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This weekend it was reported that Mexican troops had accidentally encroached on U.S. territory, pursuing members of a border patrol. The Mexicans were convinced that they were on Mexican soil and both sides drew their weapons. Until the error was explained there was a true Mexican standoff, that is, a situation in which guns are drawn but neither side dares shoot. While the precise origins of Mexican standoff are not known, it is just one of many phrases of a derogatory nature which involve nationalities. Some typical examples are a Mexican promotion (which is a promotion in which the employee gets a new title but no raise in pay), Mexican breakfast "a breakfast consisting of a cigarette and a glass of water" and a Chinese fire drill "a situation in which people behave in a confused and chaotic manner". Probably the largest category of this type consists of phrases which deride the Dutch. This is largely due to the trading rivalry between the English and Dutch in the 17th century. Thus we have a Dutch treat, i.e. no treat at all, each party involved paying for himself; double Dutch and the now obsolete high Dutch both mean "gibberish"; the Dutch defense means "surrender" and to do the Dutch is either "to desert" or "to commit suicide". If some misfortune should befall you and someone says "It could be worse" or "There's always someone worse off than oneself", this feeble consolation is called Dutch comfort. In a Dutch feast the host gets drunk before his guests, a Dutch nightingale is a frog and a Dutch widow is a prostitute. Very often, a foreign nationality is used simply to imply strangeness. Thus, English children play French cricket. Needless to say, this is not cricket as played in France, for the French simply do not play cricket. It is a very informal version of cricket which has no wickets, the object of the game being to hit the batsman's legs with the ball. The word French is used to indicate that this is an odd variant of cricket. Similarly, the French nut is the walnut. This is more understandable when one realizes that the word walnut itself means "foreign nut". When caught using inappropriately bad language we may say pardon my French as if we can fool the listener into believing that what they just heard was a foreign language. In the 18th century peddlar's French meant "thieves' slang" or "cant". All matters sexual were commonly labeled French. A deep kiss is a
French kiss and, in England, a condom is often called a French
letter. (Why a "letter"? We don't know.) Syphilis arrived in England around 1500 and immediately it was blamed on the French, being known as the
French pox or the There is an epiphytic bromeliad (i.e. a member of the pineapple family that grows on trees) which is found in the Florida Everglades. It is now known as Spanish moss or Spanish beard (botanically it is Tillandsia usneoides) but in former times it was called French moss. Of course, it is native to neither France nor Spain, the names being concocted merely as insults to these nations. |
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From John Stratton:
Fission came to English from Latin fissionem, a noun derived from the verb findere, to split. It was initially used, in the mid-19 century, in a biological sense to refer to reproduction via splitting. It was also used to refer to splitting or dividing into pieces, in general. By 1919 J.H. Jeans discussed fission in his theory of the origin of binary stars. By 1964, however, R.H. Baker, in Astronomy, says "The fission theory...was favored in former times,” indicating that by then it had fallen out of favor. The nuclear notion of fission did not arise until about 1939, when Meitner and Frisch use the term in an article in Nature. For them, fission was still a "division”, but it was a division, "either spontaneously or under the impact of another particle, of a heavy nucleus into two (or sometimes three or more) approximately equal parts, with a resulting release of large amounts of energy”. 1941 saw the term fission bomb arise in H.D. Smith’s General Accounting of the Development of Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Fusion entered English in the middle of the 16th century from Latin fusionem, a noun formed from the verb fundere "to pour”. Fusion referred originally to the rendering of fluid by using heat. In 1555 Eden used the term in his Decades: "To brynge it to fusion or meltynge.” Later (in the late 18th century), the term was used figuratively to suggest things that were blended as though by being melted together or poured together: "A fusion of nations...an assimilation of races” (Myers, Catholic Theology, 1841). By the late 19th century fusion came to be applied in psychology to mean "a blending of sensations”, and then to specifically Freudian psychology to refer to "the union and balance of life and death instincts in a normal person” (1927). The nuclear use did not arise until 1947, with this meaning: "The formation of a heavier, more complex nucleus by coming together of two or more lighter ones, usually accompanied by the release of large amounts of energy”. |
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From Michael Finley:
