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Put a Sock in It!
Sometimes you put your foot(wear) in your mouth. Let's look at the origins of some "soxy" and "sole"ful terms.
— Blue stocking
Oddly enough, this derogatory term for an intellectual woman derives from an intellectual man. …Read more.
Cue up a Queue of Tricky Phrases
Verbs followed by prepositions can be tricky. Can you select the correct verb in each phrase?
1. At dawn, the band's fans started to (cue up, queue up) for tickets.
2. The danger of infection (militates against, mitigates against) extensive surgery.…
…Read more.
Let Us Now Pronounce Famous Men
Q: What's the proper way to pronounce "Carnegie"? I am from Pittsburgh, where the guy lived for many years and had a university named for him — Carnegie Mellon. We pronounce it "kahr-NEG-ee" in these parts of the woods. I …Read more.
Getting Our Kilter Back in Whack
Why do we say something is "out of kilter" or "out of whack"? Has something ever been "in kilter" or "in whack"?
I first heard the term "out of kilter" as a kid while watching my father build a …Read more.
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This Word Wins No Bell PrizeQ. Why are hand weights called "dumbbells"? — J. H., West Hartford, Conn. It's hard to imagine these clunky objects having anything to do with a church, but that's where the term began. The earliest meaning of "dumb," a word that appeared in English around A.D. 1000, was "incapable of speech, mute." This meaning produced "dumb show" (a pantomime), "dumbstruck" (made silent by astonishment) and "dumbfound" (a blend of "dumb" and "confound"). (The use of "dumb" to mean "dim-witted" didn't appear in English until the 1800s, but more on that later.) In medieval Europe, the ringing of church bells was an important enterprise, and learning to ring the bells properly required extensive training and practice. Because no one wanted to listen to some clumsy novice trying to master this skill ("DONG-ding-ding-oops!-DONG-ding-DONG"), novice bell-ringers practiced with "dumb bells," metal weights that made no sound when manipulated. During the "fitness craze" of the late 1700s, people started using smaller versions of these weights for exercise, and these became known as "dumbbells" as well. "Pump your dumbbells, Henry, or you'll never be able to toss those tea chests into Boston Harbor!" A short time later, someone connected two dumbbells with a bar to create a "barbell," instantly tripling the number of abdominal hernias among men trying to impress their girlfriends. During the 1800s, German immigrants to the U.S.
The use of "dumbbell" to describe a slow-witted person may refer to metal dumbbells. Or, it may be a combination of "dumb," meaning stupid, and "bell," an old term for the head. Today's football announcers still use this meaning of "bell" when they say a player dazed by a blow to the head has "had his bell rung." During the late 1800s, "dumbbell" also gained notoriety as an architectural term. As immigrants poured into American cities, many were crammed into "dumbbell tenements" — apartment buildings shaped like dumbbells, with small, windowless rooms on each end and a narrow hallway in the middle. Did King Kong, while rampaging through Manhattan, exercise by picking up dumbbell tenements? Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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