If Mrs. Is an Abbreviation of Missus, Why Is There an “r” in It?
Because Mrs. isn’t an abbreviation of Missus but of Mistress. Mistress originally referred to a married woman, not a participant in an extramarital affair.
Submitted by Gil Gross of New York, New York.
Why Does XXX Mean “Liquor” in Cartoons?
British breweries in the nineteenth century marked their products with Xs to signify the potency of the liquor. One X indicated the weakest brew; and three (and rarely four) Xs signified the strongest. Cartoonists simply borrowed from the British “rating” system.
Why Is Something Done Secretly on the Q.T.?
This nineteenth-century expression comes from the first and last letters of quiet.
Why Is the Symbol for a Prescription ?
The is the sign of the Roman god Jupiter (the patron of medicines). was an abbreviation of recipe (from the Latin recipere—“to receive”).
The reason that R was atop all prescriptions was that recipe meant “take” in Latin, so that “take” preceded all directions to the patient. Even the English word recipe originally referred to medical prescriptions, although the connection between formulas for medical purposes and formulas for cooking were then less farfetched, since both used many of the same herbs and spices.
Submitted by Douglas Watkins, Jr., of Hayward, California.
Take Me Away, Please!
Why Were Military Cars (and Now the Line of Chrysler Cars) Called Jeeps?
During World War II, the jeep was developed by the United States as its basic military car. Its official designation was General-Purpose Vehicle. Jeep comes from combining the initial sounds of General Purpose. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, prototypes of the jeep were called beeps, peeps, and, heaven help us, blitz buggies.
Why Is “Good Money for Little Work” Called the Gravy Train?
A literal representation of a gravy train conjures up an unappetizing picture; gravy would be most unmanageable cargo, yet the expression has pleasant connotations. Gravy train was first recorded in the 1940s in the United States, but as early as the 1930s, gravy was slang for “easily obtained money.”
Gravy train was borrowed directly from railroad terminology. A gravy train was an easy run with decent pay. Like extra, unearned money, gravy isn’t necessary to survive, but it sure makes life more pleasurable.
Who Is the Hansom of Hansom Cab Fame?
Come to Think of It, Why Is a Cab Called a Cab?
Cab is short for the French cabriolet (“little leap,” so called because the earliest cabs were reputed to be faster than conventional carriages). Cabriolets, traditionally, were one-horse carriages with two seats and folding tops.
Hansom cabs were created by Joseph Hansom (1803-82), a London architect who was bankrupt at the time he designed the cab.
The hansom cab was the immediate predecessor of the classic black London taxicab. By the late 1850s, the hansom cab became a sensation in New York and Boston. Its attraction as a romantic vehicle for scenic areas was guaranteed. The driver, seated behind and above the passengers, afforded privacy to the customers while allowing them an unobstructed view in front. Today, hansom cabs are largely associated with New York’s Central Park but still can be found in many other parts of the world.
Why Is a Vehicle That Cuts a Wide Swath or an Object That Attracts Unswerving Devotion Called a Juggernaut?
Juggernaut is a Sanskrit word meaning “Lord of the World.” In Hindu mythology, Juggernaut was the name of an idol to the god Vishnu. Built in the twelfth century, the idol was housed in a temple and brought out every year for the religious “car festival.”
Every June or July, the statue is dragged along the street in a thirty-five-foot-square and forty-five-foot-high vehicle. The destination: another temple.
The journey takes several days and does not go unnoticed. Thousands of pilgrims accompany the idol. Some fanatics, in a frenzy, have thrown themselves under one of the car’s sixteen wheels.
Why Do We Drive on Parkways and Park on Driveways? Why Do We Send Cargo in a Ship and Send Shipments in a Car?
Ever since a popular comedian posed the immortal question “Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?” we have been inundated with similar questions. Answering any of these types of queries is a little like pulling off the wings of a butterfly. Any attempt at a logical answer defuses the wit and humor of the question. Let me prove it to you with cargo.
