imp We all know that an imp is a small devil or demon, or somewhat more playfully, a mischievous child. But it was not always so. Would you believe that imp originally meant a shoot of a plant, a sapling? Imp is an old word, dating to Old English, and back
tabby Most of us know that a tabby cat is either a female house cat or one with a striped or brindled coat regardless of its sex. But tabby can also refer to an elderly woman. Where does the word come from? It has a convoluted and somewhat uncertain etymology. The
stiff upper lip Having a stiff upper lip is considered the quintessential British quality of resolution in the face of adversity. But surprisingly, the phrase itself is an American import. The earliest use of the phrase that I’m aware of appears in a 6 November 1811 report on U.S. Congressional action,
hoax / hocus The word hoax first appears in the mid eighteenth century as a verb meaning to ridicule. It evidently was current in university slang for several decades before seeing its way into print. The earliest example I have found is in a poem written by a student at Oxford c. 1750
Gaza 30 October 2025 Gaza is the name of a city on the Mediterranean coast in Palestine, bordering Egypt and Israel. The name, in the form Gaza Strip, is also applied to the surrounding territory, which along with the West Bank constitute the current Palestinian territory. The city is often called
measles Measles is a potentially fatal, but vaccine-preventable, disease caused by a Morbillivirus, and it is one of the most highly contagious diseases that infect humans. The disease, once rendered rare in the industrialized world, has made a comeback in recent years, largely due to low rates of vaccination. The disease
dyke A dyke is a lesbian or a woman whose appearance is regarded as masculine, with the implication that she is a lesbian. The word was originally a slur and is still offensive in many contexts—particularly when used by cis-gendered, heterosexual men—although it has been reclaimed as a positive
bootstrap / boot up A self-made person is one who lifts or pulls oneself up by one’s bootstraps. The phrase is usually used unironically nowadays, despite the fact that the laws of physics make it impossible for one to actually lift oneself by one’s bootstraps. The phrase was originally ironic, recognizing that
tweetzkrieg I try and avoid posting about brand-new neologisms. They often disappear before they become established, and I don’t want this site to be a graveyard of failed words. (Maybe someone should start such a site, but this isn’t it.) In 2019, when I originally penned the entry for
Saracen Saracen is term for a Muslim that is primarily used historically to refer to Muslims during the medieval period and especially in reference to the crusades. But it dates to antiquity, long before Islam arose as a religion, and its original sense was much more circumscribed. Its correct etymology isn’
emoji Emoji are pictograms used in electronic communications. An emoji is a digital icon used to express an emotion or idea, a twenty-first century updating of the old ascii emoticons like the winking face, ;-), used to mark a joke or sarcasm. The etymology is rather straightforward but may be a
witch hunt The phrase witch hunt is surprisingly recent. One might expect it to date to the seventeenth century, when real hunts for supposed witches were rampant across Europe. But its use in relation to witches only dates to the late nineteenth century and its political use only to the twentieth. And
