"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 18/12/17 (riding a croggy)

I had a nice e-mail from Christine Craigie, who said, "My cousines talk of riding croggy for fun when the two of them ride on a bike together. Where does this term come from?" It's a great example from English dialect which, contrary to everything we believe, is actually quite well and in quite robust health. Wonderful, wonderful words are falling out of use. They all seen to collect around certain themes, which is quite interesting as well - left-handedness being one of them. Believe it or not, children's games and particularly this idea of riding two on a bike is another one. Dozens of a local versions of them so there is riding backie, dinky, seaty, piggy and croggy, which I love. That's still use in Midlands, especially in Nottinghamshire and Teesside as well. The difference here is that riding croggy, you're riding on the crossbar. You're not riding behind the rider. It may have come north all the way from Cornwall where a croggan is a limpet shell. So the idea is that you've got two riders and one is clinging really tightly to the other, which I think is beautiful. It may simply be CRO from crossbar. That's a more prosaic version, but I like a limpet explanation but, as I say, it's just one of so many words for riding on a bike this day. A lot of fun. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 15/12/17 (nailing your colours to the mast)

Thanks to John Barringer, who e-mailed in to ask for the story behind "nailing your colours to the mast", which is to declare your intentions very openly and also the idea that you will hold on to those beliefs intil the end, and there is a lovely story behind it. A little bit grisly, perhaps, because it goes back to a very famous 17th-century naval battle, and in those days colours, or flags - it's another word for flags - were struck or lowered to show surrender in a battle, but it was also a custom in warfare for one ship to direct its cannon fire at the opponent's ship's mast, so to disable it completely. Sometimes if all of the ship's masts were broken, the captain then had no alternative. He was completely lost. But if there was a little bit left, sometimes they would hoist the colours onto the remnants of the ship's rigging - in other words, they would literally nail their colours to the mast, as I say, quite literally. But there is a specific event involved and that is exploits of the crew of the ship called the Venerable, which is at the Battle of Camperdown, and that was a naval engagement that took place in 1797. It was between English and Dutch ships during the French Revolutionary Wars. Camperdown, because it was near Kamperduin in Holland. And the Venerable was under the command of the captain Adam Duncan. He led the fleet, the entire fleet, and it didn't go very well, the battle, at the beginning, so the main mast was struck and the blue standard, the Admiral, the blue flag, was brought down in the process, which could mean, as they say, that everything was over, but that's when history became an adventure story. Step forward the intrepid sailor called Jack Crawford. He climbed what was left of the mast - ans there wasn't very much left, a very, very precarious job - and nailed it back to where it was visible to the rest of the fleet, to show thst they hadn't surrended. It provided crucial in the battle. Duncan's fleet was victorious in the end and many saw Camperdown to be the end of dominance of the Dutch and the beginning of Britannia ruling the waves. Crawford returned home to Sunderland. He was an absolute national hero and, for years after, the bravery of those English sailors bacame the yardstick against which anything else was measured, so a very literal a nailing colour to the mast, all thanks to the sailor Jack Crawford. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 14/12/17 (to have someone over the barrel, laughing stock, going commando)

Three auestions from three viewers, and I always love getting questions, so thank you to everyone who's sending them in. The first is from Alex Smith, who asked, where the phrase "to have someone over the barrel" comes from. It's American, and first appeared around sort of 1950s, 1960s. And it refers, we think, to the actual situation of somebody being leant over the barrel. Two situations, one is to empty the lungs of someone who'd been close to drowing. And we have lots of records saying that this actually took place, this method of clearing the lungs. Or it was a form of punishment, often aboard a ship. Similar to flogging, in other words. Either way, that position of helplessness transferred over into this idiom, and thtat's why we still talk of that today.  John Winter asks - similar theme of helplessness - why do we call somebody a laughing stock? That goes back to the use of stock, something solid that you can fix something to. So a stump, or it's related to stick, in fact. And the idea that you are the butt of a joke, really, you're at the end of a joke. And speaking of butts - this is probably the worst link I've ever made - Victoria Morsman asked about going commando and where that phrase comes from. The simple answer is not completely sure, but we do know that many commandos and people in the special forces do go without underpants. Do you know this phrase, to go commando? Two senses - it can mean to toughen up, if you go commando, and that was its first sense, actually, but it nowdays means not to wear any underwear. Thst's to go commando. And certanly, within the special forces, especially if, people in Vietnam, for example, if they were spending long periods in wet, jungle conditions, wearing underpants could be deeply uncomfortable. I won't go into it, but fungal infection and things, apparently, come to mind. And that may have been when it started to creep into English. But it really was propelled in the 1970s, when it became a part of college slang, and then a famous episode of Friends has Joey and Rachel going commando, and that's when it became really popular. Thanks for sending them in. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 13/12/17 (proverb, when in Rome)

