I just found out the origins of the slang terms 'Quid' and 'Bucks', do you have any random interesting general knowledge you'd like to share?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

Ds asked me today why we call money quid and not bucks like the Americans, so we looked it up.

Quid comes from the Latin Quid Pro Quo, meaning something for something.

Bucks comes from early colonial use of deerskins as barter currency 'buckskins'.

I was pleased ds had asked as I find these things fascinating and pleasing.

I'd love to hear anyone else's fascinating facts.

@BalloonSlayer

The term means someone is taking your money from you really obviously, not stealing your actual daylight

Yes and there’s nothing quite so obviously shameless as having your daylight stolen - through forcing you to block windows because you can’t afford to pay the tax. @CodMouth is correct.

English has several pairs of completely different words for the animal and its cooked meat, e.g. cow and beef, sheep and mutton, pig and pork, deer and venison. That goes back to 1066: the word for the animal has Germanic roots, but the word for the cooked meat is the Norman word - because whereas it was the Anglo-Saxons who reared the animals, it was the Norman lords who ate them.

@Harriedharriet which history of New York are you reading? Is it any good?

‘Riff-raff’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon and originally meant ‘sweepings of rags’.

I got that from a book called Curious and Interesting Words - must dig it out from wherever it’s lurking on one of our double-stacked shelves.

wharf derives from the Old English hwearf, a bank where ships tie up, it isn't an acronym for "warehouse and river frontage"!

The old social network BEBO stands for blog early, blog often.

2BDls et al. It could have been Finland. She definitely returned home and Florence definitely went with her.

@AdaColeman

wharf derives from the Old English hwearf, a bank where ships tie up, it isn't an acronym for "warehouse and river frontage"!

Somebody needs to tell the chap doing the commentary on the boats down to Greenwich then

A pen is just short for "pen-feather", because in the days of using quills for writing, a swan's feather was the quill of choice - and a female swan is called a pen. And once you know that, it suddenly becomes obvious why a pen-knife is so called. I learned that from a fascinating conversation with a 17th century quartermaster at an English Civil War re-enactment by the Sealed Knot a couple of years ago.

Mmm ok the lawyer who wrote the book I read got it wrong then.

Maybe he was specifically talking about its usage in modern-day America.

Nope, just not a very good lawyer from the sound of it. Knowing the Latin origins of words and phrases is normally pretty standard for lawyers. , as Latin phrases are still used in many legal documents.

Oh but wait surely it still applies then; rich people probably could have paid a fine, poor people would go straight for the chop.

No, there was no an option to pay a fine instead of receiving the death sentence. Don't you think all the nobles beheaded by various monarchs over the years for 'treason' wouldn't have paid a fine if they could? They could certainly have afforded it.

I recently learned that the mild insult 'berk' was originally from rhyming slang for Berkshire hunt. Not such a mild insult after all!

I learnt that in A-level French when the teacher flew off the handle at one of the boys using it "in front of the ladies." If he'd just let it go as mild rudeness, I doubt anyone would have been any the wiser. As it was, I don't know if he thought anyone would look up the etymology, but if they did, it wasn't likely to be the boys. My delicate lady sensibilities survived anyway.

There are some rather dubious origins on here...

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel - capital punishment, I think this ones 'been done death'!

@smallandimperfectlyformed - bible belt (well he is a comedian after all)

@nevernotagain - elbows on tables it would impossible to eat from a plate with your elbows holding it unless the plate was about two feet wide! Try it (I did!)

@dodoapplet - different words for animal and cooked meat what about 'lamb'?

...but I like the idea of creating a plausible background, that may not be true, for a fact or slang term, so here's mine...

Never eat a Polar Bear's Liver - it can contain an extremely high concentration of vitamin A, which if eaten can cause poisoning. This can result in vomiting, bone damage and potentially death. I think this goes a long way to explaining why you don't find polar bear liver on the cold counter at supermarkets.

Spiders - we swallow an average of eight spiders in our sleep every year.

Venereal Disease - was originally believed to have been caused by cabinet makers who breathed in the spores from wood veneers while making furniture. These workers often came to England from France and so were separated from their wives and families and sought solace with dubious ladies.

The insult, calling someone a berk, is actually very, very rude. I always though it was a "lesser" insult but it's apparently cockney Rhyming Slang, an abreviation of Berkshire Hunt, which is CRS for a bad person or a key part of female anatomy.

I also hadn't realised that the Sweeney, as in the {London} police name, was also rhyming slang for Sweeney Todd / Plod

The word ‘boycott’ comes from a Captain Boycott, a land agent who ran an estate for absentee landlords during the Irish famine. After evicting tenants who couldn’t pay their rent, no one else would rent his properties.

@SoCrimeaRiver

Sweeney Todd is rhyming slang for the 'Flying Squad' - hence the TV programme 'The Sweeney'

I think that berk is a lesser insult, even if its origins aren't.

@SoCrimeaRiver

oops, didn't read your complete post!

Similar to 'wharf' - a Club sandwich is so called because they were originally served in clubs. It is NOT an abbreviation of 'chicken and lettuce under bacon'. I find 'backronyms' really really annoying!

I think the elbows on tables thing is probably much more prosaic. Most of the etiquette rules usually revolve around not appearing to be poor. Having your elbows on the table makes it look as though you are eager to eat, hungry. It almost looks as though you are guarding/defending your food, expecting someone to try to take it. In addition, if you are someone who is served their food by a servant, this can't be done if you have your elbows down.

Sitting upright, being served by others, not hunched over looking eager for your food, or having to guard it, will have been the preserve of the higher classes and was probably a strong class marker, hence the rule.

The country is divided into 6 segments, spreading out from London and all the roads are numbered accordingly. So if you woke up somewhere randomly you could check a road sign and know which segment you're in (eg M5, A5, B52)

What about the M74, M8 and M9?

@LApprentiSorcier

Similar to 'wharf' - a Club sandwich is so called because they were originally served in clubs. It is NOT an abbreviation of 'chicken and lettuce under bacon'. I find 'backronyms' really really annoying!

I've never heard it called 'backronyms' before, but I totally agree!

@DodoApplet wow that's a great one! I knew a female swan was a pen but hadn't put two and two together 😂

Presumably a pen-knife is so called because it's what you used to cut your quill with? Given killing swans is illegal - sorry I'm being a bit dense.

I thoroughly recommend the history of English podcast. historyofenglishpodcast.com/

It is really in-depth about how the English language was formed. Starting with ancient protocol indo-European, through Anglo-Saxon into Middle English. I started at the beginning but haven’t caught up yet!

For example the words lord and lady are a contraction of old English words for loaf-guardian and loaf-maiden. I.e. the male and female heads of the household. The man protected the bread and the woman made the bread.

Or if you’ve ever wondered why the letter c is sometimes soft (s) or sometimes hard (k). Or even both in the same word (e.g. circus). Or why we have some words ending in ght like light.

Or using the word capital above, there are so many words that derive from the same Latin for head including cap, cloak, chapel, chef, captain.

I always wondered why it was a hen night but not a cockerel night. Turns out it is.... the term "stag" is not from a male deer, but from a young cockerel (which is also known as a stag!)

I understand that in polite French society you are required to have your elbows on the table. This is to show you don't have weapons in your hands.