‘ultracrepidarian’, coined to denigrate a specific person

3rd February 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 1819—specifically invented to qualify the English poet and critic William Gifford with reference to the fact that he had been a shoemaker’s apprentice—alludes to the proverb ‘let the cobbler stick to his last’ from Pliny’s Natural History (AD 77)

‘Atlantic’ originally referred to Mount Atlas in North Africa.

10th January 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘Atlantic’ originally referred to Mount Atlas in North Africa, on which the heavens were fabled to rest; it was hence applied to the sea near the western shore of Africa, and afterwards extended to the whole ocean lying between Europe and Africa on the east and America on the west.

origin of ‘good wine needs no bush’

2nd December 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

first recorded in ‘As You Like It’, by Shakespeare—from the former practice of hanging a branch or bunch of ivy as a vintner’s sign in front of a tavern

origin of ‘cloud-cuckoo-land’

1st December 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

a realm of fantasy, dreams or impractical notions—1856 as ‘cuckoo-cloud-land’—from the name of the city built by the birds in ‘The Birds’, by Aristophanes

origin of ‘to take time by the forelock’

1st October 2017.Reading time 24 minutes.

Opportunity was represented as woman completely bald except for a forelock: she can only be seized as she runs towards someone, not be caught thereafter.

a Shakespearean phrase: ‘this mortal coil’

30th August 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

the troubles and activities of the world—literary or humorous, from Hamlet’s speech “to be or not be”—‘coil’: probably from Middle French ‘acueil’, encounter

‘petrichor’: the sweet smell produced when rain falls on parched earth

29th July 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

a sweet smell produced when rain falls on parched earth—1964; literally ‘tenuous essence derived from rock or stone’, from Greek ‘petro’ and ‘ichor’

origin of ‘immolate’

3rd June 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

The verb ‘immolate’ is from Latin ‘immolare’, meaning, literally, ‘to sprinkle (a victim) with sacrificial meal’, from ‘mola salsa’, ‘salted spelt-meal’.

clew – clue

15th May 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

photograph: pixabay The noun clue appeared as a variant spelling of clew, of same pronunciation. Not frequent until the 17th century, clue has become the prevailing form of the word in the sense of a fact or idea that serves to reveal something or solve a problem. The word is from Old English cliwen, cleowen, meaning a ball formed by winding yarn, […]

to leave no stone unturned

24th March 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

photograph: pixabay The phrase to leave no stone unturned means to try every possible course of action in order to achieve something. (The equivalent French phrase has a cosmic dimension since it is remuer ciel et terre, literally, to move heaven and earth.) The image of turning every stone was already proverbial […]