Face Idioms

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

Face to face is from as early as the 14th century. This seems odd looking back as, aside from a handwritten letter or a messenger, it was the only means of communication.

Face time appeared as an application on 24 June 2010. The expression came from 20 years earlier, when it meant exactly the same as 'face to face' did. Again, this seems odd for the application is designed to enable two people to chat and see one another without having to be in the same place.

To lose face dates from 1835, a translation of the Chinese tu lien.

To show one's face or put in an appearance dates back as far as the middle of the 14th century.

To make a face, and in the sense of showing disgust or disapproval (not gurning!), is found documented in 1560.

Two faces under one hood is from the middle of the 15th century. Having now fallen out of use, it suggested duplicity.

Face lift, and while nobody had a face lift before 1934, face-lifting is documented from 1922. This is another example of a process, and thus the verb, become a noun.

Face plates did not offer any protection under than name before 1874, prior to that they covered the face and this face plate is simply a guard over something.

Face value originated as a reference to stocks, shares and banknotes and is first attested in 1842.

Face card, otherwise known as a court card, are the King, Queen, Jack in a pack of plying cards. Not known as such until 1826, the name is somewhat inaccurate as three cards (jack of spades, jack of hearts, and king of diamonds) are shown in profile and thus not 'facing' us.

Face off, used in hockey and also lacrosse, is used in a sporting sense from 1867. As this is the means to start (or restart) a contest, it is thought to have a link to stand-off, where the two sides are facing one another without yet competing.

Facebook began online in 2004, but the term existed rather earlier. In 1983, it referred to a directory of college students where names and head and shoulders images of students was made available to help students remember their colleagues.

Po-faced is used to mean 'without expression' and dates from 1934. This can be taken back further to 1893, and a word which is rarely heard today and when 'po' was a dialect pronunciation of 'poor'.

Barefaced, as an adjective, is used to mean 'unconcealed' - we use this today in combinations such as 'barefaced lies' or 'barefaced cheek'. In its earliest appearances it was used to mean 'face uncovered, unshaven' and thus in its most literal sense.

Touch Idioms

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

Touch and go is derived from a chasing game originating in the early 18th century. Note, this is not an acronym for TAG.

Touch football, where the player is considered tackled and has to cede possession, is first seen in 1933.

Touch-me-not is older than the previous two, dating from around 1590 and translated from the Latin noli-me-tangere.

Touch up, in the sense of making corrections to a painting or work of art, is seen from 1715. The sexual reference is difficult to pin down, but appears to be a 20th century adaptation of the earlier usage.

Touch screen technology may only have been popular with the coming of the first iPhone in 2007, but the technology dates back to 1965. Oddly, the phrase did not come into use until 1974, meaning for nine years the touch screen was called ....... well, we don't know.

Touch type is held to have been popularised by Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City in Utah, USA. It is likely the skill had been perfected not long after the typewriter was invented in the early 17th century, but McGurrin advertised teaching the skill in 1888 and is the first written evidence as touch typing. That early typewriter would never have seen any touch typing, for the machine invented by Henry Mill was never mass produced and, more importantly, was never known as a typewrite but known as a 'machine for transcribing letters'.

Touchdown, a term synonymous with American football, was first used in 1864 but in the sport of rugby. No aircraft is known to have touched down before 1935. That is not to say they didn't land safely, just that the phrase was not used until then.

Word Idioms

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

Have words with first appears in a 15th century document.

Word to the wise is a translation of a Latin phrase, where verbum sapienti satis est meant 'a word to the wise is enough'.

Word for word is another of some age, appearing in the 14th century.

Word of mouth, once again, has some longevity and appears in writing for the first time in the 1550s. It would be good to know if the first time this expression, it speaking of an oral communication, appeared in writing the irony was not lost on the writer.

Swear word is obviously a combination of two simple and early English words. However, we do not find them in combination until 1873, when it is used in an America.

Crossword is another combining two much older words, and does not appear until 1925 when it is given as a 'crossword puzzle'. The first crossword in New York World newspaper on 21 December 1913, but was described as a 'word-cross'.

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.

Feet Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. 'Spring' being an example, and seen in expressions such as 'spring fever', 'spring upon', 'spring chicken', 'spring cleaning', etc. This etymologist thought about looking at some of these and see what usage, origin, and beginnings can reveal. This time we start with 'foot'.

On foot is the earliest, at around 1300.

Hot foot is first seen in English around the same period of the early 14th century, but received a boost as American slang in 1896 to mean 'hastily', and saw a third revival around 1934 as a prank involving matches.

Put one's foot in it dates from 1823.

One foot in the grave is first seen in 1844.

We put our best foot forward for the first time in 1849, although Shakespeare did speak of 'the better foot before' in 1596.

Cold feet, for it is only used in the plural, first appears in 1893 and some sources suggest this is a bad rendition of an Italian phrase, avegh minga frecc i pee meaning 'to have no money', although this seems somewhat contrived.

