 Recently, Joan Baez made quite a splash by wearing a shirt that wasn’t even slightly euphemistic. However, since I’m appreciating euphemisms these days, her shirt got me thinking about euphemisms for dead. So here are some: Resting in peace Slipped away Reached the heavenly shores Bit the dust Breathed their last Taking a dirt nap Passed away Pegged out Entered eternal rest Took thier last breath Six feet under Wandering the Elysian fields Went to meet their maker Pushing up daisies Shuffled off their mortal coil Gave up the ghost Sleeping wiith the fishes Bought the farm Meet the grim reaper Traveled beyond the veil Kicked the bucket Called home Crossed over Got their wings Reached the finish line Laid to rest Cashed in their chips Gave up the ghost Kicked the oxygen habit Bid farewell to this world Playing the great gig in the sky Immortality-challenged Interesting how we’ve found so many ways to avoid directly mentioning something that’s an integral part of life. Hmmm. Thanks to this week’s sources: joincake.com, US Urns Online, & Fluent Slang.
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 Last week’s post (Askew #1) taught me that many synonyms of askew are re-duplications (an eytmological term meaning a part of one word is repeated in a slightly different fashion to create a nearly doubled word).
So here’s a sampling of askew synonyms that are reduplications: hurry-scurry (1730s) turmoil shilly-shally (1780s) to vacillate in an irresolute manner arsy-versy or arsy-varsy (1530s) head over heels or backward hubbub (1550s) confused noise, turmoil, uproar flim-flam (1500s) deceptive nonsense fiddle-faddle (1500s) nonsense, or to waste time over trivial matters hurly-burly (1530s) commotion or tumult twinkum-twankum (1700s) confused foolishness or a careless, jolly refrain of a song Topsy-turvy (1500s) confused or disorganized Is this all a bunch of fiddle faddle? Perhaps. Still I hope it entertained. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, The OED, Emma Fraser Art  English has some fascinating words that mean askew, or something close to it. Here are a few:
askew: in an oblique position -- 1570s, of uncertain origin catawampus: askew or awry — 1830s, also of uncertain origin, though defintiely Appalachian farrago: a confuseed mixture -- 1600s, from a Latin word meaning mixed fodder awry: with a slant or a twist, askew -- 1400s, from Middle English wonky: shaky, unstable, or not functioning properly -- 1919, from an Old English word meaning tottering helter-skelter: in undue haste, confusion, or in a haphazard manner — 1590s, probably a reduplication of skelte, to hasten or scatter hurriedly hodgepodge: jumble — 1500s, an alteration of hotchpotch, a type of stew mish-mash: a jumble — 1500s, a reduplicatoin of mash higgledy-piggledy: confusedly or hurriedly — 1598, most likely a reduplicated slur towared pigs & the mess they live in (when domesticated) I’m compelled to include a word which has shown up in Wordmonger before & appears to have been my mother’s invention: oscispudle (ah-skee-spew-dull), meaning offbalance, crooked, or awry. It turns out there are a slew of askew-related words. More will appear in next week’s post. Anything to say about all this askew-ness? Comment away! Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, The OED, Merriam Webster, Phil Cousineau’s The Word Catcher, & Doodle Characters.  My great grandmother once commented on an unfortunate woman in the old folks’ home, “that one there, she’s lost her buttons.” It’s a euphemism I’ve never heard anyone else use, but its meaning was clear.
Euphemisms are the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. Sometimes euphemisms are simply lies, & sometimes they’re laughably obfuscatory. Here are a few I’m appreciating at the moment: To be made redundant (to be fired) To be chronogloically challenged (to be late) To commit a terminological inexactitude (to tell a lie) To embark upon a journey of self-discovery (to be jobless) Genuine imitation leather (vinyl) To slip one’s moorings (to engage in an extramarital affair) And here’s a pile more to appreciate free of parenthetical definitions: To see a man about a horse A bun in the oven Alternate facts Enhanced interrogation Gentleman’s club Not the sharpest sandbag in the dam Kicking the tires Courtesy call Sleeping with the fishes As sharp as a sock full of soup Domestic engineer Sleeping together More foam than beer Couch potato Tugging the buttons Thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Mum’s Lounge, Inspiration Feed, Smart Blogger, Make a Living Writing, & Online Labels.  Murmur is a fine word — a fun word to say. Try it out loud right now, a few times: murmur murmur murmur murmur.
Murmur came to English in the 1300s through Old French & Latin from an imitative Proto-Indo-European word — the same word that became in Greek, to roar or boil, in Sanskrit, a crackling fire, & in Lithuanian, to murmur. An online search for synonyms for murmur can be frustrating. The “closest match” suggestions usually include fuss, lament, whine, rumble, hum, buzz, complain, grievance, grumble, undertone, croak, & moan. Really? Closest match? Murmur means a continuous flow of words or sounds in a low indistinct voice which may express satisfaction or dissatisfaction. I have a hard time connecting murmur’s meaning with most the offered online synonyms, but in my good old 1959 Webster’s New World Dictionary, murmur’s synonym list includes only two words — mutter: angry or discontented words or sounds, & mumble: to utter almost inaudible or inarticulate sounds in low tones with the mouth nearly closed. These work better for me. Perhaps because, like my Webster’s New World Dictionary, I am mid-century. And these two words pass the out-loud-right-now-a-few-times test. They are fun to say. But undertone? Grievance? Complain? I think not. Thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Power Thesaurus, Webster’s New World Dictionary, 1959, Inspired Pencil, & Etymonline.  The noun back appears to be have solely Germanic roots. Many languages use different words for the vertical back of a human vs. the horizontal back of most critters. Not so in English. And because our backs are “behind” us, the noun back has picked up that meaning also.
