Professor Muffit's Word Births!!!

[Muffit]

Good morning class!!! Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI, we will be studying the origins of words and phrases! Don't you all wonder where we get these crazy expressions??? Well, wonder no more!!! Each day I will add one or more replies to this thread with a unique word birth explanation. Feel free to add your own!!!

Today's lesson - "Red Tape". Where the heck did that come from? I have yet to see any tape of the crimson persuasion on my legal docs. Well, it seems that around the turn of the century, government officials and lawyers used to bind their plethora of papers with red ribbons. This became very commonplace. And since that paperwork was the ridiculous overkill of way too much wasted effort just to apply for something simple, any practice of such a kind was soon dubbed, "red tape".

And one more ruby rant to add, the origin of "Red Herring". Ah, well back in the good old 1700's, it was common to cure herring, which gave it a reddish color. The result was a stinky bunch of fish. Criminals on the run often stole these and erased their tracks with them, and the stinky scent threw off any bloodhounds. Eventually, any wasted search became called a "red herring".

There goes the bell!! Don't forget to leave teach' an apple!!!
Prof. Muffit

[BST]

Thanks, Professor Muffit.

I am so enlightened, can't wait for tomorrow's class!!!!

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Muffit

Good morning class!!! Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI, we will be studying the origins of words and phrases! Don't you all wonder where we get these crazy expressions??? Well, wonder no more!!! Each day I will add one or more replies to this thread with a unique word birth explanation. Feel free to add your own!!!

Today's lesson - "Red Tape". Where the heck did that come from? I have yet to see any tape of the crimson persuasion on my legal docs. Well, it seems that around the turn of the century, government officials and lawyers used to bind their plethora of papers with red ribbons. This became very commonplace. And since that paperwork was the ridiculous overkill of way too much wasted effort just to apply for something simple, any practice of such a kind was soon dubbed, "red tape".

And one more ruby rant to add, the origin of "Red Herring". Ah, well back in the good old 1700's, it was common to cure herring, which gave it a reddish color. The result was a stinky bunch of fish. Criminals on the run often stole these and erased their tracks with them, and the stinky scent threw off any bloodhounds. Eventually, any wasted search became called a "red herring".

There goes the bell!! Don't forget to leave teach' an apple!!!
Prof. Muffit

Thanks Muffit. I love the posts!

[julix]

Thank you my dear muffitt.....

[The 14th Colony]

Here at the Daggit University of Indiana, or DUI

You can have a degree of DUI? You wouldn't want to get pulled over after driving your car from that school.

[bsg1fan1975]

Uh oh Muffit's been let loose again!

[Muffit]

Hi all! And thanks for your kind replies!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson we will learn about birds and where they get their names.


First off, where the heck did "penguin" come from? Well, as it turns out, its name was given by Welsh fisherman, from in their language "pen" meaning "head" and "gwyn" meaning white (hey! I wonder if that's where Gwynevere gets her name?). Actually, they were looking at auks, which aren't really penguins at all. But the name stuck for some reason for Antarctic formal wear and there you go...

Next "pelican". This was actually a mistake. Poor St. Jerome was translating the Bible and thought it was a woodpecker, so he called it pelican (from Greek pelekys or "axe-beak"). Like the American "Indian" we just never bothered to fix it. Pbb...


Mother Goose - she actually existed!!! It seems from 1665-1757 there lived a woman named Elizabeth Foster, who married one Isaac Goose - she inheriting no less than 10 stepchildren, and then bearing 6 more!!! Yikes! 16 kids!!! Talk about the old woman who lived in a shoe!!! Guess you can figure where a lot of her rhymes come from! Her daughter married a famous printer, and the rest is, as we say, history. I wonder if "foster parent" is somehow /related/ to all this (aaarrrggghh)...

Toodles for tonight!!!

[Flamingo Girl]

Neato.

Thanks.

[Archangel]

I'd ask where you get all this information but...

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Muffit

Hi all! And thanks for your kind replies!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson we will learn about birds and where they get their names.


First off, where the heck did "penguin" come from? Well, as it turns out, its name was given by Welsh fisherman, from in their language "pen" meaning "head" and "gwyn" meaning white (hey! I wonder if that's where Gwynevere gets her name?). Actually, they were looking at auks, which aren't really penguins at all. But the name stuck for some reason for Antarctic formal wear and there you go...

Next "pelican". This was actually a mistake. Poor St. Jerome was translating the Bible and thought it was a woodpecker, so he called it pelican (from Greek pelekys or "axe-beak"). Like the American "Indian" we just never bothered to fix it. Pbb...


