Comments on: Word Origins

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:39:28 +0000

damn forgot to mention one of the most controversial words…

Hamburger

It originates from… (you choose)

a) the german city of the same name
b) the american city of the same name
c) the name of a patron of a restaurant in New York
d) the meat it is made of
e) a slang phrase for a lump of ground beef (burg)

oh yeah, the first ‘hamburgers’ were served on toasted bread not in buns fyi

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:35:39 +0000

Another would be salary, as in an annual/monthly wage. It originates from the roman word sal, meaning salt. Roman soldiers were often paid in salt as at the time it was a valuable commodity.

By: Elle

Elle — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:10:49 +0000

I know what you mean.
The Duesenberg explanation was the first I ever heard, and it’s still my favorite– even if it doesn’t give us all the information about the origin of ‘doozy’. Duesenbergs were such beautiful cars.
Keep the word histories coming!

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:28:24 +0000

Problem with word origins is sometimes they are sometimes embellished stories. I know in my recent post about curse word origins, I came across a lot of information that later I found out wasn’t true.

Thanks for that information though. Glad to have another perspective about that word.

By: Elle

Elle — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:02:23 +0000

What fun! I also enjoy learning the origins of words… I felt it my duty, though, to make you aware of what seems to be a more widely accepted explanation for ‘doozy’:
“You might think etymologists are slipping their mental gears if I tell you that they’re fairly sure that it comes from the flower named daisy. But that was once English slang, from the eighteenth century on, for something that was particularly appealing or excellent. It moved into North American English in the early nineteenth century and turns up, for example, in Thomas Chandler Haliburton’s The Clockmaker of 1836: “I raised a four year old colt once, half blood, a perfect picture of a horse, and a genuine clipper, could gallop like the wind; a real daisy, a perfect doll, had an eye like a weasel, and nostrils like Commodore Rodgers’s speakin’ trumpet”.

Experts think that that sense — which was still around at the end of the nineteenth century — might have been influenced by the name of the famous Italian actress Eleonora Duse, who first appeared in New York in 1893. Something Dusey was clearly excellent of its kind, and it is very likely that it and daisy became amalgamated in people’s minds to create a new term.” (Michael Quinion, from worldwidewords.org)

Maybe the Duesenberg slogan played off existing slang?

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:50:45 +0000

Nick wrote:

Good stuff, especially tempura and manure. I’ve always loved learning word origins, along with the origins of sayings. Stuff like “Hoist with his own petard” fascinates me. Yeah, I know, what a babe magnet I must be.

I agree with you on that one. The origin of words is always interesting. I’ll post some more here soon.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 03:41:32 +0000

Good stuff, especially tempura and manure. I’ve always loved learning word origins, along with the origins of sayings. Stuff like “Hoist with his own petard” fascinates me. Yeah, I know, what a babe magnet I must be.