- tomfoolery
- In the Middle Ages, Thome Fole was a name assigned to those perceived to be of little intelligence. This eventually evolved into the spelling tomfool, which, when capitalized, also referred to a professional clown or a buffoon in a play or pageant.
- the bee's knees and cat's pajamas
- "The bee's knees" apparently came into use during the 1920s when the flappers compared almost anything they considered excellent to a part of an animal. It seems that American cartoonist Tad Dorgan is responsible for this particular expression; and also for "the cat's pajamas", and possibly for "hot dog".
- groggy
- We’ve all felt “groggy” at one time or another – lethargic, sluggish, perhaps through lack of sleep. It originated in the 18th century with a British man named Admiral Vernon, whose sailors gave him the nickname “Old Grog” on account of his cloak, which was made from a material called “grogram”, a weatherproof mixture of silk and wool. In 1740, he decreed that his sailors should be served their rum diluted with water, rather than neat. This was called “grog”, and the feeling experienced by sailors when they’d drunk too much of it was thus called “groggy”.
- fluke
- redditor says "For the flounder-like fish and a whale's tail the origin is similar and understandable, the German word for wing is "flügel". Or, maybe it's just the German word for flat, "flach". The more common use, a happy coincidence, is rather interesting. Fluke was first used in this context for a lucky shot in billiards, where (perhaps) the ball moved rapidly and directly, like a whale using its powerful tail to quickly navigate the sea."
- source
- sandwich
- The nation’s favourite lunchtime snack gets its name from the 4th Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu. The story goes that 250 years ago, the 18th-century aristocrat requested that his valet bring him beef served between two slices of bread. He was fond of eating this meal whilst playing card games, as it meant that his hands wouldn’t get greasy from the meat and thus spoil the cards. Observing him, Montagu’s friends began asking for “the same as Sandwich”, and so the sandwich was born. Though people did eat bread with foods such as cheese and meat before this, these meals were known as “bread and cheese” or “bread and meat”. The sandwich is now the ultimate convenience food.
- broadcast
- Where does broadcast come from? The first records of broadcast come from around 1760. It combines the word broad, meaning “fully,” and the past tense of the verb cast, meaning “to fling or throw.” The word broadcast has been used to refer to widely distributing (flinging) seeds over a large area when planting.
- weird
- Old English wyrd ‘destiny’, of Germanic origin. The adjective (late Middle English) originally meant ‘having the power to control destiny’, and was used especially in the Weird Sisters, originally referring to the Fates, later the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth ; the latter use gave rise to the sense ‘unearthly’ (early 19th century).
apr 14 2023 ∞
apr 14 2023 +