Book Idioms

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

Book is also used to refer to a record of bets made, this is first seen in 1812. Although ‘bookmaker’ is seen as early as 1862.

Book of life dates from the middle of the 14th century.

Nobody had the book thrown at them (in a legal sense) before 1932.

Nobody did anything ‘by the book’ until the 1590s.

Book-burning used to be a fairly common phrase, this from a time when it would have limited access to what some might consider inappropriate material, and first seen in 1850.

Domesday Book, a record dated 1086, but the first time anyone used the phrase was in 1178.

The red book, a list of peerages, is seen in 1788; but the more famous Little Red Book (Chairman Mao) comes from 1967.

The term schoolbook first appears in 1709.

Copybooks made their debut in the 1580s.

Fieldbooks, used by naturalists, is seen from 1848.

Bookplates have been written about since 1791.

Nobody used a cheque book until 1872.

Scrap books have been known since 1821.

Matchbook, which contains matches, is seen from 1913.

We have seen songbooks since the late 15th century.

Storybooks have been seen since 1711, these always then referring to books for children.

Bookends have been utilized for many years, and certainly predate the first written mention in 1907.

Textbooks have existed since 1779.

Bookkeepers have been known since the 1550s.

Head Idioms

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

Head count has been used since the late 13th century, albeit for most of that time used when counting animals, particularly livestock.

Over one’s head is first seen in the 1620s.

Heads never rolled until 1930, when it was a direct translation of a comment from none other than Adolf Hitler.

Head case is first used in 1966.

Head game, as in playing with someone’s mind, is first recorded in 1972.

People have been putting their heads together since the late 14th century.

To head up, as in to lead or supervise, comes from 1930.

Heading, as in the title of some printed text, dates from 1849.

Head hunters were first mentioned in 1800, but these were actually gathering heads as trophies or religious rites, but not until 1918 was it a reference to looking for potential employees, and even then it was rare until 1961.

Head on, as in ‘facing’, is seen from 1840.

Arrowheads date from the late 15th century, although the weapon will have been used for millennia before that.

Head pieces have been worn since the 1530s.

Headrests have been described since 1833.

Head over heels has been used since 1726, but known as heels over head (which makes more sense) since the late 14th century.

Headgear has been worn since the 1530s.

The head-dress has been known since 1703.

Matchheads, the bit on the match which is struck to create a flame, is known from 1860.

Letterheads have been described as such since 1868.

Head shrinkers have been spoken of since 1926, that in the literal sense, with the slang for psychologist first seen in 1950.

Headlong has been known since the late 14th century, when it meant specifically falling forward, while headfirst was used for falling downward. Note other similar expressions have largely become obsolete: darling, backling, flatling, while sidelong is rapidly falling out of use.

Headbutts are first described in 1935.

Spearheads are first described around 1400, but the figurative sense had to wait until 1938.

Beachhead is not seen before 1940.

Double-header was used in the USA to refer to a train pulled by two locomotives from 1869, and from 1890 is used to speak of two games in a sport played at the same venue on the same day.

Nobody had a headstone until 1400, and then it was only used as an alternative to cornerstone. Not until 1775 did it come to be used instead of gravestone.

Headbands have been worn since the 1530s.

Headroom, ie the space available above one’s head, is first seen in 1851.

Headstrong first appears in print in the late 14th century, earlier the term had been head-bold.

And finally, to give head first appears in print in 1950.

Wood Idioms

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

Can’t see the wood for the trees is said to have first appeared in print in 1546, used in John Heywood’s Prouerbes in the English Tongue.

Out of the woods, a way to say ‘safe’, is most often used when describing a patient who is on the road to recovery. I found it surprising to learn it appears in print as early as 1792.

Matchwood, first seen around 1390 to describe small pieces of wood used as kindling, took on the use of small fragments of wood in 1791.

Heartwood, that central portion of the tree, is found as late as 1400.

Deadwood, as used to refer to something useless, is found from 1887.

Nobody collected driftwood before 1660 – at least they certainly collected it but did not refer to it as such.

Similarly firewood is not found in writings until the late 14th century, and yet humans must have been burning the stuff from the time when they first tamed fire.

Woodpeckers have only been known as such since 1520 – prior to that a variety of dialect terms were used including laughing Betsey, taffingale, yappingale, Jack Eikle, rainbird, weather cock, wet bird, and (as featured in that well-liked BBC series for children named Bagpuss) yaffle.

Nobody played a woodwind instrument until 1876, again used prior to that but not referred to as such.

Knock on wood is in print from the 19th century, but is believed to originate with the Druids more than two thousand years ago.

Put wood in the hole (or shut the door) is a phrase of uncertain origins, although I can guarantee it was not used before doors were used.

Come out of the woodwork – something long-lost relatives did on American soap operas -

Wooden spoon, is to come last in a competition, is said to have originated in the early 19th century at Cambridge University and an award given to the student coming last in the mathematics tripos – a course taught specifically at Cambridge.

