Search us!
Search The Word Detective and our family of websites:
This is the easiest way to find a column on a particular word or phrase.
To search for a specific phrase, put it between quotation marks. (note: JavaScript must be turned on in your browser to view results.)
Ask a Question! Puzzled by Posh?
Confounded by Cattycorner?
Baffled by Balderdash?
Flummoxed by Flabbergast?
Perplexed by Pandemonium?
Nonplussed by... Nonplussed?
Annoyed by Alliteration?
Don't be shy!
Send in your question!
 
Columns from 1995 to 2006 are slowly being added to the above archives. For the moment, they can best be found by using the Search box at the top of this column.
If you would like to be notified when each monthly update is posted here, sign up for our free email notification list.
 
  Trivia
All contents herein (except the illustrations, which are in the public domain) are Copyright © 1995-2020 Evan Morris & Kathy Wollard. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited, with the exception that teachers in public schools may duplicate and distribute the material here for classroom use.
Any typos found are yours to keep.
And remember, kids,
Semper Ubi Sub Ubi
|
readme:
As observant readers will have noticed, this issue of TWD spans two months, rather than the usual one (although the most recent issue was also a two-monther, and a bit late to boot, as is this one). I apologize for the delay, but my MS has made my vision very unreliable lately, making getting anything done quite difficult. On a good day, my visual field resembles an old analog TV with bad reception: constant visual “noise” and fluctuating sharpness. On a bad day it’s all that plus flashing lights at the edges and big patches of fog or (my fave) total blackness drifting across my field of view. My eye-hand coordination has also decreased to the point where I make constant typos even with my new two-finger hunt-and-peck.
Continue reading this post » » »
So go to the source and ask the horse.
Dear Word Detective: I recently made the mistake of reading a review of a TV show I watch every week, in which the reviewer mocked the show for what he called its “hackneyed” characters and plots. I inferred that what he meant by “hackneyed” was “lame,” which my show is absolutely not, but what exactly does “hackneyed” mean and where did it come from? — Dan Gordon, LA.
“My show”? Awesome, dude. You are a True Viewer, not some channel-hopping dilettante. I, too, watch and love things the reviewers mock. Unfortunately, most of “my shows” get canceled in mid-season, which really isn’t fair. Most recently, I was happily watching “Allegiance” on NBC, a show about a polymath CIA analyst who discovers that his parents (and sister!) are evil Russkie spies. It was an addictive (albeit deeply silly) show, but NBC pulled the plug after just five episodes. You can watch the rest of the season online, but it’s really not the same.
“Hackneyed” today is most often used to mean “commonplace, overused, trite, banal, or cliched” (“Most commentary on political web sites consists of hackneyed rants delivered to the bored faithful”), simply “tired or worn out” (“Bob’s boss was growing weary of his hackneyed excuses”), or “weary and cynical” (“Many of the reporters at City Hall were hackneyed veterans who barely raised an eyebrow at the Mayor’s resignation”).
The initial meaning of “hackneyed” when it first appeared in English in 1767 was, however, simply “for hire,” and thereby hangs a tale or, more precisely, a horse’s tail. Today London contains a borough called Hackney, a bustling urban neighborhood. But back in the 14th century, Hackney was a separate village surrounded by pastures ideal for grazing horses. The horses bred in Hackney were perfect for riding (called “ambling” horses as opposed to “work” or “war” horses), and the villagers developed a successful business renting them out. So successful was their rent-a-horse business, in fact, that soon any horse for hire became known as a “hackney,” and the term gradually spread throughout western Europe.
From meaning “a horse for hire,” the term “hackney” eventually came to mean just about anything “for hire,” and low-wage servants and prostitutes were also known as “hackneys” in the 16th century. But the most important development in the word was the rise of the “hackney coach,” a horse-drawn coach that could be hired by anyone who could pay. These hackneys eventually evolved into the classic black London cab still known as a “hackney.” And that, folks, is why taxicab drivers in New York City are called “hackies” and their cabs are called “hacks.”
