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Languages - Where
do some of our English words and sayings originate?
I have developed a recent
interest in the etymology of some facets of our English language. This
started with phrases such as "going off half-cocked" and has also
grown into word derivations such as the days of the week and months of the year. The
different expressions used by the Americans and Australians have also been fun
to discover. English words and the language itself has been the subject
not only of small web pages, but also of full volume books such as Bill Bryson's
"Mother Tongue" if your interest covers more than the topics noted
here.
Index
Phrases and their Origins
Origins of Words
Differences in English Around the World
American and
Canadian Sports Teams
Phrases
and their Origins
Should you know of any other
phrases and their related origin, please let me know.
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"going off
half-cocked" seems to come from Revolutionary War days when you
would never carry your musket with the cock pulled back, as it could
accidentally release and "shoot you in the foot" or shoot someone
else for that matter. The phrase refers to being unprepared for an
upcoming task or saying something in conversation which could backfire on
you.
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"shoot yourself
in the foot" is a phrase which refers to saying or writing
something which would go against the goal which you ultimately want to
achieve. It is therefore disabling to the person and comes from a
hunter who, while carrying a gun pointing toward the ground so as to not
injure anyone else while carrying out his task of hunting, makes a mistake
of shooting himself in the foot and therefore he is unable to carry out his
task.
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"xxx".
Why are some movies rated triple x? Could this come from the fact that
the city of Amsterdam, known for legalized prostitution, has three x's in
its city shield?
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"OK" is a term
which is now used world wide. Its origins could be a contraction of
the term All Correct, which was earlier spelled Oll Korrect. OK could
also come from the nickname of former US President Martin van Buren, who was
referred to as Old Kinderhook. A combination of these two is most
likely the best and most plausible derivation, as during the mid 1800s, it
became fashionable to write unusual abbreviations for certain commonly used
terms. All Right (Oll Wright) was O.W. and All Correct (Oll Korrect)
was O.K. OK first appeared in a newspaper in 1839. This
coincided with the Presidential election of 1840 when Martin van Buren's
re-election committee was called after his nickname, the Democratic OK
Club. OK became a rallying cry throughout the election and became
known throughout the US as a term standing for acceptability.
Origins
of Words
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Days of the Week - the
days of the week come from two sources. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
come from galactic sources, as they are named for Saturn, the sun and the
moon respectively. Our remaining weekdays, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday are named for the Anglo-Saxon gods Tiw, Woden, Thor, and
Woden's wife Frig.
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Months of the Year - also
have an interesting Latin origin. If you consider that March was for
the longest time the first month of the year under the old Roman calendar,
then the names September, October, November and December, being the 7th,
8th, 9th and 10th months in that calendar would have originated from the
Latin septem (7), octo (8), novem (9), and decem (10). The words
decade (ten years), octagon (eight sided figure), decagon (ten sided figure)
also stem from these origins
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Monetary Words - have you
ever wondered about the origin of the words dollar and cent? Cent
comes from the Latin centum meaning one hundred - and therefore one hundred
cents in our dollar (also century is one hundred years). Dollar comes
from the German tal which means valley. The story goes that
mines which were in a certain valley may have produced coins called thaler.
This was first used in English in 1553 as the word daler. Thomas
Jefferson preferred the word dollar for the US currency, and through his
push became adopted by the Americans as their national currency.
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Yankee - the old term to
refer to Americans actually could have Dutch origins. As a southerner
was referred to as Johnny Reb, or an Englishman as John Bull, with the Dutch
having settled Manhattan Island as New Amsterdam, these people became called
after the Dutch Jan Kees. So the people who lived in New Amsterdam
were all those Jan Kees. The name stuck, even after New Amsterdam was
taken by the English and became New York.
American and
Canadian Sports Teams
Major League Baseball
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Chicago Cubs - young bears from the term bear relating to a
stock market trader.
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New York Yankees - see above
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San Diego Padres - from the Spanish priests who traveled up
and down the California coast establishing missions there.
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Colorado Rockies - the mountains
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Minnesota Twins - the twin cities of Minneapolis and St.
Paul are home to this team
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Milwaukee Brewers - a number of beer breweries in the city
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Texas Rangers - the lawmen which oversaw law and order in
old Texas were called the Texas Rangers
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Arizona Diamondbacks - rattlesnakes common in Arizona
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Seattle Mariners - shipping and marine life so common to
this coastal community
Football
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Chicago Bears - refer to the stock market traders
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Miami Dolphins - these mammals are found just off the
Florida coast
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New England Patriots - during revolutionary war era, and the
movement which started near Boston with these revolutionaries called
patriots.
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San Francisco 49ers - from those who moved to San Fran in
1849 after the discovery of gold near there.
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Minnesota Vikings - named after the Norse raiders, as it was
the Scandinavians who primarily settled in Minnesota
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers - pirates were commonly found in old
coastal communities
Basketball
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Chicago Bulls - refers to stock market traders
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Boston Celtics - the large Irish population in Boston, and
the old Irish raiders called Kelts or Celts.
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Minnesota Timberwolves - lone raider of the tundra found
commonly in the state of Minnesota
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Portand Trail Blazers - named after the trappers who first
blazed the trail out west. One example is the Lewis and Clark
expedition who first explored the west along the Columbia River near
Portland
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Utah Jazz - were actually the New Orleans Jazz (home of Jazz
music) before the team and team name moved to Utah.
Hockey
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St. Louis Blues - named for the jazz music commonly found in
St. Louis at the turn of the century
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Edmonton Oilers - the discovery of oil near this city is a
major reason for the city's existence
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Hartford Whalers - whaling in the Atlantic was a major
source of income for the people in this coastal community
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