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Fred's Words have touched on a variety of topics, so we devided the "words" into manageable categories. Click a text link below to peruse:
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Racket
Hi Word-ers!! Fred's on the road this week, so I'll drop a phrase for fun. Don't know if you all heard, but the Russian rocket Globalstar was using to launch their 12 satellites exploded. They hoped the "birds" managed to attain orbit before the explosion, but no such luck. It was the first time anybody had attempted to launch 12 at once! Also, the week before, their ground station in South Korea suffered a bad lightening strike -- and then another one. So that's where Fred is now -- but he will be back home in LV this weekend. I think the last time he was in Korea was the early 50's -- place ought to be a bit different (and quieter!) this trip.
I ran into a fun word history on the History channel the other night: RACKET.
The "Five Points" district in Manhattan was for over 100 years the symbol of gang activity and general corruption. The gangs were all ethnic and local, but by the 1920s or so had settled down into just a few large "businesses." Part of the rivalry between the gangs was to throw parties, and each tried to outdo the other. They were, strangely enough, very noisy affairs and came to be known as "rackets."
But they weren't free. Nope, gang members went around selling tickets. And, in the interest of public relations, you were best advised to buy a ticket when offered the chance. (I guess public relations means the way your face looked when you went out in public!) And from that semi-strong-arm tactic we get the current definition for the rackets, racketeering, and so on.
By the by, I found it interesting (according to Mirriam-Webster -- the OED ain't on-line yet, but their web site says they hope to have it up by October!) that the origins of racket are unknown. First appears in 1565 as a noun and 1609 as a verb. In both cases, meaning a loud noise. But "racket, or racquet" comes from Middle French raquette, ultimately from Arabic rahah, "palm of the hand," and first appeared in 1520. Now it seems pretty obvious to me that if you take the palms of a couple hands and clap them together, you get a loud noise. Yet the word remains with "origin unknown." Hmmm . . . maybe they just can't document that people used to clap to make noise!!!
Rarebit
Hey There, Fellow Wordies!!!
Fred is storming DC this week, helping a Globalstar vendor get straightened out. Word is that his team was seen loading baseball bats into their luggage, but that is unconfirmed. So I’ll drop a small tidbit in his place.
Segueing right along, our tidbit is abut food.
But first ---some old business. We’ve had two more suggestions about the origin of "piping hot."
1 – It comes from steam pipes, i.e., "The food is as hot as a steam pipe."
2.-- It comes from a pressure cooker, which "pipes" when it’s hot.
Take your choice of all the suggestions!
Now – back to this week’s culinary item – you can tell it’s getting close to lunchtime here.
Melt some cheese with beer and other ingredients and pour it over bread --- and, according to one story, you are insulting the Welsh. Since in the days of yore the English didn’t much like the Welsh, with their funny-sounding words and all, it was normal sport to cast dispersions on their abilities. One way to do this was to say the Welsh were really lousy hunters – so bad they couldn’t even catch a rabbit (spelled "rarebit" in those days, but pronounced as "rabbit"). Since they couldn’t catch rabbits, the Welsh had to settle for melted cheese --- which came to be known (by the English) as "Welsh rarebit."
Another story is in the same vein, but just says that rabbit was expensive but cheese was cheap – so the poor Welsh folk had to eat cheese instead of rabbit.
Anyway – the English culture prevailed, so now we have Welsh Rarebit. Perhaps if the Welsh had prevailed, we’d be nibbling on Anglo Rarebit today.
Everybody have a GOOD WEEKEND!!!
Tom
Scuttlebutt
Tom M. asked about "scuttlebutt"--I did not have anything on it--
I knew Rick would know what scuttlebutt meant . . .
Fred
Rick’s Reply to Fred’s Inquiry
Fred,
Scuttlebutt referred to the forerunner of the drinking fountain. A butt was a particular size of barrel (like cask, keg, etc.), and that type of barrel was what was used to store potable water on sailing ships. The scuttle was the scoop used to obtain a drink by dipping into the open top, and as three or four gobs waited their turn for a drink, they would pass along the news of the day. So rumors became scuttlebutt.
And, of course, the term "gob" (and "Jack tar") for sailor came from the cool fashion of wearing tar in their hair for a slick look. And, as the sailors' tarry ponytails tended to get the backs of the uniforms dirty, they adopted those big collars common to all sailor uniforms. Originally, the collar was a separate piece of clothing made like a vest (some European navies still have them) that was put on for dress to cover the tar stains.
