Who Put the Butter in Butterfly?

by David Feldman

  Now experienced what schoolboys denominate funk.

  Why Do We Say That Someone Who Is Fired Gets the Sack?

  The ancient Romans didn’t believe in mollycoddling convicted felons. Rehabilitation wasn’t their style. Those convicted of parricide or other heinous murders were tied in a sack and dumped into the Tiber River, instantly solving any potential recidivism problem.

  The practice spread throughout many other European countries, and, as late as the nineteenth century, murderers in Turkey were tossed into the Bosporus in a sack. To get the sack, then, probably was used figuratively as a threat of any sort of punishment, such as losing one’s job.

  Another theory to explain how get the sack was recorded—as early as 1611 in France—is that it referred to craftsmen of the Middle Ages. Artisans carried their tools in sacks; while they worked, they handed the sacks to their employers. When a craftsman got the sack, it meant that his services no longer were required. He was left, literally, holding the bag.

  Why Does Corny Mean “Schmaltzy”?

  So many slang expressions, from jaywalking to hick to hillbilly, were weapons for urban folks to put down rural dwellers that it is no surprise that corny is a derogatory epithet to describe Americans between the two coasts.

  Actually, corny is a late-nineteenth-century theatrical expression. When theatrical troops traveled in the hinterlands, they felt smugly superior to their audiences. These thespians, often from New York, felt that “hicks” preferred the most obvious forms of entertainment, especially low comedy and trite and sentimental melodrama. The preferences of these corn-fed audiences soon became known as corny.

  Why Does a Horrible Drug Like Heroin Have a “Heroic” Name?

  Yes, heroin derives from the same Greek word, heros, that gave us the English hero and heroine. Although heroin’s manufacture and distribution have long been outlawed in the United States, the morphine derivative was developed as a legitimate painkiller.

  Heroin was originally a legitimate trademark taken by a German pharmaceutical company, so the brand name was consciously designed to evoke only positive associations. Not only was heroin effective as a painkiller, it also had the “bonus” of giving patients a euphoric feeling, and as we now know, delusions of grandeur (indeed, it has made many a junkie feel like a hero). Although these side effects can be deadly in an illicit drug, it was at first a distinct selling point in marketing heroin to physicians as a painkiller.

  Why Are Whites Sometimes Referred to as Honkies, Particularly by Blacks?

  After World War II, many southern blacks moved to Chicago, where factory jobs were plentiful. Many of them, living in segregated towns, had little exposure to whites. Many of these blacks’ new coworkers were Middle Europeans. In all likelihood, honky is a corruption of what was an existing epithet, hunkie (or hunky), another pejorative term, meaning a lower-class Hungarian. To these blacks, the coworkers they were exposed to were representative of all white people.

  Why Do People Say “I Could Care Less” When They Obviously Mean “I Could Not Care Less”?

  Some slang expressions originate in print, but a far greater number start in oral culture and only later are immortalized in print. Such is the story of I could care less, which became a catch phrase in the United States after World War II.

  Purists rail against this phrase. Isn’t it slovenly and insensitive to say or write I could care less when one could make one’s sentiments absolutely clear by adding the “n’t” to “could”?

  The usage panel of the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage says “thumbs down” to I could care less. Only 7 percent of the panel accepts the use of it in writing. Typical of the panel’s sentiments is Isaac Asimov’s: “I don’t know people stupid enough to say this.”

  In defense of the hoi polloi, I could care less is not an illiteracy like irregardless. To the 78 percent of the Harper panel who refused to accept this expression even in casual speech, we would argue that I could care less falls well within the fine tradition of irony. In speech, the emphasis on could makes it clear that could means “could not.”

  Think of all the expressions that denote one thing but can mean the opposite with the proper inflection: big deal, sure, great, and right. I could care less might not mean what it seems, but the meaning, at least in speech, is clear, and the irony enriches our language.

  Why Is Something or Someone Weak, Insipid, or Sentimental Called Namby-Pamby?

