Show a Leg
You may think that this phrase has its origins in dance halls but this odd expression was used as a command aimed at those who were reluctant to get out of bed in the morning...
Sideburns
These short side-whiskers were originally named after the American Federal General Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-81) who sported the peculiar whiskers.
He served in the regular artillery and in 1849 was wounded in a fight with Apaches in the New Mexico Territory. He resigned in 1853 to manufacture his breech-loading carbine but was forced into bankruptcy [more…]
Soccer
Arguably the most widely played game in the world today, Association Football or soccer can trace its origins back to 200BC in China.
The word soccer was a slang term coined in the 1890s. The word soccer originally came from an abbreviation of Association Football (Assoc; soc) a term introduced in about 1870 for football [more…]
“Time is money”
“Time is money” has become a common catch-cry in this fast-paced world of ours and yet the dictum has ancient origins.
Way back in 430 BC, Antiphon said that “the most costly outlay is the outlay of time” (MAXIM), a theory which was repeated by Theophrastus, circa 320 BC.
Montaigne mentioned the proverb in his Essays, [more…]
Ventriloquism
Ventriloquism was a word originally associated with possession by an evil spirit.
The word comes from the Latin ventriloquus, which is a compound of venter ‘stomach’ and loqui, ‘speak’.
It originally referred literally to the phenomenon of speaking from the stomach, particularly as a sign of demonic possession.
The word was linked to the trick of throwing [more…]
Zany
Do you know someone called John or Jack who you would describe as zany?
This word meaning bizarre, way out or wacky comes from the Italian form of John, Giovanni.
The name John and its European counterparts such as Jean and Giovanni were very popular, they came to be used to denote the common man. Jack [more…]
Kowtow
Another word for grovel or ‘bow and scrape’ is kowtow.
Chinese ke tou is the act of deep respect shown by bowing so low as to touch your head to the ground.
Ke means ‘bump’ and tou means ‘head’. A subject would kowtow to the Emperor or other superior.
Kowtow came into English in the early [more…]
Money
In Ancient Rome an apt nickname used for the goddess Juno was Moneta which may have been derived from the Latin verb monere meaning ‘advise, warn’.
The name Moneta was also applied to her temple in Rome, which contained a mint. In due course, moneta came to mean mint, then ‘stamp for coining’ and finally [more…]
Mind your P’s and Q’s
In polite company you have to watch what you say, be careful to use the right tone and turn of phrase and not to offend.
‘Mind your Ps and Qs’, your mum would say!
As with many phrases of our oral tradition the exact origin is not clear but there are some very believable theories, one [more…]