Nigh was néah in Old English, and it appears in such Old English works as Beowulf and the Lindisfarne Gospels (950). There were cognates in other Teutonic languages, suggesting a Germanic origin, especially as there were no cognates in other Indo-European language groups. The original comparative version of néah was néar "near”, which also shows up in Beowulf, among other early works. The superlative form was niehst "next”, appearing in the Old English Chronicle (950) and the Lindisfarne Gospels. Interestingly, however, the relationship between those three words was forgotten, such that they came to have non-comparative meanings. By the 16 century, the words nigher and nighest were in common use as unrecognized substitutes for near and next. |
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From Heather:
Indeed there is. Both words share the element long, and no, we’re not trying to be smart-alecks! Long in this sense has the same meaning as today’s word long. Along was formed from the prefix and- "against, facing, in a direction, opposite” + long (though in its earliest forms it was and-lang). It was initially an adjective (there were similar constructions, such as eást-lang "extending eastward”) with the meaning "extending away in the opposite direction, far-stretching, continuous”. Then it was generalized to mean "the lengthened or continuous extent of”, and "the whole length of”. Belong the verb, which dates from the mid-14 century, was formed from bi- "be-" and an aphetic form of along, which was long. It is thought that it was simply an intensified form of along. The notion is one of something being "equally long” or "corresponding in length”, and so "running alongside of, parallel to, going along with, accompanying as a property or attribute”. Another language which uses belong as a preposition is the pidgin English of Papua New Guinea, Tok Pisin. In Tok Pisin, belong is contracted to b'long and is used as a possessive. Thus, lamp b'long Jesus Crist is "the sun" and pikin b'long Queen is "the Prince of Wales". Also, long water means "sea" and long-long means "sick" (as well as "drunk" and "insane"). The amusing (to our ears) consequence is that Tok Pisin for "sea-sick" is long-long b'long long water. |
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From Remco van der Krogt:
Indeed! Some readers may be surprised to learn that it is not related to the noun feud "a state of mutual bitter hostility”. That is thought to come from the Old English verb féogan "to hate”. Feud as in the feudal system, however, does not have a lineage which is quite so easy to trace. Its most recent ancestor is medieval Latin feudum/feodum, but beyond that the etymology is not clear. Some suggest that feud, along with fief and fee, derive from feodum, and that feodum comes ultimately from a Teutonic source, fehu "cattle, property, money, wages, payment for service”, the latter two meanings being the sense of feud. Of course, today we hear most often the adjectival form of the word, feudal. Feud in this sense does not appear in the English written record until the early 17th century. Feud "a state of mutual bitter hostility” is a bit older, dating in common English use from the late 13th to early 14th century. |
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From Michael Field/J. Beth Field:
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Regarding the term grim reaper (Issue 78)... From John Pierce:
From R. Erickson:
From Ian Rowlands:
From Alan Clement:
From Sally Rothfus:
The dates of the U.S. Air Force squadron name and the potentially earlier comic book title make the Bertolucci film issue moot. Thanks to all of you who wrote on this subject (and for information on that feral insurance company!). This may merit a note to the OED! However, we still find ourselves surprised that no references earlier than the 20th century were turned up. |
From John:
Thanks, John. We did a bit of research on Ahab in the first book of Kings, but the translation we found referred only to a house and throne decorated with ivory, not an ivory tower. By the way, we found that the passage describing the ivory throne built by Solomon (good guy) was identical to the passage describing the ivory throne built by Ahab (bad guy). Go figure. Speaking of Solomon, we did find "Your neck is as a tower of ivory..." in the Song of Solomon. Needless to say, this did not carry the meaning of ivory tower as employed today. If your translation uses ivory tower with its familiar metaphorical meaning, we suspect it is a modern translation. |
From Ian Rowlands:
While we could find the reference in Jobaria, further research shows you were correct about Sahara desert meaning "desert desert" (full marks for stubbornness). No doubt your informant spoke Arabic but just wasn't an etymologist. These days, sahra does means "desert" in Arabic but ultimately this word derives from ashar "fawn colored". Thus its name indicates its color rather than its negligible population. One desert whose name literally does mean "empty area" is the Rub al Qali which covers much of Saudi Arabia and most of Yemen. While we're on the subject of desert names, our favorite is the Taklamakan, in Central Asia. Its Turkic name means "you go in; you don't come out". |
rom Birger Drake:
Thank you, Birger. As ever, you raise a number of good points. Let's address them in turn:
There were a few other flaws in last weeks issue which Birger pointed out. He was spot on with his criticisms and the appropriate amendments have been made. |
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