  Norman Mailer versus Truman Capote. Lillian Hellman versus Mary McCarthy. There’s nothing like a good literary feud. And we didn’t invent them in the twentieth century.

  More than two hundred years ago, prominent poets Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope disagreed on politics and had an intense professional rivalry; acquaintances and friends were forced to choose sides. One of Addison’s partisans was Ambrose Philips, a creator of sentimental verse who was somehow convinced that he was a better poet than Pope. The enmity between Philips and Pope was palpable; Samuel Johnson called the relationship between them “a perpetual reciprocation of malevolence.”

  One of Pope’s political allies, Henry Carey, a poet of some repute, wrote a parody of Philips’ insipid poetry and called it Namby Pamby. Carey took the diminutive of Philips’ first name (“Ambrose” became “Amby”) and created a rhyme using Philips’ last-name initial (“Pamby”). This rhyming technique, called reduplication, is and was common in word games and has spawned many other slang expressions (e.g., hocus pocus, higgledy-piggledy). Pope himself later immortalized Philips’ (and Carey’s expression) by using namby-pamby in his own satiric epic The Dunciad.

  Why Is a Stupid Person Called a Blockhead?

  A blockhead not only is stupid, but slow and unexciting as well. An idiot, for example, might be an aggressive person who feels he is a genius. For long-standing etymological reasons, a blockhead is likely to be a schlemiel.

  Blockhead was first recorded in 1549, and it referred to wooden heads (or blocks) that were used by milliners and Vigmakers to display or store their wares. Usually made of yew or oak, most blockheads were in the shape of the human skull, but some were rectangular.

  The most famous contemporary blockhead, of course, is Charlie Brown, the protagonist of “Peanuts,” and because his head is disproportionately large, some assume that blockhead refers to the size of his head. But fathead serves that function well. Lucy isn’t criticizing him for the girth of his head (after all, studies have shown that powerful people tend to have extremely large heads), but maintaining that poor Charlie has the I.Q. and charisma of a wooden block.

  Why Are Sissies Called Pantywaists?

  Until the 1920s in America, they weren’t, but then a type of children’s underwear was introduced in which underpants were buttoned to the undershirt. Pantywaists were intended as unisex underwear, but they proved much more popular for girls than for boys. The inevitable result in a sexist society: Boys who wore pantywaists were mocked as effeminate by their peers.

  Why Is Rambling, Meaningless Language Called Rigmarole?

  In 1296, Edward I of England invaded Scotland. As soon as he captured a town, he would force the local elite to sign a parchment document pledging allegiance to their new king. The document itself was called a ragman roll, a then generic name for any official document on a roll, including deeds, wills, and tax lists.

  Recitations of the roll were about as fascinating as readings of phone books, so when the Britisher’s slovenly speech transformed ragman roll into rigmarole, they were as stupefied by obscurantist language as we are today.

  How Did Son of a Gun Become a Euphemism for Son of a Bitch?

  Actually, son of a gun isn’t a euphemism for son of a bitch at all. Son of a gun dates back to the early nineteenth century and was hardly the good-natured endearment it is today. Originally, it was a pejorative reference to a sailor’s bastard.

  During the early days of British sailing, women were allowed to accompany their husbands aboard long voyages. Inevitably, some of these women were
not the sailor’s wives. Many legitimate, and fewer out-of-wedlock, births took place on ship, and most babies were delivered in a screened-off section of the gun deck. Sometimes the newborn babies actually slept in a hammock attached to the gun barrel. Son of a gun, then, probably originally referred to the unknown paternity of a woman’s offspring.

  Why Are Useless Things Not Worth a Tinker’s Dam?

  Today, it is hard to conjure up a time when there were actually people whose profession was to mend pots and pans. But such was the calling of tinkers.

