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

26th Mar 2018.Reading time 9 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 ‘mouse’, ‘muscle’ and ‘mussel’ are interrelated.

20th Mar 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’.

‘to use one’s loaf’ (‘to use one’s common sense’)

19th Mar 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

First recorded in The Leeds Mercury (Leeds, Yorkshire) of Friday 26 August 1938, the phrase ‘to use one’s loaf’ means ‘to use one’s common sense’. Here, ‘loaf’, a shortening of ‘loaf of bread’, is rhyming slang for ‘head’.

‘marmalade’: from Latin ‘mēlŏmĕli’ and ‘mĕlĭmēla’

12th Mar 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

first recorded in 1480—from Portuguese ‘marmelada’ (quince marmalade), from ‘marmelo’ (quince), itself from Latin ‘malomellum’ (quince, sweet pome), a blend of Latin ‘mēlŏmĕli’ (syrup of preserved quinces) and ‘mĕlĭmēla’ (a variety of sweet pome)

‘all behind, like a cow’s tail’ (left behind, late)

4th Mar 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

The phrase ‘all behind, like a cow’s tail’ and its variants mean ‘left behind’ and ‘late in accomplishing a task’. They appeared in print in the mid-19th century in the USA, Australia and Britain.

‘more — than someone has had hot dinners’

3rd Mar 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 1937, colloquial—‘to have done something more than oneself (or someone else) has had hot dinners’: used jocularly to emphasise the subject’s wide experience of a particular activity or phenomenon

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.

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

the curious history of ‘Quorn’ (meat substitute)

13th Feb 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

The name ‘Quorn’ was first registered as a trademark—for certain edible products other than meat substitutes—by the Quorn Specialities Company of Leicester, England, in 1914. The meat substitute was subsequently developed by the successors of this company.

origin and early instances of ‘gravy train’

22nd Jan 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Of American-English origin, ‘gravy train’ is first recorded in 1899 with reference to sporting achievement, not to financial gain; it originated in the use of ‘gravy’ in the figurative sense of ‘advantage’, ‘benefit’, first recorded in 1845.

word histories

Tag: food