There used to be a word Lackadaisy, which meant the same thing as above. Then Sterne got hold of it in Sentimental Journey and turned it into Lackadaisical. Now, no one ever uses Lackadaisy. Even Lackadaisy was not the beginning, though. It used to be lack-a-day in the 17th century. This is thought to come from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where he used 'alack the day'.

We are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day! He’s gone, he’s killed, he’s dead!

Wassail is cider. To go Wassailing is to go out around Christmas time singing and drinking. You can go house-to-house asking for money/food with your songs and/or your cider. Or you can go to your nearest orchard and give thanks for a fine apple crop. Don't forget to bring your guns, adults. (See below.) Children in days gone by used to do the house-to-house thing while adults did the orchard thing. Here's a song that kids used to sing in the 19th century, once you opened your door:

"We've been a while a wandering all through the fields so green;
And now we come a wesseling so plainly to be seen.
O my jolly wessel, O my jolly wessel, Love and joy come to you,
And to our wessel bough [it rhymed with you, in those days];
Pray God bless you, Pray God bless you,
Pray God send you A happy New Year."

Now here's a tale recorded in 19th century Somerset. This is where the guns come in.

On old Christmas Eve (5th January), or the eve of the Epiphany,
it was the custom not long since, and may be still, for the farmer,
with his men, to go out into the orchard, and to place toast
steeped in cider, along with a jug of the liquor, up in the 'vork'
of the biggest apple tree, by way of libation; then all say
'Apple tree, apple tree, I wassaail thee! To blow and to bear,
Hat vulls, cap vulls, drce-bushel-bag-vulls ! And my pockets vull
too! Hip! Hip! Hooraw!' (Bang with one or more guns.)
This ceremony and formula is repeated several times at different
trees, with fresh firing of guns. I can well remember quite a
fusilade from various orchards on old Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, in Devon:

It was the custom for the country people to sing a wassail or drinking song, and throw the toast from the wassail bowl to the apple trees in order to have a fruitful year.

All this throwing things in trees and wassailing seems to date back to Roman times. There was a goddess called Pomona, who was in charge of fruit and trees. Giving thanks for a good apple harvest was still going strong some 1400 years after the Romans left. Perhaps it's still going strong in Somerset and Devon. Guns and cider - what could possibly go wrong!

Is your name Hannah Page? Then you're in a bit of a fix! Here's some dialogue from a guy called Peter Henry Emerson from his book 'Son of the Fens'. (1892)

'Give us hold of the string.'
'What did you do with it?'
'I gave it to you, didn't I? '
'No.'
'Well, that's a hanna-page, that is.'

Peter Henry Emerson Son of the Fens (1892)

Emerson also recorded stories for a book called Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories. There's a great tale on the origins of the Welsh (My Grandad included, A Davis boy from the Valleys.) Basically, you're Persians. And Helen of Troy? She was Welsh!

This unlikely tale is available here, if you're interested: Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories

Meaning: To go without food; to make a poor or coarse meal; to rough it, to take things as they are; to hurry.

The following were recorded in the late 19th century. The first is from West Yorkshire, the second from Northampton, and the third from Worcestershire.

I had no money, I could get nothing to eat, so I had to 'box-harry' till I reached Liverpool.

You must Box Harry for your dinner to-day.

You'll miss the train if you don't Box Harry and be off.

It's thought that 'to box Harry' meant 'to box or fight the devil'. No idea why the devil should be called Harry, though.

You could smoke a pigtail! Originally (1680s), the word applied to tobacco in the form of a thin, twisted roll. Then it got used for the way soldiers and sailors twisted their hair up at the back. Dickens, in Nicholas Nickleby, used it for the way a girl braided her hair.

Mr comes from maister, meaning master. If you want to talk about more than one Mr, the plural is Messrs (1447). It comes from the French messieurs, the plural of monsieur:

Messrs Brown and Grey

Mrs is an abbreviation of mistress. If you want to talk about more than one Mrs, the plural is Mmes (1615). Mmes comes from the French mesdames, plural of madam:

Mmes Brown and Grey

Both Messrs and Mmes are considered old fashioned, though. Unless you're writing to the Queen, don't bother with the plurals:

Mr Brown and Mr Grey

Mrs Brown and Mrs Grey

The Nazis never called themselves Nazis. In fact, Hitler probably would have had you shot, had you called him a Nazi. (Though to be fair, he would have had you shot for a lot of other things, as well.)

The word Nazi was coined as an insult. It comes from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. It was an insult because jokes about dumb people went like this:

"A Nazi walked into a bar ..."

And this was well before Hitler and his mob

A Nazi in this context was a Bavarian peasant, the butt of everyone's jokes. So when Hitler called his political party Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, critics pounced on the NA at the beginning and the ZI in the middle of Nationalsozialistische. They started laughing at him. Then Hitler came to power, and they weren't laughing anymore. Nobody was laughing anymore.

