Day Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘night’ and now look at ‘day’.

Day-to-day, meaning ‘daily’, has been known since early Saxon times, although today we would use day-by-day and we have since the late 14th century.

All day meaning ‘all the time’ dates from the 14th century.

Nobody described a day from work as ‘a day off’ until 1883.

The Beatles may have released Day Tripper in 1966, but the term had been used since 1897.

Nowadays may be perceived as a fairly modern term, and yet it has been recorded for at least eight centuries.

All in a day’s work dates from around 1820.

While it may seem to be as much a list of song titles, these are idioms, and next is Those Were the Days, first seen in 1907 and a Paul McCartney song recorded by Mary Hopkin in 1969.

Buddy Holly recorded That’ll be the Day as Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes in 1956, and as Buddy Holly and the Crickets the following year. This is not long after the first record of the phrase, in 1941.

Nobody called it a day until 1919, although earlier we had been calling it a half day since 1838.

One of These Days, a 1971 track from Pink Floyd, dates from the late 15th century.

Nobody had one of those days for the first time in 1936. And in 2002 Whitney Houston recorded One of Those Days

Daydreams have been recorded since the 1680s.

Daymares, ie nightmares while awake, have been written about since 1737.

May Day has been celebrated throughout Europe to mark the opening of the season of flowers and fruit. May Day is marked on the First of May, another song, this released in 1969 by the Bee Gees.

No child was put in daycare until 1943.

Boxing Day is the first weekday after Christmas (you can’t have Boxing Day on a Sunday) is first spoken of in 1809, although the custom giving its name is certainly much older.

Quarter Days – Lady Day on March 25th; Midsummer Day on June 24th, Michaelmas Day on September 29th, and Christmas Day on December 25th – mark the four dates when contracts and leases begin or expire in England. Scotland marks the same days as the pre-Christian calendar of Candlemas, Whitsunday, Lammas, and Martinmas.

The present day has been spoken of since 18970.

Play days, now associated with children, has been said to be a day exempt from work since around 1600.

Latterday is a term dating from 1842, this taken directly from the Jesus Christ Church of Latterday Saints in 1830.

Bank Holiday

This year, when we had an extra bank holiday in June to mark the Platinum Jubilee of her Majesty, we in England have an extra day added to the eight we normally get, Scotland get nine annually, and Northrn Ireland ten each year. It is no coincidence that I mention Bank Holidays, for it was 150 years this year that the first bank holiday was celebrated in the UK.

As Christmas Day and Good Friday had been common law holidays for hundreds of years, the idea of a Bank Holiday gave nominated days in the calendar the same status - that no payments or perform any task could be forced upon anyone that could not be forced on them on Christmas Day or Good Friday. Introduced by Liberal politican Sir John Lubbock, the Act dated December 1871 gave Easter Monday, Whit Monday, Boxing Day and the First Monday in August as holidays in England, Wales and Ireland; while Scotland had New Year's Day, Good Friday, First Monday in May, First Monday in August, and Christmas Day.

Since then St Patrick's Day was added in Ireland in 1903, New Year's Day in England in 1974; and Boxing Day in Scotland also added in 1974. From 1965, and initially as an experiment, the August Bank Holiday was moved to the last Monday in August in order to shorten the gap between August Bank Holiday and Christmas. For those first few years, Parliament would announce the date of August Bank Holiday each year. Yet the date would be based on the last Saturday in August, which resulted in August Bank Holiday in the years 1968 and 1969 falling in September. Eventually England, Wales and ireland had the August Bank Holiday moved permanently to the end of August, although Scotland retains the original first Monday to this day.

St Andrews Day has been a bank holiday in Scotland since 2007, and there is currently talk of doing the same for St George's Day in England and St David's Day in Wales. Correctly these, and the other days, are no longer bank holidays, for the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 was repealed in 1971 and superseded by the Banking and Financial Dealings Act of 1971. No surprise that title never caught on.

Romania Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Romanian cities.

Bucharest is traditionally associated with Bucur, said to be a prince, fisherman, shepherd or a hunter - depending upon who you listen to. His name is more likely from bucurie, a Dacian word telling of 'the city of joy'.

Cluj-Napoca is thought to combine the Greek napos 'timbered valley' with Slavic kluc 'mountain pass'.

