. (exhales).......

*wobbles out the door of the classroom and talks to classmate.

"Wow, she duz know lotsa dem BIG words; I cant figger out what haff of dem meen but, I just nod like I do!"

:D

[braxiss]

"Wow, she duz know lotsa dem BIG words; I cant figger out what haff of dem meen but, I just nod like I do!"

:D

lol :LOL:

[Flamingo Girl]

"Turn over a new leaf" - nope, this has nothing to do with trees (well, perhaps distantly). It springs from turning over a new page in a book, a blank page usually, to start righting anew. Of course, books did indeed used to be made of things like palm leaves, so th epages were once called "leaves". Think about that next time you opene a loose-leaf notebook!!!

That also explains why a sheet of paper, folded once, is referred to as a 'folio' from the latin 'folio - leaf'. Many booklets are composed of folded sheets collated together and saddle-stitched along the spine. Each sheet of these booklets is a folio and entire books are often made from sections consisting of these groups of folded sheets, which are 'gathered' according to the position of a mark on the fold called a 'signature'. The bookbinder checks that the signatures form a diagonal line across the spine before stitching or gluing the sections to the cover.

[Muffit]

Cool FG! And that explains "portfolio" too -- "port" in this sense from the root word "to carry" :)
Thanks again!
:muffit:

[shiningstar]

Well, well, by now you all have realized I am gonna miss a day here or there, depending on my workload - hope you understand!!! No point in listing 4 days, but I WILL include a whole bunch of word births tonight!!


"High on the hog" - an American south expression, springing from the fact that the best pork bits are on its upperworks, rather than its belly/knuckles/feet/etc.


"High seas" - no, the ocean has not been smoking that loco stuff, LOL. High in this sense means "chief" or "principal".


"Highlight" - this stems from the 17th century observation that the brightest parts of a painting were most noticeable.



"Mackerel" - from the French "maquereau", or "pimp". Named thusly because the lowly mackeral is attributed with leading female fish to their mates in the spring!



"Play a hunch" - gamblers used to believe that rubbing a hunchback's hump would bring good luck. Note that gamblers evidently are an awful odd bunch!!!


Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

Thank you Professor muffit :rose:

[Muffit]

"Bing cherry" - nope, not named after Mr. Crosby, whose brethren and sistern must've been bang and boing, LOL. It was named after a Chinese farmer of the same name from Oregon, who developed it in 1875.



"Bimbo" - actually, this was originally a derogatory word for men when invented circa 1910. No one knows how, but now it's a less than glowing description of a woman. Probably from Italian "bimbo" or baby.


"Cereal" - this comes from the Roman god Ceres, protector of crops and initial grains harvested. They say the first person to cut down multiple grain in their prime of life was dubbed a "cereal killer"... sorry, couldn't resist!! :D


Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[shiningstar]

"Bing cherry" - nope, not named after Mr. Crosby, whose brethren and sistern must've been bang and boing, LOL. It was named after a Chinese farmer of the same name from Oregon, who developed it in 1875.



"Bimbo" - actually, this was originally a derogatory word for men when invented circa 1910. No one knows how, but now it's a less than glowing description of a woman. Probably from Italian "bimbo" or baby.


"Cereal" - this comes from the Roman god Ceres, protector of crops and initial grains harvested. They say the first person to cut down multiple grain in their prime of life was dubbed a "cereal killer"... sorry, couldn't resist!! :D


Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

Thanks Professor Muffit :rose:

[Muffit]

Thanks Professor Muffit :rose:
Thanks Shiningstar! :heart:

"Never-never land" - if you thought this stems from Peter Pan, you're wrong! It actually was the first name for Australia, since those who first went there vowed "never, never" to return, LOL. It came to mean any desolate, sparse land (not that all of Australia is like that, much of it is beautiful). It became famous with the writing of Peter Pan.


