Yow. November already? As Groucho Marx once noted, Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Fortunately, here at The Word Detective, we like to dwell on the past.  As you may know, subscribers to TWD-by-Email (who pony up a measly $15 per year) receive each biweekly batch of columns long before they are published, for free, here on the website.  How long?  In the case of this November issue, these columns were first seen by subscribers back in February and March of this year.  If you notice reader comments on some of these columns, that’s because

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Dear Word Detective: I was listening to a Huey Lewis and the News song “Hip to be Square” and that got me to wondering where the word “square,” meaning nerdy or not with it, comes from. What say ye, oh Emperor of Etymology? — Harry.

Huey Lewis? Oh my. You should be careful with that sort of thing, you know? One minute you’re innocently listening to your car radio in traffic, reliving the carefree 1980s, “Back to the Future” and all that. But the next

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Dear Word Detective: We were talking words with our friends and came up with two puzzlers. “Stogie” — is it related to Conestoga, and, if so, how? The other is “slue (slew) foot.” I feel it has a bit of a negative connotation, but I’d like your take on both these. — Charlie.

It must be nice to live where people talk about words. Our neighbors, having determined years ago that I apparently just don’t care about sports, hunting, home renovation or the mating habits of all the other neighbors, now simply nod

Continue reading Stogie & Slewfoot

Dear Word Detective: A few days ago my youngest son was in his playroom throwing toys, kicking them around and falling into piles of them. Joyfully! When I asked him to explain this behavior he said simply, “Just causing a ruckus.” Like I should have known, duh. He said he learned the term from his teacher in school that day and thought it was ok to cause one at home since he and his partners in crime couldn’t do it at school. I’m still dizzy from that logic. So

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Dear Word Detective: I’m being accused of overanalyzing this, but the idea that anything can “fall between the cracks” just doesn’t make sense to me. I picture two parallel cracks. Wouldn’t the space between them be the surface? Please help me make sense of this. — Jane Francis.

Oh what a tangled web we weave when literally idioms we perceive, or something. I’d turn back if I were you. Deconstructing English idioms is right up there with squaring the circle and explaining Ben Stiller’s career as lose-lose endeavors. That way madness lies.

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Dear Word Detective: I have a British friend who refers to me as “old bean.” Where does “old bean” come from? — Chris.

Hmm. How long has this been going on? I ask only because if someone were routinely addressing me with a term I didn’t understand, I’d be pawing through a dictionary toot sweet. Then again, I understand the tendency to let this sort of thing slide. Back when I was a child and the name “Evan”

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Dear Word Detective: I was wondering what the history of the word “adumbrate” is. It’s such an interesting word that I was hoping that it would have a good history too. — Talia.

Well, that’s certainly understandable. It’s like looking forward to the first Thanksgiving get-together after your marriage and hoping your new in-laws don’t eat with their feet. A cool word should have cool ancestors, or at least a nifty story about how its parents met (”I was raised Middle English, but one day a charming Romany verb came into our tavern…”). But sometimes knowing a word’s history

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Dear Word Detective: What is the true origin of the word “towrag” or “toerag,” meaning a rascally type of person? Has it any connection to the nomadic Berber Touareg tribe? Could there be a connection to the towing rag, suspended from a long load in a car or truck? I have even heard it might be related to a strip of cloth used for wrapping around the feet, in place of socks. I would appreciate a definitive explanation. — Irene Brackenridge.

Ah yes, wouldn’t we all? So many questions

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Dear Word Detective: Do you know the etymology of the word “beguile”? — Matt.

I sure do. Next question. Wait, don’t go. You get ten points for spelling “etymology” correctly. It drives me slightly nuts to be referred to as an “entomologist,” which is a scientist who studies insects (from the Greek “entomon,” insect). The study of word origins is “etymology,” from the Greek “etymon” (true sense) plus “logos” (word). The word “etymology” actually reflects the assumption, fairly widespread at one time, that the “original” or earliest meaning of a word is

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Dear Word Detective: When needing a quick exit, I might bolt for freedom, hightail it out of there, skedaddle, or just book it out of there. I conjecture that “bolt” comes from a bolt of lightning, and “skedaddle” sounds like it means, but why have “book” and “hightail” come to mean “leave quickly?” — Michael Duggan.