  One of their most common tasks was to patch up holes in cooking utensils. Soldering solved the problem, but tinkers had to devise a way to keep the solder from going in one side of the hole and out the other. So tinkers would create a “dam,” made of mud or clay, which would keep the solder in place until it had set properly. Once the hole was properly patched, the “dam” was rendered useless and was thrown away. Clay isn’t exactly the most glamorous substance to begin with; once it had served its purpose, it wasn’t worth [even] a tinker’s dam.

  Submitted by John H. Thompson of Glendale, California.

  Why Is an Obsequious Sycophant Called a Toady?

  Toady is a nineteenth-century slang expression for a toadeater. Yes, one who “eats” toads.

  In the nineteenth century, frogs were considered a delicacy, but toads were widely believed to be poisonous. Traveling medicine shows would often feature an assistant who would pretend to or actually would eat a toad and then suddenly fall victim to a fictitious dread malady. The medicine man, of course, just happened to have the elixir that would cure the unfortunate boy and, marvel of marvels, actually had some of the miraculous potion left over to sell to the public.

  The toadeater, soon known as a toady, was originally somebody willing to endanger or humiliate himself for his master. Today, of course, a toady is more likely to go far in the business world than to be a servant, and is more likely to be swallowing his pride than swallowing amphibians.

  Why Is an Awkward or Boorish Person Called Uncouth?

  Sitcom writers know that it is always good for a laugh to have an uneducated character call someone else “couth.” But couth is a legitimate word and actually has ancient origins. In Old English, couth meant “known” or “familiar.” Uncouth, logically enough, meant “unknown,” or “unfamiliar.” Because we always have tended to fear and distrust the unknown, uncouth developed bad connotations (“awkward” and “boorish”) over the centuries.

  Couth has recently become a catchword through back-formation. In back-formation, a word appears to be the base of another word when it is actually formed from the other word. Thus, although burgle seems to be the base for burglar, burglar actually preceded burgle. Uncouth is a more complicated case, because couth came first in its archaic sense (“unfamiliar”). Then came uncouth, meaning “boorish.” But the current use of couth to mean “class” (as in “You have to admit it, the man’s got couth”) clearly is a back-formation from uncouth.

  Words About Words

  Why Does That’s All She Wrote Mean “You’re Gone, Buster!”?

  Because this expression, which came into vogue during and after World War II, refers to the same heartless “she” who wrote the infamous “Dear John” letter.

  Submitted by Joan Den of Huntington Beach, California.

  How Did & Come to Mean And, and Why Is the Symbol Called an Ampersand?

  The symbol & was first used as and in the twelfth century. It replaced the word et (Latin for “and”). The symbol is a combination of the capital “E” and a “T,” with the upper loop of the “E” substituting for the cross of the “T.”

  Well into the nineteenth century, throughout England and much of the United States, the ampersand was taught to children as part of their ABCs. It became, in effect, the twenty-seventh letter of the alphabet. Teachers wanted students to learn that A and I were words as well as letters. They differentiated these letters by teaching the children to recite “A per se ‘A’” (meaning “A by itself means ‘A’”) and “I per se ‘A.’” After reciting the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, children were taught to say “and per se and” (meaning “and by itself means ‘and’”), but children slurred the phrase to ampersand.

  The Oxford English Dictionary cites 1837 as the first recorded reference to the word that kids created—ampersand.

  Why Is Gibberish Called Gobbledygook?

  How appropriate that gobbledygook was coined by a politician! During World War II, Congressman Maury Maverick of Texas, made up the word spontaneously during a speech. He compared the verbiage of a colleague to the turkeys back home in Texas. Not only did both the gobbler and his political enemy spout uninterrupted verbiage, but both strutted with undeserved pretension. As Maverick himself said, “At the end of this gobble there was a sort of gook.”

  Yes, Maury was related to the Maverick immortalized by James Garner in the television series Maverick. The reason that the name of Maury’s grandfather, Samuel Johnson Maverick (1803-70), has long stood for “independent free-wheeler” is that old Sam refused to brand his own cattle but claimed any unbranded range stock he came upon as his own.