I hope you enjoy this selection of back idioms, terms, and words. 1200s backbiting 1520s literal meaning of backdoor 1520s the chair back 1600s back-ache 1640s figurative meaning of backdoor (shady, illegal, devious) 1670s setback 1680s backlog 1690s backhand 1767 back up to stand behind &/or support 1819 backstop 1832 backseat of a coach 1859 back down to withdraw a charge 1868 figurative meaning of backseat (least prominent position) 1883 blowback 1888 throwback 1923 backseat driver 1876 a position in US football, specialized later into quarterback, halfback, running back, fullback, etc. 1887 back-formation etymologiacl term referring to a word formed from an existing word by removal of part of the original word (for instance, the word babysitter came first, then the back-formation to babysit) 1891 backstage 1898 ladderback first referring to chairs, then to woodpeckers 1899 backspace 1903 flashback in engines or furnaces 1916 flashback as a plot device 1928 back-beat (an emphaiszed beat falling on a normally unaccented beat in a bar of music) 1938 back off By now you’re probably thinking it’s time to back off! Eh? Please comment with anything that surprised you. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, Merriam Webster, & PaintingValley.com  This week let’s take a look at what wise women have to say about creativity. Many people are inventive, sometimes cleverly so. But real creativity begins with the drive to work on and on and on. -Margaritte Harmon Bro Creativity is like a great recceptive womb. -Lyn V. Andrews It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God. -Mary Daly I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity. -Gilda Radner Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. -Gaill Sheehy Creativity comes frim trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work. -Rita Mae Brown If any of these resonates with you, please let me know in the comments. Big thanks to this week’s source: The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women & Atelier-yuwa-ciao. .  The word so takes up over five pages in the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s small, but mighty.
So functions as an adjective, an intensive, a conjunction, an adverb, a pronoun, a noun, and multiple abbreviations. Adjective: She always arranges the flowers just so. Intentsive: Dude, I’m so tired. Conjunction: It’s ten degrees out there, so I’m staying home. Adverb: Do you really think so? Pronoun: If you must attend the protest, do so. Noun: 🎵 So, a needle pulling thread.🎵 Abbreviation: so = Southern or South, sellers’ option, & strike out So came to us through Old High German and Latin from Proto Indo-European. It shares a root with sole, sword, swoop, swollen, swoon, sworn, swoosh, & suicide. And I’m forced to acknowledge that so has boldly gone into the future with Captain Picard’s use of the phrase, “Make it so.” So-so means adequate, while so-and-so means jerk. And we can pair so with other words for new meanings: So long. Afraid so. And so on… Perhaps the lesson of so is that we should stop & appreciate the big things around us that appear to be small. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, the OED, Etymonline, & Collins Dictionary.  One might expect the word puppy to be a diminutive form of pup, but in this case, puppy was born some three hundred years before pup. Some time in the 1400s, English speakers borrowed the French word poupée, meaning doll or toy, and because dolls and toys were often affectionately petted, the word broadened to refer to other petted things (even “vain & silly young men”) but darned if those baby dogs didn’t steal the word for themselves. Before this, baby dogs were referred to as whelps.
The term puppy-dog comes from the 1590s Puppy-dog eyes appeared soon after The term puppy love was born in 1823 & the term puppy fat was born in 1913 Bought a pup (meaning someone has been tricked) showed up in the Middle Ages, when it was common practice to sell a baby pig in a bag, but nefarious merchants would swap out the pig for a pup — interestingly, this idiom is synonymous with buying a pig in a poke). Puppy is also a variant of the word poppy, a flowering herbaceious plant (papaveracea). Puppy can be used figuratively to question someone’s sanity, as in you are one sick puppy. Why all this puppy talk? My loving wife is an inveterate champion of critters, especially abandoned and foundling critters, so at the moment, she’s fostering seven puppies from the County Pound. It’s a bit much. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Idiom origins, Merriam Webster, Etymonline, the OED, & Creative Fabrica.  I’ve always had a fondness for the verb ogle -- not the act of ogling as much as the sound of it. Little did I know that ogle can also be a noun (as in "That was not an affectionate glance, Mr., that was an ogle.") And oddly, back when we spoke Middle English, we used the noun ogle to refer to a cannonball. To my complete delight, ogle is related to heaps upon heaps of other words, all progeny of the Proto-Indo-European root *okw- (to see). So this week’s post is a listworthy appreciation of ogle’s unlikely family members. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing them all together, & making the “to see” connection to their meanings. monocle myopia ocular oculus optics optician optometry panopticon synopsis autopsy binocular cyclops triceratops wall-eyed presbyopia inoculate inveigle biopsy daisy eyelet antique antler atrocity necropsy window eye hyperopia ferocity Thanks for coming by. Thanks to this week’s sources: The OED, Etymonline, Merriam Webster, & Let’s Draw Today. |
I write for teens & tweens, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.
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