punk

cattail

I wrote elsewhere about something that was part of my New Jersey childhood autumns. We would gather cattails, dry them, light them, and blow out the flaming tip so there was a glowing and smoking tip. Some people said the smoke kept away mosquitoes and bugs, but honestly, we just liked the fire and smoke.

We called them punks, but until I wrote about that, I had no clue why that was the name we used for them. It may be a Jersey thing. There were also very small, manufactured punks that are still sold and are used as a lighter for fireworks and as an unscented incense stick. 

Doing a bit of etymological research, I found the more common usages of the word.

I suspect that today, the most common usage might be as an adjective describing a loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music, popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some of the genre's followers with their colored spiked hair and clothing decorated with safety pins or zippers could be called punks.

Earlier in North America, to call someone a punk would be saying they were a worthless person. The word shows up in 1950s movies, TV, and books as being close to being a criminal or hoodlum.

Slightly less derogatory American usage would be using it to describe an inexperienced young person or novice.

As a verb, it can be used to mean being tricked or deceived.

In sports, it can mean to totally beat or defeat an opponent.

The word's origin is late 16th century. I found that in an archaic sense, it meant a prostitute. 

The closest I can find for my childhood usage is a North American, late 17th century (as noun) usage of uncertain origin, meaning a soft, crumbly wood that has been attacked by fungus, used as tinder to start a fire.

saved by the bell

Some Americans might know the phrase saved by the bell" as the name of a 1980s TV sitcom about high school kids. But we use this idiom to often mean that someone is saved by something unplanned that gets them free from a tough situation. It might be a bell that saves them - one to end a class so that they don't have to give their speech, or a phone call that frees them - but it can it could also be the person who summons you from a meeting that you didn't want to attend.

The the idiom originataes in sports. In boxing, to be saved from misfortune or unpleasantness and a possible loss by the sound of the bell signalling the end of the round. Even a boxer who is knocked to the canvas and must regain his feet before a count of ten or lose the fight can be saved by that end-of-round bell if it is rung before the count is finished. That gives him until the start of the next round to recover and resume fighting. 

ADHI dates this to the "mid-1900s" while the OED cites the first boxing use in 1932, and later figurative use in 1959.

ringers and dead ringers

 

If you say that someone is a  “Dead Ringer,” it means they have the exact likeness of someone else - like a twin.

Going back to 19th century U.S. in horse racing,  an owner might substitute a horse that was faster or slower than the original racing horse to con the bookies. That horse looked exactly like the substituted horse and was called a ringer. 

The term "ringer" may have originated from the British term of the same name, which means "substitute or exchange". 

But why "dead"? In the phrase "dead ringer", the word means "precise" or "exact", similar to the phrases "dead on", "dead center", and "dead heat". 

When I was younger, I had heard the more frightening folk etymology of a "dead ringer." This usage originated from a custom of providing a cord in coffins for someone who buried alive to ring a bell for help. However, this is a folk etymology and the phrase has nothing to do with death.

rutting

 

The term "rutting" is used to describe the mating season of deer and moose which occurs starting in mid-September because it refers to the aggressive and competitive behavior that males exhibit during this time.

"Rut" is a word that comes from the Old English "rot," which means "to copulate."

During the rut, male deer and moose become territorial and engage in fierce battles with other males to establish dominance and access to females. This behavior is often accompanied by loud vocalizations, such as bugling or grunting, and physical displays of strength.

Sometimes They Say What They Mean

Some sayings have fairly literal origins. For example, if someone is "burning the midnight oil” meaning that they are working late into the night. The origin is from the days before electricity when oil lamps were used for lighting a room. Hence, you were burning oil at midnight if you were working late.

 To end a disagreement and move on might be described as "burying the hatchet." This old saying comes from a Native American tradition. When tribes declared a truce from battle, the chief from each opposing side would take a hatchet and bury it during a ceremony.

Today, if you are "caught red-handed” you have been apprehended during the commission of a crime. The origin is 15th century Scotland when being caught red-handed literally referred to committing a crime that leaves you with blood on your hands.