  Why Do We Mind Our P’s and Q’s Instead of Our V’s and W’s?

  This often-asked question has been researched thoroughly by lexicographers over the years but remains impervious to definitive solution. Three viable theories have been advanced. In descending order of likelihood:

  1. Mind your p & q (“pints and quarts”) was a common alehouse expression in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Barowners would keep a tally on a slate of all ale orders. When a customer was charged for a pint but drank a quart, or when the publican noticed an account was overdrawn, he might chime in with the warning “Mind your p’s and q’s.”

  2. Printers always have had difficulty setting letters that are inverted or are mirror images (such as b and d or p and q). Mind your p’s and q’s might have been a warning to printers to concentrate on the task at hand. Teachers of handwriting warn of p’s and q’s for the same reason.

  3. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the minuet was all the rage, young dancers were warned to mind your pieds and queues (“feet and pigtails”). The minuet involved bowing, and young men, unaccustomed to wearing wigs, were likely to lose their hairpieces if they weren’t careful.

  Submitted by Mrs. Gloria Greco of Rochester, New York. Thanks also to Joseph Surgenor of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

  What Angry Person First Read the Riot Act?

  George I of England gave new meaning to the words “law and order.” In 1716 he instituted the Riot Act, which made it illegal for twelve or more people to congregate together and “disturb the peace.” If the crowd did not disperse, they were subject to a minimum of three years in prison.

  George put quite a burden on all public officials. If they encountered such a crowd, they were obligated to stand before the crowd and literally read the Riot Act, ticking off the provisions of the law, which undoubtedly must have endeared them to drunken revelers or political protesters.

  Why Do We Say That Someone Who Is Talking “A Mile a Minute” Is Talking a Blue Streak?

  The “blue” reference in this 1830s American expression is to the blue skies, whence “streaks” of lightning emanate. Most of us would rather hear thunderbolts than the cacophony spewed by a human talking a metaphoric blue streak.

  Why Are Vague Euphemisms or “Bureaucratese” Referred to as Weasel Words?

  In 1916, during World War I, Woodrow Wilson suggested implementing a policy of “universal voluntary training,” which sent Theodore Roosevelt into a frt of fury. Roosevelt saw “universal voluntary training” for exactly what it was—bureaucratic gibberish intended to soften what was actually a proposal for conscription. We could have universal training or we could have voluntary training, but we couldn’t have both, and Roosevelt castigated Wilson for his cowardly use of weasel words, words that actually rob the sentence they are in of any
meaning because they cancel each other out.

  The expression weasel words was actually coined by writer Stewart Chaplin in 1900, who pointed out the use of duly, as in duly protected, as “always a convenient weasel word.” But why did Chaplin and Roosevelt defame the poor weasel, who, after all, helps rid the world of excess mice and rats?

  Theodore Roosevelt made the reference clear. A weasel is capable of sucking out the contents of an egg without breaking the shell. Likewise, the “weaseler” is able to rob a sentence (or a whole speech) of its meaning, leaving it empty, while still giving the appearance of utter earnestness and erudition.

  By the Numbers

  Why Is a Brutal Interrogation Called the Third Degree?

  The “third degree” is neither a reference to a third-degree burn nor to third-degree murder, even though the phrase conjures up both a criminal interrogation and the possibility of pain and torture. A misunderstanding of the Freemasons is to blame for the frightening connotations stirred up when one contemplates receiving the third degree.

  Masons must take examinations before ascending the ranks of the organization. The first and second stages require little in preparation or performance. The third degree (Master Mason) is achieved only after passing a slightly more elaborate test. Because Freemasons were secretive about their customs, rumors circulated that the ritual required to achieve the third degree involved arduous mental gymnastics and brutal physical punishment. Although this allegation was totally unfounded, the Masons’ exam was compared to the interrogation and physical badgering of a suspected criminal by the police.