Road Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'bread' last time and this time it's 'road'.

Road test (of a vehicle) is first recorded in 1906, but not as a verb before 1937.

Road hogs, rather surprisingly, have been around since 1886.

However, road rage has only been seen since 1988.

Road maps have only been around since 1786, or at least the term has.

Road trip, still more often used in the USA but gaining popularity in Britain, was first used in 1950 but originally only of baseball teams. (Presumably when they were heading for an away game.)

Road runner, the Warner Brothers cartoon character dates from 1948, was first recorded in a document dated 1847. Of course the bird has been around for much longer – it is also known as a ‘long-tailed crested desert cuckoo’ or ‘the chaparral-cock’.

Nothing ran ‘off-road’ before 1949.

By-road (or side road as we would say in Britain) appears as early as 1670.

Post road, this a road on which there are stations used by post horses in a relay system to transport the mail, is first described as such in 1650.

The ring road, that which annoys so many when they are built on green belt land, is first seen in 1928.

Crossroad is first seen in the modern sense in 1808. Before then, and since the 1680s, it referred to a road which connects one main road to another. When roads were just tracks, a crossroad would be a single road with a marker on it showing where a meeting would take place.

Railroad is an American term and first seen in 1757 when referring to rails laid to allow heavy waggons to pass and used in mining operations. It was not applied to trains in the modern sense until 1825.

Roadkill is first seen in 1962.

Roadside is first seen in 1744, but not used as an adjective until 1810.

Roadblocks were not put up until 1940, prior to that they were known as something else – keep this in mind when the military in that First World War film put up a roadblock!

Roadwork is first seen in 1765 when it was used to refer to repairs or even making roads. This makes perfect sense as it coincides, more or less, with the turnpike roads. Surprisingly the sense of ‘to exercise’ comes as early as 1903.

To make inroads is first seen as 1540, when used to describe a hostile incursion.

Bread Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'work' last time and this time it's 'bread'.

Breadwinner is recorded as early as 1719, but the slang term ‘bread’ for money is not recorded before 1940. Clearly the latter comes from ‘breadwinner’, and a reference to bread being the staff of life. Note the Latin panis and French pain, both meaning ‘bread’, have a link to the English ‘pantry’ which was where bread was stored.

Bread an circuses, first seen in English in 1914, comes from the Latin where Duas tantum res anxius optal, Panem et circenes comments on how the ruling classes can keep the populace happy by providing them with food and entertainment.

Bread and butter, a phrase describing one’s most basic needs, is first seen in the 1620s.

Bread basket, aside from a basket to hold bread, is a slang term for the belly, first recorded in 1753. Slightly earlier, dating from around 1590, is another slang term for the belly in ‘pudding house’.

Monkey bread, which is not bread but fruit from the baobab tree, is first seen in a document dated 1789.

Breadwinner, the chief earner, is first seen in 1821.

Work Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'black' last time and this time it's 'work'.

Work of art in its modern sense (as anything wondrous to behold) is first recorded in 1774, however there is an earlier sense dating from 1728 when it was clearly coined to refer solely to something created by mankind.

Work ethic is first seen in 1959.

Out of work, or unemployed if you prefer, is first recorded as early as 1590.

Making short work of something is first seen in the 1640s.

The proverb ‘many hands make light work’ is first recorded around 1300.

Having one’s work cut out for one is first seen in 1610.

Work in progress is recorded for the first time in 1930.

To work in (clay, wood, metal, etc) is seen for the first time in the 1670s.

To work up (a sweat, excite, raise, etc) appears for the first time in print around 1590.

To work over, as in to beat up, dates from 1927.

To work against, as in to undermine - delay, subvert – dates from the late 14th century.

To work out, in the physical sense, is recorded in 1530; in the mathematical sense from 1821; in the sense of emerge from around 1600; and in the mining sense from 1540.

Guesswork is first seen in 1725.

Fieldwork, as in gathering statistics or other on the ground research, appears in a document dated 1767, and in a military sense in 1819.

Legwork first appears in print in 1891, but then was used solely by news reporters to refer to a story which resulted in a great deal of physical work compared to the resulting word count.

Masterwork is used to refer to one which sets a standard or model, first appearing in 1610 and thought to have come to English from Dutch and/or German.

Nobody was considered a night-worker until 1590 – of course people did work nights, but the phrase is not used until the late 16th century.

Overwork, as in working too hard, appears in a document dated 1520. Yet the word had been in use for almost a thousand years prior to that, but used in the sense of ‘to redo’.

Piecework is something from a couple of generations ago, it is being paid by performance, but historically this had been used since the middle of the 16th century.

Homework, something I never saw any of my siblings do (perhaps they thought I had enough for all of us), is first seen in 1934. Prior to that it was used to refer to tuition in the home, and earlier still any cottage industry.

Handiwork appears as early as the 12th century.

Patchwork is first seen in 1690 and used in a derogatory sense to describe ‘that put together clumsily’, and first sense in the modern sense just 30 years later.

