This week we ’re joined by a special guest blogger . Patricia T. O’Conner , a former editor program atThe New York Times Book Review , is the author of the national best - sellerWoe Is I : The Grammarphobe ’s Guide to Better English in Plain English , as well as other Word of God about linguistic communication . She is a even monthly guest on public tuner station WNYC in New York . Learn more at her website , grammarphobia.com . Make her feel welcome !
Since I ’m a language maven and all , reviewer sometimes inquire me whether I fault the net for the decline in literacy . dead not ! The cyberspace , because it requires everybody to write , has simply reveal what stinky writers most people are . But the fact that they ’re save is a very dependable affair .
The down side of the Internet is that it ’s wedge - full of misinformation . Many of the websites devoted to word and idiomatic expression origins are hotbeds of mythology . Lots of the more popular myths pre - date the Internet , but technology has spread them to the furthest reach of the English - speaking world . Too risky , because the truth about give-and-take is even more interesting than the myths . So let ’s detonate a few .
1. “Caesarean.“
Ask a roomful of people where the tidings " caesarean" comes from , and everyone will have the solution . Julius Caesar was comport surgically , so the chronicle choke , and that ’s why operative parentage are call up " caesareans . “ Well , luckily for both Caesar and his mother , this is n’t the response .
In ancient time , operative deliveries were performed only on women who were bushed or dying . Back then , the kid ’s endurance was scarce potential after such an operation , but not the unfortunate mother ’s ( this was around 100 B.C. , remember ? ) . Yet Caesar ’s mother , Aurelia , survived his birth by at least 40 years , which would have been out of the question if she ’d delivered him by caesarean .
The likeliest source of our secret word , " caesarean,“ is not the Saturnia pavonia but the Latin wordcaeso(from the verbcaedere , meaning to write out ) . As for how the emperor moth ’s forebears got the cognomen " Caesar,“ nobody knows . One interesting possibility comes from a popish language whiz , Sextus Pompeius Festus , who conceive the name issue forth from the Latin wordcaesaries(“hair" ) . He suggested the first Caesar may have been born with a full head of hair .
The myth about Caesar is what ’s called a fake eponym . ( The Good Book " eponym,“ by the way , comes from the Greek for " named after,“ and it mean one for whom something is named . ) Here ’s another one .
2. “Crapper.“
No , my friends , Thomas Crapper did not forge the loaded toilet . There was such a man , and he was a plumbing magnate in 19th - century England ( he even made and sold toilet ) , but his name is pure concurrence . Flush gutter lead him .
Another popular call is that Thomas Crapper ’s name is the reference of the noun " crapper,“ slang for the machine itself . According to this myth , American doughboys in England during World War I saw the name Crapper on toilets " over there" and brought the word home as a noun meaning " toilet . “
The problem with this floor is that the Bible was already in use in 1910 , when it meant a john or bathroom and not the fixture itself . The apparatus was n’t referred to as a " crapper" until 1938 , long after the First World War . It ’s likely that any connection with Mr. Crapper himself is coincidental . Linguistically speak , he ’s an innocent bystander .
3. “Jeep.“
Myths are frustrating , because once they become entrenched in people ’s memory board , they ’re very difficult to pry loose . " Jeep" is a good example . Many the great unwashed trust , and many dictionaries will tell you , that it ’s a orthoepy of the initials GP , an abbreviation the Army used for its " general purpose" vehicle .
Eugene was the Snoopy of his solar day . He was tremendously popular and was adopted as a sorting of mascot by several government contractor and other potbelly ( admit Halliburton , by the way ) in the belated 1930 ’s .
When the Army introduced its small all - terrain reconnaissance vehicle in 1941 , the short car was construct mainly by two vainglorious companies , Willys - Overland and Ford . It just happened that Ford , on its models , used the factory designation general practitioner — thousand for " government contract" and P as a codification for 80 - in wheelbase .
So GP was not an Army designation , it did not stand for " cosmopolitan purpose,“ and it was not the ancestry of the name " Jeep . “ When Willys - Overland uncover its paradigm , newsman wanted to know its name . The publicist say , " you’re able to call it a Jeep . “ Willys change hands over the class and now the stylemark " Jeep" is owned by Chrysler .
4. “Snuck.“
Here ’s a piece of news . English is a experience speech , and it changes . Many myths about words can be traced to the fact that the Scripture evolved . No , obstinate to popular vox populi , they are not written in Edward Durell Stone ! Take the Logos " snuck,“ which has mouse into common utilization and even into lexicon .
In formal spell English , the generally accepted received forms of the verb are " sneak,“ " sneaked,“ and " have sneaked . “ But " snuck,“ which crop up as a nonstandard discrepancy of " sneaked" in 19th - century America , has become so common over the age that dictionaries now accept it as standard English . If you do n’t believe me , check outMerriam - Webster ’s Collegiate Dictionary(11th male erecticle dysfunction . ) orThe American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language(4th ed . ) . exercise expert , who are more conservative than lexicographers , in the main frown on it , so I would n’t use it in formal authorship . But currently " snuck" is used about as often as " sneaked,“ and seems potential to replace it finally .
What many people do n’t wish to accept about English is that in the end , rightness is determine by common practice .
5. “Whole Nine Yards.“
Another affair some people just ca n’t accept is that the origins of many vulgar expressions will probably always remain a mystery . We know , for instance , what " the whole nine yards" mean — the works , everything , the whole enchilada . But nobody knows where it comes from .
Before you offer the classical etymology of the expression , rent me say that I ’ve see it before . I ’ve heard them all , and none of them are echt . " The whole nine yards" is not a reference to ammunition clips used by cannoneer on World War II aircraft . It is not a navigation idiom about the three yard — or long sparring — on each of the three masts of a limiter ship . It has nothing to do with the amount of textile ask to make a burial mainsheet . And it ’s not about the capacity of a ready - mix concrete motortruck , either .
In fact , no one really know how the idiomatic expression originated . All we know for certain is that it ’s an Americanism from the 1960s . Unfortunately , many polyglot and writers ( including me ) have spent right smart too much sentence trying to track down its origin . All those theories I mentioned , from ammo belts to payload of cementum , have been debunked . The British language sleuth Michael Quinion has also rule out suggestions that the phrase comes from the cloth needed for a nun buoy ’s habit , a three - art object suit , or a Scots kilt ; the capacity of a coal - ore wagon or a garbage motortruck ; the length of a maharajah ’s sash or a hangman ’s noose ; the distance between the cellblock and the outer paries of a prison , and any number of measurements having to do with fun .
We simply do n’t have intercourse — and may never live — where some Son and manifestation issue forth from . But speech lovers hate to take no for an answer . possibly that ’s how myths are put up .
