the Christian-Latin origin of ‘Noël’
French—from the noun use of the Latin adjective ‘natalis’ (from Christian-Latin ‘natalis dies’, ‘day of birth’), denoting the festival of the nativity of Christ
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origin of ‘vamoose’
from Spanish ‘vamos’, ‘let us go’—first recorded as ‘vamos’ in ‘Every Night Book; or, Life after Dark’ (London, 1827), by the English author William Clarke
Read Moreorigin of ‘flash in the pan’ and of the French verb ‘rater’
‘flash in the pan’: originally referred to the priming gunpowder flaring up in the flash-pan without then exploding the main charge in the barrel of a firearm
Read More‘Mediterranean’: the sea in the middle of the earth
from Latin ‘mare Mediterraneum’, ‘the sea in the middle of the earth’—Latin ‘mediterrāneus’, from Greek ‘mesόgaios’, ‘situated in the middle of the land’
Read More‘ladybird’: the Virgin Mary’s beetle
The ladybird was so named on account of its seven spots, which were popularly believed to symbolise the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary.
Read Morethe uncertain origin of the word ‘cockney’
originally ‘pampered child’, later ‘town-dweller regarded as affected or puny’—origin uncertain—probably not the same word as ‘cokeney’, literally ‘cock’s egg’
Read Morethe uncertain biblical meaning of ‘by the skin of one’s teeth’
from Job, 19:20—this verse, and particularly the Hebrew verb form immediately preceding ‘bĕʿōr šinnāi’ (‘with the skin of my teeth’), are of uncertain meaning
Read More‘Mr’-‘Mrs’ – ‘mister’-‘missus’: origin
‘Mr’-‘Mrs’: originally abbreviations of ‘master’-‘mistress’—‘mister’-‘missus’: renderings of the altered pronunciations of ‘master’-‘mistress’ in ‘Mr’-‘Mrs’
Read More‘Miss’-‘Ms’: origin
‘miss’: unmarried woman or girl; 17th cent., short for ‘mistress’—‘Ms’: title free of reference to marital status; 20th cent., blend of ‘Mrs’ and ‘Miss’
Read Moreorigin of ‘to don’ and ‘to doff’
coalesced forms of the obsolete phrasal verbs ‘to do on’ and ‘to do off’, meaning respectively ‘to put on’ and ‘to take off’ (an item of clothing)
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word histories 