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Scoop.it!
It might be fun to say the word "crap" came from Thomas Crapper, but it didn't, so cut it out.
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
golf, OK, 420, bug, tip, emoji, fuck, shit, crap, nasty, cracker, sirloin
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Scoop.it!
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
'Tag' --- Not from an acronym for "touch and go."
Scoop.it!
Sometimes when the true origin of a word isn’t known (and sometimes even when it is), an entirely fictitious story comes along purporting to account for its history.
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
Popular misconceptions about the origins of 'nasty', 'bug', 'bumper', 'Adidas', 'busking', 'wake', 'sincere', 'snob', 'threshold', and 'curry favor'.
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Peter Lasersohn's insight:
'Shit' --- not an acronym for "Ship High in Transit".
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Peter Lasersohn's insight:
Faggot --- Not so called because gay people were burned at the stake.
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Peter Lasersohn's insight:
There is no connection between the word 'Easter' and 'Ishtar' or 'Astarte'.
Scoop.it!
Does the word 'fuck' come from the phrase 'for unlawful carnal knowledge'?
Joe Clack's comment,
July 30, 2013 12:21 PM
I have no proof, but was always told "Fornication Under Consent of the King"
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Scoop.it!
We often invent more interesting explanations for word origins when the true ones prove unsatisfying.
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Peter Lasersohn's insight:
Application of 'Indian' to native peoples of the Americas: not from Spanish or Italian for "in God"
Scoop.it!
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
'Kangaroo' --- not from an aboriginal phrase meaning "I don't understand."
Scoop.it!
On the one hand, people are happy to invent (and believe) all sorts of stories about the history of words and phrases (acronymic etymologies, which are hardly ever correct, are enormously popular)....
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
Don and doff.
Scoop.it!
If there is one thing that drives me absolutely bananas, it's people spreading misinformation via social media under the guise of "educating". I've seen this happen in several ways - through infogr...
Peter Lasersohn's insight:
A little more on the bogus derivation of 'Easter' from 'Ishtar'.
Scoop.it!
A scalawag, the dictionaries tell us, is a rascal, a reprobate, a scamp, a scoundrel.
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Peter Lasersohn's insight:
Not from disabled people begging with "cap in hand"
Peter Lasersohn's comment,
March 5, 2013 9:40 AM
Not from disabled people begging with "cap in hand."
Scoop.it!
Is cop an acronym for 'Constable on Patrol'?
Eugene Deutsch's curator insight,
September 28, 2013 6:09 PM
This term came from "Copper" because the policemen used to wear a Copper badge.
Scoop.it!
The slang term 'piss-poor', despite a story circulating online, has nothing to do with the sale of urine for tanning.
Peter Lasersohn's comment,
July 31, 2013 6:04 PM
Which conclusion? That 'piss-poor' has nothing to do with selling urine for tanning? The reasons are all outlined in the link, including, for example, the fact that the earliest attestation of this term is only from the 1940s.
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