All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.~~Gilbert K. Chesterton
Welcome to The Mad Lexiphile. It is my intent to explore words here; their origins, evolution, usage. Words are fascinating. They are alive; they are born, they change and, sometimes, they die. They are our principal tool for communicating with one another. There are millions of words yet only an estimated 171,476 words are in common current use. As a lexiphile, I enjoy discovering new words, using them and learning about their origins. Why yes, I do read dictionaries for fun... don't you?
When I put slang down as a choice in last week's poll, I find I should probably have narrowed that down a bit. Yeah, I know... understatement of the week. There are dozens of slang dictionaries both in print and online. Poring over these, my eyes started to cross when I realized the spectrum that slang covers. So, I decided to split it up. This week, let's take a look at some very old slang that we still use today.
Idiot, and its close relative, moron both come from Ancient Greece. The former is from the Greek word Idiotes which was used to refer to a person who would not take part in the democratic process. The Oxford English Dictionary eventually gave it the following definition: "A person so deficient in mental or intellectual faculty as to be incapable of ordinary acts of reasoning or rational conduct". When IQ tests arrived, a score of less than 20 was regarded as the "idiot’s score." Moron meant foolish or stupid, from moros "foolish, dull." It found its way into English via American psychologist Henry Goddard (1886-1957). His report about a study of the feeble-minded, included an argument for the adoption of the word which he defined as: "One who is lacking an intelligence, one who is deficient in judgment or sense." It is used in medicine to refer to an adult with a mental age of between 8 and 12. But we revert back to their original meanings when we use them as slang.
How many of us are psyched for Tuesday's inauguration? The roots of that word are also Greek. Some of you might remember the myth of Eros and Psyche. The names are, of course, metaphorical. Eros refers to love, from erōtikós; of love, caused by love, given to love. Psyche is from psȳche ;literally, breath, derived of psȳ́chein to breathe, blow and hence, live. In the myth, Eros (the god of love and son of Aphrodite) and Psyche are married. The myth is metaphor of the physical and the spiritual impulses. It was first used as "psych out" circa 1934 as "to outsmart," and from 1963 as "to unnerve." However, to be psyched up for something (as we are for Obama's inauguration) dates from 1968.
The ancient Greeks, when deciding an issue, voted by bean-counting. Different colored beans would represent each vote; white for yes, black for no. The beans were deposited in a helmet or an urn. Of course, if the container were to be accidentally knocked over, the beans would spill. Hence, to spill the beans, or release a secret before its time.
One of the most ancient slang words that we still use is the good old "F" word - fuck. It comes from a Greek root, phu. As an agricultural term, it means to plant seeds. When adopted by the Romans, its Latin root changed from phu to fu, and the noun fututio soon became part of Roman vernacular. The Roman poets discovered the word at a time when erotic love poetry was all the rage in Rome, and fututio became a metaphor for planting a "particular" kind of "seed" in a "specific" kind of "furrow." Fuccant is a pseudo-Latin derivation. From that, the word moved into the various regions and became fukka (Norwegian), focka (Swedish), the Middle English fkye, fokken (Dutch), and the German ficken. It's still part of our everyday vernacular and one of the most used slang words, in all its permutations.
We may be hoping that some people will be eating humble pie soon. The umbles were the innards of the deer: the liver, heart, entrails and other leftover bits. In medieval times, servants and people at the lower tables (the 'little people') at a feast were served a pie made of these parts. Samuel Pepys mentions it in his diary for 8 July 1663: "Mrs Turner came in and did bring us an Umble-pie hot out of her oven, extraordinarily good." Now of course, it means to act submissively or apologetically, especially in admitting an error.
Sometimes we may find ourselves in a tizzy, unable to make a decision. At such a time we are said to be at sixes and sevens. The etymology of this is difficult to trace because it has changed in both form and meaning over the nine-hundred or so years that it has been in use. It was originally to set on six and seven and is thought to have derived in the 14th century from playing at dice. Then, it meant "to carelessly risk one's entire fortune." The current meaning refers to a state of confusion, disorder or disagreement, not one of risk. So, what happened? Two meanings apparently arose independently and eventually overlapped. The first time we saw the final form and meaning was in 1670, in Leti's Il cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa: "They leave things at sixes and sevens." And that is what it has meant ever since.
When we are surprised or annoyed, we may exclaim, "Oh crap!" This handy bit of slang comes from a bunch of words generally applied to things that are cast off or discarded. And all of them probably came from the Middle English crappe meaning, "grain that was trodden underfoot in a barn or chaff" (c.1440). This came from the Latin crappa,"chaff." Despite persistent legend, it had nothing to do with Thomas Crapper (1837-1910). Nor was the toilet invented by Mr. Crapper. So much for that fun story...
The epithet bastard dates from the 13th century. Meaning, "illegitimate child," it is from the Old French, fils de bast meaning "packsaddle son." The implication was that the child was conceived on a saddle, which often doubled as a bed while traveling. So the child may be the product of a passing tryst. In the figurative sense, the way we tend to use it, the word dates from 1552.
In a similar vein, we might refer to a woman we dislike as a bitch. But that word didn't start out as a bad thing... In ancient Greece Artemis was known as "The Great Bitch," and her Priestesses were known as her sacred Bitches. A son of a bitch originally meant a follower of that goddess. The word eventually came to refer to female animals, especially dogs. In around 1000 it appears in the Old English written record as bicce. There is an Old Norse word bikkja with the same meaning, but it's not clear if one came from the other or they both came from the same root. However, we can follow how bitch came to be applied to women (probably a reference to a dog's 'heat" and prolific breeding). It was being used as early as 1400 to refer to a lewd or sensual woman. The modern meaning of "malicious or treacherous woman" seems to have arisen in the 19th century. The male version (as bitch-son) first appears (in written form) in 1330 in Of Arthur & of Merlin. It did not show up again in literature until Shakespeare's King Lear: "One that...art nothing but the composition of a Knave, Begger, Coward, Pandar, and the Sonne and Heire of a Mungrill Bitch." So ladies, if someone calls you a bitch, either thank them and smile knowingly or correct them as to which religion you actually practice.