All of the words with a car root that refer to transportation go back to the Latin carricare (“to load on a wagon”), and more particularly to the Roman carros, a vehicle used as a baggage wagon by Julius Caesar in his military campaigns. The Spanish coined the word cargo to refer to “a burden or load.” We’d be the last ever to defuse a joke, but the original cargo was loaded on a cart, the closest Roman equivalent to today’s car; in fact, by definition, cargo still can be “shipped” in a car or a truck—cargo is merely a synonym for “freight.” Shipments, although probably originally referring to freight carried by ships, can just as well apply to cargo sent by ship.
And why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? One of the main definitions of way is “a route or course that is or may be used to go from one place to another.” New York’s Robert Moses dubbed his “route or course that was used to go from one place to another” parkway because it was lined with trees and lawns in an attempt to simulate the beauty of a park. The driveway, just as much as a highway, a freeway, or a parkway, is a path for automobiles. The driveway is a path, a way, between the street and a house or garage.
Now can we please have a moratorium on cheap-word-play questions? We warned you this section wasn’t going to be fun.
Submitted by Peter Vaernet of San Francisco, California, and Sharon M. Burke of Los Altos, California. Thanks also to Brian Hart of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, and to Ira Goldwyn of Great Neck, New York.
Why Is the Left-Hand Side of a Ship Facing Forward Called the Port?
Why Is the Right-Hand Side of a Ship Facing Forward Called the Starboard?
Why Are the Windows Around the Perimeter of a Ship Called Portholes When They Are Found on Both Sides of the Vessel?
Ancient ships were usually steered with a large sweep oar. Starboard is Old English for “steer board or paddle,” so it is easy to see how the right-hand side became known as the starboard. Because the steering gear was all contained on the right, old ships had to tie at dock on the left side, and loaded cargo onto the more convenient left, or port side as well.
Originally, however, the left-hand side was called the lar-board (from the Anglo-Saxon laere (“empty”) and bord (“board” or “paddle”). The Middle English laddeborde also, appropriately, meant “lading side.” In the early seventeenth century, mariners abandoned larboard for port, undoubtedly because when maneuvering in a wicked storm, larboard and starboard were too easily confused.
The original purpose for the porthole was not to amuse cruise passengers but to serve as gun ports. In the earliest ships, gun ports were on the port side only. Sailors had primitive, claustrophobic facilities below decks. Portholes as windows were added centuries later, and by that time the word porthole had stuck.
Submitted by Robert J. Abrams of Boston, Massachusetts. Thanks also to William DeBuvitz of Bernardsville, New Jersey; John Schroder of Red Lion, Pennsylvania; John Underhill of South Bend, Indiana; and Rich DeWitt of Mound, Minnesota.
When Bad Things Happen to
Good Words
Why Is a Free-for-all Called a Battle Royal?
Used as early as 1672, battle royal was created not to describe a feud among monarchs but rather a slightly less lofty cockfight. Most cockfights were designed as elimination tournaments, starting with sixteen cocks in the first round, eight in the second, four in the semifinals, and the surviving two in the finals. Nobody knows for sure how royal became part of the expression, but most likely the sole surviving cock was being compared to royalty—
the winner was at the top of the heap.
Battle royal lives today in professional wrestling, where it describes bouts in which ten to twenty grapplers attempt to throw their opponents over the top rope. The last wrestler left inside the squared circle is the momentary king of wrestling.
Why Is Someone Behaving Wildly Said to Be Running Amok?
In the sixteenth century, Portuguese traders saw some Malaysians running haphazardly down the streets and attacking people for no apparent reason. Little did the visitors realize that the cause of the frenzy was a nasty strain of opium. The Portuguese took the Malay word amog (“engaging furiously in battle”), originally used to describe the ferocity of Malaysian tribesmen, to describe the crazy behavior of these civilians. When in battles, the Malaysian warriors would rush into the front line in a frenzy, engaging in fierce hand-to-hand combat. The tribesmen’s ferocity was fueled not only by hatred but by hashish as well.
