10 Common Words With Unexpected Origins

Most of us don’t really notice the words that we use in everyday communication, and if we do, we generally assume that they mean what they sound like. Some words, however, have taken such a twisted journey to their final form that it’s a wonder they were ever created in the first place, let alone survived as long as they have.

10 Poppycock

[amazon asin=1611450535&template=*lrc ad (left)]The word “poppycock” holds a cherished space in the British vernacular as a quintessential for swearing without swearing. The word is not, however, a simple synonym for “nonsense,” as it is commonly used.

The prevailing theory of the word’s origins traces them back to the Dutch words pappe, meaning “soft,” and kak, meaning “dung,” a fitting way to describe your opinion of the views of someone you don’t like. But these roots might themselves be poppycock, as there is no evidence of pappekakever existing as a single Dutch word. However, the phrase zo fijn als gemalen poppekak, meaning “as fine as powdered doll dung,” did exist, supposedly as a sarcastic description of the excessively pious and devout among us.

While the connection with “nonsense” here is less clear, there can be no argument that the word doesn’t refer to waste, whether or not [amazon asin=1555210104&template=*lrc ad (right)]the British elite knew this when they picked it up from their Dutch-colonized American counterparts. Yes, this eminently British word was actually stolen from the savage rebels.

9 Bankrupt

In the days before application forms and credit checks, all you needed to open a bank was a bench in a square. Moneylenders had no specific premises, instead setting up and plying their trade at whatever table or bench they felt would work. This would be their banca, which was Italian for “bench,” from which we get “banking” and everything related to it.

[amazon asin=0060964197&template=*lrc ad (left)]Whenever a trader lost his money and had to close up shop, however, his bench was effectively rotto, or “broken.” There’s some debate as to whether this “broken bench” is simply a figure of speech or some unfortunate creditors literally had their benches splintered in front of them. The phrasebanca rotta found its way into English via the French banqueroute. As time wore on, the tail of the word was substituted with the Latin word rupta, the root of “erupt,” “interrupt,” and “rupture,” among others.

8 Lord/Lady

You’d think that being a “lord” was rooted in something classy, like having to wear waistcoats and knee-high socks, but the title has a [amazon asin=B00CU0NSCU&template=*lrc ad (right)]somewhat less lofty origin. It actually refers to the historical responsibility of lords and ladies to ensure that the lower classes where kept fed, watered, and working, well away from the real gentry.

In Old English, the hlafweard was the person in charge of the household’s stores, hlaf meaning “loaf” and weard meaning “keeper”—literally the “guardian of the loaves.” This was shortened to “halford” and eventually “lord,” the one to whom you looked for your provisions. The original weardsurvived unbroken, giving us “ward” and “warden.”

Similarly, the Old English hlafdige was the person responsible for actually making the bread, the root dige being linked to the notion of “kneading” or “forming,” still present today in the word “dough.” This role was commonly given to a woman, often the wife of the hlafweard, and when the word was shortened to lafdi, the pair kept their original gender link.

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