Today I have a proverb for you. And proverbs are often some of the oldest things in the language. In Europe many of them go back to the Bible, which not only coined quite a lot of them but also popularised them as it was distributed around the Europe. And proverb itself comes from pro, to put forth, and verbum, meaning the word. So you were literally spreading the word. And the word is usually a moral or a reflection of culture or experience of some kind. So they tell you an awful lot, a little snapshot, if you like, in a word or in a phrase. And the proverd I'm going to talk about today is "when in Rome". It's usually shortened to "when in Rome". Of course, it's "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". And this one of the oldest. It was an admonition to travellers, really, to observe the local custom whenever you go there. And it's believed to have originated in a letter written by St Ambrose. And he was a fourth-century Bishop of Milan. And translated from Latin, his advice reads, "When you are at Rome, live the Roman style. When you are elswhere, live as they live elsewhere". Those words were part of a letter written in LAtin in about AD387 to St Augustine. And St Augustine was in Rome and was really confused about the right day for fasting, because he knew that the Roman church had decreed that Saterdat was a day sat aside for fasting. But in Milan, where he resided, there was no such requirement at all, so he didn't quite to know which custom to follow. It obviously varied from city to city. So he consulted the wise St Ambrose, who replied with that advice - "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". And that's exactly what he did. Not only that. He gave us some words that became enshrined in our memory pretty much for ever. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 12/12/17 (ackronym, backronym, tip)

I'm going to talk about acromyms today. It comes from Greek akron, meaning summit, because you take the tip for each lettet for an acronym and make a word out of it. It is related to an acropolis, which is city built on a hill, acne, acrobit, actobat as well - performing high up. And there is such a thing as a backronym. Because acronyms essentially are taking the first letter ag a number of words, as I say, and making up a plausible word out of them, backronyms are when people take a word and think, "Oh, that must be an acronym" and they make up a story to fit that particular word. Many, many stories suggesting that "tip" is an acronym for "To Insure Promptness", and the idea is that in the 18th-century London, coffeehouses, when these coffeehouses were all the rage,  customers would drop coins into a box when they came in, and the box would be labelled "To Insure Promptness". Lovely story, but sadly no evidence at all exists for that. In fact, it all began with the criminal underworld, like so many words in English, in the 17th century - so rogues' cant as we called it - and tipping someone the wink, which we still use today. It means to give somebody a heads-up.  Tip is probably the root of giving a piece of advice, giving a tip to somebody. And tip then simply meant to allow or to give. And that sense of giving then translated over to tipping someone a shilling, giving someone a shilling as a result of good service, or to reward them in some way. And that is how we ended up with the modern meaning of giving someone a tip at the end, perhaps, of a good meal. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 11/12/17 (letting hair down, get in someone's hair, split hairs, hairy, hair of the dog)

I'm going to talk about hair and the numerous expressions in English involving hair. And I'm going to start with letting your hair down, which seems quite obvious, really, on the face of it. But actually, in the 19th century, it was letting down the back hair. And it involved not the hair on your back, but these very elaborate tresses of hair that, of course, women would wear in these days. And only in the informal, relaxed atmosphere of the home were they able tolet these tresses down. And when you get in someone's hair, you're being an annoyance. Not quite sure about this one, but we think it's due to the irritation of head lice, that was the original meaning. So not a particularly pleasant one there. People who split hairs quibble over insignificant details. And that image, between painstackingly dividing a single hair, which of course is almost impossible, and making small and slightly over-refined distinctions, has been around for centuries. In fact, Shakespeare used it. In King Henry IV he writes, "I'll cavil on a ninth part of a hair', meaning, "I'll argue over everything", a tiny portion. And then we have hairy. If we describe something as hairy, it's quite scary - you might have a hairy flight, for example. That sense of hairy is probably simply a version of hair-rising, makes your hair stand on end. Which is also, of course, behind horrible and horror. It goes back to a Latin word meaning stand on end, with the idea that your hair bristle at the sight of something truly terrifying. But possibly my favourite origin, one of my favourite origins in English, totally, actially, the hair of the dog. We talk about that when we have a tipple the morning after the night before, in order trying to try and cure a hangover.  It goes back to the full expression, the hair of the dog that  bit you, and that goes back quite a long way to people who were perhaps bitten by rabid dog, and the belief that if you could chase that dog down, pull out a bit of its hair, make a poultice out of the hair and put it over the wound, it would cure your rabies. And? of course, over time, that was metaphorically then applied to alcohol. But it begut with something very, very literal, and very real hairs of an actual dog. 

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 08/12/17 (prefix ortho-)

I have a prefix, which sounds on the face of it very boring. And lexicographers love prefixes and knowing your prefixes allows you to open a whole new world of words and to realise where they came from, especially if you know your classics. This prefix is ortho-. And ortho- heads up a whole host, a family of modern English words. It means straight or perpendicular. It's Greek-based. Metaphorical, too, it can imply integrity, correctness or standard, in some way. And there are many, many medical, zoological, botanical terms, that have this at the beginning. So, Orthoptera is a family of insects including grasshoppers and locusts and various other insects that have stright wings. So, that ortho- means straight in there already. That one's a bit obscure, maybe. But there are so many other words including ortho-, which once you understand that straightness, they make absolute sense. So, orthodondist is somebody who will straighten your teeth, the -dontist part obviously meaning teeth. So, they are a tooth straighteher. An orthopaedist, on the other hand,  if you talk about orthopaedics, the person who deals with abnormalities in bones anf joints, especially in children, and the -paedist comes from the Greek for child but etymologically, they are really concerned with the straight development of children's bones, so, again, that idea of straightness. And orthodox, somebody who has an orthodox opinion conforms to the standard, if you like. They are perhaps more conventional in their beliefs and subscribe to a particularly standard  type of doctrine related to whatever it is, whether it's religion or a custom. So, orthodoxy, appearing in English in the 1500s, means literally a straight or correct opinion. So that ortho-, simply meaning straight, will give you a way into so many words that on the face of it look actually very difficult but they're not!