"Pap test" - this rather embarassing term actually comes from a Greek-born physician in the US who invented it. His name? Papanicolaou!!! Needless to say, the test was easier than the pronouncing of his name, ergo women and doctors shortened it to something pronounceable. Interestingly, "paps" used to be the proper term for a woman's breasts in Middle English. Hence the doubly bad nuance of the term.

"Panacea" - named for the Greek goddess of the same name, daughter of the god of medicine. Her name comes from "pan" and "akeisthal", meaning "all" and "to heal". Originally it was used to describe any cure-all medicine. Now it has a deragotory sense, most likely the result of traveling sellers of cure-all elixirs that were 90% alcohol and little else medicinal.




Later!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[shiningstar]

Thanks Shiningstar! :heart:

"Never-never land" - if you thought this stems from Peter Pan, you're wrong! It actually was the first name for Australia, since those who first went there vowed "never, never" to return, LOL. It came to mean any desolate, sparse land (not that all of Australia is like that, much of it is beautiful). It became famous with the writing of Peter Pan.


"Pap test" - this rather embarassing term actually comes from a Greek-born physician in the US who invented it. His name? Papanicolaou!!! Needless to say, the test was easier than the pronouncing of his name, ergo women and doctors shortened it to something pronounceable. Interestingly, "paps" used to be the proper term for a woman's breasts in Middle English. Hence the doubly bad nuance of the term.

"Panacea" - named for the Greek goddess of the same name, daughter of the god of medicine. Her name comes from "pan" and "akeisthal", meaning "all" and "to heal". Originally it was used to describe any cure-all medicine. Now it has a deragotory sense, most likely the result of traveling sellers of cure-all elixirs that were 90% alcohol and little else medicinal.




Later!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif


I LOVE THEM ........Keep them Coming Professor :D

[Flamingo Girl]

Since I have to do it for my other board, I may as well share with this one.


Googol/Google

Rarely do we know the exact circumstances surrounding the coining of a brand new word. But in the case of googol, a mathematical term for the number represented represented by a one followed by 100 zeroes or 10100, we know exactly who coined it. In 1940, Mathematician Edward Kasner asked his nephew, nine-year-old Milton Sirotta, to come up with a name for such a big number. Sirotta came up with googol and also suggested the term googolplex for an even bigger number. Kasner assigned that term the value of ten to the googol power.

The name of the search engine and software company, Google, is a deliberate variant of the mathematical term. The company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with the name in 1998. They altered the spelling for trademark purposes. The verb to google, meaning to search for something on the World Wide Web, particularly to search using the Google search engine, is from the corporate trademark and dates to 2000.

Paparazzi

Paparazzi, plural of Paparazzo, comes from the name of a character in Fellini's La Dolce Vita. In the movie, Paparazzo was a photographer who would go to great lengths to take pictures of American movie stars.


At Sixes and Sevens

At sixes and sevens is a very old catchphrase and relates to gambling. It first appears c. 1374 in Chaucer's Troylus. The original phrasing was set upon six and seven. It originally referred to betting one's entire fortune on one throw of the dice. It connoted carelessness, and over time the phrase came to mean confusion, disorder, and disagreement. The plural form sixes and sevens became standard in the 18th century.

[shiningstar]

Thanks for sharing flamingo girl. :D

[Muffit]

Thanks so much for filling in for me Flamingo! Great finds! :thumbsup:

[shiningstar]

Thanks so much for filling in for me Flamingo! Great finds! :thumbsup: Yes keep them coming ;) :thumbsup:

[Flamingo Girl]

Point Blank
Point blank range is a range so close to the target that one cannot miss. The original sense, however, is slightly different. It refers to the range close enough that one can aim an artillery piece directly at its target without adjusting for the fall of the shot. The term dates to 1591.

But where does the term come from? The point seems obvious enough, it is from pointing at the target. It is the blank that is confusing. Blank, in this case, is an old term for the center of a target, a bullseye. It dates to 1554 and comes from the fact that the centers of archery targets were frequently painted white, and blanc is French for white.


