Language Myths # 3: Devil to Pay, Frog in One's Throat, Golf, Gossip, Hunky Dory

 

Listen to the podcast here.

 

These are more phony internet stories about the origin of familiar words and phrases.

 

Devil to pay (serious trouble is foreseen)

MYTH: The devil is the long seam at the ship’s keel, and paying

meant caulking that seam with tar, a very dirty and difficult job.

REALITY: This one is marginal. Originally, it was a reference to paying the devil with your eternal soul, the core ofthe Faust legend presented by Christopher Marlowe, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
and countless imitators. It first shows up in print in Jonathon Swift’s Journal to Stella, and there it is a reference tothe ultimate payment: eternal damnation. At a much later date, sailors may have latched on to it because of themeaning overlap, but that wasn’t the source; that was an adaptation.

 

Frog in one’s throat (hoarseness or phlegm in the throat)

MYTH: it was a common practice in the Middle Ages to stick a frog in a patient’s mouth when he or she had a throat infection known as thrush.

REALITY: Just think about that alleged treatment: do you think that people would let some clown shove a frog down their throats when they could hardly breathe already? A frog in my throat refers to a temporary thickness in the voice, especially of a radio talk show host. It’s an allusion to the hoarse, throaty croaking of frogs.

Golf (a game which Mark Twain described as “a good walk spoiled”)

MYTH: Golf is an old acronym for Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden.

REALITY: No one knows for sure, but there is some speculation that it may come from the Dutch word kolf, aclub or bat. At any rate, it wasn’t a sexist slogan. Besides, before the 20^th century, acronyms were nonexistent.

 

Gossip (rumor or talk of a personal, sensational, or intimate nature)

MYTH: Early politicians required feedback from the public, so they sent their assistants to local pubs to “go sip some ale” and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. “Go sip” soon turned into the word gossip.

REALITY: The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon godsibb, a godparent or spiritual relative. By the Middle Ages, the word had come to mean a close friend. The modern use of the word to mean idle (often spiteful) conversation was in place by the 19^th century

hunky-dory (perfectly satisfactory; fine)

MYTH: American sailors docking in Yokohama Japan would

head for the red light district on a street named Huncho-Dori.

REALITY: A very popular song sung by the original Christy Minstrels during the Civil War (JosephusOrange Blossom) contained the line, “red-hot hunky-dory contraband.” This slang term meant “in good condition,” and it probably evolved from a Dutch word honk, meaning “home” or “goal” as in a game of tag. Once you reached honk, everything was hunky-dory.

 

Language Myths #2: Cold Enough to Freeze the Balls off a Brass Monkey, Giving the Cold Shoulder, Cop, Costing an Arm and a Leg, Crack a Smile

 

Listen to the podcast here.

 

Here are some more phony stories that you'll find on the internet about the origin of common words and phrases.

 

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey (really, really cold!)

MYTH: On sailing ships, cannon balls were stacked in pyramid shape using a triangular piece of brass calledthe monkey. When it got cold enough, the metal would contract, and the cannon balls would scatter all over the deck.

REALITY: There is no historical evidence validating “monkey” in this sense. In fact, cannon balls were storedbelow deck near the cannons on wooden racks with holes in them (shot racks or shot garlands). Rolling cannonballs would have been totally unacceptable, a toe-crunching danger to the crew on a rocking vessel. Like it or not, what we have here is a vulgar anatomical reference. Herman Melville had a character say this in his seafaringnovel Omoo: “It was ‘ot enough to melt the nose h’off a brass monkey.” The temperatures are opposite and the body parts differ, but the affinity is obvious.

 

Cold shoulder (deliberate disregard or disrespect)

MYTH: In the Middle Ages [here we go again!], unwelcome guests were given a cold shoulder of meat ratherthan the customary hot meal. They would get the message that they were unwanted, and be on their way the next day.

REALITY: Meat of any kind was a luxury in the Middle Ages, not a thinly coded message. The phrase doesn’t even show up in print until 1816, when Sir Walter Scott used it in The Antiquary. Its use in that novel makes it clear that it referred to human anatomy, not mutton. It’s a dismissive shrug, a prelude to turning one’s back on someone.

 

Cop (police officer)

MYTH: This is an acronym for “Constable on Patrol” or “Constabulary of Police” or . . . [fill in the blank.]Analternative explanation is that  it started because policemen wore copper buttons on their uniforms.