Although most civilians are not aware of it, our sailors have both dress and undress blues. The latter has a collar without the usual three white stripes and two stars on the back. European sailors would not have two uniforms, but just the dress collar to cover the undress (and theoretically dirty) plain collar.
So, there's the Old Salt lesson for the day. Have a good watch. Rick.
Fred’s PS to his note:
ps--I'll bet Rick still has his old "Blue Jacket's Manual".
[I still have my 22-5. When I went into the Air Force--we still used a lot of Army material. Pres. Harry S Truman had created the AF in 1947--so the Manual issued to me in Basic Training was the Army T 22-5. The Manual showed us how to salute and when, rudimentary concepts of "close order drill", how to treat the Flag, clothing, rank insignias, present arms, rifle drills, etc. All Army "stuff". My work cap still said "Army Air Corps". on it. I was part of the "Brown Shoe Air Force" before the Korean War started].
Does anyone know why I didn't put a period after Harry S Truman's middle initial?
First winner gets a free trip to the Library in Bangladesh.
Tom’s Reply
Fred –
Wasn't just plain old "S" Harry's full middle name?
In case I win -- is that journey to the Library round trip or one way?
Tom
Fred’s Response
Tom won--"S" was Harry's middle name--and yes Tom--it is a ONE way ticket--we will miss you--there will be no phones in Bangladesh until Globalstar gets the Cell Phone system up and running late next year.
Rick--you came in second so you get the Return Ticket FROM Bangladesh.
Rick’s Response:
Fred,
Harry S had no middle name, so it was not an abbreviation just a letter. And, yes, I do still have my BJM - 1957 version, plus a WW2 version that was given to me when I was in junior high. And I have a USMC Field Manual, if you need to tear down an M-1, BAR or .45 auto. Rick.
Fred’s Response:
Darrell came in 3rd--he gets one of the lunches that Tom or Rick doesn't eat on the airplane.
No more winners.
Darrell’s Response:
Fred,
S is Harry's middle name. I'm packed!
Do you know the derivation of the expression "by and large"?
Fred’s Response:
Darrell is from near Leon, Iowa and is probably related to Gwendola, Sharon, and maybe even Ray Moore---and could be a very remote cousin to Bonnie. Bonnie has both Barber's and Hashman lines in her family---or Harshman as it is sometimes spelled.
"By and Large"--must be somewhere--we'll look for it.
Fred
Shenanigans
Hi There, Weekly Worders!!
Fred’s basking in the Orlando sun (there weren’t any East Coast hurricanes this week, were there?), so I’ll try to fill in with a word.
Heard somebody on the radio the other morning – probably describing politicians – say that so-and-so were up to their usual shenanigans. And I thought, "Boy, that word just sounds like mischief – wonder where it came from?"
Turns out "shenanigan" is actually a contraction (or a compression) of the Gaelic phrase, "Shee nanna gasne." Which means: The Shee are rattling the dishes.
Huh?
The Shee, it turns out, are apparently also known as the Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the Goddess Anu, who were the Rulers of Ancient Ireland. When the Gaels took over the old sod, the old Rulers moved into the burial mounds of more ancient people. From their new home, the Shee sometimes roam out into the modern (our) world. The Shee come in various flavors, such as fairies, leprechauns, and banshees. The banshee (whose wail is heard as the wind in the winter forest) is pretty bad – one who hears the wail will either die soon or somebody close to them will die – but most of the spirits are just mischievious.
So when something happened in the olde Irish days, such as when tables swayed, windows flew open, things mysteriously disappeared, or even when milk went sour, it was appropriate to mutter "Shee nanna gasne," serving as both a greeting to the spirit(s) and a polite way of asking them to vacate the premises. Over the years, it got shortened to "shenanigan," and by the mid-18th century had come to mean any kind of general mischief.
Note: When I checked the Web for Shee, I didn’t have much luck learning about ancient spirits, but I did learn – to my amazement – that "shee" is now a term used to describe male transvestites. O education is a wonderful thing . . .
Everybody have a good weekend!!!!
Tom
Tale Spinning
With all of the "spin-doctors" in Washington D.C. writing the exact things to say pertaining to some of the current "goings-on" it seems almost like "slogans" or rallying points.
Now, I thought the word "slogan" was an old Saxon word--wrong!
It is Keltic "sluagh-ghairm" or "shout of the troops".
In order to find each other during battle the Captains would shout "McSomebody The Great" (or some slogan like that). The fighting troops would know that it meant to rally around the officer that was leading.
