Most people remember fondly the Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland, but the phrase mad as a hatter was around before Lewis Carroll created his crazy character.
Felt hats were very popular in Europe and North America from the 1500s to the 1800s, particularly top hats, the best of which were made from beaver fur.
In [more…]
From Colossus Inklings No.120
The Australian National University in Canberra ran a competition asking readers to send in an Australian place name with a suitable definition. The entrant was allowed to add, remove or change one letter of the place name if desired. Here are some of the witty results:
Barragate – a really fishy [more…]
From Colossus Inklings No.120
A reader recently wrote in to tell us that she was 20 years past threescore and ten. Why didn’t she just say ‘fourscore and ten’? I suspect it’s because the prescribed lifespan of an average person was purported to be threescore and ten’ 70 years old. And she was telling us [more…]
From Colossus Inklings No.120
To show how much words change their meanings, look at these five words that have similar meanings. Only one had the same meaning originally.
Danger comes from 13th C daunger ‘power’, as in ‘power to inflict injury’. This in turn came from Latin dominium ‘ownership’.
Hazard evolved from the Arabic al zahr, ‘the [more…]
In Colossus 119 the Baffler started off with a fantastical sounding word – BOONDOGGLE. It sounds like it should be something much more fun than a Doomed but expensive project. It seems to have started out as a Boy Scouts braided lanyard decorative but not terribly useful. In 1935 a New York Times [more…]
The Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was established by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith claimed to have been given golden tablets that contained the Book of Mormon which recounted the early history (c 600BC – c 420AD) of American people.
He established the churchs headquarters in Kirtland, [more…]
Flowers for the she-wolf or for Saint Valentine?
From ancient times the Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercalia around the Ides of February – the 13th. It was a festival to purify the city and promote health and fertility. Lupus is Latin for wolf and Lupercus was the god of shepherds. The Lupercal was the [more…]
Old Grogram was the nickname of British Admiral Edward Vernon.
He acquired this name because of the grogram coat he always wore.
In 1740 Admiral Vernon started serving a mix of rum and water to sailors in the Royal Navy instead of the neat rum handed out previously.
This became known as grog.
This grog ration was [more…]
