by Roseanna White | Jun 2, 2014 | Word of the Week
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A place at which I love to hang out…
Seascape by William Trost Richards, 1901 |
I looked this word up the other day to make sure “get the hang of it” would be an appropriate phrase to use in a book set in 1911–and discovered that there are a plethora of hang uses with surprising elements!
The one in question dates from 1834–and was a primarily American use of the word for a great many years.
But it was the verb usages that surprised me. The “teen slang” sense of hang that means “spend time” dates from 1951–which is about what I’d expect. But did you know that hang out is from 1811?? I had no idea it was so old! And hang around, meaning “idle, loiter,” is from 1830. Another one that was way older than I thought!
by Roseanna White | May 19, 2014 | Word of the Week
The honking of a family of geese wandering down to a nearby pond at 5:30 this morning was inspiring, what can I say? 😉
Goose, meaning the water fowl, is not surprisingly old–really old, as old as English. Interestingly, the word’s roots were not only for a goose, but for a swan, and is believed to be imitative on their honking.
From the 1540s onward, it’s carried a meaning of “simpleton” when applied to a person. Gooseflesh or goose skin (goosebumps) are from 1795 (for the skin variety) and 1810. From what I can gather, it comes from how a plucked fowl looks before you cook it. The more modern bumps variety didn’t come around until 1919.
As a verb, to be goosed meant, in 1818, to be jeered, particularly on stage. The, er, “poked in the rear” form of the verb, LOL, is from the 1880s, which is older than I expected!
Goose egg, meaning “zero,” is baseball slang from the 1860s, and to cook one’s goose is from 1845.
“Silly goose” is a favorite expression in our family–good to know where it comes from. 😉
![Word of the Week – Shoulder]()
by Roseanna White | May 12, 2014 | Word of the Week
Okay, so no, I wasn’t just looking up shoulder. 😉 But in looking up the origins of the phrase cold shoulder for my recently-finished Edwardian, I found several of the uses interesting, so I thought I’d share.
Shoulder itself has been in English approximately forever. But did you know the word (which comes from German) is likely related to shield? I sure didn’t.
Then there’s the use that means “side of the road”–that’s from 1933. I suppose that makes sense, because until roads were widened for cars, I’d never heard of any shoulder to them…still, it’s a bit later than I would have thought.
And then there’s cold shoulder. This is what sent me to etymonline.com to begin with, and I’m glad I paused to look it up! The phrase dates from 1816, first from Sir Walter Scott. It actually didn’t indicate a human shoulder, but rather a shoulder of mutton–which was considered a poor man’s dish. Make it cold, and it was an unpleasant dish that you would only serve someone you were put out with or decidedly not welcoming to your home. So to give someone “the cold shoulder” meant to give them something distasteful and insulting, to show you have no regard for them.
Not what I expected from that one, gotta say!
by Roseanna White | May 5, 2014 | Word of the Week
Short but sweet one today. =)
I grew up with a perfectionist for a father, so it’s a word I’ve known for, oh, ever. I too can be a perfectionist in a lot of things (housekeeping not among them, ha ha). Never had I thought to look up its etymology, though, until I came across it in a manuscript set in biblical days. I’d already learned that most of those “isms” we know so well came out of the psychological revolution.
Perfectionist has a different but similar story. The original meaning of the word, dating from the 1650s, is actually “one who believes that moral perfection is attainable in this life through faith.” A button topic for millennia, LOL. If you believed that, you were a perfectionist. If you didn’t, then you weren’t.
It wasn’t until 1934 that the modern meaning came around–“one who is satisfied with only the highest standards.” Pretty different! No longer is a word that has to do with theological debates, but now it’s about measurable standards.
Who knew?
by Roseanna White | Apr 21, 2014 | Word of the Week
I’ve watched a lot of historical shows and movies (shocker, right?). And I’ve also studied enough historical dialect that I can tell when they get something wrong (well, a lot of the time). And in so, so many, I’ve heard one character demand of another, “Shut up!”
Perfectly reasonable, right? I mean, why wouldn’t it be? Is there any better way to interrupt somebody mid-argument? LOL.
Last night I was watching Turn with my hubby, and there was an intense showdown between Tallmadge and a few would-be deserters. And in the midst of their arguing, one of said deserters shouts, “Shut up!”
I held my tongue until the commercial. Then had to say, grin in place, “That wasn’t actually in use until the 1840s.” I knew. I’d looked it up at least once for every book I’ve written, LOL, just
waiting for it to be usable! It certainly wasn’t in
Ring of Secrets, which shares that setting with
Turn.
Insert my hubby laughing at me. 😉
But it’s true. While shut one’s mouth has been around as an expression that refers to the cessation of speaking since the 14th century, shut up has, er, NOT. In face, it didn’t even start to trickle its way into English until 1814. And even then, it wasn’t a command, but rather a reference. As in, “The loud noise shut up the speaker.” The sense in which we use it didn’t come around until 1840.
So unfortunately, Tallmadge probably wouldn’t have had a clue what that command meant. 😉 But that’s okay–it was a fun episode, and I love knowing random trivia like that, LOL.
by Roseanna White | Apr 14, 2014 | Word of the Week
On our writing retreat, Stephanie and I were working on books that took place within 15 years of each other. This is pretty new for us, LOL, and we had some fun conversations on what words were around back then. Our motto–“Surprisingly modern.”
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The Snark Banker, illustration by Henry Holliday
from Carroll’s “The Snark Hunter” |
One of our favorite discoveries was snarky. This is a word writers use All. The. Time. Because, let’s face it, so many of us are “irritable, short-tempered” artists, LOL. And it can be so much fun to write characters who are the same. Apparently it’s not so widely-used a word in larger circles, but come on. It totally should be. 😉
Snarky has been around since 1906 (which means I can totally use it in my 1910-1911 book! Woot!) with the above meaning. The verb snark actually dates from 1882, meaning “to nag or find fault with.” Which in turn comes from the noun (1866) that means “snort.” (From the same root as snarl.)
Interestingly, Lewis Carroll actually coined the word as an imaginary creature in 1876. His snark is unrelated to snarky, though there has sense been a back-formation that gives snark the meaning of “caustic, opinionated rhetoric” that we writers so love. 😉
On a completely unrelated note, in remembrance of Holy Week, I’m offering the Kindle version of A Stray Drop of Blood, which pivots around the crucifixion, on sale for only $0.99 cents! So if you’ve been waiting for the perfect excuse to buy my debut novel, you won’t find a better one. 😉 Through this Sunday, 4/20/14, only.
And pleas share the link!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.