Sayings and Stuff

[Christmas Tree 4729]

My 20 year old has just informed me where the word lunatic comes from.

 

Apparently it's because they thought the moon caused people's illness.

 

Any other common words that have a story to them?

[Ayatollah Hermione 13894]

And that was Alan's Funny Story.

[Alex 35120]

My 20 year old has just informed me where the word lunatic comes from.

 

Apparently it's because they thought the moon caused people's illness.

 

Any other common words that have a story to them?

Similarly hysteria comes from the Greek word meaning uterus due to the supposed female nature of the 'condition'.

And the Moon was also usually depicted as female in ancient culture as opposed the male Sun, another female / madness link.

It's amazing what you can find in books

[PaddockLad 17290]

My 20 year old has just informed me where the word lunatic comes from.

 

Apparently it's because they thought the moon caused people's illness.

 

Any other common words that have a story to them?

 

The emergency services put extra bodies on duty at times when there is a full moon. My old man did his own amateur survey on it. Almost always, over the period of around 15 years, any fisticuffs down the village pub was when there was a full moon. People are controlled by the fucker and have been since the dawn of time

[Christmas Tree 4729]

Similarly hysteria comes from the Greek word meaning uterus due to the supposed female nature of the 'condition'.

And the Moon was also usually depicted as female in ancient culture as opposed the male Sun, another female / madness link.

It's amazing what you can find in books

 

Very True

 

This all started today with my 8 year old daughter telling me that Bedlam was the name of a psychiatric hospital. Naturally I assumed she was wrong, because I didnt know, and was put right.

 

Thats why people say "its like bedlam in here". Another great examples of words a lot of us use without knowing the meaning.

[Christmas Tree 4729]

The emergency services put extra bodies on duty at times when there is a full moon. My old man did his own amateur survey on it. Almost always, over the period of around 15 years, any fisticuffs down the village pub was when there was a full moon. People are controlled by the fucker and have been since the dawn of time

 

I'll have to start collating ragdies in the cab with moon cycles.

[JawD 99]

The word nightmare - the Mare part is from Old English for Incubus or evil spirit which was said to cause a bad dream.

 

Square meals as in "square meals a day" iirc is from naval slang where the plates were square not round. It was either to fit more food on to the plate or as it was a more efficient shape.

 

Frog in your Throat - Old doctors etc used to put a frog in someones mouth to cure a cough.

 

 

A load of sayings we use and think nothing of came from Shakespeare. "All of a sudden" for example he wrote in something instead of "suddenly".

[Alex 35120]

I knew that about 'Bedlam' too as it happens. I would imagine a lot of explanations of sayings are bollocks too though. There was that one about dead ringers and people supposedly being buried with bells due to fear of being buried alive. I even read about that one in a book about the origins of sayings. Despite the crack in the book, it's completely apocryphal. The saying comes from horse racing and originates in America. Dead in this sense meaning 'sure' and ringer as in a horse running under an assumed name to trick the bookies. I wouldn't be surprised if frog in your throat was similar.

[Christmas Tree 4729]

 

 

Frog in your Throat - Old doctors etc used to put a frog in someones mouth to cure a cough.

 

 

WTF

[Christmas Tree 4729]

Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride

 

Comes from an advert to sell Listerine! (And it worked rocketing sales)

 

A few more here

 

http://listverse.com/2010/08/15/10-sayings-and-their-strange-origins/

Edited November 19, 2012 by Christmas Tree

[PaddockLad 17290]

I knew that about 'Bedlam' too as it happens. I would imagine a lot of explanations of sayings are bollocks too though. There was that one about dead ringers and people supposedly being buried with bells due to fear of being buried alive. I even read about that one in a book about the origins of sayings. Despite the crack in the book, it's completely apocryphal. The saying comes from horse racing and originates in America. Dead in this sense meaning 'sure' and ringer as in a horse running under an assumed name to trick the bookies. I wouldn't be surprised if frog in your throat was similar.

 

I read in a book that reason Mexicans call Americans "Gringos" is due to the Scottish Marching song "Green grow the rashes O!" which was the marching song of detatchments of Scottish mercenries during the Mexican War of independance. The Mexicans heard the jocks singing it and started to call their opponents on the battlefield "Gringos", and that eventually became the term for all Americans. Which is a great story. And apparently its bollocks too!

[CleeToonFan 1]

Gringo means foreigner in Castilian. Not really used in Iberia anymore but in Mexico it came to mean the Americans, who are the main foreigners they see obviously.

[The Fish 10876]

sinister comes from the latin word "sinistra" which means left and unlucky and throughout European history left-handed folk were seen as unlucky or had other negative connotations.

 

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" is pretty straightforward. If someone gives you a free horse, don't check the gums (where evidence of disease can be more easily spotted). A modern version would be; if someone gives you a free car, don't wander around kicking the tyres, it's a free car ffs.

 

re: the Shakespeare thing, it's actually staggering the number of phrases we've lifted from his pages.

[PaddockLad 17290]

sinister comes from the latin word "sinistra" which means left and unlucky and throughout European history left-handed folk were seen as unlucky or had other negative connotations.

 

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" is pretty straightforward. If someone gives you a free horse, don't check the gums (where evidence of disease can be more easily spotted). A modern version would be; if someone gives you a free car, don't wander around kicking the tyres, it's a free car ffs.

 

re: the Shakespeare thing, it's actually staggering the number of phrases we've lifted from his pages.

 

Wullie S, and those who wrote the King James Bible, are largely responsible for the move from middle to modern English. Chaucer wrote the Canterbury tales only 100 years or so before Shakespeare and its like a different language. 1000s of phrases from the Bible became commonplace when every church in the country got one.

[ChezGiven 0]

Husband comes from 'house' and 'bond' or'bound' or something in Swedish, also a word they have for window is 'lucka' as in 'fuck me lucka that'.