Why Is Someone Who Is Running Amok Said to Be Berserk?
Malays hardly had a monopoly on drug-crazed warriors. Although we now stereotype Scandinavians as stoic, ancient Norse warriors terrorized their enemies by charging forward with a suicidal lack of discrimination. What sent them into this frenzy? A prebattle ritual that included eating hallucinogenic mushrooms provided the inspiration.
Berserk means “bear shirt” in Old Norse, and because they battled in bearskins, ancient Norse warriors were called berserkers.
In Norse mythology there was an actual warrior named Berserk. Berserk was invincible, and he chose to train his twelve sons to fight as ferociously as he did. Berserkers were commonly referred to as unbeatable and wildly unconventional foes. So they were described in Gods and Myths of Northern Europe:
…frantic as dogs or wolves; they bit their shields and were as strong as bears or boars, they slew men, but neither fire nor iron could hurt them.
Pity the fool who encountered a berserker run amok.
Why Are Disorders or Noisy Demonstrations Called Bedlam?
The original bedlam was named after a quiet, orderly place, the Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem, founded in London in 1242. Working-class Londoners, notorious slurrers, pronounced Bethlehem “bedlam.”
In 1402 the priory was transformed into England’s first hospital for the insane. In 1547 Henry VIII established St. Mary’s as a royal foundation “for lunatics.” When Londoners referred to the Holy City, they took pains to articulate each syllable, specifically to differentiate it from Bedlam at a time when mental institutions were equated with chaos and cacophony.
Why Is Nonsense Called Bunkum?
If you want your faith restored in American democracy, I urge you not to tune in to C-Span’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House of Representatives. A few hours of interminable, self-serving, pretentious, and incoherent speeches are likely to make you despair for the future of the United States.
Don’t worry. Put it in perspective. Windbag speeches are a long-held and cherished tradition in the republic. One windbag, however, redeemed himself and added a word to our language for good measure. In 1820, Felix Walker, a representative from North Carolina, delivered a horrible, rambling, irrelevant, and witless speech. Walker was quite aware that his oration was a disaster. Scores of congressmen called for him to yield, but he refused to do so.
Walker stopped his speech and responded to his fellow Congressmen: “You’re not hurting my feelings, gentlemen. I am not speaking for your ears. I am only talking for Buncombe.”
“Talking for Buncombe” soon became a catch phrase within Congress and spread quickly outside of the Capitol. Bunk and bunkum, then, are testaments to that great representative of Buncombe County, North Carolina, Felix Walker.
Why Is Someone with a Hidden Agenda or Selfish Motives Said to Have an Ax to Grind?
In “Too Much for Your Whistle,” Benjamin Franklin relates a story from his boyhood. A stranger approached young Ben, who sat beside a grindstone. The stranger pretended that he didn’t know how to sharpen his ax and asked Ben to demonstrate the grindstone. By the time the man “got it,” the ax was sharpened and Franklin was exhausted. If the naive Franklin had been more wary, he would have realized his tormentor had a (metaphorical) ax to grind.
Why Do You Say That Someone Who Isn’t Worthy Can’t Hold a Candle to a Worthy Person?
This cliché always struck me as strange. If you can’t hold a candle to someone, aren’t you doing him a favor? Holding a candle to him could be—well, rather painful. And who would want to hold a candle to someone, and why is someone inferior if he can’t?
Note that this phrase always is expressed in the negative. We don’t say, “Don Mattingly CAN hold a candle to Wade Boggs.” Perhaps this is because at one time there were people who literally “held candles to,” and they were far from equal to the people whom they held candles to.
In the sixteenth century, before the advent of streetlights, a common undertaking for servants was to help wealthy Britishers traverse darkened streets. These servants, called linkboys, followed their masters on foot while they walked down the street, holding a candle, or more often a link (“a torch”) to light the way. Linkboys also held candles for their masters in theaters and other public places.
