Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions, and More Than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and PhrasesIn this new book, word maven Hugh Rawson brings you a marvelously entertaining roundup of 1,000 spurious etymologies, then enlightens you with their genuine counterparts. Some wiseacre (which, by the way, has nothing to do with land measure) may have told you that a tip is something you give a waiter "to insure promptness", or that James I once knighted a remarkable side of beef, saying, "Arise, Sir Loin", but like hundreds of oft-repeated accounts of word origins, they're just too good to be true. People, it seems, are etymologizing creatures, and if a certain lexical lineage is unclear, they are sure to invent one. If you hear that pumpernickel was named by Napoleon Bonaparte, who, upon being served the dark German bread, derided it as "pain pour Nicol" (bread for his horse, Nicol), you can take it with a grain of salt (which since 1647 has been making questionable tales, like questionable meat, more palatable). With his third book, Hugh Rawson pulls off the literary equivalent of a hat trick (which is original not to ice hockey, it turns out, but to cricket). |
Other editions - View all
Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions, and More Than 1,000 True ... Hugh Rawson No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
abbreviation acronym actually American Anglo-Saxon animal appears applied Arabic associated ball began bird bogus British called Captain Francis Charles Cheshire cat citation Classical Dictionary comes CONDOM corruption crap dance dated derives devil Dixie Dutch earliest example early edition English Language 1755 eponym Etymological Dictionary etymologists etymology euphemism explanation expression farthingale fawney female folk etymology Francis Grose German golliwogg goose Greek Gung hatter horse humble pie Italian James John Johnson known Latin linguistic London McCoy meaning meanwhile medieval Middle English Middle French modern nineteenth century Old French Old Norse older one's Oxford English Dictionary perhaps person phrase popular probably real McCoy recorded referring rhyme root sailors Samuel Samuel Johnson Scottish seems sense seventeenth century Shakespeare sixteenth century slang soldiers song Spanish spelling story suggested supposedly term theory Thomas Crapper translation turn variant verb vessel Vulgar Tongue William woman word origins word's Yankee York