Old Wives Tales

A few will be aware I have been known to speak on various subjects over the years. Fundamentally these all revolve around my favourite subject of etymology. Have always enjoyed bringing this fascinating subject to others. It’s not for me to say whether the audiences have, although many have asked me to return.

Thought it might be worthwhile sharing a snippet or two from these etymological presentations, continuing with Old Wives Tales. I can't tell you who the old wife was or why she had so many strange ideas, but I can tell you a whole host of ideas which until quite recently were considered all part of life's lessons. There are also those which, with the best will in the world, will dumbfound as to why anyone would ever find these 'truths' credible. There is a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this talk if required.

Walking under a ladder. The most obvious reason is in case someone up the ladder drops something on you. Yet the most oft repeated story comes from the medieval idea of the triangle formed by the ladder, wall and floor was seen as representative of the Holy Trinity and to walk through was to break it.

Opening an umbrella inside is a major taboo and another which is among the most often quoted. Of course it is utter gibberish and, statistically speaking, there is no evidence to suggest opening an umbrella indoors has brought about any more woes than opening it outside or never even owning one. Prior to researching this myth the author assumed it to be a modern idea, simply because the umbrella was a modern invention. Yet there are images from the ancient city of Nineveh, which dates from as far back as 6000BC, depicting same. In truth the earliest umbrellas were actually parasols, designed to shade from the sun, and would never close nor would they ever prove particularly useful if used to create a personal and portable rain shelter. Opening umbrellas date from the nineteenth century, the earliest being much larger than today as they were designed to cover a man, his wife and their children. Houses were also much smaller in those days and opening the umbrella indoors was probably considered bad as doing so would be almost certain to break something. Thus for most of its existence it has not been unlucky to open an umbrella indoors, it has been impossible.

Placing a hat on a bed is unacceptable and sure to bring misfortune. Certain to bring bad luck it seems but the origin of this idea is not certain at all, there being many ideas as to why. The most obvious is probably because it is disrespectful to wear a hat indoors and nobody would wear a hat in bed. There is also the idea that a hat is normally not the cleanest item worn, it costs to have a hat cleaned properly, and thus could harbour pests and particularly lice. Those pests are not what would be welcome in a bed.

If you think you know someone who would like to hear me speak on this subject, drop me a line.

That's not what I meant (Q)

I always enjoy a quiz, but I don't think I would have been as keen on the eighteenth-century descriptions.

Quaint is today used to refer to something out of the ordinary but visually acceptable. In the thirteenth century it was used to mean 'skilled' or 'elegant' or 'proud' and even 'fastidious'.

Queues are something the British are known to enjoy, except by the British, but when it first came to English from the French it meant 'tail'.

Quick is seen in Old English where it meant 'alive', unlike the modern 'rapid, speedy'.

Quilts are those covers which keep us warm but, when the term is first seen in the thirteenth century, it referred to something under the sleeper - in fact, what we would call a mattress.

Quite was first used in the fourteenth century to mean 'absolutely', as in "I'm quite alone". While that sense is still used today, it is also used to mean 'fairly, rather.'

Quiz is a knowledge test today, or perhaps as a verb can be used to mean 'cross-examine'. But as recently as the eighteenth century described 'an eccentric one' and even 'one who ridicules'.

That was not what I meant. (D)

Another group of words where the use has changed over the years. It still happens, for example 'smart' is more often used as a synonym for 'clever' rather than 'soreness'.

Danger, in thirteenth century England, this word referred to 'dominion, power of the master'. Later uses included 'difficult to deal with' and reluctant to comply' before the modern sense of 'liable to cause injury' came about from the fourteenth century.

Demise today is associated with death, yet in the sixteenth century it was a legal term meaning 'transfer of an estate'.

Devious is today used to describe someone who is less than trustworthy. Historically, it was used to mean 'out of the way' or perhaps 'remote', Then, from the sixteenth century, it came to be used in the sense of 'straying' or even 'erring'.

Dial is probably one of the easiest words in this list to understand, today referring to a clockface (archaically also used for tuning a radio), but in antiquity it was used for what we would today call a 'sundial'. Interesting to note that in the push button age, we still 'dial' a telephone number even though the dial is long defunct.

Disaster is from the Greek and means 'bad star', which was the original English usage, too.

Disease, like the previous word, features the prefix 'dis' as in 'bad' or 'ill'. Indeed, the latter is exactly how it was used at first in English, to be 'ill at ease', which is just how you might feel if you had a disease today.

Dismal might be a synonym for 'dreary' today, but when first used in English was, just as in the original Latin, 'bad days'.

Dissolve might refer to anything being soluble today (although one can also dissolve into tears), but historically was used to mean 'release from life'.

Divan has evolved to refer to a couch or more often a bed, but began as something quite different in 'a book of accounts'.

Doodle began in the seventeenth century, when it did not mean 'to draw absentmindedly' but described a 'fool' or 'simpleton'. It is derived from the Low German dudeltopf.

Drab may not be complimentary when it comes to clothing, but it did begin as a word referring to cloth, coming to English from the French drap.

Dutch describes anyone or anything from the Netherlands (also known as Holland), but began as an error in fourteenth century English when they were describing Netherlanders as Deutsch or 'German'.

Dwell now means 'reside, live', but was originally used in English to mean 'to go astray', almost the reverse.