Month: March 2010

Categories
Food Life

Easy as Pie

Are pies really that easy to make? They sure are easy to eat, especially if it’s blueberry or chocolate creme or apple… or savory pies like chicken pot pie, or shepherd’s pie. Anyway, where does this phrase come from?

Supposedly, this simile was coined in 19th Century America. There are many similes in English, which basically perform the function of a simple comparison. Although there are quite a few variations of ‘pie’ similes, they are all distinctly American, and usually denote pleasantry and ease, such as “nice as pie,” “polite as pie,” or “pleasant as pie.”

Categories
Really Long Words

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Several Latin stem words strung together as a joke by a student in Eton College in the 18th Century. The list came from a grammar book that listed a Latin word set in which all meant “little or no value.” These words were: flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili (with –fication at the end to make it a noun.)

flocci – floccus (a whisp or piece of wool)

nauci – naucum (a trifle)

nihili – nihilism (nothing)

pili – pilus (a hair)

In essence, they all mean little, nothing, or worthless. And quite obviously, this word is fun because it sets an example of a really long word.

Categories
Everyday Life Literary

Wowser

‘Wowser’ is a delightful word with an interesting background, though its ultimate origin is unknown.

The word first appeared in print in 1899, in the Australian journal Truth, and was instantly popular in Australia. It rapidly spread to New Zealand, where it remains in use, and then eventually arrived in England, possibly brought by the Australian troops who served there during World War I.

The American writer and editor H. L. Mencken liked “wowser” and attempted to introduce it to the United States. He used the word frequently in American Mercury, the literary magazine he edited.

Despite Mencken’s efforts, however, the term never became particularly popular in American English; it is used occasionally, but it never truly caught on.

Categories
Everyday Life

Word

The original phrase is: Word is Bond
it was intended to be used to affirm ones promise.

Categories
Everyday Life

Wheedle

‘Wheedle’ has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century, though no one is quite sure how the term made its way into English. (It has been suggested that the term may have derived from an Old English word that meant ‘to beg,’ but this is far from certain.)

Once established in the language, however, ‘wheedle’ became a favorite of some of the language’s most illustrious writers. ‘Wheedle’ and related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.