One slang term that has survived from the 18th century - to cotton to - or is to cotton on? https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42108/42108-h/42108-h.htm
This one's just too good to pass up: "Blow Me, or blow me tight, a vow, a ridiculous and unmeaning ejaculation, inferring an appeal to the ejaculator;" I'd say more an appeal to the ejaculatee though. Or more often these days just an insult.
Sidus is Latin for “star” - A couple of words from that: Desire = dē + sidus = “away from one’s star” Consider = con + sidus = “with the stars” The stars sure did used to figure large.
Yep! It also gave us other words, including inconsiderate ("not learning or examining the stars"). Yes, the idea originally comes from astrology, but casting your astrological horoscope as a guide to the future is a very, very old idea -- at least as old as the ancient Romans. Julius Caesar famously pooh-poohed his astrologer, and later Roman emperors wouldn't make a decision without consulting theirs. Speaking of astrology, another Latin word for "star" is astro, which finds itself as the prefix of many common star-related words, such as astronomy, astronomize ("to discourse on astronomy; talk astronomically"), astrology etc. But it also gave us disaster, which -- in early use -- could refer either to "a sudden calamitous event" or "a baleful aspect of a planet or star." For instance: "And seeing your old age perplexed with strange passions, stayed as one willing to learn what disaster have driven you into these strange dumps, which if I without offence may request, and you without prejudice grant, I shall find myself by duty bound to requite your undeserved courtesy." — Robert Greene, The Anatomy of Fortune, 1589 Stars have a lot to answer for! And this reminds me of an anecdote told about William Anne Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1702-54), a British soldier and ambassador. Albemarle was sent as diplomat and ambassador to Paris in 1748. He took with him his mistress Lolotte Gaucher, an actress described by contemporaries as cunning and greedy. One evening, seeing her gazing thoughtfully at a star, the earl remarked, "It's no good, my dear, I can't buy it for you."
The only meaning I have ever known for gridiron is the lines on a football field. But, from The Slang Dictionary (1873): Gridiron, a County Court summons. Originally a summons to the Court of Westminster only; from the gridiron arms. The Grafton Club is nearly always known as the grid or gridiron, that instrument being brought into requisition whenever possible in the cuisine. Gridiron and dough boys, the flag of the United States, in allusion to the stars and stripes.—Sea. And Etymology online: cooking utensil for broiling over a fire, early 14c., griderne, alteration (by association with iron) of gridire (late 13c.) How do we link these together?
Seems to have originated from things in grids. Football yard markers, Stars and Stripes, grilling utensils... as for football it sounds tough and manly.
Somehow I can't reconcile the words "tough and manly" with a B-grade actor who -- other than his presidency -- is mostly remembered for acting with a chimpanzee. *shrug* Now, you may say, "Well, Rath, you'll have to get off your high horse, son, and stop setting high standards..." But I say: why? Why not set high standards, and then do your darndest to achieve them?
Ronald Reagan also played George Gipp in Knute Rocke, All American - and that's what connects Ronald Reagan to football for me "Here's one for the Gipper."
Winston Groom, the author of Forrest Gump (1986), may have read The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith (which I happen to be reading today at Gutenberg). One of the more famous lines from Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does." And in Chapter One of The Vicar of Wakefield:
The saying "handsome is that handsome does" seems older than Goldsmith, though. A quick peruse through google brought me this from Dictionary.com: Alas, there is no link. But when I googled "John Ray's 1670 collection of proverbs", I found the original on google books. The title is (deep breath please), "A Collection of English Proverbs: Digested Into a Convenient Method for the Speedy Finding Any One Upon Occasion; with Short Annotations. Whereunto are Added Local Proverbs with Their Explications, Old Proverbial Rhythmes, Less Known Or Exotick Proverbial Sentences, and Scottish Proverbs." (Phew!) And it has some gems in it, like: "An ape is an ape, a varlet's a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet." Or: "Who never climb'd never fell." (To me, this sounds similar to an exchange between Elizabeth I and one of her admirers, who one winter wrote on her frozen window in the rime: "Much I wish to climb, yet fain I fear to fall." To which the Queen wrote: "If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.") Anyway, the original 1670 volume is an interesting diversion.
It's just a templated idiom. I recently heard "Aspie is as Aspie does" in connection with diagnosis by checklist or self-test versus recognition by a therapist who works often with Aspergians.
Yes, and who but an Aspie would go to the lengths I did, and try to to track down the origins of that idiom? Being an Aspie is fun. It's pretending to be a so-called "normal person" that takes effort. Boo to normality. Embrace your inner Aspie.
