Pink Idioms

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

Pink slip is a North American reference to dismissal from employment. First seen in 1915, sometimes the reference was to a signature from the employee stating they would leave the union.

Pink elephants are apparently an hallucination for those suffering a little too much to drink. The reference is first seen in 1913, when it appeared in Jack London’s John Barleycorn.

Pink eye is a contagious eye infection first named in 1882. Earlier, from 1570, it referred to a small eye.

Pink collar – if clerical jobs are white collar, and manual workers are described as blue collar, it is not hard to work out those jobs usually performed by or associated with women are pink collar jobs. This reference is first seen in 1977.

Nobody was tickled pink until 1909, although ‘tickled’ had been used to mean ‘pleased’ since 1580.

In the pink today means ‘in the best of health’ and has done since 1720. However there is an earlier reference from 1597, when someone called William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet when Mercurio spoke of himself as “Why, I am the very pinke of curesie” which was a reference to the acme, pinnacle, the best, rather than just to health.

Strike me pink is an expression of surprise attributed to the Australian vaudeville character Roy Rene around 1903. He would also use ‘strike me lucky’, ‘strike me….’ Well just about anything to get a laugh.

See pink spiders is used the same as pink elephants, but also used to refer to the hallucinations associated with withdrawal symptoms. The Pink Spiders was also the name of a band debuting in 2005.

Pink tax is a phrase from the USA in the 1990s when the Gender Tax Repeal Act of 1995 prohibited price discrimination meaning women did not pay more for goods.

Shrink it and pink it is a reference to a previous ploy by advertisers to make clothing more appealing to women, tactics such as relabelling a size 10 as a size 8.

Pink wave is a reference, chiefly in the USA, to a period seeing an abundance of female candidates for political office.

Pink slime is finely textured or ground meat – the phrase coined to question the quality of the product.

The pink dollar was first used in the 1990s in the USA to describe the spending potential of gay people in retail outlets.

Synonym Etymologies X

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter X and xanth. For once I am unable to offer synonyms, hence I chose 'xanth' as it has several uses. Best known would be as a colour, where it comes from the Greek xanthos 'yellow'.

Dalla xantha is a butterfly native to Colombia.

Xantha is also a girl's name, one most often given to those with blonde hair.

Caladenia xantha is native to Western Australia and has the common name primrose spider orchid.

Xantha is the home planet of Kurrgo, a character in the Marvel Comics series featuring the Fantastic Four.

Falsilunatia xantha is a species of predatory sea snail.

Xantha was a Greek and Bulgarian diesel ship designed to carry livestock, but has subsequently been renamed Solyst and later Sea Maid.

Eswatini 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 Eswatini or Swaziland cities.

Nhlangano is a name meaning 'meeting place'.

Piggs Peak is named after William Pigg, who discovered a gold reef here in March 1884.

Bulembu is named from the siSwati word for 'spider's web'. I don't care why, it's a fabulous idea.

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

Etymology for Entomologists

Recently talking to a represent of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust about the excellent work they do and offered to talk on the origins of some of the names of the animals whose habitat they help to both preserve and create. Here I take a look at the origins of the names of insects, but if you're interested in hearing how other creatures got their names, perhaps you would care to book me for a talk. And if you're missing the story behind the name of Butterflies and Moths, I covered these a few years ago.

Ant - a Germanic term, seen in Old English aemette which is why it is still known in the southwest of Britain as the 'emmet', and coming from the Germanic root ai 'off, away' and Proto-Indo-European mai 'to cut' (a word which has also given us 'maim'). Thus the ant or emmet is actually 'the biter-off', a reference to how the creatures chop up larger prey to take back to their nests.

Aphid - the gardener's traditional enemy has an odd name which has never been understood. It is unknown before 1758, the colloquial name of ant-cow from 1847, when it was apparently coined by Linnaeus as aphides, the plural of aphis. Here the trail goes cold, although it has been suggested this comes from Greek apheides meaning 'unsparing, lavishly bestowed' and a reference to its unbelievable rate of production. While this etymology seems plausible there is nothing to show it to be true. What is true is their prodigous breeding capability for, under optimal conditions and with no predation, disease. parasites, and unlimited food supplies, a single female aphid can, through asexual reproduction, theoretically produce 600,000,000,000 (six hundred billion) descendants in a single season. Now you see why insects have been suggested as the answer to the world's food problem - although it doesn't answer the question the aphids ask about their food problem.