And I could not resist putting in ‘shiver me timbers’, a phrase synonymous with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island - although he also uses ‘shiver me sides’ and ‘shake up me timbers’ – yet the first appearance in print is in 1834 when Captain Frederick Marryat published Jacob Faithful.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: M

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

M is for match, the comparison or the little stick for producing fire, came to English from each of the two main Western European language groups - Germanic and Latin respectively. Taking the Germanic first, we find Old English maecca 'companion, mate, wife, husband'; Proto-Germanic gamakon 'fitting well'; and Proto-Indo-European mag 'to knead, fashion'.

The fire lighter came to English from Old French meiche 'wick of a candle'; Latin myxa and Greek myxa both meaning 'lamp wick', but the latter also used to refer to 'mucus' (yes, as in snot); and all based on the Proto-Indo-European meug 'slimy, slippery'.

Etymology: Homonyms and Homographs

Whilst I am always interested in learning new words, it is the never so much the meaning as the origins which intrigue me. A couple of years ago I looked at words with different usages, despite sounding the same or having identical spellings. Were there two completely different origins and the identical spelling is pure coincidence or has the word simply been used to mean two different things?

Here are another selection and, having done A to K before, now continue with a selection of others:

Lead has one spelling and two pronunciations: rhyming with 'head' and it is a heavy metal, a word of uncertain origin but one which in Germanic languages is related to words meaning 'weight, plummet'. The latter is clearly related to the Latin word for lead, plumbum, which has also given it the chempical symbol Pb. Used to rhyme with 'heed' it means 'to guide, in front of'. Here the word is derived from Germanic and Proto-Indo-European where the meaning wa s'to go forth'.

Left can be the opposite of right or the past participle of remain. The former is from related Germanic tongues such as Old English, Frisian, Old Dutch, etc., where the original sense was 'weak, foolish'

Light as in illumination or the opposite of heavy. The noun is derived from the verb, the earliest man-mad illumination being fire, hence this comes from Proto-Indo-European leuk and meaning 'brightness'. As an adjective the source is Proto-Indo-European legwh, with early derivatives used to mean 'agile, quick'. As Proto-Indo-European words the difference in pronunciation would have been evident, it is only that modern pronunciations are identical and not deliberately so, for the two words have nothing else in common.

Long can be used to mean 'not short' and 'to yearn'. The linear ,eaning comes from Proto-Indo-European dlonghos, used to mean 'distant, remote' as well as 'long, extended'. As a verb meaning 'to grieve, yearn' it likely comes from an early loan from the idea of remoteness, as in the sense of something not near.

Lie, be it an untruth or to be horizontal, have quite different origins. The recumbent position can be traced through the Germanic tongues, where the use is more in the sense of 'to remain', back to Proto-Indo-European legh when, conversely, it did originally mean 'to lie down'. The falsehood sense is also Germanic, giving words used in Old Norse, Dutch, Danish, Old Frisian, Old High German, Old Saxon and Old English - all the earliest uses meant 'deceive' or 'betray'.

Match has no less than three different meanings. Firstly as a verb, used in the sense of 'evenly matched' it came from one the noun meaning 'equal'. Prior to the Middle English macche meaning 'equal', the wod had very different meanings: Old English maecca 'companion, mate, wife, husband'; Old High German gimah 'comfort, ease'; German gemach 'easy, leisurely'; Proto-Germanic gamakon 'fitting well together'; and right back to Proto-Indo-European mag 'toknead, fashion, fit'. In the sense of the match as a method of producing fire we find: Old French meiche referred to 'the wick of a candle'; Greek myxa 'lamp wick' and originally 'mucus'; and thus Proto-Indo-European meug 'slimy, slippery'. To see why 'wick' and 'mucus' might have a common root we need to forget the candle wick and see the wick of an oil lamp, which dangles from the spout of the lamp.

May, a verb meaning 'having the power' or 'to be able', has hardly changed at all in pronunciation throughout the evolution of the Germanic languages and back as far as Proto-Indo-European magh, all having the same meaning. When it comes to the fifth month of the year, the origin is from that other major western European language family, the Latin group. Here the French Mai comes from Latin Maius, thought to be the Roman earth goddess Maja, Maia. This wife of Vulcan, her name may (pun intended) be derived from Proto-Indo-European meg or 'great'.

Mole can be a skin blemish, in which case the name is Germanic and from Proto-Germanic mailan 'spot, mark' and Proto-Indo-European mai 'stain, defile'; and also a small burrowing insectivorous mammal. The mammal is probably from a Germanic root of mold 'loose earth', itself leading to the now obsolete term moldwarp 'earth thrower'.

All these examples have one thing in common, they are all monosyllabic. And that is the reason for the different meanings and origins. With only five vowels (six if you count 'y') and twenty-one consonants there is a finite number of sounds which can be made when the words only have one syllable.