Wordwizard

Does anyone have any ideas about the origin of the the word XMAS in that particular form? Submitted by Steve Jughes (Nederland- Texas) _____________________________ My grand-daughter asked me today why "Christmas" and "Xmas" meant the same thing...and I had the devil of a time trying to give her an ...

Why the sound of ch in machine sounds like sh instead of ch in chicken or child?

Asking the question about story, got me thinking about the use of
yarn for a tall tale. Yarn was what my mother knitted with. I looked it
up and it comes from the Greek for string.

The meaning I can understand very well. I only have difficulty finding equivalents to this (useful) idiom, if any. Could you help, please?

Why was the word Del used as a prefix to so many names of musical groups of the 50's and early 60's? Did it have some significant meaning then, such as phat or groovy or something else at the time? i.e. Delfonics, Del Vikings, The Dells, Del Shannon. Submitted by michael turmel (manchester - U.S.A.)

I thought this phrase was not longer in use, then I heard it on TV in a youth setting and Googling gets all kinds of hits. This phrase when first encountered as a kid, was one of those serious utterances but it also stuck out like a sore thumb for its lack of asignmenmentionability with other words....

What is the true definition of "chimerical",

and where did it originate?

Just checked the archives, and there are no hooligans in them. I have a problem with hooligans, in that they constantly clog-up my kayboard (see what i mean?) and make me write wierds i didn't mean to wrote. Could someone :-) etymologize the hooligans for me, please? Ta everso. Rooey Nosbert. Submit...

Hello all, I have often heard the phrase "to the Nth degree" but have been unable to find any indication of its origin. I assume it comes from mathematics, with "N" being a variable, but why "N"? Why not "X"? Can anyone shed any light on this subject? Thanks, Submitted by Jeff Freeman (Orlando - U.S...

I was bemused to realise that CURB (as in stop, cease, prevent) was seemingly USA in usage, in terms of pavements (widesorks erm...you know what I mean.) Unusual, as most-times the USA usage is a corruption of the English thing. Here...KERB (English) has the same meaning as CURB...KERB/CURBSTONE. I'...

In a previous posting “the cat’s whisker’s” the question of the origin of ‘bog-standard,’ a terrific expression which isn’t used much in the U.S., was raised. The following is a compilation of the most reliable of what I was able to glean from the literature on the subject. There are several theorie...

.. to add a little more "legitimate" research to the "might is right" argument of the evolution of the English language I thought the following, taken from ABC Word Watch, is putting things into perspective >>> Hinglish David Crystal is a University of Wales professor who's written over 40 books on ...

The fiddlydeck question made me wonder where the word deck as in: 'Giv'us a deck', or 'Let's have a deck', meaning 'I want to look', comes from.
I'll have a deck at this column tomorrow to see if anyone knows...

hello. i wonder if anybody could help me with the origin of the word 'share' or 'sharing". thanks

Help. In the bar the other night one of our thirsty group of ships engineers asked the if anyone was aware of the origins of the term "fiddley deck". All present were aware of what and where this deck was but no one knew where and when the term came from. Please help as there may be a free drink for...