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.

Simple Minds

It's always nice when I find a simple explanation for the origin of a band's name. And so it seems appropriate that this is the case the simple explanation is for the band Simple Minds.

Simple Minds, 1982   image link

Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band formed in Glasgow in 1977. Their name is taken from a line in the David Bowie song "Jean Genie."

The band is currently a core duo of original members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar), augmented by guest musicians. 

Initially signed to Arista Records, Simple Minds released their debut album Life in a Day in 1979 to moderate commercial success, while the following two albums, Real to Real Cacophony (1979) and Empires and Dance (1980), achieved critical praise but limited sales. 

"Don't You (Forget About Me)", their contribution to the bestselling soundtrack of the very popular 1985 film The Breakfast Club, became their breakthrough hit in the US, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The following album, Once Upon a Time (1985), reached number one in the UK and the Netherlands, the top three in Canada and New Zealand, and the top ten in the US. It was certified 3x Platinum in the UK and Gold in the US, and spawned four more hit singles - "Alive and Kicking", "Sanctify Yourself", "All the Things She Said" and "Ghostdancing". 

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (and stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. 

Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross. Reznor was previously the only permanent member of the band until Ross became an official member in 2016. 

The band's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was released via TVT Records. After disagreements with TVT over how the album would be promoted, the band signed with Interscope Records and released the EP Broken (1992), followed by the albums The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999). 

Why did Reznor choose the name Nine Inch Nails for his band?. Here’s a list of some of the NIN band name origin theories:

• the Statue of Liberty’s nails are nine inches long (factually incorrect)
• coffin nails are typically nine inches long (at one time)
• there is enough iron in the human body to produce a nine-inch nail (factually incorrect)
• a reference to an obscure song lyric from a Tori Amos song (No, NIN had already been around for several years before its release)
• Freddy Krueger’s claws are nine inches long
• Jesus was crucified with nine-inch spikes

Reznor eventually put all these rumors and theories to rest by saying that Nine Inch Nails was simply one of approximately 200 potential band names. This one stuck, and it could be abbreviated easily.

Reznor during the 1991 Lollapalooza festival
Photo: Rik Goldman, CC BY-SA 3.0

When touring these days, Reznor typically assembles a live band to perform with him under the Nine Inch Nails name. Nine Inch Nails has sold over 20 million records worldwide and been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning for the songs "Wish" in 1992 and "Happiness in Slavery" in 1996. 

Time magazine named Reznor one of its most influential people in 1997, while Spin magazine has described him as "the most vital artist in music". In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Nine Inch Nails No. 94 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Nine Inch Nails was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.