Word and Phrase Origins
Includes questions related to the origins and etymology of English words and phrases.
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Durkee Atwood
Ntembu
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Marissa MurrayFound this: The name atom comes from the Greek ἄτομος (atomos, = "indivisible") from one prefix: ἄ- or ἀ- (a-, =...
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excellent - google search 'the crankies'
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as well as i know it's mean that to feeling extreme attraction to someones personality.
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1) Probably a translation / adpatation of the French sentence expression "tout va bien". 2) Since the phrase is in general not...
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A long long time ago...LOL idk, I'll look it up for y'all.
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Shanghai itself is a city in China. At one time, sailors were kidnapped & used as slave labor on ships bound for Shanghai.
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In the 1890-1900s, many saloons had a "free lunch" for customers- sandwiches, pickles, boiled eggs, etc. to encourage them to...
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Your all kind of right. Moxie falls was named by natives because of the meaning black water. I don't remember why but there was a...
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The English word, 'mouse', has its origins in Old English 'mus' (small rodent) and came into English from Common Germanic...
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Below are examples of sentences using the term: Sentence #1 The math problem had a positive and a negative integer. Sentence #2 ...
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The English word font in the definition of a fountain comes to us from the Old English word font, from the Latin fons.The English...
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Old English cneo from Proto-Germanic knewan.
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The idiom "apple shiner" means the teacher's pet.
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there are two films with that name;
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"Because of the Wizard's mesmerism ability, the man was hyptnotised."
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The correct phrase is "Have you had (an) elegant sufficiency?" It is a refinement of "Have you had sufficient/enough?" EXAMPLE...
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According to Tim Dirk's AMC Filmsite definition of filmic devices in his Cinematic Terms dictionary, "...a filmic device in which...
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FAQs became popular in the earliest days of the Internet. Wikipedia cites them as appearing in the early 1980s with the...
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Archimedes, he is the one who said Eureka first. When he discovered the principle of density.For more information;= Eureka means...
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It means that sometimes even just doing something nice for someone or smiling and saying hello can make a big difference in...
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I think very wiltered, old and fragile.
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This is found in the Holy Bible. life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand Exodus 21:23, 24 The law of "an eye...
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The Aesop's fable where the fox said that the grapes that he couldn't reach were sour, just because he couldn't reach them might...
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Latin (from the word patium)
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It comes from Late Latin yet as an adjective "decadent/decadens", which had come from the verb "decadere", yet meaning fall,...
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Intuition?<><><>Ignorance
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Antique comes from French 'antique', ('old, ancient') which was brought into English after the Norman invasions along with many...
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Go to a map inside of a museum, airport, train station, shopping mall, or any large venue. There will be a red dot, an arrow, or...
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I don't know if it originally comes from the military, but I do know it is a common saying in the military. When watchstanders...
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drilling, grilling, rilling, trilling, billing, milling, willing, chilling.
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The phrase angel of death appears in the Bible in the Book of Exodus chapter 12 verse 23. Exo 12:23 When the LORD goes through...
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it comes after Simon Magus, who, for the first time, tried to purchase "power" offering money to St. Peter for him to conjure...
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The word "grandparent" is simply the word "grand" and the word "parent" combined. It has been used since 1830. Please see the...
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A variety of answers can be given for this question. Caramel is a combination of caramelized sugar and heavy cream ,which would...
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A fortnight has 14 days. Otherwise known as two weeks.
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"negation", that it was canceled or refused
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here is an example " this tastelessly apple has no right on the floorahahhah i think it is probably wrong anyways i just like to...
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It means that a artist has the creativity of a child and they don't care what others think.
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The word "party" is from the late thirteenth century. It is from Old French. Please see the related link below.
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The origin of bunkum is mid 19th century (originally buncombe): named after Buncombe County in North Carolina, mentioned in a...
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Omelette is the French for the English omelet.
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Romans 12:19 in the Vulgate Bible says:est enim mihi vindictam ego retribuam dicit Dominuswhich is "For vengeance is mine, I...