REALITY: It arose because of what they did: capture people. As a verb, cop was a slang term for “grab” in GreatBritain in the late 18^th/early 19^th century. Ultimately, it tracks back to the Latin verb capere, to take or seize.

 

Cost an arm and a leg  (heavy price to pay)

MYTH: In George Washington’s day, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted.Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back whileothers showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are limbs; therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”

REALITY: It has nothing to do with physical reality. It’s a deliberate hyperbole, an exaggerated statement,much like “This’ll kill you!” “That blew me away!” “I work my fingers to the bone,” and “I split my sideslaughing!” Besides, it doesn’t appear until the 20^th century.

 

Crack a smile  (produce the beginnings of a smile)

MYTH: In the old days, many women and men had developed acne scars or smallpox scars by adulthood. Thewomen would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. If a woman smiled, the wax would crack, leading to the expression, “to crack a smile.”

REALITY: First, refer to mind your own beeswax. Second, to crack a smile literally means to part the lipsslightly, the same way we’d say, “crack that window open a bit,” or “leave that door open a crack.”

 

 

Language Myths 1: Above Board, Amazon, Bigwig, Chairman, and Chew the Fat

 

Listen to the podcast here.

 

There are more myths floating around the internet about

the origin of words and phrases than there are fruit flies on a

rotten banana. Most of them, quite obviously, are the invention

of imaginative jokesters—probably English teachers on summer

vacation—who enjoy gulling the gullible. I’ll grant that these

stories often show imagination and verve, but when they are taken

as gospel and inserted in cascading e-mails which clog the inbox

and the brain, it’s time to call a halt.

 

In a series of podcasts, I’m going to cover some of the phony stories

that I’ve encountered. Some are silly, some are funny, and some have

the ring of possibility, but all of them are provably wrong. They

do illustrate a common human tendency: when we don’t know the

origin of something, we become uneasy. Humans are fabricators;

we would rather make something up or grasp at an off-the-wall

explanation than admit that no one knows—admit that some things

simply have been lost in the mists of history.

 

Above board (in full view; honest)

MYTH: The board was the deck of a sailing ship. When you approached

a sailing vessel, if the crew was out of sight for no good reason (below board), you were prudent to suspect pirates and run the other way.

REALITY: A board was a table, and when card-playing

gamblers slipped their hands under the table, or board, cheating

was assumed.

 

Amazons (in Greek mythology, a nation of women warriors)

MYTH: They took their name from the Greek word a-mazos,

without a breast. This is because they voluntarily cut off their right

breasts to be able to use a bow and arrow to maximum effect.

REALITY: The Greeks borrowed the term from the Iranian ha-

mazon, “fighting together.”

 

Big wig (a very important person)

MYTH: Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from

wool. The wigs couldn’t be washed, or they'd shrink, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30

minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy; hence, the

term big wig.

REALITY: It’s hard to imagine a more ludicrous cleaning

method. Baking a loaf of bread a second time would result in a hard

chunk of toast. Instead of making the wig fluffy, it would constrict

it, thus creating a really bad hair day. However, the term big wig

did originate with the large and ornate wigs that only the wealthy

could afford.

 

Chairman (the presiding officer of an assembly, meeting,

                   committee, or board)

MYTH: In the late 1700s, many houses consisted of a large

room with only one chair. The head of the household always sat in

the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. To sit in the

chair meant you were important and made you the “chairman.”

REALITY: Obviously, these people never took an art history

course. By that era, everyone had chairs or benches, as painting after

painting will testify. The chairman was the person who sat in the

chair of authority at the head of the table in a political or business

situation; it had nothing to do with daddy scarfing down dinner.

 

Chew the fat (to spend time chatting)

MYTH: People in the Middle Ages would hang a side of smoked

bacon near their open fireplace to show that they were prosperous.

When a guest came, they would slice off a strip, and the host and

the guest would sit there contentedly, chewing the fat.

REALITY: In its current sense, this phrase didn’t even exist

until the late 19th century. No one is absolutely sure where it came

from, but it may originally have meant constant complaining, not

just idle conversation. It should be treated as an analogy: just as the

jaws grind away relentlessly when chewing gristly meat, so move 
the jaws of the inveterate talker

 

DOUBT and REDOUBT

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Ron Jolly, my long-time co-host from Words to the Wise, came across the word redoubt, and wondered how it related to the word doubt. Let's see where it goes.

