I'm happy to accept that as being a possible component of the origin, but it doesn't really feel like the whole story. Does anyone else know the word? Or anything about its origins and usage? etymology slang word-usage Share Improve this question Follow edited Feb 5, 2012 at 0:24 ...
poisonous Eurasian plant, mid-13c., said to be fromhen(n.) +bane(n.) but this may be folk etymology. Brewer says of it, "There is no such [Old English] word ashen-bana, hen murderer, and the notion of the seeds being fatal to poultry arose from misapprehension of the word." Ot...
in the occupation of what is called a stool pigeon, that is, one who for hire joins and leads villains in crime to betray them to justice; or, as it was described by the counsel for the prosecution, the business of " a rogue set to catch rogues." ...
Old Norsemildr(which also contributed to the English word), Old Saxonmildi, Old Frisianmilde, Middle Dutchmilde, Dutchmild, Old High Germanmilti, Germanmilde"mild," Gothicmildiþa"kindness"), from PIE*meldh-, from root*mel-(1) "soft," which is the source also of Latinmollis"soft....
Spurious etymologies such as this one satisfy our urge for completion — we want to believe such a naughty word has a salacious back story, something replete with stocks and adulterers, or fornication permits handed out by a king. How utterly prosaic to find out "fuck" came to us the way...
Origin: Middle English, from Old Frenchpisser, probably of imitative origin. In keeping with our theme of bodily waste, we havepiss, a relatively mild swear word, but definitely not something you'd like your grandmother to hear you say. The origin story for this one is pretty boring, but...
17.Etymology.the study of words and word roots.may sound like the kind of thing done by boring librarians in small.dusty rooms. Yet etymologists actually have a uniquely interesting job. They are in many ways just like archaeologists digging up the ph
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(Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Harper, 2010) Anatoly Liberman "The origin of words that reproduce natural sounds is self-explanatory. French or English,cockooandmiaoware unquestionablyonomatopoeias. If we assume thatgrowlbelongs with...
word that isn't commonly used but conveys a common idea is quixotic. it comes from the character don quixote and describes someone or something that's a romantic, idealist, or visionary but isn't realistic or practical in their ideas, much like the character. those who know the story of ...