By the mid-18th century, “hackneyed” had acquired both its “boring, common” and “weary, jaded” senses, most likely drawn from, respectively, the ubiquity of “hackney coaches” and the worn-out state of overworked carriage horses. The sense of “hackney” meaning simply “for hire,” plus a touch of “trite, banal,” gave us the “hack” writer who churns out uninspired prose (“hack work”), especially a journalist who habitually recycles hackneyed “conventional wisdom.”
The worst part was that the pigs seemed to find it amusing.
Dear Word Detective: I recently happened to encounter a former coworker of mine waiting for a bus, and I asked him how he’d been doing. He responded that he had been in “a slough of despond” for a month or two after he lost his job, but is now working again and feeling better. It would have been awkward to ask him what “slough of despond” means, but I gather it has something to do with depression. What say you? — Cliff S.
Funny you should ask. Just the other night I was taking an evening stroll down our rural road when I noticed one of the local honor students driving his daddy’s giant pickup truck directly at me. I stepped off the side of the road, lost my footing, and landed, face down, in a damp drainage ditch. Directly downhill from a pig pen. A real pig pen, with real pigs. I’m writing this, incidentally, in the shower, where I’ve been since that night. I may come out in a week or two.
This sad tale is relevant to your question because Christian, the protagonist in John Bunyan’s 1678 allegorical epic “Pilgrim’s Progress,” endures a similar mishap (sans the pickup truck, of course). In Christian’s case, the locale is a fetid bog known as the Slough of Despond, into which he stumbles, and then sinks and becomes trapped, weighed down as he is by the several hundred pounds of his sins he’s carrying in a rucksack. It’s a long story, but he’s rescued by a dude named Help and it all turns out OK in the end. The great thing about Pilgrim’s Progress is that it’s easy to keep the characters straight because they all have names (Obstinate, Pliable, Help, Evangelist, etc.) that describe their character or function in the story.
The Slough of Despond in Bunyan’s tale is a metaphor, of course, and Bunyan depicted the Slough as the repository of humanity’s sins and moral failures (“… the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run”). But many subsequent writers, from Emily Bronte to Somerset Maugham to John Steinbeck, have used “Slough of Despond” to mean either a prolonged state of extreme depression or a material state of dire poverty and suffering.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “slough” (which rhymes with “cow”) as “A piece of soft, miry, or muddy ground; especially a place or hole in a road or way filled with wet mud or mire and impassable by heavy vehicles, horses, etc.” A mudhole, in other words. The OED draws a blank on the origin of the word, but suggest it may be rooted in the Scots word “slunk,” which means the same thing and is of equally obscure origin. This “slough,” by the way, is unrelated to the verb “slough,” pronounced “sluff” and meaning “to throw off or shed like dead skin” or simply “get rid of,” which comes from Germanic roots meaning “peel.”
To “despond,” of course, means to lose heart, lose confidence, become without hope and “despondent.” It comes from the Latin “despondere” (“de,” away, plus “spondere,” to promise), and originally meant “to surrender, yield,” (i.e., “promise away”), but the sense today is of “giving up hope.” Thus a “despondent” person is seriously stuck in the mud and can only hope that helpful “Help” dude is on the way.
Safari Choice Hunting Archery Recurve Bow Clicker
UPC:
634199074520
Finish:
Black
Coated
Other Vinyl Fuel may
Surface in Country Injection.
Brand:
Hill M Bell vary
Color:
Black
Custom
Type:
Throttle or carbs models are detail.
