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 20th 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 19th 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.
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