Kilburne, George Goodwin (b,1839)- Making Pass (or, Mayhap, Borrowing Money for Cards)

Making a Pass

She’s standing there, you’re standing there. You smile, she smiles. You go ahead and decide to make a pass. You walk over and give her your best line, “How you doin’?” She laughs and walks away. As she leaves you think to yourself, “Where did make a pass come from?” Which is probably why she walked away.

Seriously though, back in the Age of Sail, when the tall ships ruled the ocean, it was not uncommon for two ships to move in close in order to size each other up. They would usually make a side-on pass to gauge each other. Sometimes there would be a fight and sometimes not.

So every time you “make a pass” you are basically re-enacting an age-old maritime tradition. Hopefully with fewer canons being involved.

Ride Roughshod Over Someone

In the modern world, riding roughshod means disregarding someone’s feelings or opinion. Basically, run them over. On the medieval battlefields though it had a different meaning.

The goal of the mounted knight was to cause as much damage on the battlefield as possible. They really kind of were the forerunners to tanks. Not content to let the damage be done by the lance, spear, sword or the thousand pound horse slicing through an enemy other means of violence neede found. As such the knights would have the blacksmiths “roughshod” the horse by leaving every second nail sticking out of the show. So not only would they run you over, but they would tear you up in the process.

Pitched Battle

A Pitched Battle is a major conflict that usually involves lost of men on all sides. It comes from the sixteenth century where battlefield communication was somewhat suspect. It would not be unusual to have armies wandering around the countryside for days trying to find each other. Realizing this was a huge waste of killing time and resources important battles were formally arranged ahead of time. Basically “we’ll meet you here at this time”.

So the Old English word picung  which would become pitch means “to throw something into the ground (like a spear). That evolved into one of the modern day definitions of pitch, set up and fix in a definite position. Thus a pitched battle is one planned for a fixed and definite position.

Best Man

The good news is she said yes! Now all you have to do is ask your good friend to be your Best Man and your work is pretty much done as far as the wedding goes. (Just kidding ladies!) So how did the term Best Man come about?

Back in the day, prior to 1000 AD when the term was first recorded, it was not unusual for most weddings to be the result of a peace treaty between warring clans, groups, nations, etc. Sometimes this would involve a groom kinda sort of kidnapping the bride. To guard his back during the excursion he would be sure to take the best swordsman from his circle of friends with him. In fact, the other men that are part of the wedding party, groomsmen, ushers, etc are symbolic of the extra men that provided the muscle.

In the early 1800s the official term Best Man entered the British wedding traditions in a much more congenial way.

Escalade

So when you hear this word I bet the first thing you think of is the SUV by Cadillac. That’s OK, a lot of these words are far older than you would think.

Escalade actually goes all the way back to Latin word scala or ladder. From there to medieval Latin scalare “to scale, climb”. From there into the late 16th century where it found its way into French and Spanish where “to climb” stuck.

So where did it come from? Well back in the day men and resources were so scarce that not many field battles were fought. Instead, it was decided that sieges were to be the order of the day.  For the defenders, it meant hunkering down in fortifications or castles and waiting for the attackers to come at them. For the attackers it meant either pounding the walls with artillery or climbing the walls and taking the place by force. So the has to scale the walls, or climb the walls. that attack became known as the “escalade”. And there we are.

What that has to do with an SUV from Cadillac is a mystery to me.  Maybe climbing over the competition or scaling the mean streets or… Nope no idea.

Curfew

Almost nothing would get you in trouble more when you were growing up than staying out after curfew. You know, that time that your mom said you had to be inside by of else you were in deep stuff. Did you every wonder where that word came from?

It can be traced all the way back to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. In order to keep the local population under control, William the Conqueror demanded that all native people stay inside after dark. Norman soldiers patrolled the streets and paths along the way would yell out, “Couvre feu!” Yep, that’s French. In English, it would translate to “Cover the Fire!” 

This was the signal to put out the fires and the candles and get in bed. Eventually, it became curfew. Now you know what your mom and William the Conqueror have in common.

Croupier

OK so first a reminder. A Croupier is the actual and official name of the dealer in a casino. Here is where it comes from.

Medival knights generally traveled fairly light, usually only one servant who rode behind him on the croupe. In French croupe is the horse’s rear. So those that rode on the horse’s rear were called croupier.

When a group of knights traveled together and stopped to rest for the night, gambling would be the way to pass their time. The croupier would draw lots among them to determine who would be the dealer for the night, and thus get the tips.

The name stuck. Knowing this now means that the next time you go to the casino you simply must restrain yourself from calling the dealer a horse’s ass. Unless they deserve it of course.

Lock, Stock and Barrel

The phrase “lock, stock and barrel” generally means all of something. For example, “We cleaned out the garage lock, stock and barrel.” In modern times it was thought to refer to when someone bought a new farm they would own it completely including the lock for the front door, the stock as in livestock (animals y’all), and the water barrel that collected the water. It however is much older than that.

In fact, it can be traced back to the 16th century when matchlock firearms were reaching wide-spread use. See there were three parts to any firearm at the time.

The lock, which held the match and when the trigger was pulled ignite the powder in the pan leading to the firearm going off.

The stock, which was the part of the firearm that helped the lock and barrel in place.

And the barrel which the ammunition needed to travel through once the gun was fired.

So in order to have a functioning firearm you needed all the pieces, a lock, a stock and a barrel.

Shanghai

As in “to shanghai someone” into doing something they don’t want to do. Meaning to coerce or kidnap.

Starting int he 1850’s the United State has a significant presence in China, mostly around the port of Shanghai. The port was the home of many, many bars and brothels that took in any number of American sailors. Unfortunately for many, the night of revelry turned into a morning of regrets as they found themselves alone and in the middle of nowhere, no money and no memory of how they got there or what concoction they drank to knock themselves out so soundly. Though waking up with an empty wallet and broke was not as bad as the other option.

Ships need sailors and they are not always picky about where they get them. When the money was gone it was not unusual for the unconscious men to be sold off to the highest bidder. So you may go to the bar the night before a crewmember of one ship, and wake up in the morning a crewman of another! And there was no recourse.

The first recorded use of “shanghai” as the kidnapping meaning came around 1860. That did not take long! So the next time you get blackout drunk and wake up in a strange place, just be glad it isn’t Shanghai!

Soldier

A solider is someone who serves in the armed forces, but the origin of the word is kind of neat.

The most direct connection for the origin we have is circa 1300 from the Old French soudier, “one who serves in the army for pay”.

That seems to connect to the Medieval Latin soldarius, which means literally “one having pay”. That Latin phrase seems to be the source of the Spanish term for soldier, solodado and the Italian soldato.

That Medieval Latin term can find its root in the Latin solidus, which the term for a Roman gold coin and means, “coin of thick or solid metal” or not of thin plate, you know solid. Yes, the odds are good that soldier can trace a line to the word solid. Pretty cool.

At least that is one theory. Here is the other…

During the Roman Empire men in the army were sometimes paid in salt The Roman word for salt was sal. This payment became known as a salary and gave rise to the phrases “worth his salt”

Sal in Latin eventually became solde in French and eventually became soldier. Again, one who serves in the army for pay. Or for a salary.

One more quick one. Ancient Romans enjoyed eating their greens with a little bit of  salt to bring out the flavor. Remember that the Roman word for salt was sal? Well that dish of vegetables with salt became known as salad.  Thank you Rome.