One idiom that has seen many attempts to pin down is, raining cats and dogs. There are several stories that claim to explain its origin, but do not hold up under investigation. I think that Oxford etymologist Anatoly Liberman has got it pegged here:
I think that the only clue to the origin of the idiom was furnished by N. E. Toke (Notes and Queries, 12th Series, vol. 4, 1918, pp. 328-329). He paid attention to a 1592 sentence from the OED (under cat 17): "Instead of thunderboltes shooteth nothing but dogboltes or catboltes" (G. Harvey). By the end of the 16th century, our phrase (in some form at least) must have been known. Toke adds: "...‘dogbolts’ and ‘catbolts’ are terms still employed in provincial dialect to denote, respectively, the iron bolts for securing a door or gate, and the bolts for fastening together pieces of timber." If Harvey’s catbolts and dogbolts are not a pun on thunderbolts, one can imagine that people compared a shower (or better a hailstorm) to heavy instruments falling on their heads from the sky, with thunderbolt supplying a convenient model for the other two words. Characteristically, the fuller version of the idiom is raining cats and dogs and pitchforks (with their points downwards). Evidently, cats and dogs were thought to belong with sharp instruments rather than animals. If there is any truth in this reconstruction, the idiom sounded raining catbolts, dogbolts, and pitchforks; the second element -bolts was later left out, perhaps because the whole came out too bulky or as a joke (whose humor soon became incomprehensible).
I'm sure we all know folks who would rather fiddle about than work. This comes to us from the German Fiedel, which is from the Latin vitula, "stringed instrument." This may have been an allusion to Vitula, the Roman goddess of joy and victory. Music was an important part of celebrations in her honor and was played on (along with bells and drums) a stringed instrument. The figurative sense, "to act idly" dates to 1530. Related phraseology is fiddlestick ("nonsense") from 1621 and fit as a fiddle from 1616.
Many of us have a person we see as our guru. The word guru means teacher in Sanskrit and it is widely used with that general meaning. It originated in a Hindu context and holds a special place in Hinduism, referring to the sacredness of knowledge (vidya) and the person who imparts knowledge. The dialogue between guru and student is an important part of Hinduism, and was established in the oral traditions of the Upanishads (c. 2000 BC). Nowadays, it can mean anyone who we hold in high regard as a person who passes knowledge to us.
A similar word we may use is kahuna. This is an ancient Hawai'ian word meaning, "Priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard, minister, expert in any profession." Only men were kahunas in old Hawai'i (in the priestly sense) and their office was second only to that of the chief. The term traveled through the surfing community and has come to mean an expert or skilled person in any field.
For some of us, being true blue to a person or cause is important. We get this term from England where, in Coventry, the fabric dyers had a reputation for making a colorfast blue dye that didn't fade with washing; it remained "fast" or "true." This was recorded by John Ray in 1670 in his first edition of A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs: "Coventry had formerly the reputation for dying of blues; insomuch that true blue became a Proverb to signifie one that was always the same and like himself." The reputation of the fabric was transferred to The Covenanters, who wore the blue badge and swore to uphold the National Covenant and oppose the rule of James I of Scotland. Those who unwaveringly supported the cause were called "true blue." Blue was later adopted as the color of the Tory Party (the Conservative Party). So, the political red/blue thing is reversed in England.
The story behind the term toady is an interesting one. In the 15th century, there were many wandering salesmen, selling "miracle cures" for every ailment. These rip-off artists would travel with a shill who would help sell their wares. The shill would fake eating a "poison" toad, thus enabling his master to make a show of expelling the poison and "prove" that his cure worked. Naturally, this would impress those gathered for the show and result in many sales. This shill was eventually called a "toady." That term went on to describe a servile suck-up or flatterer.
Having a disagreement with someone? Then you may be said to be at loggerheads. Early in its history it was used with the meaning of "a stupid person - a blockhead." A logger was a thick block of wood which was fastened to a horse's leg to prevent it running away. And loggerheads are "iron instruments with long handles and balls or bulbs at the end" It's from these that etymologists believe the current meaning was derived as apparently they were often used for sparring. The English Rogue (1680), by Francis Kirkman, was the first time the current meaning is found in print: "They frequently quarrell'd about their Sicilian wenches, and indeed... they seem... to be worth the going to Logger-heads for."
Tuesday will be a red-letter day for all of us. In medieval times, church calendars were studiously kept and written down. The days of church festivals and holy days were written in red ink. The term first appeared in the 15th century in the The Boke of Eneydos. William Caxton wrote: "We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth rede lettres of coloure of purpre." So-called purpure dye was, in fact red. In 1549 the first Book of Common Prayer included a calendar with holy days marked in red ink. The term eventually came to mean any special day.
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Your turn now. What are your favorite slang words or phrases that have been around for a long time. Now, for you younger Kossacks, that does not mean the 60's and 70's! Seriously, I did a search using "ancient slang" and one of the hits I got referred to that era as ancient.
Next week, we will take a look at slang that's not quite so old as these but still old-ish. Feel free to email me if you have any you'd like to see covered. Until next week... mind your P's and Q's (said to have originated in old British pubs which served ale in pints and quarts. When things would get out of hand, the proprietor would exhort his customers to calm down and get back to their drinks with this phrase)