Etymology.
Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 10:58 pm
Here are some examples from The Etymologicon:
In the doghouse – from Peter Pan. In JM Barrie's 1911 novel, Mr Darling forces the dog to sleep in the kennel, and as a result the children disappear. As penance, he takes to sleeping there himself.
Through the grapevine – from the 'grapevine telegraph', a phrase which emerged during the American Civil War for an unofficial, word-of-mouth network along which news was passed, either because Confederate soldiers passed it on while drinking wine after dinner, or because slaves discussed it while picking grapes from vines.
Nazi – an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive 'Nazi'.
Making the point: The upshot is the final shot in an archery contest which decided who had won
Castor oil – originally the name of a liquid used as a laxative which was extracted from the glands of a beaver – or Castor, in Latin. It was not until the mid-18th century that it was discovered that the same effect could be got from the oil produced by the seeds of Ricinus communis, which became known as the castor oil plant.
Bizarre – from the Basque word for beard, bizar, because when bearded Spanish soldiers arrived in remote Pyrenean villages, locals thought them odd.
Serendipity – a word coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, son of the first prime minister, after reading a book about the island of Serendip – now known as Sri Lanka.
Dog days – the name for the hottest, sultriest part of summer which coincides with a period, during July, when Sirius –the dog star – cannot be seen as it rises and sets at the same time as the sun.
Pass the buck – from the horn of a deer (buck), which was commonly used as a knife handle. The phrase emerged in 19th century America when poker players would signify the dealer for each game by stabbing a knife into the table in front of him.
Shell out – from the awkward process of getting a nut out of its shell. Artillery shells are so described because early grenades looked like nuts in their shells.
In a nutshell – Pliny, the Roman writer, claimed there was a copy of The Iliad so small it could fit inside a walnut shell.
Bigot – old English for 'by god', to describe someone who asserts their own saintliness, while being a hypocrite.
Upshot – the decisive, final shot in an archery contest which decided who had won.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1beGewHFY