He's the Frenchman who developed the first intelligence test. Well, the first widely-used one. His aim was to help kids with special learning needs. Sadly, groups like the Eugenics Movement co-opted his IQ test as they thought it could help them identify what they called the 'feeble-mined'. Identify in the sense of weed out and eradicate.

Hippocrates never wrote the Hippocratic Oath. Hippocrates lived in the 5th century BC. The oath associated with him was written later.

Although he didn't fiddle while Rome burned, he did once propose that Rome should be burned. His twist on the burning was to let all the wild animals loose first so that the citizens would be too busy fighting lions to put the fire out. He had to flee Rome ahead of an angry populace before he could put his brilliant plan into action. He was only 14 when he became emperor. Only 31 when he killed himself.

Not a character in a Russian novel but a genuine Roman Goddess. Anna Perenna was the Goddess of long life. She was very popular with the people, especially on the 15th of March, which was her festival day. You were supposed to get rip-roaringly drunk, otherwise it was disrespectful. You couldn't ask for a shandy. "What do you mean, you're driving? Kill him!" (The 15th of March was the Ides of March. Ides just means divide. Ides were supposed to mark the full moon. Shandy is drink, half beer, half lemonade.)

The English languge is pretty feeble when it comes to cousins. We have just the one word one to describe the children of your aunts and uncles. The Yanomamo people of Brazil look down their noses at our cousins. They have four words to describe them:

Amiwa
Your female cousin, the daughter of your dad's brother
Your female cousin, the daughter of your mother's sister

eiwa
Your male cousin, the son of your dad's brother
Your male cousin, the son of your mother's sister

suwabiya
Your female cousin, the daughter of your dad's sister
Your female cousin, the daughter of your mother's brother

soriwa
Your male cousin, the son of your dad's sister
Your male cousin, the son of your mother's brother

Here's a diagram that might clear things up:

Simples!

Some languages, like Hebrew, don't make a distinction when it comes to different parts of the arm. In English, we have a hand, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, etc. In Hebrew, the whole appendage is one. So if a newspaper reports that a man got his arm chopped off, it could be that he just lost his hand. Not much consolation for the poor chap, to be sure. So try not to cheer him up with a bit of English trivia.

The first use of the word android the OED can find was from 1728: (Ephraim Chambers, "Cyclopaedia; or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences".)

"Albertus Magnus, is recorded as having made an Androides."

However, someone at the Language Hat web site found an even earlier reference to Android, from 1657. See here for the details of this excellent research:

Albertus Magnus was a Dominican friar. He lived in the 13th century and taught Thomas Aquinas. (He was made a saint in 1931. He's now the patron saint of the Natural Sciences.) Sadly, Ephraim Chambers doesn't say where Magnus recorded a use of the word Androides. But legend has it that Magnus built a talking head and named it Androides. Aquinas was said to have hated the damned thing because it wouldn't shut up. He either smashed it with a hammer or burned it.

The first use of robot in writing comes from 1839, in a work by John Paget (Hungary and Transylvania: with remarks on their condition).

"The system of rent by robot or forced labour ... is a direct premium on idleness."

A robot was the central European version of a serf. You worked the land for free and that paid your rent. Obviously, the owner of the land didn't pay you any money. Once your land lord had decided your rent was paid up, which could be up to 3 months, you got to keep anything you made from the land. The system as abolished by the Austrian Empire in 1848. The bosses did not like this. One complained in 1855:

"The Austrian Government has suppressed the robot, or personal service due to me from my tenants."

Suppressing the robot.

Didn't Channel 4 in the UK make a TV show out of this? Humans, hey!

The first recorded use of circa in the sense of 'approximately', according to the OED, is as late as 1861, in the National Review (October edition):

"A curious photograph of a rustic family at work, circa 1390."

Sadly, we're not told why the photograph was curious. Possibly because it was a photograph. In 1390.

Incidentally, the famous painting American Gothic by Grant Wood of two farmers, one holding a pitchfork, were not actually farmers. The woman was his sister and the man was his dentist. And it's not a man and wife. It's a man and his daughter.

This was a real job. The word was first used in 1553. You had to stand around all day scaring the birds for the landowner. Then somebody had the bright idea of sticking a big wooden cross in the ground and dressing it up. And that was you unemployed.

Yes, children, often in great numbers, used to bang on your door on Valentine's Day and ask you for money or food. These verses are all from the late 19th century.

"Good morrow, Valentine,
first it's yours and then it's mine,
So please give me a valentine."

"Morrow, morrow, valentine!
First 'tis yours, and then 'tis mine,
So please to give me a valentine.
Holly and ivy tickle my toe,
Give me red apple
and let me go."

"Good morrow, Valentine!
Parsley grows by savoury,
Savoury grows by thyme,
A new pair of gloves on Easter day,
Good morrow, Valentine!"

The best we get today is, "Trick or treat!". Sure, they make the effort to dress up, but where are the incomprehensible verses?