Hit Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'foot' last time and this time it's 'hit'.

Hit it off dates from as early as 1780, and was used the same as the modern 'hit on' only from 1970.

Hit the nail on the head is recorded as early as 1570, but had nothing to do with hammers. This was an archery reference.

Hit the hay is first seen in 1912, which is strange as by then few mattresses would have been stuffed with hay.

Hit the bricks dates from 1909. Not heard today, it was trade union slang and referred to going on strike.

Hit (someone) up, to request something of someone, dates from 1917.

Not know what hit them is first seen in print in 1923.

Hit the road appears in print for the first time in 1873.

Hit and run has had no less than three lives. The vehicular reference is first seen in 1924; later this was also used for a military strike, first appearing in 1940; but the earliest, and probably the most obvious, is the baseball reference from 1899.

Hit the bottle is not seen before 1933, although 'hit the booze' had been in use since at least 1899.

Hit song/record/film/ etc dates as early as 1811, when it was used to refer to plays and shows.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: U

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.

U is for u ..... well it isn't for anything as there isn't a single homonym beginning with that letter. So let's have some fun with etymologies of words beginng with U and we will begin with....

Union is first seen in the 15th century, it comes from Old French union and Latin unionem both 'oneness' and also seen in the Latin unus 'one' or 'a single pearl, an onion'. All these can be traced to Proto-Indo-European oi-no 'one, unique'.

Urge has an intriguing history, and has changed its meaning almost at every turn. First seen around 1550, it came to English from Latin urgere 'to press hard', and can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European urgh 'to tie, bind'. What is fascinating is how this Proto-Indo-European root have given us Lithuanian vertzi 'to fasten, squeeze', vargas 'need, distress', and vergas 'slave'; Old Church Slavonic vragu 'enemy'; Gothic wrikan 'persecute'; and Old English wrecan 'drive, hunt'.

Uncle came from Old French onlce with the same meaning. The French got it from Latin avunculus 'mother's brother' (father's brother was patruus, literally 'little grandfather'). These can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root awo meaning 'grandfather' or 'adult male relative other than the father'. Looking at other European languages derived from the same root, it seems nobody can agree on what an uncle is, for Hittite huhhas is 'grandfather'; as is Armenian hav; but Lithuanian avynas is 'maternal uncle'; Old Church Slavonic ujo is 'uncle'; and Welsh ewthyr means 'uncle'.

Cote d’Ivoire 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 to cast my net a little wider. This time Cote d'Ivoire and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Yamoussoukro was known as N'Gokro when the French brought the first colonists here in 1929. Under the helm of Queen Yamousso, this village of just 429 inhabitants found itself at the centre, but not part of, unrest which seemed destined to result in war. However when this was averted, with Queen Yamousso playing no small part, the name was changed to honour her and now numbers over 350,000 inhabitants.

Abengourou is held to be from the Akan language where n'pe kro means 'I don't like long discussions', so we'll leave it at that.

Abidjan requires a rather longer explanation. Tradition maintains this is from a misunderstanding where an old man carrying branches to repair the roof of his house meets with a European explorer who asks him the name of his village. The old man did not understand the words but thought he was being asked what he was doing there, and so his reply of min-chan m'bidjan was recorded as Abidjan. However what the old man had actually said in the Ebrie language was "I just cut the leaves".

Bingerville is, as we would suspect with such a suffix, named after an individual. Louis-Gustave Binger was the French colonial governor who raised the profile of this sleepy market town in the early 20th century.

Bouake is named for the Bouale people, their name coming from a legend. Led from Ghana to this region by Queen Pokou, fleeing the Ashanti, they arrived at the Komoe river which they could not cross. With the enemy bearing down on them they thought throwing their most treasured possession into the river would save them. The queen was last and threw her son into the waters, whereupon a great number of hippopotamuses rose to the surface to create a bridge and allowed them to cross. Reaching the other side she gave the people their name when she spoke just one word, baouli or 'the child is dead'.

Jacqueville, despite its French spelling, does not its name to French occupation but marks the raising of the Union Jack when the British first landed here.

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