Mother Goose - she actually existed!!! It seems from 1665-1757 there lived a woman named Elizabeth Foster, who married one Isaac Goose - she inheriting no less than 10 stepchildren, and then bearing 6 more!!! Yikes! 16 kids!!! Talk about the old woman who lived in a shoe!!! Guess you can figure where a lot of her rhymes come from! Her daughter married a famous printer, and the rest is, as we say, history. I wonder if "foster parent" is somehow /related/ to all this (aaarrrggghh)...

Toodles for tonight!!!

Thanks for the interesting, mindbending tidbits Muffit!

I love it

[Muffit]

Thanks FG Archangel and Shiningstar!! And yes, Archangel, I'm getting these from a book, called Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. It's HUGE. It's got like 100,000 entries, maybe more. I've been dying to get it for years, and finallly found it at Barnes and Noble.

Today's topic, military ranks!!


General - in the old days, the leader of an army was actually called a "captain general", meaning, generally over the whole shebang. Later the captain part was dropped, so we just have generals today, meaning nonspecific, LOL.



Major - another adjective that has strangely become a noun. Originally there were "sergeant majors", or "great" sergeants. Now they are simply majors.

Colonel - this was actually a mistake. The head of a column, spelled "colonne" in French, was a "colonel". But the Spanish messed it up and called it "coronel". Despite numerous attempts to get people to pronounce it right, they finally gave up cuz people are just plain fickle. Hence you will hear LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes say "co-lo-nel" while most Americans say "kernel".

Lieutenant - this one actually makes sense. In French it is two words, "lieu" or place, and "tenant", or holding. So a lieutenant was someone temporarily holding the place of a captain.

Corporal - no one is quite sure, but probably it is from the Italian "corporale", or body of men.

Sergeant - this one is pretty odd, you don't pronounce it anythin like it's spelled. They think it came from "servente" or servant of the King. It was mispronounced "sergente" and hence our weird name today.

Captain - humorously enough, the latin word for "head of a body" was "caput", from which we get captain today. In German "kaput" means washed up, LOL. Similar to the military acronym CINCUS which the Navy quickly dropped because of it's homonym entreaty for the enemy to destroy their ships, LOL.

Field Marshal - this is an old one, coming from the old Medieval "mareschal", which was a blacksmith or tarrier. Since the horse-shoer of the King quickly rose to a great deal of importance, so did a marsschal, or marshal.

Private - comes from the Latin word "privus", which originally meant an individual person, and later, an individual devoid of rank.

Petty Officer - this can be traced back to the French "petit" meaning "small or minor". Hence our word petty.

Admiral - Admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning commander of the seas. Crusaders carried the word back with them around 1000 AD.

And there you have it folks!!! Trivia for the day!!!!!!!!!!!

Professor Muffit, doting daggit of DUI

[bsg1fan1975]

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Muffit

Thanks FG Archangel and Shiningstar!! And yes, Archangel, I'm getting these from a book, called Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson. It's HUGE. It's got like 100,000 entries, maybe more. I've been dying to get it for years, and finallly found it at Barnes and Noble.

Today's topic, military ranks!!


General - in the old days, the leader of an army was actually called a "captain general", meaning, generally over the whole shebang. Later the captain part was dropped, so we just have generals today, meaning nonspecific, LOL.



Major - another adjective that has strangely become a noun. Originally there were "sergeant majors", or "great" sergeants. Now they are simply majors.

Colonel - this was actually a mistake. The head of a column, spelled "colonne" in French, was a "colonel". But the Spanish messed it up and called it "coronel". Despite numerous attempts to get people to pronounce it right, they finally gave up cuz people are just plain fickle. Hence you will hear LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes say "co-lo-nel" while most Americans say "kernel".

Lieutenant - this one actually makes sense. In French it is two words, "lieu" or place, and "tenant", or holding. So a lieutenant was someone temporarily holding the place of a captain.

Corporal - no one is quite sure, but probably it is from the Italian "corporale", or body of men.

Sergeant - this one is pretty odd, you don't pronounce it anythin like it's spelled. They think it came from "servente" or servant of the King. It was mispronounced "sergente" and hence our weird name today.

Captain - humorously enough, the latin word for "head of a body" was "caput", from which we get captain today. In German "kaput" means washed up, LOL. Similar to the military acronym CINCUS which the Navy quickly dropped because of it's homonym entreaty for the enemy to destroy their ships, LOL.

Field Marshal - this is an old one, coming from the old Medieval "mareschal", which was a blacksmith or tarrier. Since the horse-shoer of the King quickly rose to a great deal of importance, so did a marsschal, or marshal.

Private - comes from the Latin word "privus", which originally meant an individual person, and later, an individual devoid of rank.

Petty Officer - this can be traced back to the French "petit" meaning "small or minor". Hence our word petty.

Admiral - Admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning commander of the seas. Crusaders carried the word back with them around 1000 AD.