Handicap
There is a false belief that this term meaning disabled derives from begging, or hand in cap. Handicapped people could only make a living by begging, holding out their hats for people to place their hands with money into. It does have its origins with hands in caps, but it has nothing to do with begging and originally does not refer to disability at all.

The word comes from an old method of setting odds. Two bettors would engage a neutral umpire to determine the odds in an unequal contest. The bettors would put their hands holding forfeit money into a hat or cap. The umpire would announce the odds and the bettors would withdraw their hands--hands full meaning that they accepted the odds and the bet was on, hands empty meaning they did not accept the bet and were willing to forfeit the money. If one forfeited, then the money went to the other. If both agreed on either forfeiting or going ahead with the wager, then the umpire kept the money as payment.

The term appears as early as the 1650s and is applied to horse racing in its modern sense about a century later.

The sense meaning disabled, comes from the horse racing term, where the umpire decrees the superior horse should carry extra weight--a handicap. A disabled person carries an extra burden. The sense of a disabled person appears around 1915.


Dollar
The origin of the almighty dollar is in what is now the Czech Republic. In 1519, a silver mine near the town of Joachimstal (literally "Joachim's valley," from the German Tal, meaning valley) began minting a silver coin called, unimaginatively, the Joachimstaler. The coin, which was circulated widely, became better known by its clipped form, the taler. In Dutch and Low German, the initial consonant softened to become daler. English adopted this form, eventually changing its spelling to the modern dollar.

In the American colonies, there was no standard currency. The coin that was in widest use was the Spanish Peso, known also as "Pieces of Eight." The English colonists informally assigned the name dollar to this coin. In 1785, when the Continental Congress established U.S. currency, they adopted dollar as name for the standard unit of currency, at the suggestion of Governeur Morris and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known and was not associated with any form of official English currency. (Jefferson also coined the term disme, from the French dixieme, for a tenth of a dollar. Pronounced deem, it eventually became dime.)

The United States was the first nation to adopt an official currency named the dollar. In 1797, the Bank of England began minting "dollar" coins as bank-issued currency. Other nations that have adopted the name dollarfor their currency have done so in emulation of either the U.S. or this short-lived Bank of England practice.

[Muffit]

Thanks Flamingo! These are even better than mine!!! And I really need the break anyway, I have been working my fingers to the bone (hey, there's another one to research), getting ready for our move. Yikes, all this work to make the place look pretty -- so many things I should've done before for us to enjoy. Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk (another one!!!).


Oh, btw, Jefferson "coined the the word 'dime'"?? Coined!! Great pun FG!!! :D

[Flamingo Girl]

The crying over spilled milk one is easy, its from an Aesop Fable. The same one that also gave us "don't count your chickens before they're hatched".

It was about a milk-maid who was carrying pails of milk to the market, thinking about what she was going to do with the money she was going to get, which was buying eggs and incubating them and raising the chickens, and selling them and making all kinds of money, and she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and tripped, and ended up spilling the milk all over the street, and then just sat there and cried about the loss of the milk, and the eggs, and the chickens, and whatever it was that she was going to use the chicken money with.

[shiningstar]

Thanks Muffit and Flamingo Girl I appreciate it :rose:

[Muffit]

Hello again! Got some free time today, so herer goes some more word births!!


"Coffee" - both the word and the liquid come from Turkey. It was called "qahwah" (funny!!! That exact same word in Mesquite is what you call your spouse when you're mad at them!! LOL!). The word means, "to have no appetite", which certainly is true!


"Coca Cola" - I'm sure you know this one, but just in case... comes from it's two main ingredients, coca leaves (i.e. cocaine) and cola nuts. And yes, Virginia, it did used to have cocaine in it. Yikes.


"Electricity" - this one is pretty odd. It actually comes from the latin word for amber, "electricus". Gilbert named it this cuz he used to rub chunks of amber to induce static and attract stuff.


