‘She thinks I must always be at her beck and call.’ Earl of Worcester (1470).
The original meaning of beck:
Julius Caesars Commentaryes – ‘It should be ready at a beck.’ (A beck was a silent signal, like the nod of the head).
Author: admin
Originally referred to hunting raccoons. The raccoon would usually take to a tree, the dogs used to hunt them would on occasion be barking up the wrong tree and the hunter would lose his prey.
Davy Crockett (1833). Sketches and Eccentricities. ‘I told him…..that he reminded me of the meanest thing on God’s earth, and old coon dog barking up the wrong tree.”‘
This word is taken from the white slave owner cracking his whip at his slaves.
An old story relates that a medieval town under siege hung a goose from a tower, symbolizing the stupidity of the attackers.
The attackers were so enraged that they burned the town, thereby literally cooking the townspeople’s goose.
Categories
Baptism by Fire
During the Franco-German war of 1870, Prince Louis Napoleon was first exposed, by direction of his father, Napoleon III, to the fire of the enemy at Saarbruck, the event was called a ‘baptism of fire’
Later, people changed it to Baptism by fire.