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.

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

Lamb is a bit of an anomaly. Mutton is the name for sheep-meat, although rarely used nowadays. Compare with the french for sheep, mouton, and the german for sheep, schaf, or dutch, schaap.

@Literallynoidea read this and take your pick! welcometoportsmouth.co.uk/pompey.html

In legalese, you often see two near synonyms used together to define the same concept - a so-called "legal doublet". Things like "each and every", "breaking and entering", "deem and consider", "will and testament", etc.

This dates back to Norman times when French was the language of the lawyers, but not of the common people, so they used the Norman French term alongside the Anglo-Saxon term to ensure that everybody would understand!

Eventually it just became the fashion in legal documents, so there are now plenty of doublets that have only a French, or only an Anglo-Saxon root.

I always wondered why this happened in legal documents, and love the explanation!

@Gastropod

In legalese, you often see two near synonyms used together to define the same concept - a so-called "legal doublet". Things like "each and every", "breaking and entering", "deem and consider", "will and testament", etc.

This dates back to Norman times when French was the language of the lawyers, but not of the common people, so they used the Norman French term alongside the Anglo-Saxon term to ensure that everybody would understand!

Eventually it just became the fashion in legal documents, so there are now plenty of doublets that have only a French, or only an Anglo-Saxon root.

I always wondered why this happened in legal documents, and love the explanation!

Yes just like terms and conditions in a contract, they both mean the same thing! Would be interested to know why that is

@Bobbi73

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

But Berkshire is pronounced 'Barkshire'! Cant bear it when people say Berkshire to rhyme with Berk. Never heard anyone who lives here say it like that...

Yes. Wasn't there a thing about the axe for Anne Boleyn being especially sharp as a kindness, to ensure it was quick? I might have made that up, but I can't think why I would have.

She was beheaded with a sword, they had to get an executioner from France who knew what he was doing.

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

I've heard this, no idea if it is true. Lamb wasn't often eaten, why kill a young animal that won't feed many when you can rear it and make the meat go further and have wool in the meantime? Once it is a year old it is mutton.

Interestingly that doesn't apply to cows, the French for 'calf' is veau, which is why we say veal.

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

And David Chrystal's books.

@JaninaDuszejko I knew this - I'm in the SE where things are a bit more clear cut in terms of how regions are grouped e.g. Kent has the '2' motorways, Surrey/ Hampshire the '3's... the map sort of fans out from London, so the '6' motorways go roughly centrally a long way up the country; the 7s and 8s being in Scotland and I think, the far NW/NE respectively. The first area covers the east of England so M11, A12 are examples.

@Gastropod

In legalese, you often see two near synonyms used together to define the same concept - a so-called "legal doublet". Things like "each and every", "breaking and entering", "deem and consider", "will and testament", etc.

This dates back to Norman times when French was the language of the lawyers, but not of the common people, so they used the Norman French term alongside the Anglo-Saxon term to ensure that everybody would understand!

Eventually it just became the fashion in legal documents, so there are now plenty of doublets that have only a French, or only an Anglo-Saxon root.

I always wondered why this happened in legal documents, and love the explanation!

But those words aren't synonyms? Each and every mean two different things. So do breaking and entering.

A quick Google shows that both "each" and "every" have Anglo Saxon roots.

I'm not sure that explanation makes sense at all, given the fact that so many of the words aren't synonyms. The words mean two different things so they aren't being included due to legal fashion - they are being included because it changes the meaning of the sentence if they aren't.

@JaninaDuszejko

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?

Scotland is divided into zones 7, 8 and 9.

Some time ago farmers who sold pigs would bring them to the market wrapped up in a bag. Unscrupulous ones would replace the pig with a cat and if someone would accidentally let the cat out, their fraud would be uncovered.

Hence let the cat out of the bag.....allegedly

@Ludo19

Some time ago farmers who sold pigs would bring them to the market wrapped up in a bag. Unscrupulous ones would replace the pig with a cat and if someone would accidentally let the cat out, their fraud would be uncovered.

Hence let the cat out of the bag.....allegedly

It's pretty much impossible to mistake a cat for a pig, whether it's in a bag or not!

I assume the animal in the bag was supposed to be a piglet rather than a full grown pig .

Nowadays, in lockdown, the cat would probably be worth more!

Even a piglet vs a cat - they're different shapes. I'm not sure how successful this could have been as a tactic for committing fraud.

One for the etymologically minded!

We had the son of a Swedish friend staying for a few months after he got a job in London. I met him at Heathrow (had never met before) so had to ask and write his name on a placard - surname Aker, with a little circle thing over the A.
I asked him later whether it meant anything in Swedish.
Yes, it meant ‘field’.
So being me I instantly thought ‘acre’ and looked it up in my big fat Oxford.

Venereal disease comes from the Latin word for Venus, which has forms that begin VENER-

@DodoApplet

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.

Just to add to this, chicken was considered a paupers meat and eaten by the Anglo-Saxons. Hence why its just called chicken.

Not sure if the same is true of lamb

The term to chat as in talking originates from soldiers in the 1st world war who used to burn the lice in there clothes with matches it was called chatting and they used to talk whilst doing it hence chat well this is what my English teacher told me 30 odd years ago🤔

The insult, calling someone a berk, is actually very, very rude

I am now extremely glad that my secondary school French teacher did not know this.

Blood is thicker than water.
We have misunderstood this phrase. It used to be "The blood of the battlefield is thicker than the water of the womb" which means that loyal friends are worth more than family. Sometimes it was said "Blood is thicker than milk" essentially the same thing.

@DodoApplet

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.

What I like about this fact is the word Pencil is completely unrelated to Pen and the similarity is pure coincidence!

It comes from the old French word "pincel" which meant brush

And "Mind your p's and q's" is short for pints and quarts. Something barmen used to shout out if the crowd in the pub was getting a bit rowdy. Essentially it means -behave!

Talking of fields and old names, Anglo Saxon for field was 'feld' so totally different from the Scandanavian for field (unsurprisingly). Sheffield was Escafeld at the time of the Domesday Book. Esca means body/carrion/a carcass so Sheffield is basically a body field. Nice.

I think it would have been written AEs with the A and E being a single character with the A slanting into the E.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable I said "near" synonyms. Maybe I didn't pick the best examples, but there are loads and loads to choose from.

Also, I did say that the fashion in legalese became to use two terms even if they both had French or Latin roots.

I just thought it was interesting how the use of dual legal terms became commonplace in English! It's not especially a feature of legalese in other languages, as far as I know.

@x2boys

The term to chat as in talking originates from soldiers in the 1st world war who used to burn the lice in there clothes with matches it was called chatting and they used to talk whilst doing it hence chat well this is what my English teacher told me 30 odd years ago🤔

I'm afraid this is another invention - the word 'chat' comes from Middle English.