Obviously, the job requirements for linkboys did not include much education or intellectual capacity, so if someone couldn’t hold a candle, they were considered to be below the depth of a servant. When we use this cliché in the twentieth century, though, we are left with the original conundrum. Somebody who can’t hold a candle (i.e., isn’t forced to act in a servile role) is deemed, in our language, inferior to the person who can.
To What End Does the Bitter End Refer?
The end of a rope. On ships, ropes that are cast a-sea, such as an anchor rope, must be tied to posts, which assure that the rope stays aboard. These posts were called bitts. The bitter referred to the last portion of the inboard rope attached to the bow bit, and the bitter’s end referred to the unenviable state of having all the cable paid out with no more room left to maneuver in an emergency.
What Does a Chowderhead Have to Do with Soup?
Not much, evidently. Chowder is derived from the French chaudière (“kettle or cauldron”) and the custom of fishermen of throwing different fish into a pot or kettle to provide supper. Stuart Berg Flexner traces chowderhead, first recorded in 1848, directly to the soup: “…one whose brains were as mixed up as chowder…confusion.”
But isn’t chowderhead as likely to be the ancestor of the earlier recorded (1819) English word cholterheaded (meaning, naturally enough, “having a jolted head”—i.e., a scrambled brain)?
Why Is Nonsense or Self-Glorifying Blather Called Claptrap?
Claquer means “to clap” in French. In the early nineteenth century, evidently, there weren’t enough patrons “claquering” away to please French theater owners. In 1820, the estimable M. Sauton established a business to rent out claquers, who were hired to applaud a play or, in some cases, a specific actor. The versatile claquer not only had calloused hands but also was adept at laughing uproariously at farces and sobbing copiously at melodramas. Theoretically, the emotional reaction of the audience would appease ego-mad thespians and generate good word of mouth.
The Anglicization originally referred to any trick (i.e., trap) to milk applause (clap) out of a recalcitrant audience.
Why Are Informers or Strike-Breakers Called Finks?
Two equally plausible theories have been advanced to explain the origin of fink. The first is that finks is a corruption of Pinks, short for “Pinkerton men.” In 1892, in a bitter dispute with the Carnegie Steel Company, hundreds of demonstrators at the Homestead Steel strike beat and stoned Pinkerton men hired as strike-breakers. Pinks became synonymous with “scabs,” and Pinks was transformed by some genius into the more mellifluous finks.
The second, perhaps more likely, explanation is that fink was an eponym for one Albert Fink, who over a period of decades became the supervisor of detectives for several different
railroads. Fink supervised a team of operatives who were paid to go “undercover” and spy and inform on railway workers. These operatives were dubbed finks.
Why Does Flak Mean “Strong Opposition”?
Flak sounds like a modern, made-up word, rather than one with an ancient etymological background. And it is. Flak was born during World War II and it is formed by the contraction of the first letters of three German words: FLieger (“aviator”), Abwehr (“defense”), and Kanonen (“guns”). So while we now use flak to describe any unwanted opposition, the earliest references are to the antiaircraft fire our pilots encountered.
What Pan Was Flash in the Pan Named After?
The pan of a flintlock musket. In the seventeenth century, the pan of a musket was where one put the powder that was ignited by the sparks from the flint. If it ignited properly, the sparks would set off the charge in the gun, and this charge would propel the ball (and later, the bullet) out of the barrel.
Occasionally, the priming powder in the pan would burn without igniting the main charge, and the gun misfired. The burn was visible but to no effect, just as a flash in the pan is successful but shines only for a brief time.
No musket would discharge unless the powder was [kept] dry, sage advice that spawned another cliché.
Why Is Someone Who Is Depressed Said to Be in a Funk?
In de fonk zun sounds like the name of the new Earth, Wind and Fire album, but it actually is the Flemish expression (“be in the smoke”) that has given us our term to mean “in a state of sadness or fear.” It was first recorded in an eighteenth-century rhyme:
Pryce, usually brimful of valour when drunk,
Who Put the Butter in Butterfly? Page 4