Nowadays slogans have become not just battle cries but slogans for causes, i.e. Nuke the Whales; Buy American; or even "Good to the Very Last Drop" in advertising.
The Romans had a standard (pole) called "uexillum" with an eagle on top. Then there would be an emblem on a banner below the eagle--this was a visible slogan or rallying point standard during battle. Later it became a separate banner on a pole with no eagle and finally a flag--so our American Flag is almost a "slogan".
An example of Roman Standards would be "SPQR". You will see this in some 30 year ago Charlton Heston movie. "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus"--the Roman Senate and People.
"Actually it would translate better as "citizen" even though my Latin dictionary says "people". Not everyone in Rome was a citizen--there were many slaves and lower class working people who did not "own" anything. These classes were not allowed to vote (they also did not pay taxes). In Rome only Citizens paid taxes. It got up over 50% and after 1000 years, Rome fell--that is another story."
Yes--there is no "space" between Populus and Que--it is all one word--"PopulusQue".
The Romans actually had NO word for slogan. "Clamor" is as close as they come to a slogan--Clamor means to "shout".
".......and the troops did clamor.....". Line in Marc Anthony's speech. (Bill Shakespear).
"Qua" just means "to Say". I suppose a Roman could use "proverbium"--a set of words--- would stand for a saying of some sort I suppose???
(We get "Proverbs" in the Bible from this one).
Having fun yet? Fred
Spiffy
Ever hear the expressions "spiff" or "Spiffy"? "I think I'll go outside and spiff up the car."
Or "spiff up" ones shoes. Or "You are dressed up pretty spiffy tonight."
The word "spiff"came from salesmen usage--1945--1950 era and is still used by sales Managers..
Special Promotion Incentive Fee (SPIF).
Spif was an extra monetary reward tacked onto and item for sale that was not selling well. For example if a salesman sold a particular model car off the lot that did not sell well--he would get an extra 200 bucks spif for "geting rid of the lemon" (I am thinking of the Ford Edsel).
If it was a used car they would usually clean and high polish the car and maybe detail the engine to make it look better than it really was--they got it ready for a spif or in otherwords it was "spiffed up" for the sale. Maybe a little saw dust in the transmission or years ago--turn back the speedometer.
The word "spiffy" has an earlier derivation and comes from English slang dating back to 1853--100 years earlier.
Means "smart" or in 1920's American slang "snazzy".
Now--my question is--do you suppose that some Sales Manager back in 1945 made up "Special Promotion Incentive Fee" to match the first four letters in "spiffy"?
Spif or Spiff is not in the dictionary.
I wonder if we can find that on the Internet? Probably found in the "Journal of Obscurity".
Fred
More States
If for some reason some of you members did not get last weeks "state names"--let me know and I'll forward them to you. (ALAS!! We seem to be missing the first installment!!! Tom)
E-mail has been acting up again. We are getting rid of Lotus CC-Mail and getting something better--I hope?
Continuing on with more state names:
Maryland--named after Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Chalres the First.
Massachusetts--from the Indian tribe meaning "large hill place"--Capt. John smith located these Indians as being near what is now the town of Milton. (The Massachusetts question by one of the members started all of this-see what she did-don't get me started on place and city names).
Michigan--Chippewa words "mici gama" means "great water". We Americans can sure mess up a word. Minnesota--Dakota Sioux meaning "cloudy water" or sometimes "sky tinted water". They were speaking of just the Minnesota River, not the whole dang state.
Mississippi--Chippewa "mici zibi" meaning "gathering of all waters"--a variation of the base language (Algonquin) word "Messipi".
Missouri--Algonquin for "river of big canoes". You will also hear "big muddy"--that is a Dakota Souix variant probably overlayed onto the Souix language by white men in recent times.
Montana--Spanish (Latin) "mountainous".
Nebraska--Omaha and Otos Indian word "broad water" or "flat river" depending on context--describing the Platte River. Platte is a variant of flat in Saxon--once spelled Pflatte. (see Gorgins' Anglo-Saxon
Dictionary, 1938). At least we kept the Indian meaning of flat.
Nevada--Spanish "Neva" for snow with the "da" ending--meaning "snow clad"--a variant--almost slang Spanish.
New Hampshire--named in 1629 by Capt. John Mason of Plymouth Council for his home county in England. (Hampshire hogs got their name from the same farming area in England--the hogs are distinctive in that they have a wide white band just back of the shoulders--my grandfather Barber used to raise "Hamps").
New Jersey--The Duke of York in 1664, gave a land patent to John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret--this area was called Nova Caesaria (New Jersey) after England's Isle of Jersey.