Workday is pretty obvious one would think, and yes since the early 16th century that is what the word has implied. Yet prior to that, and from the pre-Norman era, it had the opposite meaning in being ‘a day when work was suspended’.

Black Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'bean' last time and this time it's 'black'.

Black market, the retailer who ignores official procedure, is not seen until 1935 when it was a noun. The adjective followed in 1935, but not until rationing during the Second World War did it achieve any kind of popularity.

Black leg when referring to strike breakers is not seen until 1865, but had been used since at least 1771 to refer to a ‘swindler’, particularly those involved in equestrian events.

Black drop, first seen in 1823, was a liquid preparation of opium used for medicinal purposes.

Black magic is first seen around 1300, this a natural progression as the colour was associated with anything considered sinful or sorrowful.

Black flag is first seen in 1590, a reference to a flag flown by those (such as pirates) who would show no mercy. So nice of them to tell us, don’t you think?

Black dog, first seen in 1826, is used as an adjective to mean ‘melancholy’.

Black belt, in the judo sense, is not seen until 1913. It is also used in the USA to describe the fertility of the soil.

Black and white, not the colours but a reference to something in print, is first seen in the 1650s. Now a printing reference came about before this and, from 1590, the phrase was reversed in ‘white and black’.

In the black, ie not in debt, is not found until 1922. The idea being any positive figure would appear in black and negative values (debt) in red.

Black eye has had three uses over the years, these uses having overlapped. The discolouration of the eye following injury dates from around 1600; a reference to an injury to one’s pride from 1744; and to refer to one with a bad reputation from 1880s.

Black-eyed Susan, any of several species of flower, first recorded in 1881. Note it was also the title of a poem by the early 18th century poet John Gay; and a popular 19th century British stage play.

Black swan is a fairly popular pub name and often depicts the bird native to Australia and New Zealand. Yet despite James Cook not landing in Australia until 1770, prior to which one of the requirements of being classified a swan was to be white, the phrase (and pub names) had existed since at least the early 14th century, more than four centuries before Cook was even born. This is because it had been used as a description of anything extremely rare or non-existent – in Latin rara avis, and is why the image appears on heraldic symbols. Note, ‘white crow’ and ‘blue dahlia’ were also used in the same context and for the same reason – I look forward to a pint in the White Crow.

Lamp black is a pigment (or ink) named as it was original gathered from the soot produced in oil lamps.

Black light is light beyond the visible spectrum, and first coined in 1927.

Black tie may have been worn before its first record of 1848, but is not used as a description for dress code until 1933.

Black hearted, describing one who is inherently cruel or malicious, first appears in 1792.

Black Hills in South Dakota – Doris Day once sang about wanting to be taken back to them – is a place name coming from Lakhota paha –sapa as the heavily forested sides of the hills appear dark from a distance.

Black Shirts is first adopted as the name of the Italian paramilitary unit founded by Mussolini in 1922, albeit this three years after their founding. It is simply a reference to the colour of their uniform.

Blackball is to exclude (usually by voting). First seen in 1770, it refers to exclusion by a secret ballot.

Blacklist, names of those excluded or banned from something, appears as early as 1610, and had been inferred to more than twenty years earlier still in someone being ‘black booked’.

Blackout was first used in 1908 in referring to a darkened stage. The sense ‘loss of memory’ dates from 1934; ‘extinguishing lights in an air raid’ in 1935; and as early as 1888 to refer to blacked out information in a written document because deemed objectionable, sensitive, or secret.

Blackguard’s origins are unclear, but we do know it appears in writing in the 1530s when it was used to mean ‘scoundrel’. Not until 1736 did it have the modern sense of ‘criminal, coarse person’.

Black comedy has certainly been around for centuries, but was not described as such before 1961. Prior to that the term used would be gallows humour, seen since the 19th century, and the change may have been inspired by the French expression comedie noire, first recorded in 1958, although the French ‘black comedy’ referred to a ‘macabre or farcical rendering of a violent or tragic theme’.

Blackmail is first recorded around 1550 – the term from Old English mal and Middle English male meaning ‘lawsuit’ – and originally referred to money (or goods) paid in what would today be seen as a protection racket. The modern sense of ‘blackmail’ is not seen until 1826. It is also worthwhile mentioning the sixteenth century terms ‘silver mail’, rent paid in money rather than in goods, and the indiscretion resulting in a fine for fornication known as ‘buttock mail’.

Black hole first appears in 1968 in a paper on astrophysics. It is often said the original series of Star Trek is the first use of the term ‘black hole’, but this is not the case – in the episode entitled The Arena, first broadcast in January 1967, the term used in ‘black planet’, which is clear, in the context of the story, not the same thing. The term may have been inspired by the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta of 19 June 1756, when the Newab of Bengal retaliated against the British capturing Fort William by imprisoning 146 British Prisoners of War in a punishment cell overnight. That cell was designed to hold just four individuals and only 23 were alive when released.

Black coffee was certainly drunk before 1796, but is not referred to as such before then. Note, the sense of ‘black’ coffee is not thought to have referred to coffee without milk (or cream) but with nothing added at all.