Timisoara is a Romanian version of the earlier Hungarian name of Temesvar, itself from var or 'castle on the River Timis', the river name possibly meaning 'winding'.

Iasi has several theories as to the origin of the name, including the Sarmatian tribe Iazyges, or the Alanic Jassi tribe, or even jassic market.

Constanta is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Romania, it is named to honour the Constantia, half-sister of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (274-337).

Craiova has two equally plausible origins, either Old Slavonic kral 'king' or krajina 'border, edge'.

Brasov is said to come from the Latin corona or 'crown' in a 13th century work, supposedly a reference to St Catherine's Monastery. Other sources point to the city's coat of arms and the German name for the place Kronstadt meaning 'crown city'.

Galati comes from the Cuman word galat and ultimately from Persian kalat, both meaning 'fortress'.

Bacau, appearing earlier as Bako, Bakova and Bakovia, is likely derived from a personal name. Just which individual named Bako the place refers to is a mystery, it being a very common name. However we can speculate as to the origin of the personal name which may also be an alternative origin for the place name. Proto-Slavic byk meant 'ox' or 'bull' and could refer to this being an area known for rearing cattle.

Targu Mures translates as 'the market on the river Maros'.

Botosani is likely named after a family named Botas, they first recorded in the 15th century along with Prince Stephen the Great.

Satu Mare is another from a personal name and speaks of 'Zotmar's fort'.

Drobeta-Turnu Severin takes the last two elements from Old Church Slavonic severno turnu 'the north tower and added to the Roman name of the city, itself of uncertain origin.

Suceava is a Romania rendering of the Hungarian Szucsvar, where szucs and var 'castle of the furrier'.

Piatra Neamt takes its first element from the Romanian for 'rock' and adds the name of the county in which it is found. The place has also been known as Patria lui Craciun or 'Christmas rock', and Targu Piatra 'market rock'.

Targoviste is from the Old Bulgarian and refers to itself as 'the marketplace'.

Bistrita is from the name of the river, itself from the Slavic bystrica 'fast-moving water'.

Resita probably comes from the Latin recitia or 'cold spring'.

Slatina is of Slavic origin and refers to 'the marsh, swamp'.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Do You Speak Reindeer?

It's that time of year when certain individuals get to don a certain suit of red. One of the delights of such is hearing what the little ones want for Christmas and having no idea what it is. Requests from more mature individuals have included a blonde of 18 and a Land Rover. Why she wanted an inexperienced driver for such a car when surely half the pleasure is in driving it, I have no idea.

As always I was stumped by one question. A young chap asking "What language does the reindeer speak?" I told him "reindeer" and moved the conversation quickly on. But it did get me thinking as to what animals are heard to sound like in other languages. A quick search failed to reveal anything about speaking reindeer, but I did find this fascinating list of dogs barking, ducks quacking and frogs croaking in other languages.

These alternative sounds can be found here'

Haiti Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the largest Haitian cities.

Port-au-Prince - since at least 1680 the islets were known as Les Ilets du Prince 'the islands of the prince', then French colonial commissioner Etienne Polverel named the largest settlement Port-Republican on 23rd September 1793 so, as he told the assemblage "the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which the French Revolution imposed on them". Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti, changed the name to its current meaning of 'port of the prince' as soon as he could. This is a much more interesting and accurate explanation than the idea the place was named by Captain Saint-Andre who named the place in 1706 when he landed here in his vessel Le Prince.

Carrefour - simply the French word for 'crossroads'.

Petion-Ville - named after Alexandre Sabes Petion (1770-1818), Haitian general and president and one of the nation's four founding fathers.

Cite Soleil - translates as 'Sun City'.

Port-de-Paix - means 'port of peace'.

Gros-Morne - means 'big mountain'.

Les Cayes - a cay is a small, low-lying, sandy island forming on a coral reef.

Limonade - wonderfully named and meaning 'lemonade', it can boast as being the first place in the Americas ever to celebrate Christmas, doing so in 1492 when none other than Christopher Columbus himself. According to Wikipedia nothing else happened until 1794, when the Haitian revolutionary hero Francois Capois died. This followed by 218 years of more nothing until the completion of of the Universite Roi Henri Christophe in 2012.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.