Night Idioms

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

While we think of ‘night’ as the last hours at the end of the day, historically the night preceded the day. Thus Monday night began when the sun went down on Sunday – and we still use the phrase ‘at the end of the day’. This was true for all European cultures except for the Greeks, who ignore the night and started their days at sunrise.

Night soil - excrement to you and me – is first recorded around 1770.

Night train - ie a service timetabled to run only after dark – appears as early as 1838, not that long after the first train services were running.

Night school is referred to as early as 1520.

Night life, meaning ‘habitual nocturnal carousing’, is seen from 1852.

Goodnight has been wished since 1896, while what is seen today as the more childish ‘nighty-night’ is recorded earlier, in 1876.

Nightwatchmen have been described since around 1200.

Nightlights have been employed since 1851 in the modern sense, but the term has been seen since the 1640s when it referred to any faint light in the night sky.

People have worked the nightshift since 1839, but the term had been used since 1710 when it referred to a garment worn by women when in bed.

Nighthawk has been used since 1610, a reference to any bird abroad at night but especially the nightjar; not until 1818 was it used to refer to one active at night.

Night-work has been seen since the 1590s, but this represented a return for the Saxons wrote about those jobs done during the hours of darkness as nihtweorc.

Fly-by-night has been used to describe someone who leaves a job or task rather hastily; but earlier, and since 1796, it was a slang term for a woman deemed to be a witch.

Nobody stayed anywhere overnight before 1959, although the term had been used to mean simply ‘one night’ since the early 14th century.

Tonight has only been one word since the early 20th century, for two hundred years it had been hyphenated as to-night, and from the 14th century had always been two words.

Nightshade, that deadly plant, has been known as such since around 1500.

Midnight oil has been burned since the 1630s.

Nightingales have been known as such since the Saxons arrived on English shores.

Dutch nightingale is not a bird but a frog.

Nightingale floor has been used since 1796 by the Japanese to describe creaking floorboards.

Nobody had a nightcap until 1818, prior to that it had been worn on the head in bed.

Fortnight has been used for around 1,500 years.

Nightmares have been around since 1300, although originally it referred to an evil female spirit afflicting men and horses in their sleep by making them feel as if they were being suffocated. The sense of ‘bad dream’ is seen from 1829, and two years later was being used to refer to any bad experience.

Nightgowns have been around since the early 15th century.

The first nightclubs opened in 1894.

Allnighters were known from 1870, but referred to anything taking up the whole night, while from 1930 it had the modern sense of referring specifically to a person staying up all night.

And my personal favourite, which should certainly be making a comeback, for while we all refer to yesterday in the modern era, a thousand years ago we also referred to yesternight.

South Africa 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 South African cities.

Johannesburg is clearly 'the burg of a man named Johannes', however just which Johannes is a controversial question as there are several contenders including Christiaan Johannes Joubert, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, Johannes Meyer, and Johannes Rissik. Perhaps Joubert, who had a park named after him, and Rissik, who had a street named after him, are the leading contenders.

Cape Town is of obvious derivation for it is a town on the capr of Africa. Of some interest is the origin of 'cape', initially used to refer to the cloak with a hood, which shares its origin with 'cap' and is ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European word kaput which means 'head'.

Durban was named for Benjamin D'Urban (1777-1849), a British general and colonial administrator who served as governor of what was then known as Cape Colony. The Zulu name is eThekwini from itheku meaning 'bay' or perhaps 'lagoon'.

Pretoria was named for Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius (1798-1853), leader of the Boers in their creation of the South African Republic.

Port Elizabeth was named for Elizabeth Frances (nee Markham), wife of Eufane Shaw Donkin, acting Governor of Cape Colony.

Vereeniging's name is derived from the Dutch meaning 'association' or perhaps 'union'.

Soshanguve is a modern name and an acronym of SOtho, SHAngaan, NGUni and VEnda. These combine to show the many ethnic groups integrating here.

East London was originally known as Port Rex, a reference to colonial days, but later renamed after the British capital. Click and scroll down to see what I've previously said about London and the origins of its name.

Bloemfontein is Dutch for 'fountain of flowers' or 'blooming fountain'.