Yankee

Though my first association with the word Yankee will always be baseball's New York Yankees, the word "yankee" has existed much longer than the team and is used in many ways.

The word Yankee (noun or adjective) and its contracted form Yank have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Their various meanings depend on the context and may refer to New Englanders, the Northeastern United States, the Northern United States, or to people from the U.S. in general. 

Outside the United States, Yank is used informally to refer to an American person or thing. It has been especially popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand where it may be used variously in an uncomplimentary overtone, endearingly, or even cordially.[

In the Southern United States, Yankee is a derisive term that refers to all Northerners, and during the American Civil War it was applied by Confederates to soldiers of the Union army in general. 

Elsewhere in the United States, it largely refers to people from the Northeastern states, but especially those with New England cultural ties, such as descendants of colonial New England settlers, wherever they live.

It can also be used as a more cultural than geographical usage. In that usage it emphasizes Calvinist Puritan Christian beliefs and traditions of the Congregationalists who brought their culture when they settled outside New England. The speech dialect of Eastern New England English is called "Yankee" or "Yankee dialect"

The origin is somewhat in question but it is commonly said to be from the Dutch Janneke, a diminutive form of the given name Jan which would be Anglicized by New Englanders as "Yankee" due to the Dutch pronunciation of J being the same as the English Y.

British General James Wolfe made the earliest recorded use of the word "Yankee" in 1758 when he referred to the New England soldiers under his command. "I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more, because they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance."

Later British use of the word was in a derogatory manner,
as seen in this cartoon published in 1775 ridiculing "Yankee" soldiers.

There are several odd foreign applications of the word. One comes from the late 19th century when the Japanese were called "the Yankees of the East" in praise of their industriousness and drive to modernization. But less flattering is the term yankī (ヤンキー) which has been used since the late 1970s to refer to a type of delinquent youth associated with motorcycle gangs and frequently sporting dyed blond hair.

During the American occupation of Korea and the Korean War, black markets in the country that sold smuggled American goods from military bases were called "yankee markets." (Korean: 양키시장).[66] The term "yankee" is now generally viewed as an anti-American slur in South Korea, as in the exclamation "Yankee go home!"

The Smithereens

 

early Smithereens photo

Founded in New Jersey in 1980, The Smithereens are still rocking. Founding members Jim Babjak (guitar) Dennis Diken (drums) and Mike Mesaros (bass) grew up together in Carteret and lead singer Pat DiNizio grew up in Scotch Plains. 

Since I am a Jersey boy, I saw them a number of times in places like the Court Tavern and Stone Pony in NJ. It was MTV and TV appearances on The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien, and Saturday Night Live that drove their peak popularity in the late 1980s through the mid 1990s.

The songs they are most identified with are probably "Only a Memory", "A Girl Like You" and "Too Much Passion."

Their top-ranked album on the Billboard pop charts was the 1990 album 11 which featured the hit single "A Girl Like You." 

Yosemite Sam is a cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of short films produced by Warner Bros. His name is taken from Yosemite National Park and he is an adversary of Bugs Bunny. He is not very "Jersey" but , like the band's sound, he is very aggressive, The band's name comes from one of Yosemite Sam catchphrases, "Varmint, I'm a-gonna blow you to smithereens!."

This original lineup continued until 2006, when Mesaros left the band and Severo Jornacion took over on bass guitar until Mesaros' return in 2016. After DiNizio died in 2017, the band continued performing live shows as a trio (Babjak, Mesaros and Diken) with various guest vocalists. Those guests have included Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms and Marshall Crenshaw.

Their website is www.officialsmithereens.com 

11 from 1990

Our First Million

Our Why Name It That counter of visits clicked over the one million mark at the end of June!  That is an achievement for this little blog.  That came after over a decade and over 500 posts, so sticking to it gets some credit.

My first post was about the origin of this blog. It began as a student project by my then-young son and was something I picked up and converted into a blog a few years later. The idea was to answer the question posed in Romeo and Juliet - "What's in a name?"

It turns out there's a lot in a name, and so I look at why something has the name it does. That led us to find origins for curious names of bands, product names, people names, place names, titles, sports teams and really the origins of any words and phrases that catch my interest.

