Word origins Flashcards

1
Q

The term ‘Nosey Parker’ derives from…

A

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury 1559-1575

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2
Q

The word “curfew” comes from

A

the Old French ‘cover fire’; a rule established by William the Conqueror who outlawed fires after 8pm.

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3
Q

Meander comes from the

A

menderes river which winds through Turkey.

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4
Q

Chair of a meeting was named because

A

he was important enough to get one. Most had benches (which is where we get banquet from)

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5
Q

Room and board

A

Dining table used to a board that rested on the knees

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6
Q

Friday

A

Frig, Woden’s wife

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7
Q

Wednesday

A

Woden

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8
Q

Melancholic

A

Greek for “melas khole”, meaning black bile. One of Galen’s 4 personality types along with (Phlegmatic, Choleric and Sanguine).

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9
Q

Nave

A

comes from navis, Latin for ship

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10
Q

Quarantine comes from ___

A

40 days and nights; comes from an Italian variant (seventeenth-century Venetian) of ‘quaranta giorni’, meaning forty days, the period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic.

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11
Q

Ketchup comes from ___

A

Chinese word for fish brine

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12
Q

Chop Suey

A

Means odds and ends

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13
Q

Turn up for the books

A

Stroke of luck for bookmakers. When an unbacked horse wins.

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14
Q

“Pooling” money/resources

A

Poule is french for chicken. Money in a pot, first to hit the chicken wins.

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15
Q

Upshot

A

Upshot is the shot that decides an archery contest (up = end, as in “time is up”)

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16
Q

Hot dogs

A

Americans thought sausages made from dog meat, hence hot dogs

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17
Q

Toxic comes from ___

A

Toxic comes from Greek word for archery because arrows used to be dipped in poison

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18
Q

Held in check ___

A

comes from chess

19
Q

Companion

A

is someone you share your panis, or bread with

20
Q

Origin of “Naan”

A

comes from naked because unlike meat it wasn’t cooked covered in ashes

21
Q

Ciabatta

A

is Italian for slipper

22
Q

Mark

A

comes from Mars

23
Q

In turkey turkeys are called

A

hindis

24
Q

Give them the cold shoulder

A

is a cut of meat

25
Q

Humble pie

A

used to be umble pie (worst parts of the deer)

26
Q

Fox glove

A

was a folks glove, old word for fairy

27
Q

“Hey man”

A

is a reaction to the racist “hey boy”

28
Q

Dandelions

A

Lions teeth

29
Q

Corsairs

A

were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French crown

30
Q

Happy originally meant ___

A

lucky, and is related to words sent “happen” and “perhaps”, suggesting chance.

31
Q

Mastadon

A

‘nipple teeth’

32
Q

Rags to riches

A

Benjamin Franklin’s 18th century paper manufacturing business literally turned rags into riches

33
Q

Lego

A

play in Danish

34
Q

Origin of lectern, lecture

A

In Latin, lego came to mean to pick out the letters on a page, and so “read” - giving us words such as lecture and lectern.

35
Q

Focus

A

Fireplace; At first in the middle of the floor and later by the wall, the hearth - focus, in Latin - has from the earliest times been the point on which a household’s life centred.

36
Q

Copper bottomed

A

Put on ships to stop worms and barnacles sticking; Copper and iron, when immersed in a suitable electrolytic fluid, like fruit juice or, at a pinch, seawater, form an electrochemical couple and the arrangement becomes a serviceable galvanic battery. Over time, the iron is eaten away to nothing by the electrochemical action. Copper nails were the answer.

37
Q

All at sea

A

Any ship that was out of sight of land was in an uncertain position and in danger of becoming lost.

38
Q

A second is called a second because

A

it is the 2nd division of the hour by 60, the 1st division being a minute.

39
Q

Pipe dream

A

originates from the fantasies induced by smoking opium

40
Q

Lemur

A

spirit of the dead; Lemur comes from the Latin for ghosts, Lemurēs, because of their ghost-like faces.

41
Q

Acid test

A

nitric acid on gold

42
Q

Silver screen

A

silver compounds in celluloid

43
Q

Bakers dozen

A

The bread laws introduced a £10 fine is underweight. Safer to add a cdream ouple more => baker’s dozen.

44
Q

Origin of name, Liverpool

A

Liverpool comes from the Old English ‘lifer’, meaning thick or muddy water, and ‘pōl, meaning a pool or creek