linguistic notes on the ‘one’ in ‘alone’ and ‘only’

21st December 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

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, […]

the German origin of the phrase ‘to throw the baby out with the bathwater’

23rd November 2018.Reading time 14 minutes.

mid-19th century—loan translation from German ‘das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten’ (to empty out the child with the bath), early 16th century

meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to paper over the cracks’

14th August 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

to use a temporary expedient—UK, 1889—origin attributed to Prussian statesman Bismarck in a letter written during the negotiations of the Convention of Gastein (1865)

origin of ‘double Dutch’ and ‘High Dutch’ (‘gibberish’)

14th April 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

‘double Dutch’, 19th century—from ‘Dutch’ in the sense of a language that few people can speak, and ‘double’ as a mere intensifier—‘High Dutch’, 17th century—loan translation from French ‘haut allemand’ (= ‘High German’), used in the sense of gibberish

origin of ‘Dutch treat’ and ‘to go Dutch’

13th April 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

USA—‘to go Dutch’ (1907): to have every participant pay their own expenses, or share expenses equally—via ‘to go Dutch treat’ (1887), from ‘Dutch treat’ (1873): a meal, etc., at which each participant pays their share of the expenses—from a German practice

‘better red than dead’ – ‘better dead than red’

26th January 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

During the Cold War, especially in the context of a possible nuclear war, ‘better red than dead’ was used to warn against uncompromising opposition to communism, while ‘better dead than red’ was used to express unconditional opposition to communism.

How ‘blue Monday’ came to denote a gloomy Monday.

20th January 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

A calque of German ‘blauer Montag’, ‘blue Monday’ originally denoted a Monday on which people chose not to work as a result of excessive indulgence over the course of the weekend. Under the influence of the adjective ‘blue’ in the sense ‘dismal’, it came to denote a Monday that is depressing or trying.

origin of ‘dada’ (‘hobby’) and ‘Dada’ (artistic movement)

6th January 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

The 1776 French translation of Laurence Sterne’s ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy’ gave to French ‘dada’, a child’s noun for ‘horse’, the figurative meaning of ‘favourite pastime’ or ‘pet idea’.

‘hobby’, originally a diminutive of ‘Hob’, pet form of ‘Robert’

4th January 2018.Reading time 12 minutes.

‘Hobby’, diminutive of ‘Hob’, pet form of ‘Robert’, was used to denote a small horse, hence a child’s toy with a horse’s head, hence a favourite occupation—cf. French ‘dada’, child’s word for horse, used to denote a favourite pastime

a WWI phrase: ‘san fairy ann’ (‘that doesn’t matter’)

31st December 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

An expression of indifference to, or resigned acceptance of, a state of affairs, ‘san fairy ann’ jocularly represents the French phrase ‘ça ne fait rien’, meaning ‘that doesn’t matter’. It originated in army use on the Western Front during the First World War.