‘six of one and half a dozen of the other’

26th Feb 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

denotes a situation in which the alternatives are considered equivalent—first recorded, as ‘six of the one and half a dozen of the other’, on 24th April 1790 in the journal of Ralph Clark, a British naval officer—synonym: ‘(as) broad as long’

‘to plough one’s own furrow’ – ‘creuser son sillon’

25th Feb 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘to plough a lonely furrow’, or ‘one’s own furrow’ (UK, 1901): to carry on without help, support or companionship—French ‘creuser son sillon’ (‘to dig one’s own furrow’, first used by Voltaire): to carry out with courage and perseverance the task undertaken

A dunce was originally a follower of John Duns Scotus.

24th Feb 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

‘dunce’: originally a follower of John Duns Scotus (circa 1265-1308), scholastic theologian; in the 16th century, Scotus’s system was attacked with ridicule by the humanists and the reformers as a farrago of needless entities and useless distinctions

origin of the pub-name ‘the Swan with Two Necks’

23rd Feb 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

Alteration of ‘the Swan with Two Nicks’—All the Thames swans belong to the Crown, the Vintners’ Company or the Dyers’ Company. A swan with two nicks belongs to the Vintners’ Company, with one nick to the Dyers’ Company, with no nicks to the Crown.

the cultural background to ‘the Swan of Avon’

22nd Feb 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

an epithet for William Shakespeare, born at Stratford-upon-Avon, on the River Avon—first used by Ben Jonson in the earliest collected edition (1623) of Shakespeare’s plays—but this use of ‘swan’ for a bard, a poet, is rooted in a tradition going back to antiquity

the jocular origin of ‘happy as Larry’

21st Feb 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

from 1857 onwards in Australian newspapers, but apparently of Irish-English origin—the forename ‘Larry’ was probably chosen as a jocular reinforcement, a variant reduplication, of the adjective ‘happy’

original meaning of ‘bulldozer’: a racist bully

19th Feb 2018.Reading time 15 minutes.

U.S., 1876—‘bulldozers’: members or supporters of the Democratic Party who used threats and acts of violence in order to prevent Afro-Americans from voting for Republican candidates

origin of ‘in petto’ (‘in the secret of the mind or heart’)

17th Feb 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

Italian translation of Latin ‘in pectore’ (‘in the breast’, ‘in the secret of the heart’)—when a pope announces that he has appointed a cardinal whom he reserves ‘in petto’, it means that he will reveal this cardinal’s name later

Anglo-Indian origin of ‘loot’ (goods stolen in war)

16th Feb 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

UK, early 19th century—private property taken from an enemy in war—originally an Anglo-Indian noun, from Hindi ‘lūṭ’, from Sanskrit ‘luṇṭh-‘, ‘to rob’—came to be also used as slang for ‘money’ and to also denote ‘wedding presents’

‘deliver a baby’: a consumerist approach to childbirth?

15th Feb 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

Originally, the mother was the object of ‘deliver’, the image was of delivering (freeing) her from the burden of pregnancy. Nowadays, the healthcare provider or the mother is the subject, the image is of delivering (handing over) the baby, as if it were a package.