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It means to stay sharp -- to remain on top of your competition.
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We human are fundamentally storytellers. The most important story of all is never voiced; it is the story we tell ourselves, the...
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No. Prioritize takes a direct object.
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I believe you're referring to the Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which begins "Four score and seven years ago our fathers...
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Pam Howard.
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The Hebrew language is the source of the word 'Beelzebub', which literally means 'Lord of the flies'. The original word is...
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Roisin Row (as in row your boat), sheen (as in Mr Sheen)
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anything offered in the service to God. It can be a song, land, or artifacts.Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state...
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In the old 8mm stag movies the moment of male organism was represented by the man's socks flying off.
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If you work hard, you'll earn a good wage. She'll be famous if she wins a gold medal. He sent her flowers which made her...
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It comes from German, it literally means 'children's garden'.
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Among bikers it's a mutual 1% sign.
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at the time of the civil war various southern black processions included walking competitions in which the couple who strutted...
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Beating a Red-Headed Step-Child I think all the explanations below are written by people trying to avoid the unpleasant and far...
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The expression is American in origin, though it has become extremely common in the UK since 2004. In the article you mention,...
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Until the Fat Lady Sings...A reference to Kate Smith, the proverbial "fat lady" who hailed the rise of the Philadelphia Flyers...
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gossip As in, "I heard it through the grapevine..." Grapevine communication is a form of informal business communication, which...
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When smiling, all of us look more approachable and amiable .(Amiable means friendly.)
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Adopted into the English language in 1823, this is the Anglicized version of Diego, meaning "James". Originally used to describe...
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This isn't the 20th century, it's just the 2000's. You see, if we started at the year 0001, it wouldn't be "century zero", it...
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A cockpit was originally a sunken pit dug for cock-fighting(or roosters) which came to be applied to similar quarters below...
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Meaning: cute as a button 'quail' The 'button' quail was small, gray & super fluffy.
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It means that you have posture and great positions
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The original word 'per' would be a blank preposition that would link the qualities of one noun to another without any modifying...
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While most American men no longer wear hats (except in cold weather or as a fashion statement), there was a time when the hat was...
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There are several theories for this. One theory says that the phrase "God Bless you" came from an Islamic practice which...
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it is nothing but the functions of magement!
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Nobody coined the term "Renaissance." Renaissance is an actual part of the French language. It literally means "rebirth."BTW I...
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A 'transitional' diamond is probably a diamond given with the intention of replacing it with a larger stone at some point in the...
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No harm done. Just don't try to light it!
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'Tarnation' is the American English version of darnation, coined in 1784. Please access the related link below for more...
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Crime and punishment..Fyordor Dostoevsky.
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Few individuals know the origin of the word "panic". Its roots lie in Greek mythology, namely the legend of the Greek demi-god...
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The origin of the term 'hot dog' lies in the suggestion that sausages, because of their anonymous nature - finely-minced...
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Its derived from Spion: Espionage. Spion Kop was a battle in the Boer War. It means to look on covertly, from a hidden position,...
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Old army slang, name of a town in India (Deolali) with a military hospital for those suffering mental breakdowns shell shock etc.
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They both come from the Latin word plombium which means the element Lead. (The symbol for the element is Pb which comes from...
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I believe this term comes from medieval times when someone was insane they would often cut their heads off hence the term "don't...
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It is Timbuktu, and it is in Mali, a country of West Africa.
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Globe is the root word for global.
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The word "doubt" is from the early thirteenth century. It is from Old French. Please see the related link below.
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So far you seem to be doing well. Your question needs to be phrased as a question, be grammatically coherent, and be directed to...
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The marathon is named after a town in Greece which was the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The battle was won by the...
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I live in Florida near Alabama .. on every corner there is a baptist church and here is what I found that may mean a circle of...
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This is a question for which you need a thesaurus. Check out Roget's category 264, "motion". Words like "sidle", "creep" or...
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That exact term doesn't seem to be defined anywhere, but "horse play" probably originated from the way young horses frolic and...
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