Why Hitler hated being called a Nazi and what's really in humble pie – origins of words and phrases revealed

Why Hitler hated being called a Nazi and what's really in humble pie – origins of words and phrases revealed

Cold shoulder – cold shoulder of mutton was the sort of leftovers given to unwelcome house guests

Winging it – actor learning lines in the wings

Bite the dust – a direct translation of a quote from The Iliad in which a character talks of the death of Hector

Film buff – from buffalo, the leather from which was worn by 19th century New York firemen who attracted crowds of fans when putting out fires. These aficionados became known as buffs, and the use spread

Nazi – an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive "Nazi"

In the doghouse – from Peter Pan. In JM Barrie's 1911 novel, Mr Darling forces the dog to sleep in the kennel, and as a result the children disappear. As penance, he takes to sleeping there himself.

Hoax – from hocus-pocus, which was used by Protestants to ridicule the rite of consecration carried out in the course of Catholic mass, which includes the phrase "Hoc est corpus meum" ("This is my body")

Dog days – the name for the hottest, sultriest part of the summer which coincides with a period, during July, when Sirius – the dog star – cannot be seen as it rises and sets at the same time as the sun.

SCOOP's note

After naked chicks and (maybe) baseball, etymology is my favorite subject.

The above derivation of the word "hoax" depends on two separate links: (1) hoc est became hocus; (2) hocus became hoax. Neither of those connections is anything more than conjecture. Here's what the OED has to say:

Connection #1: "The notion that hocus pocus was a parody of the Latin words used in the Eucharist, rests merely on a conjecture thrown out by Tillotson in his Sermons, xxvi. (published in 1742, but presented as an argument circa 1694) II. 237: 'In all probability those common juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation.'"

Connection 2: "Hoax appears shortly before 1800; supposed to be a contracted form of hocus. This origin suits sense and form, but there is no direct evidence of connexion, and 18th citations for hocus are wanting." Hocus appears in citations in 1675 and 1686, then is not seen again in English letters until 1808. "The want of 'hocus' instances for the 18th century makes this connection less certain. Hocus was apparently revived in the 19th century, perhaps under the influence of hoax."

Here is the first citation for "hocus pocus" (1655): "Ady Candle in Dark 29, I will speak of one man that went about in King James his time who called himself, The Kings Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was called, because that at the playing of every Trick, he used to say, Hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo, a dark composure of words, to blinde the eyes of the beholders, to make his Trick pass the more currantly without discovery."