Published: November 05, 2009 08:07 pm      

AROUND THE TOWN: Word origins can be fascinating

I have always been interested in words, their meanings and, just as often, their origin. For example, I was delighted to learn that the Hebrew word "nasa" means lift off. Makes sense then that the National Aeronautic and Space Administration would want an acronym that means lift off.

I am just as intrigued by other phrases or things we say and from where they originated. For instance, you may often hear the term "his name is mud," which can be traced back to the assassination of President Lincoln. Samuel Mudd was a Maryland physician who was accused of conspiring with Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, to kill the President at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Mudd was later implicated and incarcerated for that heinous act.

I have compiled some other common sayings and their point of origin. May you find them as interesting and entertaining as I did! So, to trace the origins of some of our phrases, let's go way back in time. A lot of the sayings we use today began as far back as the 1500s!

1. Years ago, houses had thatched roofs. These roofs were thick with straw piled high and no wood underneath. It was the only place that animals could get warm so lots of cats and dogs (as well as other creatures) lived in the roof. When it rained heavily, the roof often became slippery and the animals would slide off it. Thus the saying "It's raining cats and dogs!"

2. Back in the day, a lot of people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty well in June. However, since they were beginning to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom of carrying a bouquet when getting married!

3. Speaking of baths, baths consisted of a large tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice, clean water. Then it was the sons' turn, then the girls and women and finally the children and babies. By the time the babies got into the water, it was so dirty it was difficult to see them. Thus the saying "don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

4. In those older days, women cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle. It always hung over the fire. Each day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and not much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving the leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes, stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot…nine days old."

5. And here is the last one: Our mother country years ago was running out of places to bury its dead. So a practice began of digging up coffins and taking the bones to the bone house so the grave could be reused. One time, a coffin had what appeared to be scratch marks on the inside, and they realized that someone may have been buried alive (remember this was before medical examiners). This led to tying a string on the wrist of the corpse, through the coffin and up the ground to a bell. If someone were to have been buried alive, he or she could pull the string, ring the bell and it would sound above ground. Thus the say "saved by the bell."

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Stone Panthers will travel to Livingston Friday night for round one of the TSSAA State Playoffs. The Panthers will face the Livingston Wildcats. Game time is 7 p.m. CST. If you can't get to the game, listen to Shane Wyatt and Vince Brown as they broadcast the game live from 99.3 on your FM dial.

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It is homecoming on UT campus this week. The Vols, after a huge Halloween night SEC win over No. 21 ranked South Carolina last Saturday, will host the Memphis Tigers this Saturday night over at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. Game time is 6 p.m. CST. It will be televised on ESPNU.

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Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it is already beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The second annual "Mistletoe Marketplace" Holiday Show will get under way Saturday at Fairfield Glade's Conference Center. The marketplace will open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.