Loanwords and Other Borrowings

I have posted a series of articles here recently about the words that have entered English from French, a process that began with the French-Norman conquest of England in 1066. Some people might refer to those words as "loanwords." But are they loanwords? 

A loanword is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. 

"Loan" or "borrow" may seem like odd descriptive words considering that nothing is taken away from the donor language and there is no expectation of returning anything, as in our typical usage of those words.

I had to research the term, and it gets more complicated. Loanwords may be contrasted with calques, in which a word is borrowed into the recipient language by being directly translated from the donor language rather than being adopted in (an approximation of) its original form. 

Some calques in English:
A word, skyscraper, from French gratte-ciel, literally to “scrape-sky.
A phrase, "moment of truth" from Spanish, "el momento de la verdad," meaning a critical turning point.
Superman comes from the German Übermensch, a Nietzschean concept, that later becomes the comic hero.
Brainwashing originates with the Chinese xǐnǎo (洗脑), literally translated as “wash brain.” 
Adam’s apple is a Latin borrowing of pomum Adami, a Biblical reference to the forbidden fruit.

The word "loanword" is itself a calque from German lehnwort, meaning a word borrowed from another language.

We also distinguish loanwords from cognates, which are words in two or more related languages that are similar because they share an etymological origin in the ancestral language, rather than because one borrowed the word from the other.

Here are a few -
          English  | Cognate Language  |  Cognate Word and Meaning

• Animal Spanish/French animal A living creature
• Hospital French/Spanish hôpital / hospital Medical facility
• Family French/Spanish famille / familia Group of related people
• Minute French/Spanish minute / minuto Unit of time
• Telephone French/Spanish téléphone / teléfono Communication device

Examples of loanwords in the English language:
 café (from French café, which means "coffee"), bazaar (from Persian bāzār, which means "market"), and kindergarten (from German Kindergarten, which literally means "children's garden"). 

Here's an oddity - the word calque is a loanword, while the word loanword is a calque
Calque comes from the French noun calque ("tracing; imitation; close copy"). Loanword and the phrase loan translation are translated from German nouns Lehnwort and Lehnübersetzung (German: [ˈleːnʔybɐˌzɛt͡sʊŋ]

Loans of multi-word phrases, such as the English use of the French term déjà vu, are known as adoptions, adaptations, or lexical borrowings.

Although colloquial and informal register loanwords are typically spread by word-of-mouth, technical or academic loanwords tend to be first used in written language, often for scholarly, scientific, or literary purposes.

Pen Names

Pseudonyms are "false" names or names that are not the true (given) names of an individual. They are one of a larger group of -onyms and -nyms (like synonyms and antonyms) in English - many more than we were taught in school.

Pseudonyms, when used by an author, are called pen names.

Some Famous Pen Names

Richard Bachman is Stephen King, 20th century American horror author

Acton Bell, Currer Bell, and Ellis Bell were the names used by Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, and Emily Brontë

Mary Westmacott is Agatha Christie, 20th century British mystery writer

Anthony Burgess is John Burgess Wilson, 20th century British writer, author of A Clockwork Orange.

Lewis Carroll is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 19th century British author, mathematician, known best for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Sue Denim is used by Dav Pilkey, a writer and illustrator of the popular "Captain Underpants" children's book series and is also used by science fiction writer Lewis Shiner. Sue Denim is a parody of the word pseudonym itself.

Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), 20th century Danish author of Out of Africa

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), 20th-century American poet, novelist and memoirist

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), 19th-century English novelist

C. S. Forester (Cecil Smith), 20th-century writer of the Captain Horatio Hornblower novels and The African Queen

O. Henry (William Sidney Porter), American author of short stories and novels

Hergé (Georges Remi), 20th-century Belgian comics writer and artist, famous worldwide for creating the Tintin series of books

Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman), and Abigail Van Buren/Dear Abby (Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips), advice columnists

Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber), comic book pioneer & Spiderman creator

Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin), 17th-century French theater writer, director and actor, and writer of comic satire.

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), 20th-century British author of Animal Farm and 1984

Ellery Queen     Frederic Dannay, and Manfred B. Lee shared this pen name for their 20th century detective fiction

Saki (Hector Hugh Munro), 20th-century British short story writer and satirist

George Sand (Armandine Lucie Aurore Dupin), 19th-century French novelist and early feminist

Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel), also used "Theo. LeSieg", 20th-century American writer and cartoonist best known for his books

Lemony Snicket is the listed author of A Series of Unfortunate Events but is really the pen name of Daniel Handler

Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), 19th-century French writer

Mark Twain    Samuel Langhorn Clemens (also used "Sieur Louis de Conte" for his fictional biography of Joan of Arc) 19th-century American humorist, writer and lecturer

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), 18th-century French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher.