A redoubt is an entrenched fortification used in warfare or for general defense. In the figurative sense, it is any retreat or refuge where a person can find safety and privacy in seclusion. The word came into English from the French in the early 1600s. What surprises me is that given its strong military meaning, it originally meant a place of entertainment.

The adjective form, redoubtable, describes a person commanding respect -- in the case of an enemy, someone so formidable as to cause fear and apprehension.

Moving on to the word doubt, it seems that there is no connection with the word redoubt, which implies seclusion or separation. Doubt means uncertainty, and it is about 400 years older than redoubt. It was also taken into English from the French, but was strongly influenced by the Latin verb dubitare -- to waver or be uncertain.

As to its spelling, that unnecessary and silent letter -b- in all three words was a late insertion by 17h century British influencers who thought that the English language had degenerated to an embarrassing degree, and sought to reform it by using Latin models, which just didn't fit.

Thus, we are indubitably stuck with a capricious and inconsistent spelling system.

 

The Final Episode of the "Words to the Wise" show on April 7, 2026, after a 25-year run on "The Ron Jolly Show"

This the final episode of the "Words to the Wise" on "The Ron Jolly Show" on WTCM-AM 580. The episode ran on April 7, 2026, at the end of a 25-year run.

This is the recording of the final episode.

https://rss.com/podcasts/wordmall/2752807

The Last Pun Show on the WTCM AM 580 "Words to the Wise" on "The Ron Jolly Show" March 31, 2026

This the penultimate episode of the "Words to the Wise" on "The Ron Jolly Show" on WTCM-AM 580. The episode ran on March 31, 2026, at the end of a 25-year run.

This is the recording of the 2026 Pun Show.

ACRONYMS AND INITIALISMS: the long and the short of it

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To save time, many industries and organizations abbreviate their names by extracting the first letter of each word in the full name. It also makes logos much shorter and easier to handle, and it's appreciated as a shortcut by news organizations when reporting. 

       Most of us simply use the word acronym to describe such word constructions. Acronym comes from two Greek word parts. The acro- part in this word can be translated as tip or outermost, and the -nym means name or word. So an acronym is a word created from the first letter of each word in a phrase or title.

       But there's a more technical distinction that not everyone knows about. In everyday communication it doesn't really make much of a difference because people know what you mean, but when accuracy is needed, there are two distinctions to be made. These distinctions are based on whether the word thus created is pronounced as if it were a word. or must be spelled out letter by letter.

       If the abbreviation can be pronounced as if it were a word, it is properly called an acronym. Some examples are NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), PIN (personal identification number), LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), RADAR (radio detecting and ranging), AWOL (absent without leave), POTUS (president of the United States), and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

       But if the abbreviation cannot be pronounced as if it were a word, but has to be spelled out letter by letter, it is properly called an initialism. A few examples include FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), CFO (chief financial officer), ATM (automated teller machine), DIY (do it yourself), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), PR (public relations), and NFL (National Football League).

       Now, in spite of some of the phony stories that you'll find on the internet, acronyms and initialisms did not become common until the late 1800s. One bogus story that I have run across is that when fertilizers such as manure were stored low in the hold of a ship and became waterlogged, they would release methane gas and eventually explode. To prevent this, the bundles were stamped with the letters S.H.I.T., meaning Ship High In Transit, and that's where we obtained our vulgar word. In fact, the word goes all the way back to Old English, where shit -- with a slightly different spelling -- meant diarrhea in cattle.

       And no -- fart does not come from foul air released transactionally.

CONTEXT

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If you're trying to expand your vocabulary, you really need to pay attention to context. Context means the total surroundings of a word - the ideas and discussion that lead up to a word and that follow a word. That framework often contains clues that allow you to figure out what an unknown word means without going near a dictionary. But you have to know what the clues are and how to use them. That's what we'll discuss in this podcast.

(1) Word Clues
         Sometimes the writer deliberately includes a definition near a difficult word and uses word clues to alert you to that fact. Some of the word clues are very subtle, like the various forms of the verb to be: They act as = signs:

·      An aglet is the plastic or metal tip at the end of a shoelace.

·      Lipomas are fatty tumors.