Bee - since humanity's days as hunter-gatherers honey will have been an important natural resource. Freely available, albeit not easily gathered, nutritious, sweet (and who doesn't like sweet), and with a long shelf life, it was the answer to many needs. Hence there has been a long association with the bee and that is reflected in the name. Coming from Old English beo, Old Norse by, Old High German bia, Middle Dutch bie, Proto-Germanic bion, and Proto-Indo-European bhei, all mean simply 'bee' and thus the name of this now worryingly endangered insect has not only never changed but has always been imitative of the buzzing sound associated with it.

Beetle - from Old English bitela, itself from Proto-Germanic bitel 'biting', and ultimately traceable to the Proto-Indo-European bheid 'to split' and referring to the formidable mandibles of beetles.

Caterpillar - the larval stage of butterflies and moths does not have a name it can call its own for, no matter what it is known as and from what language, the creature is always alluded to as resembling something else. For example, the English 'caterpillar' came from Old French chatepelose or 'shaggy cat'. Nothing different in other tongues, Swiss German teufelskatz 'devil's cat', Milanese cagnon 'little dog', Italian gattola 'little cat', Portuguese lagarta 'lizard', and Kentish where it was either a 'hop-dog' or 'hop-cat'.

Centipede - simply unites Latin centum and Proto-Indo-European ped 'foot' - although known centipedes have anything from 30 to 354 legs (or 15 to 177 pairs) and always an odd number of pairs of legs and therefore no centipede can have a hundred legs (see also millipede).

Chafer - a kind of beetle taking its name for a similar reason. Here Proto-Germanic kabraz meant 'gnawer' and came from Proto-Indo-European geph 'jaw, mouth'.

Cricket - comes from the Old French criquet from criquer, which means exactly what it sounds like 'creak, rattle'.

Dragonfly - is a fairly modern name, dating from the early 17th century and an example of folklore more than its earlier name of adderbolt, a good description of its shape and movement.

Earwig - named because it was thought the the wicga 'beetle, worm, insect' would be likely to hide inside the human ear - French perce-oreille and German ohr-wurm give the same warning - although there is not a single recorded instance of any earwig found in any earhole throughout the entire human history. The term wicga shares an origin with 'wiggle' in Proto-Indo-European wegh 'to go, move'. Also worth noting is the old dialect term from the north of England, where it was known as a 'twitch-ballock'.

Flea - see 'fly' below.

Fly - this is from the sense of movement through air, but this comes from the word 'flee' (as is 'flea' above) as it was the fastest means of escape. Here 'flee' comes from Proto-Indo-European pleuk, from the root pleu 'to flow'.

Gnat - shares a root with 'gnaw' as this means 'biter' but understood as 'little biter'.

Grasshopper - is basically the same thing as a locust, except from time to time the locust form vast swarms. The name is obvious, unlike the locust (see below), referring to its movement and habitat.

Greenfly - obviously some are indeed green and they are capable of flight.

Grub - derived from the verb and thus 'the digging insect', in turn this is from Proto-Indo-European ghrebh 'to dig, bury'.

Hornet - there is no doubting this is from 'horn', but whether this refers to the instrument and thus the buzzing sound of the creature or to the sharp feel of its sting is unknown. Interestingly as the first instruments known as horns were likened to the shape of the animal horn, both share an origin.

Katydid - named for the sound made when the male vibrates its wings. Of more interest is the alternative name for the insect, again imitative of the males but said to sound more like "Katy didn't".

Ladybird - or in the USA the ladybug, the latter are far more sensible name as it clearly is not a bird - although better still was the earlier name of 'ladyfly'. The 'lady' here is the Virgin Mary, which can be seen better in the German Marienkafer.

Locust - shares an origin with the name of the lobster, indeed the French form is languste and the Latin locusta meaning both 'locust' and 'lobster'. Now onbviously it referred to any multi-limbed creature with an external skeleton but, other than that, the etymology is a mystery. Note the Latin lacerta is the only other word known to refer to two quite different creatures, in this case the lizard and the mackerel.

Louse - a parasitic insect and one which has been with humankind for so long its name has never changed, at least not since Proto-Indo-European lus.

Mantis - often referred to as a 'praying mantis', where the first element is superfluous as the name 'mantis' comes from the Greek mantis meaning 'one who divines, prophet'.

Millipede - as with centipede (see above) this combines Latin and Proto-Indo-European to give 'a thousand feet', although the most ever discovered had 750 feet.

Mite - can be traced to Proto-Indo-European mei 'small', something which is seen as another meaning of the word 'mite' today. And before anyone points this out, I know a mite is an arachnid, not an insect.

Mosquito - is a Spanish word, itself derived from Latin musca 'fly' and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European mu 'gnat, fly'.

Nit - little change in this, the egg of the louse (see above), since Proto-Indo-European knid which referred to exactly the same thing today.