Going Down a Rabbit Hole

To "go down a rabbit hole" means to get so deeply absorbed in a topic, task, or search that you lose track of time and often end up somewhere completely different from where you started.

It’s that "How did I get here?" moment. You looked up "rabbit hole," it referenced Lewis Carroll which led you to something about math, and down the hole you went.

The phrase originated from Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the story, Alice follows a White Rabbit down a hole, which transports her into a surreal, illogical, and seemingly endless world.

While the book gave us the imagery, the modern "internet" usage really took off in the late 1990s and early 2000s along with the Internet, social media and smartphones.

The modern rabbit hole starts with a minor question or interest. One piece of information found leads to another, then another (often via hyperlinks or "recommended" videos). When you emerge from this time loop, you realize that many minutes or hours have passed. maybe you acquired some new and oddly specific knowledge. maybe you just wasted time on useless information.

Pseudonyms: Rappers

I have written before about pseudonyms. The use of these "stage names" is a very common practice amongst music rappers.

Here are some of the better-known ones.

The origins are sometimes obvious, sometimes not obvious. For example, Eminem began rapping at age 14 with his friend Mike Ruby using the pseudonyms "Manix" for Ruby and "M&M" for Marshall Mathers III initials. "M&M" evolved into "Eminem."

A less obvious origin is that of "50 Cent," adopted by Curtis James Jackson III. Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was used earlier by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn thief known as "50 Cent." Jackson said he chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means."

Andre 3000 ............... Andre Benjamin
Busta Rhymes ............... Trevor Smith
Cee-Lo .................. Thomas Calloway
Common .............. Lonnie Rashid Lynn
DMX ...................... Earl Simmons
Foxy Brown ............... Inga Marchand
The Game .................. Jayceon Taylor
Ghostface Killah ............. Dennis Coles
Grandmaster Flash .......... Joseph Saddler
Ice Cube .................. O’Shea Jackson
Ice-T ....................... Tracy Morrow
Ja Rule ...................... Jeffrey Atkins
Jay-Z ...................... Shawn Carter
KRS-One .....................Kris Parker
Lil’ Kim ....................Kimberly Jones
LL Cool J ............... James Todd Smith
Ludacris ................. Christopher Bridges
Mos Def .................... Dante Smith
Notorious BIG ......... Christopher Wallace
Snoop Dogg ...............Calvin Broadus
T.I............................Clifford Harris Jr.

MacGuffin

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo in North by Northwest

Alfred Hitchcock used a narrative device in some of his films that he called a "MacGuffin." It is the thing that the characters care about, and that kicks off the plot, but the audience should not be concerned with it because it is ultimately irrelevant to the plot. 

He explained the term using a surreal anecdote about two men on a train, which he repeated in interviews for decades. Hitch claimed the term was a Scottish name, and he would tell the following joke to illustrate its inherent "emptiness."

Man A: "What’s that package up there in the baggage rack?"
Man B: "Oh, that’s a MacGuffin."
Man A: "What’s a MacGuffin?"
Man B: "Well, it’s an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands."
Man A: "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands!"
Man B: "Well, then that’s no MacGuffin!" 

His point was that a MacGuffin is a purely mechanical element used to "trigger" the plot. 

Hitchcock’s personal favorite MacGuffin was the "government secrets" in North by Northwest. He called it his best because it was the emptiest. The hero asks what the villain is selling. The agent replies: "Oh, just government secrets." By refusing to even name the secrets, he proved that the object only exists to give the characters a reason to chase each other.

An additional origin note is that while Hitchcock popularized the term, he credited its creation to his friend and screenwriter Angus MacPhail. They likely chose the name because it sounded like a common Scottish surname, adding to the "nonsense" nature of the joke. Some film historians also point out that the word "guff" is British slang for "nonsense" or "empty talk," which fits the definition perfectly. 

Sometimes the MacGuffin is considered to be the same as a "red herring", but while both are plot devices used to manipulate the audience’s attention, they serve completely different structural purposes.

The MacGuffin is the motivation. It is the thing the characters are chasing. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as the characters want it badly enough to drive the story.

