talkin' all medieval-like

[Ferret]

Ye is pronounced The, the Y is a viking(?) rune that the english took on after they were invaded.

Xerox is latin for dry, (Maybe along with Xylos meaning wood) I think this is because before it was done with negetives in that red water. Which was wet.

 

[S'mon]

While some of these may be true (the Xerox one sounds really dubious to me) these two stand out as demonstrably false and convoluted.

"Damn it" has a perfectly logial explanation as a word with a literal meaning: "to damn" is to consign to perdition. The term comes up in ConDEMNation and InDEMNify.

Likewise, Corpse was not named for "corpselium", but a corpselium is so named, because that's where corpses (latin for "body") were put.

A more interesting dervation relating to corpse is "hocuspocus", which is a corruption of the latin for "this is my body" used in the Latin Mass "hoc est corpus meum"

The whole thing is a joke, right?

 

[Enkhidu]

You wasn't reserved for people you didn't know, it was reserved for people above your station or your equals. Hence the term that exist still to day when some one flatters you on a something and says, "It's you".

Thee, thou were used to for lowers. If used to someone and lower, it could be percieved as an insult. Which could lead to some serious problems.

The royal "we" also comes from this period. This is still in effect today when rulers considered themselves tied with the land.

Actually, I think we're both right - "You" eventually did come to be used for those of higher station than yourself (for many of the same reasons for the royal "we" did - a connection with the land = need for plural pronouns), however in everyday parlance, it was always safer to assume that someone you didn't know was at least your equal (unless other, more visual cues were to be had). Therefore, "You" became an initial greeting, until a person got to know exactly who they were speaking to and what level of respect they needed to receive (you alluded to this in your second point).

 

[diaglo]

d+d = !d8

Though no one probably gets it. (I sure didn't get 1A.)

you'll have to forgive Olgar. it is military training.

OD&D is 1A.

the latest stuff is 4F in my book.

 

[herald]

Actually, I think we're both right - "You" eventually did come to be used for those of higher station than yourself (for many of the same reasons for the royal "we" did - a connection with the land = need for plural pronouns), however in everyday parlance, it was always safer to assume that someone you didn't know was at least your equal (unless other, more visual cues were to be had). Therefore, "You" became an initial greeting, until a person got to know exactly who they were speaking to and what level of respect they needed to receive (you alluded to this in your second point).

Yes I think we agree. It's also worth mentioning that if we are talking about strangers meeting. This did happen very little, as most commoners in England were tied to the land in the form of the manorial system. Addressing someone as you gave the addressor time to sort out who was of higher station if that was in question. Once the station was sorted out, persons could then adjust if that was thier wish. Even so, "thee and thou" I suspect aren't overused as a Shakespearian play as other terms come in to use. i.e. cousin, good sir, master, gentle sir, ect.

Now as for other statements that go this far back.

Bring Home the Bacon:
Bacon just might be a form of payment of services rendered to a lord. Raise many pigs well and your share could be larger than most. Hence "He really knows how to bring home the bacon."

Chew the Fat:
You might be offered Pig fat as a sort of snack while you sit around talking.

Throw the Baby out with the bath water.
People didn't like to bath much as it could leave you open to getting infected. So when they did collect water and bathed, everyone did it. The water would be so black afterwards that you couldn't see the bottom of the tub and so any thing could be at the bottom, (including the baby) so you would need to check the botton before you dumped it down by the water.

Here is one that's not medieval, but might as well be. I hearthat it comes from "down under".

Three Dog Night:
A informal way of telling how cold it was.
"Last night was I had one of the dogs in bed to keep me warm, I tell ya' tonight will be a three dog night."

 

[Desdichado]

Ye is pronounced The, the Y is a viking(?) rune that the english took on after they were invaded.

I don't think that pronunciation has been accurate since shortly after the invasion of William the Conqueror, though.

Lots of Norse words migrated into Old English during the Viking age and the time of Danelaw. Egg, sky, skill, and some personal pronouns, as you point out, are just a few examples.

 

[daTim]

Mind your Ps and Qs[/b] comes from sailors drinking at taverns and they tracked how many pints and quarts they drank so they could pay before they left (as sometimes the sailors would drink more than they could actually afford).

I had always been told it came from Logic in the 1800's. Since when you create a logic table, you assign the values starting with P and Q. You had to be careful that you wrote them correctly or your whole table would be messed up.

On a side note, I had an English History teacher who could "speak" Old English, as in around Beowulf's version of English, and I couldnt understand a word of it. When he wrote it down, and i really thought about each word I could get the gist of what he meant though.

 

[Ferret]

I don't think that pronunciation has been accurate since shortly after the invasion of William the Conqueror, though.

Lots of Norse words migrated into Old English during the Viking age and the time of Danelaw. Egg, sky, skill, and some personal pronouns, as you point out, are just a few examples.

English really is a mish mash I knew it was a rune (not in the correct sense) I assumed it was Viking.

Has anyone got a link to that site which shoots down all the myths like tips meant "To insure proper service".

 

[Ferret]

Oh and freezing the balls off of a brass monkey, comes from AFAIK Brass monkey statues held steel cannon balls, the monkey would shrink more then the cannon balls and they would fall out of the monkeys grasp.

 

[CRGreathouse]

A more interesting dervation relating to corpse is "hocuspocus", which is a corruption of the latin for "this is my body" used in the Latin Mass "hoc est corpus meum"

My dictionary has that derivation marked as 'unlikely and unsupported'.