Many phrases within the English language happened as a result of a Greek and a German fought in a library, and whoever received the battle obtained so as to add one new phrase into the dictionary. We additionally generally seize phrases from characters in popular culture. That’s why we hold speaking about how quixotic some stans are.
We frequently overlook simply the place these phrases got here from, and once we dig out these origins, they’re not what we thought in any respect.
Brainiac
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Brainiac is a villain from DC comics, an enemy who fights Superman. A few of you received’t have heard of him, as he’s by no means acquired a live-action film, however others amongst him effectively, since he’s popped up in a bunch of different media. This yr, for instance, he was the primary villain in a Suicide Squad online game, which goes down as one of many largest flops of all time, dropping Warner Bros. tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Warner Bros.
His title is Brainiac, as a result of he’s such a brainiac. However that slang time period didn’t exist again when he debuted within the comics in 1958. It solely ever turned a phrase we use to confer with real-life good individuals as a result of it started because the title of that comic-book character.
And once we name some a brainiac, we overlook what the title initially meant. The author behind Brainiac (Otto Binder) selected that title due to the phrase mind, after all, but additionally the phrase maniac. Calling somebody a “brainiac” relatively than simply “brainy” ought to then accuse them of being of insane, but it surely not often does.
Clearly, phrases can change meanings over time, but when our descendants begin referring to turkeys as “turduckens,” they’re lacking the phrase’s unique magnificence.
Jumbo
P.T. Barnum had a well-known elephant named Jumbo, and the mom elephant in Disney’s Dumbo was named after him. Very like with Brainiac, you may look again and picture that these elephants have been named Jumbo as a result of they have been so giant, however “Jumbo” didn’t imply that on the time. Solely afterward did the title develop into an adjective to explain large stuff.
Jumbo’s keeper Matthew Scott named him, and the title might need been taken from the Swahili phrase for hey, hujambo. It additionally might need been primarily based on the present English slang phrase jumbo, which on the time (the 1860s) meant “clumsy.” Jumbo wasn’t even that giant for an elephant. Positive, any elephant goes to be giant in the event you haven’t seen one earlier than, however his 10-foot-7 peak was common for his species.
It’s superb how deeply the phrase “jumbo” is ingrained in our language, contemplating it got here from this one entertainer. It’s not simply that we level at somebody who’s large and nickname them Jumbo, just like the elephant, since that isn’t actually one thing we ever do. It’s how “Jumbo dimension” has develop into such an accepted class for merchandise, from the oxymoronic jumbo shrimp to jumbo jets and Jumbotrons. Only a few of these issues are particularly clumsy.
As for Jumbo the elephant, it appears he was clumsy, and this clumsiness ended up killing him. A practice hit him as a result of he didn’t hop off the tracks in time. That’s except you imagine the conspiracy idea that Barnum staged the crash for publicity.
Freelance
A freelancer is beneath contract to nobody and works wherever they like. You might need heard a convincing origin for this phrase: It comes from a sort of medieval knight who was free to make use of his lance to battle for whoever paid him.
However the phrase actually didn’t exist again within the Center Ages. It comes from the novel Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, which takes place within the Center Ages however was written in 1819. “I supplied Richard the service of my Free Lances, and he refused them,” says Maurice de Bracy, a mercenary chief.
BBC
For those who’re questioning what freelance troopers actually have been referred to as again then, you may attempt the Latin phrase stipendiarii, as they have been paid stipends. Or you can fall again on the dependable mercennarius, or mercenary. In truth, in the event you work freelance right now, we encourage you to name your self a mercenary, as this tasks power.
Paparazzi
“Paparazzi” appears like an Italian phrase. We conjugate it as we do Italian phrases, utilizing it as a plural whereas a single member of the paparazzi is a paparazzo. You need to conjugate comparable phrases accordingly, by the best way. A wall could also be coated with graffiti, however a single tag on a wall is a graffito. You’ll be able to eat a bowl of spaghetti, however a single strand of pasta is a spaghetto.
“Paparazzo” is certainly an Italian phrase, which is to say it’s an Italian title, in an Italian movie. The film was 1960’s La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini. Paparazzo is a photographer who travels with our man Marcello to seize images for a narrative. One of many writers on the movie stated Fellini took the title from a e-book referred to as By the Ionian Sea, the place Paparazzo was the title of an actual resort proprietor. The title continues to be widespread in that neck of Italy right now. Time journal used the phrase “paparazzi” in an article they wrote on photographers in 1961, and the time period unfold from there.
By the way, Paparazzo’s large goal in La Dolce Vita isn’t a celeb however a supposed sighting of the Virgin Mary outdoors Rome. It’s acceptable then that we name celeb photographers paparazzi, as a result of in later years, paparazzi would search images of Madonna.
5-Oh
Whenever you’re out on the streets slinging unlawful Kinder Eggs, and a potential purchaser raises your suspicions, you may flip to your associate and recommend that this buyer could be five-oh. You’re utilizing a codeword meaning “police.” It comes from the present Hawaii 5-0, which had a 10-season reboot beginning in 2010 and was initially a 12-season collection that debuted in 1968.
Each exhibits, positive sufficient, have been about police in Hawaii. However the phrase “five-0” didn’t imply police, precisely. It referred to Hawaii, as a result of Hawaii was the fiftieth state. This was particularly complicated for customers again within the Nineteen Sixties as a result of the unique collection was titled Hawaii 5-O, not Hawaii 5-0.
CBS
It’s a bit like if Brooklyn 9-9 turns into so iconic that many years later, persons are utilizing the phrase “99” to confer with police of all types. These individuals wouldn’t be improper, precisely. The 9-9 have been police in that present. It might nonetheless be unusual.
Truly, to make this analogy work, the present must be referred to as Brooklyn BK, and we’d all be calling police “BK.” We 100-percent imagine some community may select that title for a police procedural. TV can get fairly dumb.
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