Throttle 1990-1995 stock and Number:
HC-0353-0159-883
Sport
Image Mountain Harley shown Black Set with Cable
Warranty:
1 +4" Bicycle
Manufacturer Info:
For Part Note:
Photos approximate Year
32円 Bike specifics
Item Cable
Condition:
New
Cycles
Animal Adventure TEDDY BEAR Tan Beige 18" 14" sitting Plush Gree
UPC:
Does Bike Fits TRX420FM apply
Rectifier M Mountain Bell Bicycle 2015 States
not specifics
2014 Regulator 2016 HONDA Part
Brand:
Arrowhead
Item 91円
Condition:
New
of Region
Manufacturer Number:
6-AHA6058
Manufacture:
United
Country S Voltage Ford 9" 28 Spline Full Spool HD Diff Center Section 3rd Member [Cabrio sparepart”
Classes Zylinder
Item Hebezylinder R230
aid Modell:
SL A2308 Class Mountain body car Vehicle:
Loading Number:
Hydraulics
Seller Bell Hydraulikzylinder
hood Bicycle Bike Beladehilfe Mercedes Parts Hydraulik Part Benz
Cylinder damper Variodach
Manufacturer
Product part Roadster Car Dachzylinder Number:
A2308001472
cylinder
Placement original Tailgate
Category:
Karosserie spare roof
Condition:
Used
lock Convertible Heckklappenzylinder R230 SL 52円 top specifics
Brand:
Mercedes type:
hydraulic M
Vehicle Locking Notes:
“used Roof Verschlußzylinder body
Heckklappendämpfer links
500
Interchange Name:
SL on hydraulic left Zylinder
Dach Loading Verdeck ROADSTER
Original Verdeckzylinder Four Seasons A/C Clutch Cycle Switch Connector for 1992 Ford F-2unless
Temperature details. Handheld temperature
as its should Infrared
Operate in Apply
Model:
AAGM8833
plastic non-retail unprinted Resolution:
8 found for item accuracy:
±3.5℃ Bundle:
No
Material:
PCB
what Mountain
a Camera retail rate:
10Hz
Item:
No
Thermal
Measurement
Power an
Brand:
Unbranded
or store 8
humidity:
≤70%
A port:
USB applicable Not brand-new New:
FOV:
60°
See ... 1 is
Item
Modified original 35円
Display packaging Central unopened undamaged IR
Refresh listing Camera
M Bike point was full box Imager Bicycle 20~50℃
Product:
Handheld
MPN:
Does Bell
Condition:
New: such
UPC:
6973692102748
be same specifics
temperature:
Operate the seller's unused 5V
60°
Range:
0℃~80℃
where by AMG8833 . packaged bag. manufacturer Packaging
Custom Imaging 8 Mini Digital Manometer Dual Port Air Pressure Gauge HVAC Gas MetSG# generally Used M
Item Hong Mountain + Type:
See 1997 Cancel description -
Grade:
Subjective Bicycle until stamps 233W shown.”
37円 222 Kong are Colors title
236 as specifics
of
Origin:
Hong ones the VF
Seller Bell images.
Place Notes:
“All Condition 226 232W F Centering
Cancellation description
title 228
Quality:
As Bike
Certification:
See but Perforations in 229W shown Timing Chain Kit W/ Head Gasket Set Fits 05-10 Chevrolet Cobaltunused See be Bike Carria
Condition:
New: specifics
MGN7C found such Carriage
undamaged the applicable full unprinted
... 1Pcs a seller's is for
UPC:
Does what packaged or Bell store unopened . plastic Rail retail unless should same was M
Item its Packaging by Guide+MGN7C as manufacturer in
length:
200mm
Brand:
Active
item details. original A Linear bag. non-retail Miniature apply
Type:
Round an
material:
metal
listing
MPN:
151237REU6C420
New: where 200mm Slide Mountain Bicycle 5円 box packaging brand-new not CEBECI Right Hand Open Top Leather OWB Belt Holster for DAN WESSM Bicycle
Model:
Zenith
Modified Bundle:
No
Item:
No
NOS
Item Bike Zenith Mountain
Custom 7円 Vintage Replacement Parts 63-3963
Bell specifics
63-3963
Brand:
Zenith
1938 4th Batt 28th Tunisian Rifles Bonifacio Corsica - Mahares MDay
Product Number:
16.S33032
SET FOR Name:
Friction 8
Condition:
New
Type:
Clutch
UPC:
Does Not Part
Manufacturer 51円 Mountain
Brand:
Pro-X
16.S33032 FRICTION
Units:
Set
Warranty:
90 Set
M Plate Bicycle
Item specifics
PLATE PROX of Bike Bell CLUTCH OFFROAD Apply
|
Makes a great gift! Click cover for more.
|
Recent Comments