Early posts were about the name origins of rock bands (a category that remains the most popular posts here). I was working off an alphabetical list of topics at first, so I posted about 38 Special, ABBA, AC/DC and others.

I also started posting about names in sports, including my favorite team, the New York Yankees, and some eponyms found in the world of figure skating.

I started on some place names beginning with Alaska and Alabama but then moving not only through the United States but out into the wider world.

Words and phrases are a big part of the site. The first curiosity was that # symbol known by several names including as the pound sign.

If you're one of our regular visitors, thanks for putting us past 1,000,000. If you're a first time visitor, I hope you'll explore the site via the search bar or by categories or by just scrolling through the latest posts and clicking links.

There is a contact widget on the site if you have questions or want to suggest a name for us to include or have problems with the site. In looking at the older posts, I have discovered how many of the archived posts have broken images and links. We're working on it...

Bite the Bullet

The expression "Bite the Bullet” used today means to go through the pain (physical or mental) and get on with it. 

In the 19th century, it could literally mean to bite a bullet. At the time, there was no such thing as pain relief or anesthesia when soldiers were injured on the battlefield and needed surgery, including amputations. They might be given an alcoholic drink but they were given a bullet to bite down on to prevent them from screaming out loud.

Of course, it didn't need to be a bullet - a piece of wood or leather strap would work too - but bullets were readily available. 

"Biting the bullet" is a metaphor used to describe a situation, often a debate, where one accepts an inevitable impending hardship or hard-to-refute point, and then endures the resulting pain with fortitude.

The phrase "bite on the bullet"That was first recorded by Rudyard Kipling in his 1891 novel The Light That Failed.

Evidence for biting an actual bullet rather than something perhaps safer and less likely to be swallowed is sparse. It is said that Harriet Tubman related having once assisted in a Civil War amputation in which the patient was given a bullet to bite down on.

Another origin story is that it evolved from the British expression "to bite the cartridge", which dates to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but the phrase "chew a bullet", with a similar meaning, dates to at least 1796.

Modern audiences need to recognize that in the era of the origin of this phrase bullets were typically made of lead, a very soft metal, and would have been independent of any charge or cartridge.

Humble Pie

“Eating Humble Pie” is an expression that means to be submissive or apologetic. Its origin goes as far back as the 17th century. The lord of an estate would give the umbles (the less tasty parts of an animal) to his servants. "Umbles" in Middle English was derived from the word numble (after the Middle French nombles), meaning "deer's innards." Typically, they were made into a pie. This became associated with a lower social status.

I knew the phrase more as the name of a rock band.

1970 album

Humble Pie is an English rock band formed by singer-guitarists Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott in 1969. Often regarded as one of the first supergroups in music, Humble Pie experienced moderate popularity and commercial success during the 1970s with hit songs such as "Black Coffee", "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", "Hot 'n' Nasty" and "Natural Born Bugie" among others.

The original line-up of members featured lead singer/frontman and guitarist Steve Marriott of Small Faces, singer-guitarist Peter Frampton of the Herd, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley from the Apostolic Intervention.

Having been instantly labeled by the UK music press as a supergroup, the band chose Humble Pie in order to downplay such expectations.

Their debut album, As Safe as Yesterday Is, was released in August 1969, along with the single, "Natural Born Bugie"/"Wrist Job", which reached No. 4 hit in the UK Singles Chart. It is one of the first albums to be described by the term "heavy metal" in a 1970 review in Rolling Stone magazine. I always thought of them as being more "hard rock" than metal, but I'm not a critic. 

On 9 July 1971 Humble Pie opened for Grand Funk Railroad at their historic Shea Stadium concert, an event that broke the Beatles record for fastest-selling stadium concert, to that date. 

That year, Humble Pie released their most successful record to date, Rock On, as well as a live album recorded at the Fillmore East in New York entitled Performance Rockin' the Fillmore. The live album was certified gold by the RIAA. "I Don't Need No Doctor" became an FM radio standard in the US, peaking at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelling the album up the charts. 

