Shindig

Shindig is a word I associate with a 1960s American TV show that featured rock bands and dancers. Did it have earlier origins?

The Wikipedia entry I read today didn't have an origin story (I may have to correct that), so I had to dig into etymology dictionaries.

The word shindig originated in the United States during the mid-19th century (first recorded around the 1840s to 1850s) as a colloquial term for a lively, rowdy party or dance.  Etymologists trace its history through several earlier versions. Shindig is most likely an alteration of the slightly older American slang word shindy, which popped up around the 1820s to mean a row, a disturbance, or a merrymaking.  And shindy is believed to derive from shinny (or shinty), an informal, rough-and-tumble street game akin to hockey that was brought over by Scottish immigrants (rooted in the Scottish Gaelic shinty). 

Because a game of shinny involved swinging sticks and smacking shins, shindy originally described a chaotic fight or ruckus before shifting to mean a boisterous party.  

A traditional shindig usually featured a lot of dancing, so people assumed the word combined "shin" and "dig" — as in kicking up your shins on the dance floor. While this is likely a folk etymology rather than the true historical root, it captures the high-energy spirit that made it a fitting title for a 1960s music and dance program like Shindig!

Shindig! (the ! is part of the title) was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles. It was conceived as a short-notice replacement for Hootenanny, a series which specialized in folk revival music. The folk revival had slipped in popularity in 1964 as a result of the British Invasion, and so Hootenanny was cancelled.

Shindig! focused on a wider variety of popular music. It first aired for a half-hour every Wednesday evening, but was expanded to an hour in January 1965. In the fall of 1965, the show split into two half-hour telecasts, on Thursday and Saturday nights.

The premiere episode featured Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, and The Righteous Brothers. Later shows also featured performances taped in Britain, and the first UK episode had The Beatles as the guests. The series later featured other "British Invasion" bands and performers, including The Yardbirds, The Dave Clark Five, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Cilla Black. The Who performed a unique early version of "My Generation" live, two months before the single version was recorded. Many other popular performers of the day played on the show, including Tina Turner, Lesley Gore, Bo Diddley, Sonny and Cher, The Beach Boys, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, The Supremes, and The Ronettes.

In January 1966, Shindig! was cancelled and replaced in its Thursday time slot by Batman.

LOL

Yes, I know you think LOL means "laughing out loud," and you're correct; it does mean that. But it meant something else originally.

LOL was popularized by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in the 1960s. Caen loved using his own shorthand, and LOL was his go-to for “little old lady.” 

 His 1960 book Only in San Francisco contained a description of an outfit that included a tricorn hat topped with an “evil-looking bird of prey” that he said was the “regalia of the authentic LOL.” That usage lasted for a few decades.

In 1964, Jan and Dean had a hit with “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena”:
"And everybody’s sayin’ that there’s nobody meaner
than the little old lady from Pasadena.
She drives real fast, and she drives real hard.
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard."

As we move into the early 1980s, if you logged into a pre-internet chat system called Viewline, you might have witnessed history. One of its regulars, Wayne Pearson of Calgary, was chatting when someone said something so funny he was embarrassed to be laughing alone in his house. As he told the Calgary Herald years later: “You used to just type ‘hahaha’ really fast so that you would let them know that was very funny in a timely manner, but whatever he had said, it had me bursting out laughing almost to the embarrassment of doing so in a house by myself sitting at a computer.” So he didn’t type hahaha. He typed LOL. Then he had to explain what he meant. 

Viewline is also reportedly where “ROFL” — rolling on the floor laughing — was coined, though there’s no digital archive to prove it. Online shorthand became a thing and continues today.

The first verified instance we have in print came in 1989, in the newsletter for FidoNet, the bulletin-board network that, amazingly, still exists. There it appeared alongside two other classics we still use today: BRB (be right back) and BTW (by the way). 

In 2011, "LOL” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Four years later, in 2015, the OED named 😂 — the Face With Tears of Joy emoji — its Word of the Year. We had officially moved from typing our laughter to just sending a face. 

Boycott

I thought "boycott" was an odd word to mean a collective refusal to buy, use, or deal with a person, organization, or country. When that kind of oddity occurs, the word is sometimes an eponym named for a person rather than a thing. Such is the case with boycott.

In the late 19th century, rural Ireland was simmering. Between 1879 and 1882, tenant farmers—already battered by years of economic hardship—found themselves locked in conflict with wealthy, often absentee English landlords. This struggle became known as the Land War, a mass movement demanding fair rents, security of tenure, and the right to own the land they worked.