New Mexico--Spaniards in Mexico applied this name to ALL land north and west of the Rio Grande in the 16th Century. "Mexico" is derived from the name of an Indian tribe found in large numbers by Spanish explorers.
We'll do "the Big Apple" next time.
I will spend all of next week at our backup site in wonderful downtown El Dorado Hills--not far from Sacramento.
I may or may not have E-mail???
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I stand corrected---had two relatives jump me out---if I go back two generations I do have English blood running in my veins.
Woods, Daft, Haines (Haynes), etc.
I was in denial--I would rather be Scot and German and Welsh I suppose.
I mentioned to my cousin in Merced--from now on all my ancestors came from Australia.
Prime M. Blair was mobbed in Belfast--they had to put a police guard around him and usher him into a building. Someone threw a rubber glove at him--they were wearing rubber gloves in the mob because he had
shaken hands with the IRA Political leader Adams--symbol of not being contaminated by the hands of the IRA.
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Here are the rest of the states I promised:
North/South Carolina---land patent (land grant) given to Sir Robert Heath, Earl of Clarenon--he named it after Carolus--Latin for Charles. The Colony was divided into two parts in 1710.
North/South Dakota----Sioux for friend or ally.
Ohio--Iroquois for "fine or good river"
Oklahoma--Choctaw coined word meaning "Red Man" or "Home of the Red Man"--by the Rev. Allen Wright--a Choctaw speaking preacher in the old Twin Territories. (Okla=red Homa=variant of "home" in English).
Oregon--don't know--could be from a Wisconsin R. shown on a 1715 French map as "Ouaricon-sint". At that time they had done some exploring, but did not really know how big the western part of what is now the US really was.
If your ever take the "grapvine" and go thru LeBec, Calif. there is a stone marker in the little town. It says that "a trapper named Jules LeBec" was killed by a bear in the 1770s (or it could have been the '80s--I have stopped there, but that was in 1951 and I can't remember the exact date). (The grapevine is part of I-5 now--it was Highway 99 back then). Those old French fur trappers were all over the place.
Pennsylvania--after William Penn, a Quaker. King Charles II made him full proprietor in 1681. William Penn suggested "Sylvania" which means woodland. The King owed Admiral William Penn (his father) 16,000 pounds--the land was granted in partial settlement. The King added "Penn" to Sylvania in honor of the deceased Admiral. (It is also the largest "pencil" in the world--Ha Ha).
Puerto Rico--Spanish for Rich Port.
Rhode Island--Unknown--one theory is that Giovanni de Verrazano recorded an island about the size of Rhodes in the Mediterranean (1524) and it gots its name from that. Others think it was named Roode Eylandt by Adriaen Block, Dutch explorer because of its "red" clay. "Roode" meaning red in Platz Deutch.
Tennessee--Cherokee village on the Little Tennessee R. (Tanasi)--from 1784 to 1788 it was called the State of Franklin (or sometimes Frankland) after Ben Franklin.
Texas--Caddo Indian word meaning freinds or allies--the Spanish called them texias, or tejas, or teysas.
Utah--from Navajo word meaning upper or higher up. The Navajos called one of the lesser Shohone tribes "Ute". Spanish form is Yutta.
The Mormons proposed the name "Deseret" meaning "land of Honeybees" from the Book of Mormon. Congress rejected the name. The beehive is still a Morman symbol in Utah. If you wanted to wander thru some very old Morman graveyards you would see the tombstones written in the
Deseret alphabet. You can usually buy a little dictionary in one of the shops so you can translate Mormon Deseret into English. The words were spelled just like they sounded--no silent letters or funny spellings--lamb would be lamm only using Deseret characters.
Vermont--from French "vert=green" and "mont=mountain". Supposedly the Green Mountains were named by Samuel de Champlain. Dr. Thomas sugested combining vert and mont into Vermont in 1777.
Virgina--named by Sir Walter Raleigh (1584) in honor of the virgin queen, Queen Elizabeth.
Washington--after Geo. Washington--used to be called the Territory of Columbia. The 32nd Congress changed it to Washington when they created the District of Columbia (DC).
West Virginia--named when the western counties refused to secede and join the CSA in 1863--It had another name for a short time after the Civil War--I have forgotten it--it is a name of a river in West Virginia and I don't have a map handy. Anyone know--let us know.
Wisconsin--Indian name=Ouisconsin and/or Mesconsing--Chippewa for "Grass Place" or "Grassy Place". Congress re-spelled it "Wisconsin".