A non-Hitchcock example is the statue in The Maltese Falcon. Everyone is killing each other to find it, but it could have been any object that was considered valuable by the characters.

A red herring, as I have written earlier) is a clue, character, or plot point that is intentionally misleading. It’s designed to make you reach a false conclusion so that the eventual "twist" is more shocking.

In the Harry Potter book and movie series (especially in The Prisoner of Azkaban), we are led to believe that Sirius Black is a villain trying to kill Harry. Throughout much of the series, Snape is also seen as working to harm Harry, when in fact he is protecting him.

Red Herrings

 

The term "red herring" has an origin story that is, appropriately enough, a bit of a "red herring" itself. I was told long ago in some literature class that it came from the practice of using fish to distract hunting dogs. Turns out that is not true.

First, there is no such biological species as a "red herring." A red herring is a standard herring that has been heavily salted and smoked for a long period. This process turns the fish's flesh a reddish-brown color and gives it an incredibly strong, pungent odor. Before refrigeration, this was a common way to preserve fish so they would last for months.

The popular and false origin is that in the 17th century, escaped prisoners would drag a smelly red herring across a trail to confuse hunting hounds and lead them away from their scent.

However, modern etymologists have found no historical evidence that this was ever done by escapee or hunters trying to distract dogs. Actually, red herrings were sometimes used to train dogs or horses to stay on a scent or to get them used to distractions, not to trick them during a real hunt.

So, what is the true origin? The figurative meaning we use today in writing is that a red herring is something that intentionally misleads or distracts. It was popularized by an English journalist named William Cobbett in 1807. Cobbett wrote an article in his periodical, Political Register, where he told a story (perhaps true) about how he had used a red herring as a boy to lead a pack of hounds away from a hare. He used this story to attack the English press for prematurely reporting that Napoleon had been defeated. He accused the newspapers of using a "political red-herring" to distract the public from important domestic issues.

I've heard the term used in that way in 2025 and 2026 to explain how the Trump administration tries to distract the press and public from important issues by creating distractions.

Because Cobbett’s writing was so widely read, the metaphor stuck. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a standard term in literature and mystery writing to describe a clue designed to lead the reader down the wrong path.

A 2025 Version of Slop

Lots of people and organizations - especially dictionary publishers - do their Words of the Year lists. 

I saw that the Word of the Year 2025 from Merriam-Webster is "SLOP."

Not a new word, so I figured it must have a new meaning or usage. Their editors define slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence. "

A little word we all know to sum up the videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, “workslop” reports that waste coworkers’ time… and lots of talking cats. 

People slop annoying, and they keep on clicking on it and watching and reading.

“AI Slop is Everywhere,” warned The Wall Street Journal, while admitting to enjoying some of those cats. 

“AI Slop Has Turned Social Media Into an Antisocial Wasteland,” reported CNET.

Slop is like slime, sludge, and muck. It has a wet sound and seems like something you don't want to get your hands on. But we do tend to grab at some of this ooze.

The original sense of the word, in the 1700s, was “soft mud.” 

In the 1800s, it came to mean “food waste” (as in “pig slop”), and then more generally, “rubbish” or “a product of little or no value.”

A few other possible hot words or terms of 2025. You can look them up if you're curious.

• Gerrymander 
• Touch Grass
• Performative
• Tariff
• Six Seven 
• Conclave

Sunlight‑Based Terms for Times of Day

The transition from day to night (and vice versa) is divided into several phases based on the Sun's position relative to the horizon. While we often use words like "dusk" and "twilight" interchangeably in casual conversation, they have precise astronomical and poetic meanings.

Night - The Sun is more than 18° below the horizon; no scattered sunlight reaches the lower atmosphere.

Astronomical Twilight - The Sun is 18° to 12° below the horizon.

• Astronomical dawn — the moment the Sun reaches 18° below the horizon in the morning.

• Astronomical twilight (morning) — faint light appears, but most people still perceive full darkness.

• Astronomical twilight (evening) — faint light persists after sunset.

• Astronomical dusk — the moment the Sun sinks past 18° below the horizon in the evening.

Nautical Twilight - The Sun is 12° to 6° below the horizon.

• Nautical dawn — Sun reaches 12° below the horizon; horizon becomes visible.

• Nautical twilight (morning) — sailors historically used this light to see both stars and the horizon.

• Nautical twilight (evening) — horizon still visible but dim.

• Nautical dusk — Sun reaches 12° below the horizon; horizon visibility fades.

Civil Twilight - The Sun is 6° below the horizon up to the horizon.