Into this tense landscape stepped Charles Boycott, a former English army officer serving as a land agent in County Mayo. His job was to enforce rent collection and evict tenants who fell behind. In a region already on edge, this made him the perfect symbol of everything locals resented.

Rather than resort to violence, the local tenant community chose something passive but in the end more effective: total social and economic isolation.

They refused to speak to Boycott. They refused to sell to him. They refused to work for him. They pressured his employees to quit.

Parish priest John O’Malley described this strategy with a new term: “boycotting.” 

When Mr. Boycott’s plight reached London’s The Times, the news prompted about 50 volunteers from Ulster to travel south and help him harvest his crops. Their arrival required a full escort from the Royal Irish Constabulary, whose two‑week stay on Boycott’s property reportedly involved trampled grounds and poached livestock. The harvest succeeded, technically—but at a staggering cost: £10,000 spent to save £350 worth of crops. It was a logistical farce that only amplified the symbolic power of the tenants’ strategy.

By late November 1880, Boycott abandoned his farm entirely. The tenants had won—and the English language had gained a brand‑new verb and noun.

Within months, newspapers across Britain and America were using boycott to describe any organized refusal to engage. Within years, it became a standard political tool. Today, it’s a global term for collective pressure, economic protest, and moral refusal.

Cardigan

The "cardigan" of the cardigan sweater is not quite an eponym, though it is based on a name. The usage comes from James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan.

He was a British army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War — most famously at the Charge of the Light Brigade. 

That battle was a catastrophic assault brought on by muddled orders and poor communication. The charge, launched at the Battle of Balaklava in October 1854, sent British cavalry straight into heavy Russian artillery fire. The results (heavy losses, but also the destruction of a Russian battery) became a symbol of both extraordinary bravery and military blunder. The event was immortalized in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” 

Cardigan himself emerged physically unscathed and, somewhat improbably, became a national celebrity. That celebrity helped turn his preferred knitwear into a fashion trend. According to contemporary accounts, the earl was frequently seen wearing a collarless, button-front wool jacket, which was practical for the bitter Crimean cold. 

It’s often said he either popularized or helped develop the garment for his troops, and when Cardigan returned to Britain, the public’s fascination with the “hero” of Balaklava extended to his clothing.  The snug sweater became known as a “cardigan,” cementing the earl’s name in everyday language — even as his reputation as a commander remained deeply controversial.  

Interestingly, the word “cardigan” has military (but not clothing) connections that go even farther back. “Cardigan” is a place name in Wales, an Anglicization of the Welsh “Ceredigion,” which literally means “Ceredig’s land.” Ceredig was a legendary chieftain of North Britain who is said to have pushed back an Irish invasion of Wales in the fifth century CE and received the aforementioned land as a reward. 

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Crossing your fingers for luck is a familiar gesture in the English-speaking world and in emojis.But why did looping our middle finger over our index finger become a symbol of good luck and hopefulness?

Historically, it was a social ritual. One widely cited origin theory traces the custom to pre-Christian Europe, where the shape of a cross was believed to possess special power. According to this interpretation, the point where two lines intersected was seen as a place where beneficial spirits gathered. A wish made upon a cross could become anchored at that intersection until it came true.

That meant that originally making the gesture of a cross required two people. One person would make a wish while another crossed their index finger over the wish-maker’s finger, forming a small cross. The second participant effectively lent support to the wish, helping guide it toward fulfillment.

The modern solitary gesture may be the descendant of this much older cooperative custom.

Another version connects it to the rise of Christianity. For early Christians, the cross carried obvious religious significance, but the cross symbol had existed in various forms long before Christianity. Making the sign of the cross was believed to offer protection, ward off evil, and invoke divine favor and some folklorists have suggested that crossing one’s fingers may have developed as a smaller, more discreet version of this protective gesture. It may have even been a way for persecuted Christians to identify fellow believers using this as a subtle hand signal.

Whatever its exact origins, finger-crossing gradually moved from the realm of ritual into everyday life. Many customs that began as serious religious or supernatural practices eventually became casual habits. Few people who knock on wood today are consciously invoking ancient beliefs about spirits dwelling in trees, and most people who cross their fingers are not thinking about pagan wishes or Christian symbols of protection.

This post first appeared on my Substack Weekends site