By the time of the album's release, Peter Frampton had left the band and went on to considerable success as a solo artist. His live recording Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), had several hit singles, and has earned 8× Platinum by the RIAA in the United States.

The band went through many lineup changes. Steve Marriott died in a house fire in 1991. The band continued to tour and record and during 2018 Jerry Shirley (who still owned the Humble Pie name) created a new lineup that he would direct but not tour with and as of 2023 Shirley's "Humble Pie Legacy" lineup of Dave Colwell (guitar), Jim Stapley (vocals, guitar, Hammond, harmonica), Ivan Bodley (bass) and Bobby Marks (drums) were still actively touring.

Arctic and Antarctica

The Arctic Circle currently at roughly 66° north of the Equator,

defines the boundary of the Arctic seas and lands CC BY 3.0, Link

We know the "top of the world" - the northernmost area of the Earth - as that frozen area known as the Arctic. The name comes from an ancient Greek word. 

Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikos), "near the Bear, northern" and from the word ἄρκτος (arktos), meaning bear. It has nothing to do with the Polar Bears found there but refers either to the constellation known as Ursa Major, the "Great Bear", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the "Little Bear", which contains the celestial north pole (currently very near Polaris, the current north Pole Star, or North Star).

Ursa Major and Minor are constellations visible only in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ursa Major as depicted in Urania's Mirror,
a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825

Antarctica is etymologically believed to be the land “of no Bear,” however, the Greek is actually “άντιάρκτικός” which translates to “opposite of the Bear.”

People often forget that Antarctica is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. It is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe. It is mostly covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).

The modern name given to the continent originates from the word antarctic, which comes from Middle French antartique or antarctique ('opposite to the Arctic') and, in turn, the Latin antarcticus ('opposite to the north') which is derived from the Greek.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in Meteorology about an "Antarctic region" in c. 350 BCE, and the Greek geographer Marinus of Tyre reportedly used the name in his world map from the second century CE. (The map is now lost.) The Roman authors Gaius Julius Hyginus and Apuleius used for the South Pole the romanized Greek name polus antarcticus, from which derived the Old French pole antartike (modern pôle antarctique) attested in 1270, and from there the Middle English pol antartik, found first in a treatise written by the English author Geoffrey Chaucer.

Counting Crows

American rock band Counting Crows came out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, multi-instrumentalist David Immerglück, bass guitarist Millard Powers, and guitarist Dan Vickrey. Past members include the drummers Steve Bowman (1991–1994) and Ben Mize (1994–2002), and bass guitarist Matt Malley (1991–2005).

The band gained popularity following the release of its first album, August and Everything After (1993) with its hit single "Mr. Jones." The album sold more than 7 million copies in the United States. The band received two Grammy Awards nominations in 1994, one for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" (for "Round Here") and one for "Best New Artist". 

The follow-up album, Recovering the Satellites, reached number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart and reached number one in several other countries. All but one of their subsequent albums reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 list.

The name Counting Crows comes from an old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the number of birds seen.  Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead.  

The band's song "A Murder of One" has one version of the rhyme. Adam Duritz just liked the rhyme. 

"One for Sorrow" is the traditional name for the children's nursery rhyme which according to an old superstition says that the number of crows or magpies seen tells if one will have bad or good luck.

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.

THE MUSIC

August & Everything After

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings (Eco)

Films About Ghosts: The Best of Counting Crows

Recovering the Satellites

Hard Candy

This Desert Life

August Rising

Across A Wire: Live In New York City

New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall

Dead & Dreaming: Tribute to Counting Crows 

Barking up the Wrong Tree

“Barking up the Wrong Tree” is a saying that means to take the wrong approach or waste your efforts. "If you're looking for a job here, you're barking up the wrong tree."

This is an old saying that originates in America and refers to hunting dogs in the early 19th century. Hunted prey such as raccoons or bears would escape the dogs by climbing up trees. The dogs would then track them and hopefully "tree" them and then the dog would sit and bark at the base of the tree, waiting for their master. However, sometimes the dogs would lose the scent and select the wrong tree, but they would still sit and bark there waiting for their master.