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I read not long ago in a history book that "gringo" was derived from the fact that Kentucky volunteers during the Mexican-American war (approx 1849) sang a song w/ lyrics "Green grow the lilacs." According to the writer, this morphed into 'gringo' among Mexican troops. The writer presented it as cut-and-dried fact.
Later when I looked it up on line, I found that there were several possible derivations, and IIRC no certainty to any of them.
“ The word gringo originally referred to any kind of foreigner. It was first recorded in 1787 in the Spanish Diccionario castellano con las voces de Ciencias y Artes:[9][10][a]”
The above is a quote from the Wikipedia article about the word gringo.
If the word was used as early as 1787, it was certainly not coined in the Mexican American War. Possibly American troops heard it used then for the time. The Wiki article does mention some “folk etymologies” regarding the term, including the supposed Mex-Am war one.
You can check the entry yourself very easily. It comes with citations.
Here's yet another example of the vagaries of word origins. I had always figured that the term 'hooker' (for prostitute) had a connotation of addiction. After all, most vices have some element of addiction.
I read in a history book that it was from Civil War general 'Fighting Joe' Hooker, who always had a big contingent of female camp followers when he was on the march. Gen. Hooker resigned after a tiff with Abe Lincoln.
When I was a kid in New York in the 70s and 80s, we called cops, 'coppers'.
In the 60s we called them "the fuzz." I have no idea why.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQConvict
Another term from my youth, and that I never hear any more is 'cop'. No, not the men in blue we were just discussing, but a verb meaning to buy or acquire something.
As in: "I just copped a couple of bottles of beer." or "I'm going down to the shoestore to cop some new sneakers."
Also common in the 60s but meaning "to steal" something. One could also "cop a plea" if facing criminal charges.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESFP
English bobbies.
Which raises the question, why are English police called "bobbies"?
One answer from Wikipedia:
Derived from the Conservative British Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel ("Bobby" being a nickname for "Robert"), the founder of the Metropolitan Police.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackmccullough
SCUBA, RADAR, LASER, QUASAR: documented and legitimate.
From the military:
SNAFU
FUBAR
Quote:
Originally Posted by t. raleigh fingers
a lot of the political lingo is made up, often deceptively so, in order to skew public debate. "Partial birth abortion," "assault weapon," and the latest: "human infrastructure" are all examples.
Ages ago, I read that when an illiterate person signed with an X, it meant he was swearing in Christ's name.
Also, medieval scribes used the abbreviation XP for Christ (the first two letters of his name in Greek).
I just learned this in 2018 when we took a cruise on the "Celebrity" cruise line, owned by a Greek family (with CHI in their name, I think). A large "X" is on their ship and imprinted on everything else down to the pillow chocolates.
Relieved my guilt over X-mas, lol.
That's interesting about the swearing, though.
Getting to the root word really helps in deciphering other Romance languages.
"scene of mad confusion," 1660s, from colloquial pronunciation of "Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem" in London, founded 1247 as a priory, mentioned as a hospital 1330 and as a lunatic hospital 1402; it was converted to a civic lunatic asylum on dissolution of the monasteries in 1547.
Vehicle Identification Number number.
Automatic Teller Machine machine.
Personal Identification Number number.
Obviously ridiculous. I don't know how that started but there are many other examples.
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My pet: "high rate of speed." You hear this all the time on news casts. Speed=distance/time, i.e. a rate. When they say "high rate of speed" it's effectively saying "high rate of rate."
My pet: "high rate of speed." You hear this all the time on news casts. Speed=distance/time, i.e. a rate. When they say "high rate of speed" it's effectively saying "high rate of rate."
And why "faster than a speeding bullet"?
Why not just "faster than a bullet"?
Another peeve of mine (I have too many peeves for any one of them to be a pet peeve):
I'm an entomologist, and I can't tell you how many times someone has said, "Oh, you study the derivation of words! How cool!"
That has to be the most ironic vocabulary error ever.
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