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.

origin of ‘jewel’, little plaything, of ‘bijou’, finger-ring

28th December 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

Etymologically, a jewel is a little game, a little plaything: ‘jewel’ is from a French diminutive of ‘jeu’, meaning ‘a game’, ‘a play’. The word ‘bijou’ is from Breton ‘bizou’, meaning ‘a finger-ring’, from ‘biz’, ‘finger’.

origin of ‘to sit below the salt’

20th December 2017.Reading time 9 minutes.

The phrase ‘below the salt’ originated in the social differentiations materialised by the former custom of placing a large saltcellar in the middle of a dining table.

‘proud as a louse’ and other linguistic notes on ‘Punchinello’

17th December 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

Several English and French words and phrases are ultimately derived the Latin noun ‘pullus’, meaning ‘young animal’, in particular ‘young fowl’.

the Christian-Latin origin of ‘Noël’

16th December 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

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

origin of ‘vamoose’

9th December 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

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

origin of ‘to take the mickey out of someone’

27th November 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1901—‘to take the mickey (or ‘mike’) out of’: ‘to tease or ridicule’—probably after ‘Mickey (or ‘Mike’) Bliss’, rhyming slang for ‘piss’

‘ladybird’: the Virgin Mary’s beetle

26th November 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

The ladybird was so named on account of its seven spots, which were popularly believed to symbolise the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary.

the changing identities of the butterfly

25th November 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

Since antiquity, European languages have variously named the butterfly, in particular by using sound reduplications expressive of its fluttering.

the uncertain origin of ‘cockney’

22nd November 2017.Reading time 13 minutes.

originally ‘pampered child’, later ‘town-dweller regarded as affected or puny’—origin uncertain—probably not the same word as ‘cokeney’, literally ‘cock’s egg’