Pietermaritzburg's name, like Johannesburg, is disputed. Some maintain it comes from a combination of Piet Retief, a former Voortrekker leader, and Gert Maritz, also a Voortrekker leader and wagon builder. Others point out it could also refer to the Piet alone, as his full name was Pieter Maurits Retief, and thus Piet Maurits Burg would also work.

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

A Complete Suit of Armour

Yesterday, wearing my hat as a part of Tamworth Literary Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of successful authors. Among them was Christina Smee, author of The Rose of Middleham. She is also the mother of Dominic Smee, who was featured in Channel 4's recreation of Richard III and who is currently raising money to reproduce the king's suit of armour. At Tamworth Literary Festival we are planning a one-off event later this year to allow by Christina and Dominic to show the people of Tamworth to hear their remarkable story.

On hearing the various parts of the suit of armour mentioned, and being fascinated by the development of words, I soon began looking at the etymologies of some of the many terms used for parts of a suit of armour, and beginning with .....

Armour, and obviously the parts going to make it, as we most commonly perceive it was brought to England by the Normans. The earliest surviving use in English dates from 1297, coming from the Old French amure and derived from the Latin armatura meaning 'arms and/or equipment' and from the root armare 'arms or gear'. Note it is only in recent times we have used 'suit of armour', for most of its life it has simply been 'armour'.

Armet is a bowl-shaped helmet covering the entire head and does not have a visor, but folding panels at the cheeks. Clearly the term shares its etymology with the word 'armour'.

Aventail is a piece of chainmail attached to the skull of the helmet covering the neck, throat and shoulders. It comes from the Old French esventail meaning 'air hole'.

Baldric, which is undoubtedly going to prove the most popular in this list, is a belt worn over the shoulder and thus little surprise to find it is from the Old French baldre meaning 'shoulder belt' and a variation on the original Latin balteus meaning 'belt'.

Brassard, that part protecting the arm, comes from Old French bras ard meaning literally 'arm hard'.

Breastplate is clearly a combination of two monosyllablic words. Thus taking each in turn we find the earliest root of 'breast' to be the Proto-Indo-European bhreus meaning 'to swell, sprout'. Oddly 'plate' is a much more recent word - as a table utensil unknown until the 15th century - and originally used to mean anything flat, it comes from the Greek platys 'flat, broad'.

Burgonet is another bowl-shaped helmet but with the distinctive crest. Despite this only being from the 16th century the origins are not clear, however this could be a feminine version of bourgignot and thus 'the Burgundian'.

Coif is the balaclava-like hood of mail, this from Old French coife and other contemporary terms sharing a meaning of 'cap'.

Cuirass is a breastplate, although also used to describe both breast and back plates together. It comes from Latin coriacea vestis 'garment of leather' and earlier from corium 'leather' or 'hide'.

Helm and helmet have idential origins, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European kel meaning 'to cover, hide'.

Cervelliere is derived from Old French cervel meaning 'brain, head' and is the steel cap worn under the helm.

Bassinet is more headwear and easily seen as coming from the same source as 'basin' and ultimately from bacca 'water vessel'.

Culet is the skirt-like strips of metal covering the buttocks and derived from Old French cul 'bottom' and ultimately from Latin culus 'arse'.

Gauntlet, most often used today as part of a phrase meaning a challenge, is from Proto-Germanic wantuz 'glove'.

Gorget is the name given to the steel collar attached to the top of the breast and back plates. It is derived from Latin collare 'necklace band', earlier kwol-o 'neck' and itself from the root kwel 'move about, turn'.

Hauberk, also recorded as Haubergeon, is a coat of mail which lengthened over the centuries until it came to the knee. Possibly the name tells us the earliest forms had no sleeves, thus really a cape of mail, as the name shares an origin with the previous entry where Proto-Germanic hwals and Proto-Indo-European kwolso referred to the 'neck'.

Tuille are the bands hanging from the breastplate to protect the top of the legs. Here the origins are Old French teuille and Latin tegula meaning 'tile'.

Vambrace is the forearm guard and means just that - avant 'before' and bras 'an arm'.

Visor is from Old French visere and from vis or 'face'. Both are derived from Latin videre 'to see'.