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Urban Legend Debunking - Word Origins

Ashles said:
Well done for questioning this nonsense. What kind of response did you get?
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From memory it was something along the lines of "OMG i cant belive u wasted time on this. u looser."
 
1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
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There actually is some truth to this one.

Granted the number isn't anywhere close to 1 in 25, but at one point, everyone was convinced they were going to be buried alive, so it was fashionable to be buried with knives, etc. There were a couple coffins designed to alert others, but they weren't very popular. There were also some places designed to keep corpses for a short while before they were interred, to make sure that they were really dead. After a few years though, they were discontinued, as there were numerous false alarms, and they didn't actually save anybody.
 
If anybody wants a good book that debunks all of this, David Wiltin's Word Myths is fantastic. He goes into great detail with the etymology of a whole lot of sayings and words, often admitting there is simply no evidence for the origins of a lot of present sayings.

It's got a good place in my library, although I've quickly arrived at the conclusion that people don't like to be told that their precious little piece of trivia is bu**◊◊◊◊.

Athon
 
athon said:
It's got a good place in my library, although I've quickly arrived at the conclusion that people don't like to be told that their precious little piece of trivia is bu**◊◊◊◊.
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This happened to me with a friend the other day. She alleged that the origin of "I don't give a damn" was supposedly that there was an Indian coin worth very little called a "dam." To "not give one" meant you wouldn't even give this very small worthless coin. I said "Hmm... I dunno about that one. Sounds a little fishy." So we looked it up (while she got very huffy that I didn't trust her.) Found another etymology. It comes from the chaff left over when people made toy soldiers, which was called "dam." You wouldn't give it, because it was worthless. "See, I was close!" she said. Again, I said "I dunno. That still sounds like BS to me."

Eventually, we found that the expression actually comes from the word "damn," and nobody knows the exact etymology of the phrase itself. To her credit, she eventually accepted that we just plain don't know and that the folk etymologies were just conveneint myths created by someone who wanted to appear intelligent.
 
Origins of word "debunk":

de·bunker n.

Word History: One can readily see that debunk is constructed from the prefix de-, meaning "to remove," and the word bunk. But what is the origin of the word bunk, denoting the nonsense that is to be removed? Bunk came from a place where much bunk has originated, the United States Congress. During the 16th Congress (1819-1821) Felix Walker, a representative from western North Carolina whose district included Buncombe County, carried on with a dull speech in the face of protests by his colleagues. Walker later explained he had felt obligated "to make a speech for Buncombe." Such a masterful symbol for empty talk could not be ignored by the speakers of the language, and Buncombe, spelled Bunkum in its first recorded appearance in 1828 and later shortened to bunk, became synonymous with claptrap. The response to all this bunk seems to have been delayed, for debunk is not recorded until 1923.
 
This morning I had a chat with a workmate who has always believed that the word "dole" came from "Department Of Labour and Employment", the supposed first government body to hand out unemployment benefits.

A quick trip to the Online Etymology Dictionary sorted him out.
 
I've seen some corsets with lacing both front and back. So long as its sufficiently boned, it's still called a corset (afaik).
 
I thought "Dole" was a kind of fruit, though maybe I'm misremembering it.

Don't you guys read Terry Pratchett "Discworld"?:)

YBW
 
I would say that the majority of it is crap, but I'll address the playing-card one, as I have some expertise in that area.

Yahweh said:
Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the "Ace of Spades." To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead.
Yet, since most games require 52 cards, these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren't "playing with a full deck."
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The tax was on the entire decks of cards, not just on the ace of spades.

Decks were sold in wrappers, and the tax stamp stamped onto the outside of the wrapper. It became a custom to also stamp one of the cards in the deck.

This was not an indication that the one card alone was taxed, but as evidence that the deck had been properly taxed, once the wrapper was thrown away.

At first, this one card was whatever card happened to be on top when the stamping was done, but eventually, it was most often the spade ace (at least among English makers), probably due to standardizing of manufacturing methods.

This stamping of the spade ace evolved into the larger, fancier markings on the spade aces usually found in decks today.

Personally, I think that whoever wrote that nonsense wasn't playing with a full deck. You gotta love the quote "these people were thought to be stupid or dumb."
 
YouBelieveWHAT? said:
I thought "Dole" was a kind of fruit, though maybe I'm misremembering it.
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dole-button-2.gif


WRONG!
 
Nearly.

ORIGIN: Middle English from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr 'wind' + auga 'eye' --- Oxford English Dictionary
 
ORIGIN: Middle English from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr 'wind' + auga 'eye' --- Oxford English Dictionary
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Yes though it differs in accent of the original language in question.
The contemporary swedish word for eye is "öga", known to be prenounced still by some accents as "auga".

Also vindue still exits as a word in elder dialects such as the one on Gotland. Where "eye" is prenounced "ue.

I consider both to be equally correct though I would agree with the Oxford English Dictionary to have chosen the word that has been most loyal in comparison to the growth of the language.
With "Vind" still being used in swedish for wind and the "auga" for eye which is a still existing prenounciation of it.
 
arthwollipot said:
I've seen some corsets with lacing both front and back. So long as its sufficiently boned, it's still called a corset (afaik).
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The boning is definitely the important part. If it "holds you in", so to speak, it's a corset (and there are some variations on these, such as cinchers, which just go around the waist area). Then you have 'basques' (sp?), which are essentially corsets, but don't do much but look nice.
 
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