"Eureka" - Archimedes is said to have popularized this term, which meant in Greek, "I have found it!", when he discovered the property of bouyancy in his bathtub. He ran naked thru the streets shouting it. Wonder what bouyant thing in his tub he was talking about? :naughty:


"Ham" - an overactor is commonly called a ham, because actors protraying blacks in early plays used ham to remove their makeup.


"In God We Trust" - believe it or not, this was not the first slogan on our money. Originally coins were stamped "Mind your business". LOL!!


Happy Sunday!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif

[shiningstar]

Hello again! Got some free time today, so herer goes some more word births!!


"Coffee" - both the word and the liquid come from Turkey. It was called "qahwah" (funny!!! That exact same word in Mesquite is what you call your spouse when you're mad at them!! LOL!). The word means, "to have no appetite", which certainly is true!


"Coca Cola" - I'm sure you know this one, but just in case... comes from it's two main ingredients, coca leaves (i.e. cocaine) and cola nuts. And yes, Virginia, it did used to have cocaine in it. Yikes.


"Electricity" - this one is pretty odd. It actually comes from the latin word for amber, "electricus". Gilbert named it this cuz he used to rub chunks of amber to induce static and attract stuff.


"Eureka" - Archimedes is said to have popularized this term, which meant in Greek, "I have found it!", when he discovered the property of bouyancy in his bathtub. He ran naked thru the streets shouting it. Wonder what bouyant thing in his tub he was talking about? :naughty:


"Ham" - an overactor is commonly called a ham, because actors protraying blacks in early plays used ham to remove their makeup.


"In God We Trust" - believe it or not, this was not the first slogan on our money. Originally coins were stamped "Mind your business". LOL!!


Happy Sunday!!!
Professor Muffit
http://www.muffitland.com/Extra/CF_motorBoard2.gif



Thanks sweet Muffit! I can't believe the one about cocoa cola actually
one having cocaine in it .......I mean I'm sure it's true it's just surprising
is all ;)

[Flamingo Girl]

Well, in case you were still vacationing, I did this...

Allegory
From Greek allos meaning "other" and agora meaning gathering place (especially the marketplace). In times past, it was common to do one's chatting at the marketplace. Some of the topics discussed were clandestine in nature and when people spoke about them, for fear of being punished, they would speak indirectly. That is to say, they would speak about one thing in such a way as to intimate the actual information to the listener. Thus, the persons discussing clandestine matters were said to be speaking of "other things" in the marketplace. Eventually the words joined and became associated with the act of speaking about one thing while meaning another.


Noon
Derived from the Latin word for ninth. The word "noon" originally meant the ninth hour after sunrise, or 3:00 p.m.--generally the hottest part of the day and the time when most people in the Roman Empire would break for lunch.


Robot
Robot comes from the Czech word "robot," which means "worker." In 1923, Karl Capek, a well-known, Czech, science-fiction writer at the time, wrote a futuristic thriller about a nightmarish scenario in which the machines have taken over (a la, the "Terminator") and implanted circuitry in humans to make them into mindless zombies willing to serve them as workers or "robots."

[Muffit]

Cool!! Thanks FG! :thumbsup:

[Muffit]

It's substitute teacher day!! My name is Gnawty Beaver :beaver: and I'm filling in for Muffit this morning.


I thought we'd do a slightly different lesson today, trivia about food products!!!


McDonald's - ever wonder why they call their thick tasty shakes, "shakes", and not "milkshakes"?? Truth is, they're not /allowed/ to call them milk shakes, because milk is oddly enough not the main ingredient (if at all). McDonald's was one of the first fast food vendors to use "carageenan" as its primary ingredient. This is basically a thickening agent, which doubles as a very cheap base solution. What is it? Seaweed!!! Yep, that's what it is! It's also the most popular main ingredient for today's salad dressings, btw. More trivia, most westerners cannot digest seaweed products - only orientals with a long cultural history of consuming sea plants have actually developed enzymes that can digest the stuff.


