What's the origin of the many phrases that include a person's name?
Like the phrase "peeping tom" is used to refer to a creep trying to see somebody else using the bathroom. What on Earth did this Tom character do to become the definition of such a creep?
Why are women who do not have traditionally feminine traits sometimes called tomboys? Why Tom?
And why do people say "Bob's your uncle"? Was this Bob a super helpful and reliable guy, so much so that his name is used for the definition of something being finished and done?
And the playing card representing an aristocratic / upper class man is called Jack, who is this Jack? Why do people say a "jack of all trades", was this Jack character incredibly talented? Or is it related to the playing card, where they are good at everything but not the best (i.e. a king or queen)
I know of a few that are of religious origin, like the Achilles's heel after Greek mythology, and the bumpy bit of your throat is called Adam's apple is biblical.
21 replies
Peeping Tom is a character from the legend of Lady Godiva (real Lady, probably made up story). Basically Lord Godiva was an asshole / tyrant and Lady Godiva begged him to have mercy on her subjects.
He was all "well if you like them all so damn much go ride a horse naked across the whole land so they can all see yo hoeass"
and she was like "OK then you'll stop being an asshole? Bet."
and he was all like "do it then bitch."
So she fuckin' did and all the subjects averted their eyes and/or stayed indoors except some weirdo named Thomas who was subsequently struck blind or dead by some angels or some shit.
Wait, so somebody called Jack is basically the equivalent of "dude"? Interesting. So a lumberjack is just a person who deals with lumber*, that makes a lot of sense!
edit: Correction, a person who cuts down trees and produces lumber (not a merchant)
Yes. But a lumberjack isn't a merchant, he's the fellow who goes out and actually cuts down the trees.
'Joe' used to be a common term for coffee in the US, as in 'pour me a cup of joe.' 'G.I. Joe' comes from 'government issue.' Before WW1 some soldiers provided their own boots, saddles, rifles, etc. When the Army decided to standardize, everything from uniforms and weapons to bedding was 'G.I.'
'Jane' was any woman.
Huh. Never actually looked into it, but I always assumed GI meant general infantry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.I.
I was amazed to learn about the 'galvanized iron.'
Oop yeah I might have worded that wrong. Yes, a lumberjack is a person who cuts down trees (my brain was thinking "dealing with" as in getting rid of, cutting something down, and of course lumber is the wood not the tree!)
Don't worry.
Bob's Your Uncle is a pretty fascinating phrase, because it doesn't have a clear origin.
The earliest references to it are as a song title, mentioned in advertisements and later in a newspaper review, but neither the actual music or lyrics are known today.
Very soon after this first appearance, it starts appearing in print as a phrase people are using.
Reminds me of how “the butler did it” first known appearance is an article describing how cliche it is.
Wild how something like that can happen. Obviously, this was a pretty popular song and yet it managed to disappear.
Makes you wonder how many other things in history have managed to slip through the cracks.
Keanu Reeves wrote a comic called 'Brzrkr,' about an immortal warrior. At one point he says that he has forgotten how many languages he's used over the centuries, but he's sure he learned calculus six or more times.
I guess it's kind of like the save icon. Floppy disks have been out of use for so long, that there are adults who have never seen a floppy disk, but know the save icon.
Dialed your phone lately?
I've got a floppy disk attached to my desk. It has "Super important backup" written on it, and a magnet holding it to the desk frame.
I'm old.
Greek plays are notorious for mentioning other works we have no record of.
What did John do with the doe?
I've always wondered (but not hard enough to google it) about "Petered out". Who if this Peter that failed to finish things so often that he became a phrase?!
That one’s got two competing theories. Either from Petre, the Latin word for ‘rock’, or Peter (that is, St. Peter).
One goes that ‘peter’ most likely referred to saltpetre, the main ingredient in gunpowder, which was the explosive of choice in early gold mining. Seems the term ‘peter out’ was first widely used by US gold miners in the 1800s describing veins that had run dry.
On the other hand, there is some colloquial evidence to trace it back further, and to England, and a type of fishing boat called a ‘peterboat’ (which picked the name up from St Peter). Those were long low boats that once oft plied the Thames, and were narrow and pointed at both ends so they could easily go either way in the current. ‘Peter out’ referred to the thin sharp double-taper of the boat-ends.
Many phrases have many origins.
That is true, said Frog.
Book all about this
https://www.amazon.com/Whose-what-Dorothy-Rose-Blumberg/dp/B00CWR3CNG