Wyoming--named after the Wyoming Valley in Penn. This was the site of an Indian massacre--In Algonquin it means "large prairie place"..A poem was written about the massacre, "Gertrude of Wyoming". It was widely read and recited in schools. The first pioneers into Wyoming saw the "large grassy place" and named the state after the Algonquin meaning.
Thanksgiving Thoughts
Have a nice Thanksgiving everyone--I am heading home to Vegas this eve. for the Holiday.
"Thank" came from old Anglo-Saxon "Thanc" pronounced "tank". Sort of like the German "Danke" except the "th" was a lisp sound.
"Give" is of Viking origin-"giva" and older yet "gifan".
If you really stretch it you can come up with Latin "habere"--to hold.
There is a very remote connection via Sanskrit from habere to gifean to gifan to give.
H and G were often "swapped"--as in Spanish you would say "Hen er al" for General.
Even the J got caught up in the H sound -- as in Jefe for Chief or Chef in France.
The J ended up being said as an H in Spanish; jefe, chief, and chef all meaning "head".
We drop the H in herb--the Australians pronounce it as if the root or leaf was a man's name "Herb". Maybe the British do to--I don't know.
So, I guess in Olde Saxon and Viking--it would be "Thancgifan".
Turkey
Around the late 1400's England used to import "chickens" from Africa. There was a law passed by Parliment that disallowed the practice. These chickens came from Guinea and were called in typical slang "Ginney Hens". [Rhyms with Jenny]. They were much sought after for Balls and banquets by the upper class in London and other large cities
So they started smuggling Ginney Hens through Turkey. By doing so they by-passed the Law against import.
>When the Pilgrams saw the first "turkies" that the Indians brought to the feast, they thought they were a larger version of the Guinea chicken. In fact the young birds have the same barred black and white markings as the Guinea chicken. Anyway the name stuck and that is why we call our American native bird a turkey.
When I was a boy on the farm in Iowa, my grandmother raised a few Ginney Hens just for fun. They were ALL dark meat and the eggs were all a deep brown--almost brownish red. If you did not clip their wings they would fly. Sometimes we were a little slow on the clipping and I remember one old Ginney Rooster that got up on the barn and "sailed" all the way to the windmill at the bottom of the hill we lived on. It was over 1/4 mile. He was having a ball. Of course he had to walk all the way back up to the chicken lot. I think it was worth it--he had a smile on his beak and all of his teeth were showing.
We usually stewed them along with dumplings. They were terrible as a fried chicken. The eggs were a little smaller than a Rhode Island Red or a Leghorn, but were much richer. The yolk would be almost orange rather than yellow. The shell was very tough to break.. These were jungle fowl in Africa remember. Some survival of the fittest involved here I suppose. OH! They usually had very dark feet and sometimes bordering on a deep deep red which looked almost black.
Willies
Fred -
Lynn from Charlotte called tonight -- she has a word question that I don't have a clue about.
When we get "spooked," we are said to "have the willies." Any idea who Willy was, or what the expression refers to?
Fred's Response
"Willy" refers to "speed" as in "willy nilly"--you are hurrying around in circles, wringing your hands and sort of "out of it"--something has upset you and you have no solution. So if you have the "willies"--you are mentally scrambled and may have hands that are "shaking". Also related to "Jitters"--first used in literature in1895. Willy nilly was first mentioned in Literature in 1608.
In Black slang--"heebie jeebies" means the same as willy nilly.
Willi-waw---a sudden fast gust of wind coming down from the mountains--usually cold and makes you "shake" when it hits you unexpectedly. Also means a "violent commotion". Origin unknown.
"Slick Willy" slang for an American President who is about to be impeached.
I just pulled this out of my ear--the two dates I got out of the dictionary.
Zounds
Here is more on "Zounds" from another Weekly Word member. (Looks like we lost the original "Zounds!" somewhere. Tom)
Fred, In my Elizabethan as a Second Language Class (yes, there is actually such a thing), I learned that Zounds is indeed a reference to wounds. More specifically the original oath was "By His Wounds!". It was shortened to "His Wounds!" and then "Swounds" and we later century folks corrupted that to Zounds!
The Elizabethans were quick fond of running words together. Gaw-gee-go-din is the literal pronounciation of "God go with you this day", a common phrase circa 1550.
Becky
P.S. The Southern California Pleasure Faire opens this weekend in Devore (San Bernadino where I15 and 215 meet) and runs for 9 weekends. Come visit me there, I work at the Green Man Inn.