And there you have it folks!!! Trivia for the day!!!!!!!!!!!

Professor Muffit, doting daggit of DUI

Thanks for the INFO Muffit

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by bsg1fan1975

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!

[Muffit]

Originally Posted by bsg1fan1975

uh oh! Hide the books, Muffit's been reading again!

ROTFL! :laugh:

[bsg1fan1975]

Come to think of it You should probably hide the dictionary too! Never know when that daggit is going to use those big words!

[Archangel]

I thought I knew some weird stuff, but compared to Muffit and Senmut, I'm nothing more than a rank amateur

[Flamingo Girl]

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

[Archangel]

Not just the British, America is pretty unique in that area

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Flamingo Girl

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

ME TOO!!!!!!!

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Archangel

Not just the British, America is pretty unique in that area

In truth .......I haven't seen that Archangel ........

But given the different dialects from TX to BOSTON I wouldn't be surprised
if it's been happening

[shiningstar]

Originally Posted by Archangel

I thought I knew some weird stuff, but compared to Muffit and Senmut, I'm nothing more than a rank amateur

((((((((((((ARCHANGEL))))))))))))))))))))

We're ALL Rank amatuers next to MUFFIT

Don't take it so hard

You're good at making me laugh that counts for alot

[Archangel]

Originally Posted by shiningstar

In truth .......I haven't seen that Archangel ........

But given the different dialects from TX to BOSTON I wouldn't be surprised
if it's been happening

What I meant was that in the English-speaking world, Leftenant is the norm for pronouncing that rank. Lootenant is pretty much an American idiosyncracy.

[Flamingo Girl]

Hey....where's Muffit's Tuesday post?

[Archangel]

And today's (Wednesday)

[Muffit]

Hi all! Sorry FG, I was watching The Black Hole with my family - we just LOVE that music!!!


Okay, here's some for today...

Influenza - this word was first used back in 1743 when an outbreak of a "contagious distemper" afflicted Rome. It was believed back then that pestilence outbreaks were caused, or "influenced" by the stars. The word influenza is the English-ization of the Italian word.

Jukebox - originally, the islands off Carolina Georgia and Florida were home to a number of West Africans. Their anglicized word "jook" comes from their Gullah word "dzug" which meant to live a wild and wooly life. In the Americas, brothels were called jooks or "jukes" as a result. They had the first coin operated music boxes, so the name stuck even after the machines were put into less, shall we say, supine accommodations.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more trips down morpheme lane!!!

[onepath]

Originally Posted by Flamingo Girl

Ok, so now I wnat an explanation for why the British pronounce "Lieutenant" as lef-tennant

well hope you dont mind but here is a brief explaination for you:

"A lieutentant acted in place of his immediate supervisor. This word dates back to the 14th century, when it entered English from French lieutenant, which was formed from lieu "place" and tenant "a holding" (whence English tenant). Lieu came to French (and also English, in the 13th century, within in lieu of) via Latin locus "place". Lieutenant was sometimes spelled with an f as far back as the 14th century, indicating that the British pronunciation is quite old. It is thought that such pronunciation was influenced by the word leave, perhaps as a lieutenant's superior had to leave before the lieutenant could serve his purpose. Some cognates are lieu, local, and tenant."

"Where did “lef” come from? No one knows for sure. The 1998 New Oxford Dictionary of English speculates that the “f” sound emerged at some point before the 19th century – probably when the “u” at the end of the Old French word lieu was misread and pronounced as a “v.” Over the years, the “v” sound eventually became an “f,” even though the original spelling was maintained."


It was recorded as "leeftenaunt" in 1387, but is reported in the late 1700's as "lef" being more popular, but "loo" being correct.

However meanwhile at reality HQ it has shown that nowadays they are mostly ex public school boys, wet behind the ears who realy do need the education of life before education of their surrounding peers.

hope that enlightens??

[Muffit]

Thursday's Lesson!!!

Atom: This comes to us from the Greek "atomos", which means indivisible, or cannot be divided anymore. (Unfortunately, we have since discovered may sub-atomic particles, yet we still call the parent, an atom).


And our bonus word, don't you ever wonder where we get the "Galactica" part of Battlestar Galactica? The root word, "galaxy" comes from the Greek word "galaxis", which means, incredulously, "circle of milk". No doubt stemming from the same source as our expression "the Milky Way".

Howsomever, that leaves us with a rather embarassing definition for our favorite show - somehow Battlestar Lactose-Free doesn't ring quite so ominously, LOL!!!

Hey!!! Maybe we should commandeer that big buzz expression, "Got Milk???" ROTFL!!!

[Archangel]

Does that come with or without corn flakes???

Educational as always, muffit

[Flamingo Girl]

Would it be all right if i were to share these with some friends on another board?