Leaving so soon? I must say that yours is one of the better jobs I’ve seen of shoehorning multiple questions into one email. At least the words are related in meaning. More often

Continue reading Bolt, Skedaddle, Hightail and Book

Dear Word Detective: My grandmother, who was born in a small Tennessee town that doesn’t even warrant a dot on maps, once used the word “goozle” in a sentence. It was hilarious! She took a bite of a spicy piece of Popeye’s fried chicken, and exclaimed, “Whoa! That nearly burnt off mah goozle!” My brother and I obviously busted out laughing, but once we regained our composure, we asked what a “goozle” is. She motioned towards her throat, and advised that a “goozle” is a throat. Is this a real word? My grandmother never went to school,

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Dear Word Detective: In reading The Poe Shadow, a historical novel concerning an investigation of the mysterious death of Edgar Poe, the author Matthew Pearl uses the expression “poor as Job’s turkey.” The setting of the novel is 1851 Baltimore. Is Pearl using an expression of the time? Although I’ve read some of the Bible, the Book of Job is overly long; therefore I have not read it. Can you date and explain the reference? — Clete Delvaux, De Pere, Wisconsin.

Good question. Incidentally, why is it that you never run into people

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Dear Word Detective: Where did the word “geezer” or “geezing” come from? — Brent Lilly.

That’s a good question. I actually answered it about ten years ago, but that was before many of today’s geezers were geezers, and the ones who were are unlikely to remember the answer anyway, so we’ll do it again. In fact, I must be a geezer too, because I didn’t initially remember that I’d ever explained the word. What was the question again?

A “geezer” is, in popular

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Dear Word Detective: I have seen the term “The Black Maria” referred to in terms of what we call a “paddy wagon” here in the States. However, I also recall reading this same description in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s books referring to a black car used by the KGB or police to secretly take away prisoners in the middle of the night. I’ve always wondered where that term came from, and thought you might enlighten me. — John Moffo.

Hmm. Interesting. My spell-checker is fine with “Solzhenitsyn,” but chokes on your last

Continue reading Black Maria/Paddy wagon

Dear Word Detective: I recently was told that I was “besmirching” a friend of mine. When I asked the speaker if he knew what that meant, he said, “No, but, you said it last week and I thought it meant ‘bad’.” I told him that’s pretty much it. Now I am going crazy trying to figure out what a “smirch” is. Please help. — Anthony Jolley.

That’s a good question, and it’s nice to hear that folks out there are debating the meaning, and puzzling over the derivation,

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Dear Word Detective: I notice that the top-rated word at your “My Favorite Word” website is currently “petrichor,” which I have never encountered before. It’s not in any online dictionary I’ve been able to find. Is it a real word, and where does it come from? — D. Bailey.

Yes, “petrichor” is a real word, and a very cool one at that. But before we get too far, I should probably explain that I started “My Favorite Word” (www.myfavoriteword.com) a while back as a sort of adjunct to our Word Detective

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Dear Word Detective: I am trying to find a definitive answer for my 7th grade health students on the popular term “cold turkey.” How did quitting an addictive substance suddenly, without any help, lead to this phrase? — Mrs. McRae’s 2nd period health class.

Oh boy, health class. We didn’t have health class when I went to school, which probably explains a lot of my subsequent behavior. We did have shop class, where I learned how to perforate myself with a drill press and developed a lifelong fear of power tools. And we

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Dear Word Detective: My sister and I have a bet regarding the phrase “passing the buck.” I think it refers to the early 19th century Kansas frontiers when it was common to pass around large plates of venison. She insists that the phrase originated when the term “greenbacks” was shortened to “backs” and then “bucks,” which makes even less sense. We clearly need your help. — Daniel Jorgenson.

Large plates of venison? I’ll pass, thanks (and yes, I’ve tried venison, many years ago). For some reason,

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