“ad fontes!”
Why is the element one in words such as alone and only not pronounced like the numeral one? Both the indefinite article an (a before consonant) and the numeral one are from Old English ān—which has survived in Scotland as ane, used both as indefinite article and as numeral. This Old-English word ān meant a/an, one, […]
Read MoreScotland, 1749—from the idea of daring to grab a lion’s “beard” and figurative uses of ‘beard’: (verb) ‘confront’ – (noun) ‘face’
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UK slang, 1936—emphatic agreement, though often ironical—‘cocoa’ is said to be rhyming slang for ‘so’ in ‘I should say so’
Read Morevery fast, or very hard—UK, 1942, RAF slang—alludes to the moving metal piece within a bell, which strikes it and produces the sound
Read MoreUK, 1948—USA, 1952—from the image of the over-cautious man who wears both a belt and braces/suspenders to hold up his trousers
Read MoreUSA, 1950s—‘that’s how the cookie crumbles’: that’s how it is—‘(that’s when) the cookie crumbled’: (that’s when) a decisive change in a situation occurred
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Fundamentally, I object to the will of any group to artificially modify language in order to impose their world view.
Read More‘robe’ originally denoted something that has been robbed—French ‘voler’ (‘to fly’) has come to mean ‘to steal’ via falconry
Read MoreUSA, 1797—alludes to legendary outlaw Robin Hood—’barn’ (metaphor for the country as supply of food) was applied to any large space
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UK and Canada, from 1903 onwards—punningly alludes to ‘Rule Britannia’ (1740), the title of a popular patriotic song
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