Well, I gave in, and checked with etymology online, and the origin of the word is defined as "young man in service" - so that's better! For a new groom should be in service to his wife!
That explains why married men are often asked to put up shelving, hang up paintings, move the sofa, chase away spiders etc.
Without testing this (sometimes there's no way to test it) my theory now is that car is short for carriage, and that it can include all vehicles on the road. Like when you say " How many cars are in front of us," you don't mean minus motorcycles, trucks, vans, buses etc. It's analogous to vehicles, but is a more normal word. If you ask how many vehicles are in front you're gonna get some weird looks. But then, if you say cars, there's always gonna be that one person who has to get all nitpicky.
Sure. Like the word "bugs" can include spiders in some cases, whereas the word "insects" doesn't include arachnids.
Testing it: The English word car is believed to originate from Latin carrus/carrum "wheeled vehicle" or (via Old North French) Middle English carre "two-wheeled cart", both of which in turn derive from Gaulish karros "chariot". It originally referred to any wheeled horse-drawn vehicle, such as a cart, carriage, or wagon. From Wikipedia So ok, more or less correct then. From a latin root that also gives us carriage and cart. Makes sense. Also probably carry. So a wheeled vehicle that carries people or cargo (car-go?).
Yep: Cargo 1650s, "freight loaded on a ship," from Spanish cargo "burden," from cargar "to load, impose taxes," from Late Latin carricare "to load a wagon or cart," from Latin carrus "wagon" (see car). Source
True bugs are contained in the Order Hemiptera. I learned that in seventh grade biology, and was enchanted (then and now) by the notion that there are true bugs and untrue bugs.
There is an story that when General Motors tried to launch the Chevrolet Nova in Spanish-speaking countries, it didn't sell, exactly for that reason. However, according to Snopes, this is nothing more than an urban legend. See here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/ Too bad. It's a good story. What about a snail driving a car with an "S" painted on it? Look at that S-car go!
This word appeared in the Science thread: clout. Used there, it meant a cloth covering, like a coat or a jacket. But the more familiar meaning of the word is importance, influence or popularity. But this idea of personal influence dates only to 1946. The much older meaning: Clout (noun) Old English clut "lump of something," also "patch of cloth put over a hole to mend it," from Proto-Germanic *klutaz (source also of Old Norse klute "kerchief," Danish klud "rag, tatter," Frisian klut "lump," Dutch kluit "clod, lump"); perhaps related to clot (v.). In later use "a handkerchief," also "a woman's sanitary napkin." Sense of "a blow" is from early 14c., from the verb. Slang sense of "personal influence" (especially in politics) is by 1946, American English, on the notion of "punch, force." Clout (verb) "to beat, strike with the hand," early 14c., from clout (n.), perhaps on the notion of hitting someone with a lump of something, or from the "patch of cloth" sense of that word (compare clout (v.) "to patch, mend," mid-14c.). Related: Clouted; clouting. https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=clout
Cargo is a small Van Gogh. (A "van" is an enclosed truck in British English, and yes, I know it's pronounced something like Van Hoch, but most don't)
Without looking it up, I do not believe the British English word "bugger" is related to bugs. Although a bugger could be someone who plants a bug, I suppose.
You would also say "bugger" when you are sent somewhere where there are lots of bugs ... like Captain Kevin Darling when he was sent to Captain Blackadder's trench. (Although that was only the beginning of his trouble. The rest followed very quickly).
Only this morning it occurred to me that the word conscience (which can be traced back to 1200) is actually made up of two words together: con = with and science = knowledge So have we been pronouncing science wrong all along? Maybe it should be pronounced shee-ence
I was suddenly struck by the similarity between digestion and digest (as in Reader's Digest). I mean, this one isn't difficult. A digest is writing that's already been digested and summarized. Somebody else did the work. So, what does digest actually mean? digest (n.) from Late Latin digesta, from neuter plural of Latin digestus, literally "digested thing," noun use of past participle of digerere "to separate, divide, arrange," etymologically "to carry apart," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + gerere "to carry" (see gest). Source So basically it means to take a thing apart into its constituents, study them, and arrange them in some way. In the case of a digest by condensing or summarizing or removing repetitions (which was done to the Reader's Digest Bible).
I came across the advertisement below in my Quora feed today, and it piqued my interest. A little bit of research and I found out that the active ingredients in these Nervine nerve pills were bromine salts—bromides. In the 19th century, when it was discovered that these bromides have calming effects on the central nervous system, they began to be used to treat epilepsy, convulsions, insomnia and general nervousness. And then, around the turn of the century, bromide developed a literary usage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromide_(language) What do you call an expanded definition, inspired by the first but different? Not exactly a neologism, nor a sematic shift, but a …?
I just found out that the word "dinar" (used for money in many areas of the mid-East) comes from the Roman word "denarius" which was one of the common denominations for money in the Roman empire. Even after the Romans left for good, they left that word behind.
Ayn Rand used Bromide quite a bit, in the second sense, though when she was writing it was also still in use in the original sense. If you watch movies from the 30's and 40's you can see people walk into a drug store and ask the druggist to make them up a bromo. I used to think it was something like Alka-Seltzer because of the way it fizzes, but apaprently it was more about soothing maxed-out nerves than the stomach. I think it was found to be toxic at some point.
Suddenly I understand what the term Chewing the Fat relates to. When you have a big hunk of fat, often there's some gristle or something undigestable (unchewable) in it, but it's so good (and so healthy) that you keep chewing until you've got all that succulent fat worked off and then spit out whatever grizzled lump of garbage is left. I can see how that relates to a certain way of talking, where you work all around subjects even when they might not seem relevant at first, because when you dig in you can get all the good fat out of it.
The Slang Dictionary, originally published in 1873, is a collection of English slang going back several centuries that you can read online. If you have some time, it’s a fascinating thing to scroll through. One of the first things this 19th century book does is differentiate between slang and cant (and lower and upper classes, too): The entries for the word blow caught my eye. Maybe “to blow one’s cover” evolved from “blow the gaff.” The meaning of “Blow me” has changed over the last couple of hundred years: Other entries for blow are pretty familiar:
