Pound Idioms

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

Pound cake is first recorded in 1747 and is said to have a pound of each of the ingredients.

Pound of flesh is first seen in The Merchant of Venice, which Shakespeare is thought to have written between 1596 and 1598.

Poundage is a tax, or a subsidy, based on weight and first seen in 1903.

Impound is not seen until the early 15th century.

Tower pound was a weight in the Middle Ages equal to 12 ounces.

Merchant’s pound was the equivalent to 15 ounces.

Avoirdupois pound equal to 16 ounces.

Troy pound equal to 12 ounces.

Pounding the pavements is a 19th century expression used primarily when speaking of prostitutes – shortly after used to refer to anyone looking for work.

Pounding the beat, used for policemen, appears around 1900.

Pound yarn is first described in 1749.

Pounded rice is a culinary term first seen in 1943.

Pounded as in ‘beaten’ or ‘assaulted’, is first seen in the early 12th century.

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.

Moldova 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 Moldovan cities.

Chisinau, also known as Kishinev, is of uncertain origin but most often said to be from an early Romanian chisla 'spring, water source' and noua 'new'. This suggests a settlement built around a water source, a comon enough beginning. Another source suggests the name came from the west and has some Hungarian influence, for in Hungarian the name is Kisjeno or 'small Jeno', this the name of one of the seven tribes who migrated east into Romania. The main support for this second theory is down to the sheer number of places named aftyer this tribe.

Balti is the plural of the Romanian balta meaning 'puddle'. This is understood as a reference to the city's location on a hill overlooking the wetlands.

Tiraspol is from two ancient Greek words: Tyras is the anient name for the Dneister River, and polis 'a city state'. The river names Tyras and Dneister mean 'rapid' and 'the close river' respectively.

Ribnita was founded in 1628 as Rybnytsia, a name describing its earliest purpose as a 'fishery'.

Cahul was renamed after the Battle of Kagul fought nearby in August 1770 and named after the Kagul River. Earlier names for the city include Frumoasa and Scheia, both of Romanian origin and meaning 'beautiful' and 'Bulgarian', respectively.

Orhei takes its name from the medieval city of Old Orhei some ten miles downriver. It is thought the name comes from the Hungarian orhely 'lookout post', a reminder of the 13th century Hungarian defences erected here.

Dubasari is a plural form of the archaic Romanian dubasar 'boatman'.

Straseni is from the Romanian strasnic, this meaning either 'scary' or 'terrible' and thought to refer to the fearsome forest which once covered this region.

Drochia takes its name from a bird known locally as the dropie and in English as the great bustard.

Calarasi translates as 'horsemen' and recalls a legend telling of how Stephen III of Moldavia fought the Ottomans and ordered his horsemen to line up and defend the city. They did so and, although every single one died in the process, gave the advantage enabling them to be victorious.

Floresti is derived from the Romanian word floare or 'flower'.

Cimislia has no known origins although the first written account comes from 1620 when Vladimir Nico explained this as meaning 'wealth'. There is no known word meaning 'wealth' but this may come from cimis, a name given to workers and bricklayers and used by Romanians and Tatar.

Slobozia comes from the Romanian slobozie meaning 'tax free place'.

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

Malta 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 Maltese settlements.

Valletta was named after the Grand Master Jean de Valette of the Order of St John, following the Great Seige of 1565 when they defeated the Ottomans.He laid the foundation stone himself, on 28th March 1566.

Mdina had previously been known as Maleth by Phoenician settlers of the 8th century BC, this name changed to Melite by the Romans. The Roman settlement was larger than the present daty Mdina, reduced during the Arab occupation and confined behind the city walls. The Roman name of Melite refers to the 'suburbs' and the Arabic name of medina simply means 'city' or 'town'.

Senglea is named after the Grand Master who built it, Claude de la Sengle, 48th Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1553 to 1557).

Cospicua is known locally as Bormla, from Bir Mula or 'the well of the Lord'.

Zebbug is named for its many groves of olive tress and just means 'olives'.

Zabbar is likely from the Maltese word tizbor, a reference to 'pruning trees', although it is also possible the place took a family name, they earning it because they pruned trees.

Zetjun, as with Zebbug above, simply means 'olives' although here the origin is the Arabic zaytun.

Attard shares the confusion of Zabbar, although here the preferred idea is a family name, this from the Arabic atr meaning 'perfume' and possibly referring to oils obtained from the many blossoms which grew here.

Balzan is certainly from a family name as it is from balsan 'tax collector'.

Birkirkara is understood as either 'cold water' or 'running water', either way the understanding is 'drinking water'.

Birzebbuga has a lot in common with Zebbug above, simply here the name refers to a 'well of olives'.

Dingli is named after Sir Thomas Dingley, an English knight of the Order of St John who owned the lands here.

Fgura is not simply coincidentally similar to the English 'figure', it has the same meaning. Here the reference is to the niche where devotees to Our Lady of Mount Carmel would stop to admire and perhaps give thanks to the statue.

Floriana is named after Pietro Paolo Floriana, an Italian engineer who designed the fortifications.

Gudja refers to the place's location 'on higher ground', not a hill as such but higher than the surrounding area.

Gzira is the Maltese word for 'island', although that island is Manoel Island which today lies adjacent to the main focus of the settlement but likely the original location of the settlement.

Gharghur is probably the Maltese word for 'flooding', although some credence is also given to the idea this refers to Malta's national tree the sigra tal-gharghar.

Ghaxaq probably refers to a noble family recorded as Axiaq. Less likely is the idea this represents the Maltese for 'delight'.

Iklin is derived from a herb which once gre here, Rosmarinus Officinalis and known as i-iklin in Malta. The herb grew in a valley which has now been developed extensively.

Kalkara takes its name from the Latin word for 'lime', Calce, for there had been a lime kiln here since Roman times.

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

Taxes not to Pay

Hearing of the so-called ‘bedroom’ tax, I was reminded of other levies applied by governments over the centuries which were never paid because they never existed – at least not officially. It seems over the years we in the United Kingdom have developed terms for taxes which, whilst they may be more accurate, are not correct.

For example the most recent is the Bedroom Tax. Correctly this is not a tax at all but a penalty imposed on those claiming benefits for houses deemed under-occupied. I’m reminded of Cyril Northcote Parkinson, who gave his name to Parkinson’s Law – “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Perhaps we will have Cameron’s Law – “Families expand so as to fill the space available in the home.”

Road Tax should be referred to as Vehicle Excise Duty, although it is also known as vehicle tax and car tax. First introduced in 1888, the modern idea was not introduced until 1920 when the monies raised were earmarked specifically for the building and maintenance of roads, hence the former term of Road Fund, although this was changed in 1936 and has since been a general form of taxation.

Poll Tax was, as with bedroom tax, a misnomer coined by the media and opponents of an idea introduced in 1990 to replace the old rates system. Correctly called Community Charge, the popular name came from the new levy which charged each adult in the property for the services provided by the local authority, when the old rates system charged each property, irrespective of the number of occupants. It’s unpopularity saw this replaced inside three years by council tax, which is effectively the same as the old rates system, itself seen as grossly unfair (hence the change to community charge). This was by no means the first Poll Tax in England and Wales, such were imposed by Charles II in the seventeenth century and John of Gaunt in the fourteenth. That the term ‘poll’ is now used in elections is due to it being an early English word for ‘head’ and, after all, an election is simply a head count.

Window Tax may have levied a charge on houses with windows, but the name of ‘Window Tax’ was never officially used. However it is easy to see why “An Act for granting to His Majesty several Rates or Duties upon Houses good for the Deficiency of the clipped Money” would have required a snappier title. All houses were charged two shillings from 1696, those with ten to twenty windows saw this increased to four shillings, while those with over twenty paid eight shillings annually. In order to avoid paying money to the government many houses from this period which are still standing can be seen to have bricked up windows. These were never returned to their original condition when the act was repealed in July 1851.

Income Tax in the United Kingdom was never called such when first seen in 1188 and introduced by Henry II when he was raising money for yet another Crusade to the Holy Land. When everyone was expected to pay a tenth or ‘tithe’ of their income to the nation to help pay for wars and battles which the layman had no interest in. While an effective income tax was introduced around the same time as the window tax, the idea of declaring one’s earnings was not popular as this was seen as personal information. It was not until 1799 that the modern idea of income tax was first seen in Britain in 1799 to help finance the Napoleonic Wars. Repealed in 1816, opponents demanded all references to this loathed taxation were burned – and got their wish when no less a figure than the Chancellor of the Exchequer publicly set light to the documents. He omitted to inform the assembly a copy was retained and hence we are still paying it today – although I’m sure we might not object to a return to the original rates of a minimum of 0.83% and a maximum of 10%.

I would welcome any suggestions for themes or subjects, or even specific words to examine the origins, meanings and etymologies. I’d be delighted to hear from you.