·      Haruspication was the practice of foretelling the future by examining animal entrails.

·      In medieval times, falciform swords were sickle-shaped in order to behead enemies with a single blow.

         Sometimes the word clues, instead of being subtle, club you over the head by using obvious terms such as this means, may be defined as, is called, was referred to as, is known as, that is.

·      Stenoky means the ability of an organism to live only under a very narrow range of environmental conditions.

·      Tenacity is defined as the ability to hold firm to one's beliefs under pressure.

·      The medieval system that bound peasants to their master's land was called serfdom.

·      A generalized feeling of ill-being with symptoms such as heightened anxiety, discontent, or vague physical discomfort is known as dysphoria.

·      Some people are contumelious. That is, they are rudely contemptuous, insulting, and enjoy humiliating their victims.

 

(2) Punctuation Clues
         Sometimes a writer will include a definition near a difficult word and use the following punctuation marks as a signal: commas, dashes, or parentheses. The definition might be inside these marks, or the difficult word might be inside these marks. Either way, it's a very useful clue.

·      Duplicity, deliberate deceptiveness in action or speech, is one of the surest ways to destroy a friendship.

·      Appositives -- words, phrases, or clauses placed next to a noun -- often contain definitions.

·      Small molecules may be combined in complex ways to form larger molecules (macromolecules).

·      Substances through which electrons will not flow easily, insulators, include glass, hard rubber, porcelain, and plastic.

·      Prosopagnosia -- difficulty in recognizing familiar faces -- is associated with damage to the right hemisphere of the brain.

 

(3) Synonyms
         A synonym is a word with a meaning very close to the meaning of another word; it can replace the other word. When the synonym is simpler than the unknown word, it can act as a clue to the meaning. Sometimes the difficult word is accompanied by a cluster of easier words meaning the same thing. Sometimes the synonym shows up in a later sentence as a replacement for the difficult word. Watch for equivalent terms, for the same thing said in a different way.

·      She is one of the most perceptive, insightful, and perspicacious persons that I have ever known.

·      Beware of politicians who make nebulous and vague promises.

·      Ostriches are the most familiar of the ratites. Such flightless birds date back at least 135 million years.

·      In regard to religion, Socrates spoke of gods in the plural. By that, he meant the traditional Greek deities.

·      Her reputation as a stubborn, refractory, and bull-headed individual doomed her chances to run for office.

·      Phobias are found in all age groups, and these irrational fears make life difficult for those who suffer from them.

 

(4) Examples or Description
         Quite often, a writer will not include an actual definition for an unknown word. However, if he or she has used examples or has described something closely connected with that word, it's almost as good as a definition -- if you're paying attention. When it comes to examples, look for signal words such as for example, for instance, such as, and like.

·      Misdemeanors, for example, include drunkenness, disorderly conduct, petty thefts, trespassing, and loitering in public places.

·      He exhibited misogynistic tendencies, such as constantly belittling women, denying their intelligence, and claiming that the only thing they were good for was having babies.

·      The contract was too convoluted. For instance, it required three signatures just to change an email address.

·      The stock market is very volatile, like a runaway horse bolting in unpredictable directions.

 

Descriptions, on the other hand, do not use signal words. Instead, you have to look for words that involve seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and hearing. Pay attention and let the scene sink in to help you understand the meaning of a difficult or unknown word.

·      Delbert was emaciated. His clothes hung loosely from his frame. His arms and legs looked like toothpicks. His face looked like A Halloween skeleton mask. A strong wind would have blown him away.

·      There's a drug dealer who sits on the bench in a park near my house almost every day. His ears are oddly pointed, he has beady little red-rimmed eyes, a long snout, and sharp, razorlike teeth. His head is constantly twitching in nervous little jerks as if sniffing the air. He is the most murine-like person I have ever seen.

·      I'm never going to dine out with my cousin Bonnie again because she is so querulous. Last night, when the waiter greeted us with a smile and a cheery good evening, she snapped at him for being too familiar. When she learned that they had run out of lobster tail, her loud complaints reached every corner of the restaurant. When she paid her share of the bill, she complained that the cashier took way too much time to complete the transaction. And on the way out, she criticized the plants decorating the lobby.

 

(5) Contrasts or Opposites
         Sometimes a writer will highlight a word by emphasizing words that mean the opposite. In that case, you have to reverse the meaning