Spider - an obvious name when we realise this can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European spen meaning 'stretch, draw, spin' and thus the spider is literally 'the spinner'. And before anyone points this out, I know a spider is an arachnid, not an insect.

Tarantula - named from the seaport city of Taranto in southern Italy where these spiders are frequently found, as a place name it is thought to come from darandos 'oak trees'. And before anyone points this out, I know a trarantula is an arachnid, not an insect.

Termite - began as the Latin terere 'to rub, erode', then termes 'woodworm, white ant', and then to Modern Latin termites, pronounced as three syllables: 'ter-mi-tees', which was mistakenly thought to be plural and the final 's' dropped to produce an apparent singular.

Wasp - no matter how far back we trace this word it, like 'bee' (see above), has only ever meant 'wasp'. It is likely related to webh meaning 'to weave' and a reference to the production of the nest.

Weevil - exactly as 'wasp' (see above) in coming from Proto-Indo-European webh 'to weave'.

Greenland 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 names of Greenland's settlements. Note there are only 74 in the entire country, of which less than half can boast a population of over two hundred.

Nuuk is from the local Kalaallisut word for 'cape', so-called because of its position on the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord.

Sisimiut is a delicious place name with a literal translation form the Kalaallisut tongue of 'the people of the fox burrows'.

Ilulissat is another Kalaallisut word, an apt one for this means 'icebergs'.

Aasiaat in Greenlandic means 'spiders', a literal translation ofter said to be because of its abundance of arachnids. This seems highly unlikely as even the modern heated town such creatures are rare.

Paamiut is a Kalaallisut word meaning 'those who reside by the mouth', this a reference to the estuary known as Kuannersooq meaning 'inlet'.

Narsaq is another name of Kalaallisut origin, this translating as 'plain' and a reference to the Tunulliarfik Fjord where it is situated.

Nanortalik comes from Greenlandic and translates as 'place of polar bears'.

Uummannaq is town on Uumannaq Island, itself named from Uummannaq mountain, a Greenlandic name meaning 'heart-shaped'. The mountain, with a cleft between its two summits, could be seen as heart-shaped if viewed from a particular part of the island.

Upernavik is a Kalaallisut word meaning 'springtime place', clearly named for being accessible in warmer months.

Kangerlussuaq is another from the Kalaallisut language, here meaning simply 'big fjord'.

Ittoqqortoomiit, which used to be known as Scoresbysund after the Arctic explorer and whaler William Scoresby, comes from the Eastern Greenlandic dialect and describes the 'big house dwellers'.

Kullorsuaq is again from Kalaallisut and means 'big thumb', a prominent pinnacle in the centre of the island known to the English as Devil's Thumb.

Kulusk continues the list of marvellous Kalaallisut names, this translating as 'chest of a black guillemot'.

Tasiusaq is again Kalaallisut and means 'bay with a small outlet'.

Qeqertarsuatsiaat is another Kalaallisut name which, like the previous example is very simplistic in its meaning of 'rather large island'.

Sermiligaaq is also Kalaallisut and means 'beautiful glacier fjord'.

Nuussuaq is a town and the name of a peninsula and appropriately means 'large tip' in the Greenlandic language.

Saqqaq is a Kalaallisut translation of the original Danish name Solsiden meaning 'sunny side'. This is a reference to its position relative to Livets Top.

Aappilattoq is from the Greenlandic language meaning 'sea anemone'.

Kapisillit is from the Greenlandic language and means 'the salmon', traditionally the local river is the only spawning ground for the fish in Greenland.

Savissivik may well qualify as most informative place name in the world, for it offers cultural, historic, archaeological and scientific information. In the Greenlandic language the name translates as 'place of knives' which some would offer as 'place of meteoric iron'. In a land where iron ore is quite impossible to find beneath the ice, the 100-tonne Cape York meteorite proved a technological boon when it exploded over this area some 10,000 years ago. Fragments from the iron-rich meteorite were easy to find and turn into knives, indeed it is widely accepted the iron found here attracted the Inuit who migrated here from the Arctic regions of Canada. All this from defining a place name which, in 2010, had a population of just 66.

Ilimanaq is a Kalaallisut name meaning 'place of expectations'.

Naajaat is from Kalaallisut and means simply 'seagulls'.

Tasiusaq is from Greenlandic and means 'a bay with a small outlet'.

Niaqornat means 'head-shaped' and comes from the Kalaallisut tongue.

Ammassivik is the Kalaallisut word for 'plain'.

Oqaatsut also comes from the Kalaallisut language where it translates as 'cormorants'.

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