Got off on the wrong foot is first seen in print in 1905, two years earlier than anyone ever got off on the right foot.

My foot, an expression of contempt, is first seen in 1923.

Put one's foot in one's mouth is not seen in writing until 1942.

One no longer used is 'foot' meaning 'a person' and thus 'non-foot' meant 'nobody'.

Trial by Combat

Ashford v Thornton (1818) 106 ER 149 is an English criminal case in the Court of King's Bench which upheld the right of the defendant to trial by battle on a private appeal from an acquittal for murder.. In 1817, Abraham Thornton was charged with the murder of Mary Ashford. Thornton had met Ashford at a dance and had walked with her from the event. Next morning, she was found drowned in a local pit, although there was little evidence of her having died a violent death. Charged with rape and murder, public opinion would have condemned Thornton, but the jury could not see any evidence to convict him and he was acquitted.

But that was not the end of the story, for William Ashford, Mary's brother, launched an appeal and when Thornton was rearrested, he claimed the right to trial by battle or combat. This medieval solution was still on the stature books and therefore quite legal. Back to court they went, with Ashford claiming the evidence against Thornton was overwhelming. The court disagreed and trial by battle was Ashford's sole remaining option. Ashford did not take up the option and Thornton was released. In 1819 appeals of this nature were abolished by the state, but too late for Thornton's reputation and he had already departed for a new life in the United States of America.

The last recorded trial by battle to come to a conclusion dates from 1597. In Scotland Adam Butterfield accused James Carmichael of murder and exacted revenge by killing the latter. Other cases in 1631 and 1638 were stopped by the king's intervention.

Attempts to abolish the law came in the 17th century and twice in the 18th century, all proving unsuccessful. Of course, in 1819 it did disappear from the statute books, but that did not prevent the law being cited in 2002. Unemployed 60-year-old mechanic Leon Humphreys appeared in Ipswich court, charged with failing to tell the DVLA his motorcycle was off road and thus liable to pay the Road Fund Licence. The DVLA were attempting to fine him £25. But the man from Bury St Edmunds did not agree. Indeed, he told the court he would not enter a plea but demanded the DVLA nominate a champion whom he would fight to the death to prove his innocence. He also claimed the new Human Rights laws meant ordinary folk like him could use the law for their own purposes. Traditionally these battles were fought with swords, lances, shields, staves, and the like - but Mr Humphreys was happy to wield Japanese samurai swords, Ghurka knives, or even a blacksmith's hammer.

Mr Humphreys was forced to pay the fine.

Pete, Jack, Minnie, et al.

Last time I looked at the origins of 'even-steven' and I started thinking of other phrases with names. Here's the result of my searches, starting with ....

For Pete’s sake - which is simply an alternative to 'For Christ's sake', which could be seen as blasphemy. It is not overly clear when Pete, a reference to St Peter, began to replace the Lord.

Jack of all trades is seen from the 17th century. Almost two hundred years earlier, Jack was a term used to describe the lower classes. Perhaps this came from the French, where Jacque was used to refer to peasants - and their very basic short coat was called a "jacket". As the phrase ends "and master of none" the original inference described one with no specific skill.

Moaning Minnie is one with a rather more interesting story. Indeed, we can even date it to a specific year and a known individual. The year is 1846 and the man is Captain Claude Etienne Minie, and he introduces a soft lead bullet for use in his army's rifles. On firing, the bullet would distort and the bullet made a distinct sound as it flew through the air toward its target. Hence the moaning Minne was originally a bullet - or so one story would have us. There is also the thought of a German mortar, but there is no record of the phrase Moaning Minnie being used during World War I, the phrase only becoming popular during WWII.

Plain Jane first appears in print in the play Doing for the Best by M. Rophino Lacy in 1861. It was once thought to be a reference to Jane Eyre but, while there are some plot similarities, it has latterly been dismissed as coincidental. As a stand-alone phrase it first appears in 1912, which appears to have been coined simply because of its rhyme.

Contrary Mary is another rhyme, but this undoubtedly originated in the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. The oldest known version dates from 1744 in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, which tends to refute suggestions this is a reference to Queen Mary or Mary, Queen of Scots who were both alive in the 16th century and no known written versions of the rhyme date from anywhere near the Tudor period.

Jack the lad is likely dateable back to the early 18th century and Jack Sheppard, a notorious thief who managed to escape from gaol no less than four times. Eventually, when imprisoned for the fifth time, he was hanged at Tyburn. This hardened criminal, he was just 22 years old at the time, had a career in crime lasting just two years.

Johnny on the spot is first recorded in the April 1896 issue of the New York Sun. In that piece, the writer speaks of how the phrase had suddenly become very popular in the New York area, but had no idea where it originated.

Jack Robinson, a figure who appears and disappears very quickly, is first referred to as such around 1700 and even has an entry in a dictionary in 1785.