• Civil dawn — Sun is 6° below the horizon; enough light for many outdoor activities.

• Civil twilight (morning) — brightening sky before sunrise.

• Civil twilight (evening) — lingering light after sunset.

• Civil dusk — Sun reaches 6° below the horizon; artificial light usually becomes necessary.

Sunrise & Sunset - The Sun crosses the horizon.

• Sunrise — the upper limb of the Sun appears.

• Sunset — the upper limb of the Sun disappears.

Daylight - The Sun is above the horizon.

• Early morning — shortly after sunrise.

• Morning — increasing sunlight.

• Midday / Noon — Sun at its highest point.

• Afternoon — declining but strong sunlight.

• Late afternoon — warm, angled light.

• Golden hour — warm, low-angle sunlight shortly after sunrise or before sunset.

• Blue hour — cool-toned light just before sunrise or after sunset, overlapping civil twilight.

Dawn & Dusk are umbrella terms.

• Dawn — the entire transition from night to sunrise (all twilight phases).

• Dusk — the entire transition from sunset to night (all twilight phases).

Deep Night occurs after astronomical dusk and before astronomical dawn.

• Night — full darkness.

• Midnight — the midpoint of the night (civil time, not astronomical).

Upper and Lower Case

Upper and lower cases

I love this very literal word origin story. The terms uppercase and lowercase that we associate with the letters of the alphabet evolved directly from the physical storage system used by typesetters in the era of the movable-type printing press.

We go back to the days of Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The movable type system in early printing meant that every single letter, numeral, and punctuation mark was cast as an individual block of metal, called a sort.

To compose a page of text, a typesetter (or compositor) had to pick out each sort one by one and arrange them backward in a frame.

To keep the hundreds of different sorts organized and easily accessible, printers stored them in compartmentalized wooden trays called type cases. Traditionally, the typesetter would use a pair of cases, which were set up on a working stand, often angled and stacked. The upper case, which was set above and behind the lower one, held the capital letters. Capital letters (which were also known as majuscule letters) are used far less frequently in English text, so they could be stored slightly further away.

The lower case, positioned below and closer to the typesetter, held the small letters (also known as minuscule letters) that make up the vast majority of any given text.

The arrangement of the letter compartments within the lower case was based on letter frequency. The largest compartments, and those closest to the typesetter, were for the most common letters, like 'e', 't', 'a', and 'o', saving the typesetter time and effort.

The terms became standardized and filtered out from the printing trade into general language around the 18th century, thankfully replacing the older, more technical terms of majuscule and minuscule.

Noon and Midnight

“Noon” and “midnight” are just two of our designations of times of the day. Both mark the point when an analog clock starts another 12-hour cycle. But the word “noon” took a little bit of a journey around the clock before arriving at its current location.

The root of the word “noon” is the Latin nonus, meaning “ninth,” which became nōn in Old English and Middle English. The word marked the ninth hour after sunrise. This made “noon” a bit of a moving target, but a 6 a.m. sunrise, for instance, would put noon around 3 p.m.

It may have been fasting monks that caused noon to shift earlier in the day. The ninth hour is significant in Christian liturgy as time set aside for prayer, known as nones, and it was particularly important in early monastic traditions. Because monks were often required to fast until then, one prevailing theory as to why the ninth-hour prayer started drifting earlier is that people were getting hungry. The Roman Catholic canonical hour of nones remained at 3 p.m., but by the 14th century, “noon” referred to a new time of day, when the sun was highest in the sky.

Knock on wood

The phrase "knock on wood" is a ubiquitous expression used to ward off bad luck. While the phrase “knock on wood”—or “touch wood” in Britain—has been part of the vernacular since at the least the 19th century, there seems to be little agreement on how it originated.

One origin theory is that knocking on wood has its roots in ancient pagan beliefs, particularly among Celtic cultures. According to this theory, trees were considered sacred, housing spirits or minor gods. Knocking on a tree trunk was believed to rouse these spirits, seeking protection or thanking them for good fortune. This idea is supported by the fact that ancient cultures did revere trees, often associating them with powerful spirits and divine connections.

However, there's a catch: there's no direct evidence linking ancient tree worship to the modern practice of knocking on wood. The gap between the Christianization of Europe and the first written records of this superstition spans over a thousand years, making it challenging to confirm this theory.