"French Fries" - again with a McDonald's first, ever wonder why McDonald's fries always taste so incredibly better than everybody else's?? Why they taste only like fries, and not like fish or anything else fried in their store? That's because McDonald's pioneered the use of diatomaceous earth as a filtering agent, which they run their oil thru frequently throughout the day. This white powder has long been used by (lucky) swimming pool owners in their pool filters. It's cheap, abundant, and extremely effective as a filter. What is it? Dead bugs!!! Yep, diatomaceous earth gets its name from the microscopic animals whose billions of skeletons make a perfect filter (think snowflakes). The ocean bottom is a truly unending resource for them.

So next time you go to Mickey D, remember, it's really a seafood place!!!


Toodles!!
:beaver:

[Muffit]

Hello all!!! Today we will do something really different, the etymology of surnames, i.e. last names. It's really pretty amazing where they all come from :)


Ages ago, people had only one label, what we now call our first name. That was okay when the population was very low and people lived far apart, but as towns grew popular and the prolific found their calling in life, it got really, really hard to distinguish one person from another. Hence the need for some sort of additional label.

The most natural outbirth from this was to say who your father was, appended after your first name. In English we have "John-son", "Eric-son", etc, etc. In the British Isles, "Mc" was used instead of "son", so we have, "McDonald", "McCauley", and so on. In Europe they used "Van" and "Von", and sometimes "De", "Da", or "Di" ("De Laurentis", "Da Vinci", etc).

The other way of distinguishing people was to say where they were from, often using the same "de, da, di" etc. Then we have "De Gaul", "Robin of Locksley", etc.


In Catholic countries it became popular to use Biblical events or phrases, such as "Camposagrado" (sacred ground), "Transfiguracion" (take a guess :) ), et al.


Lastly and certainly very popular, was to associate people with their chosen profession. Most of these professions are obsolete now, and most of us have no idea what they used to be called. However, the surnames remain. From these we have "Smith" (worker of metal), "Cooper" (barrel maker), "Fletcher" (arrow maker), "Fisher" (pretty obvious that) and so on.


So next time someone tells you their name, pay particular attention to their surname, and see if you can guess where it came from. Folks like Shake-spear(e) suddenly take on a whole new meaning!!


Toodles!!
http://thomas7g.com/battlestar-galactica/smilies/beaver.gif

[Archangel]

Robot
Robot comes from the Czech word "robot," which means "worker." In 1923, Karl Capek, a well-known, Czech, science-fiction writer at the time, wrote a futuristic thriller about a nightmarish scenario in which the machines have taken over (a la, the "Terminator") and implanted circuitry in humans to make them into mindless zombies willing to serve them as workers or "robots."

Interesting Trek tidbit here, The android character Rayna Kapek in the TOS episode Requiem For Methuselah was named after this author, for the simple reason that he did us the term in this context.

Thanks for the reminder FG :D

[Muffit]

Hello again!!! Today we look at some sports terms...


"First string, second string" - although now predominantly associated with football, this originally had nothing to do with ball-based sports. In the Middle Ages, archery contests were held quite often, and the mettle of any archer rested firmly on the quality of the string on his bow. And if for some reason it should break, he carried a spare. Hence, first-string, second-string, where the second was less desirable.


"I wanna touch bases with you" - you probably already know this, but it comes from the requirement in baseball that a runner must touch all bases to score.


"The whole nine yards" - I always thought this came from football, but actually it comes from the construction industry. It refers to the maximum load capacity of a cement truck, nine cubic yards of cement.


"Par" - this golfing term comes from the same Latin word, meaning "equal"


"Bogey" - in golf, this means one stroke over par. It actually comes from a popular late 1800's song called "Colonel Bogey". In England, where the song was from, it came to mean a good player, whereas in America it came to mean just the opposite.


Toodles!!
http://thomas7g.com/battlestar-galactica/smilies/beaver.gif

[Archangel]

Cool. Oh, illuminator of obscure references. :rose:



*Gets down on his knees and does the Wayne's World "We're not Worthy" routine. :D

[shiningstar]

Thanks for posting everyone I just love the tidbits