the American-English origin of the phrase ‘like greased lightning’

13th July 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

denotes extreme quickness of movement—the use of ‘greased’ likens lightning to a machine that a mechanic has lubricated in order to minimise the friction and make it run easily

one more discussion about ‘Indian summer’

22nd June 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

the problems with the “novel origin story for ‘Indian Summer’” put forward by Matthew R. Halley in Notes and Queries (September 2017)

origin of ‘avoirdupois’: goods sold by weight

17th June 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

from Old French and Anglo-Norman ‘aveir de peis’, ‘goods of weight’, as distinguished from the goods sold by measure or number

the authentic—and simple—origin of ‘sleep tight’

21st May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

In the phrase ‘sleep tight’ (USA, 1873), the adjective ‘tight’ is used as an adverb meaning ‘soundly’, i.e. ‘deeply and without disturbance’, as in the combination ‘tight asleep’ (USA, 1847).

‘maelstrom’ (a whirlpool off the west coast of Norway)

6th April 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

late 16th century—from early modern Dutch ‘maelstrom’ (now ‘maalstroom’)—originally a proper name designating a powerful whirlpool in the Arctic Ocean, off the west coast of Norway, which was formerly supposed to suck in and destroy all vessels within a wide radius

‘urbi et orbi’ (‘to the city (of Rome) and to the world’)

1st April 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

from classical Latin ‘urbī’, dative of ‘urbs’ (city), and ‘orbī’, dative of ‘orbis’ (orb, circle)—in classical Latin, ‘orbis terrarum’, ‘orbis terrae’, the orb, or circle, of the earth, meant by extension the world, since the ancients regarded the earth as a circular plane or disk

origin of ‘coward’ and of ‘cowardy, cowardy custard’

26th March 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

‘coward’—from Old-French ‘cuard’, probably referring to a frightened animal with its tail between its legs—from ‘cüe’ (Modern French ‘queue’), ‘tail’, and pejorative suffix ‘-ard’ (cf. ‘bastard’)—‘cowardy, cowardy custard’, alliterative nonsensical children’s phrase (19th century)

How Thomas Jefferson was berated for coining ‘belittle’.

25th March 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

coined by Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia, first published in Paris in 1785—literal meaning: ‘to make little’ (composed of the prefix ‘be-’ and the adjective ‘little’)—criticised in The European Magazine, and London Review of August 1787 when the book was published in London

‘irregardless’: a hyperbolic form of ‘regardless’

23rd March 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

USA, 1795—Probably a blend of ‘irrespective’ and ‘regardless’, ‘irregardless’ means the same as ‘regardless’. It is regarded as incorrect in standard English, because the negative prefix ‘ir-’ merely duplicates the suffix ‘-less’, and is therefore unnecessary.

How ‘mouse’, ‘muscle’ and ‘mussel’ are interrelated.

20th March 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Classical Latin ‘muscŭlus’, literally ‘a little mouse’, also denoted ‘a muscle of the body’, especially of the upper arm, from the resemblance of a flexing muscle to the movements made by a mouse; ‘muscŭlus’ was also used in the sense of ‘mussel’.