Other possible origins include:

A medieval European belief that evil spirits or demons lurked in wood - even wood used to build a house or table - and knocking on wood would chase them away

A superstition that wood has protective powers, possibly due to its association with the cross

A simple gesture of humility, acknowledging that one's fate is not entirely in one's control

Why Do People Knock on Wood for Luck? | HISTORY.com

El Niño and La Niña

El Niño and La Niña are terms used to describe complex weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean, specifically referring to fluctuations in ocean temperatures and their impact on global climate. These events occur every 2-7 years, impacting global climate patterns and often leading to extreme weather events.

El Niño refers to the warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator, which can lead to:
Droughts in Australia and Asia
Heavy rainfall and flooding in South America
Warmer winters in North America

La Niña refers to the cooling of the eastern Pacific Ocean, which can lead to te opposite effects:
Increased rainfall in Australia and Asia
Droughts in South America
Colder winters in North America

But why are the names “El Niño” and “La Niña” used for weather patterns?

Peruvian fishermen first noticed the effects of what would be called El Niño at Christmas time, when storms off the coast reduced the supply of fish. “El Niño” is Spanish for “the boy child,” and is used to refer to the Baby Jesus, and is so associated with the Christmas season.

"La Niña" was later coined to describe the opposite phenomenon, the cooling of these waters. The names reflect the region's strong Catholic heritage and the traditional naming of significant events after male and female figures. These terms were adopted globally to simplify communication about these complex climate patterns.

Misnomers

Recently, I wrote about how the turkey bird is mistakenly named for the country Turkey. It's an example of a misnomer. A misnomer is a name that is incorrect, unsuitable, or misleading for the thing it refers to.

Misnomers generally occur for one of three reasons:
Scientific Reclassification: We learned more about the item (e.g., biology) after it was already named.
Historical Changes: The object changed, but the name stayed the same (e.g., "tin" foil is now aluminum).
Foreign Origin Errors: The name was based on a misunderstanding of where the item came from. Such is the case for the turkey bird.

Other common examples

• Peanuts are not nuts; they are legumes (related to beans and peas).
• Lead pencils are a misnomer because pencils have never contained lead.  The core is a mixture of graphite and clay. But when graphite was discovered, it was mistaken for a form of lead.
• Koala bears are not bears; they are marsupials (pouched mammals).
• Neither jellyfish nor starfish is a fish. Biologists prefer "sea jellies" and "sea stars" because fish are vertebrates with gills, while these are invertebrates.
• Your "funny bone" isn't even a bone. It is the ulnar nerve running against the humerus bone. Humerus and humorous mix to describe that "funny" sensation when the nerve is being pinched.
• Fireflies are beetles, not flies.

A cute koala - but not a bear

turkey and Turkey

The etymology of the country Turkey derives from the Medieval Latin term Turchia, which in turn comes from the Greek word Τουρκία (Tourkia), meaning "land of the Turks." The term "Turkey" was first recorded in Middle English as Turkye and later evolved into Turkey. In 2022, Turkey officially adopted the name Türkiye to distinguish itself from the bird.

The etymology of Turks, meaning the people, is not definitively known, but it is believed to have originated from the name of a nomadic people known as the Tujue, as given by the Chinese.

But the quintessential American bird, famously sought after for the November Thanksgiving, is actually a misnomer.

Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico in the 1500s, and they encountered a plump, impressively feathered bird that the Aztecs had long domesticated and called huexolotl. The Spaniards brought these birds back to Europe, where they quickly became a hit on farms and dinner tables.

It is believed that because Europeans had already encountered a somewhat similar bird, the African guinea fowl, which was known as “Turkey cocks” or “Turkey hens,” it was assumed this new bird came from the same place. The African guinea fowl reached Europe earlier via trade routes controlled by the Ottoman Empire of the Turks. 

Another source says the bird’s name arose simply because, at the time, the Ottoman Empire was at its peak, and Europeans were apt to designate all new imports as “Turkish.” 

The misnomer stuck, and English speakers call the bird a “turkey.” But move into other languages and the name changes. The French used coq d’Inde (“rooster of India”) thinking it came from the Indies. In Portuguese it became a peru, in Malay, a “Dutch chicken.” In Turkish, it became a hindi, meaning “from India.” 

Much confusion about the literal origin place of the bird,

Spices and Herbs

Here’s a look at some common spice words and their etymologies. 

Though often used interchangeably, herbs and spices refer to different parts of plants, so let's look at that first. HERB comes from the Latin herba, meaning “grass” or “green crops.” It typically refers to the leafy parts of non-woody plants. Think basil, mint, or parsley. 

SPICE traces back to the Latin species, meaning “kind” or “type,” but in medieval usage, it referred to valuable goods or wares, especially aromatic ones. 

Spices can come from roots, bark, seeds, or fruit. Cinnamon is bark. Ginger is a root. Peppercorns are a fruit. 

Pepper comes from the Sanskrit word pippali, which originally referred to long peppers. Through travel and trade, the term entered Greek (peperi) and Latin (piper) before becoming the English “pepper.” Peppercorns may look like seeds, but are actually dried berries from the Piper nigrum vine. They start green, then darken as they dry, eventually becoming the familiar black balls we grind into the familiar pepper spice.

Dill is an interesting case. It comes from the Old Norse dylla, meaning “to soothe.” You probably associate it with pickles, but its traditional use was as a digestive aid. In Colonial America, dill seeds were nicknamed "meetinghouse seeds" and chewed during long church services to calm restless children and refresh sleepy congregants. Their mild, anise-like flavor made them a natural breath mint.

Cinnamon comes from the Greek kinnamon, meaning “sweet wood.” The spice itself is the inner bark of trees in the Cinnamomum genus. In ancient Egypt and Rome, cinnamon was used in religious rituals and for embalming corpses. It was once considered more valuable than gold. Its culinary use became widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Nutmeg is actually a misnomer. Nutmeg is the seed of the Myristica fragrans tree, native to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. The name comes from Latin nux (nut) and muscat (musky), though nutmeg isn’t technically a nut. It’s rich in antioxidants and has been used in traditional medicine to aid sleep and digestion.

Cumin comes from the Latin cuminum, which itself was borrowed from Greek kuminon and ultimately from Semitic languages like Hebrew (kammon) and Arabic (kammun). The spice is the dried seed of Cuminum cyminum, a flowering plant in the parsley family. It’s been used since ancient times in Middle Eastern, Indian, and Mediterranean cuisines. 

Two exceptions

Salt often is next to your spices, but it’s not one of them. Salt is a mineral, not a plant product, and its name comes from the Latin sal. That Latin also gave us "salary,” which might seem odd, but shows that salt had historic value.

Garlic is a vegetable that we often consider to be a spice. The word comes from Old English garleac, meaning “spear leek,” which is a reference to its long, pointed leaves and its relation to the leek family. Though we use it like a spice, garlic is botanically a vegetable, and every part of the plant is edible. It’s been cultivated for over 5,000 years, with early use in Egypt and India.

Cock and Bull Stories

Signs for the two inns -- via  Cnyborg/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

A "cock and bull" story is one that is rather unbelievable. The phrase sounds a bit obscene.

The most common origin is that the phrase is connected to two inns in Stony Stratford, England. Stony Stratford ("the stony ford on the Roman road") was an important stop for coaches in the 18th and early 19th centuries that carried mail and passengers en route to and from London to northern England.

One version of the etymology says that rivalry between groups of travelers resulted in exaggerated and fanciful stories told on those coaches and in the two inns in town, which became known as 'cock and bull stories'.

The inns are real (signs for them above). Both were on the coach road (A5 or Watling Street). The Cock Hotel is documented to have existed in one form or another on the current site since at least 1470. The Bull existed at least before 1600.

The second most common origin story is that these stories were another form of folk tales that featured magical animals, such as those found in Aesop's fables or The Arabian Nights.

The early 17th-century French term coq-a-l'âne ("rooster to jackass") is sometimes mentioned as the origin, and that it was imported into English, though I found little evidence for this. However, the Lallans/Scots word "cockalayne" with the same type of meaning appears to be a direct phonetic transfer from the French.

I wondered if there is any connection to the words poppycock and bullshit.

"Poppycock" appears to be a much more recent mid-19th-century Americanism. It might come from the Dutch pappekak, which literally does mean dung or excrement, whether from a bull or not.

Poppycock tends to be used for pretty lightweight nonsense, while bullshit has the stronger sense of the intention of deceiving or misleading. "Bullshit," once considered taboo and an expletive, seems more acceptable these days. It is also an Americanism from the early 20th century. It may have a connection to the Middle English word bull.   

The idiom "shoot the bull", meaning to talk aimlessly, was used in the 17th century. It came from Medieval Latin bulla, meaning to play, game, or jest. You still hear people use the shorter and more acceptable "bull" to mean bullshit, as well as the shorter and even less acceptable "shit" to mean the same thing.