HOG

I heard on TV today that this nickname, in reference to a large motorcycle, came about as an acronym for Harley Owners Group.

According to the Wikipedia, citing Harley Davidson history, the nickname actually originated in 1920 due to a winning racing team that had a hog as its mascot. They would put the pig on the back of the Harley to take on their victory lap. In 1983, the Harley Owners Group was formed, deliberately playing off the established hog nickname.

Harley Davidson tried to trademark the hog nickname, but failed. The court ruled that the nickname had become a generic term for any large motorcycle and was not protectable as a trademark.

rum peepers

Fine-looking glasses. Cant.
- Francis Grose's The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

wegotism

The excessive use of the pronoun we; we + egotism.

quadrumanous

Describes apes and so forth, that have all four feet adapted for use as hands.

turn turtle

This phrase meaning to capsize or surrender has been around for at least 150 years. One way to catch a turtle is to put it into a helpless state by flipping it over onto its shell. A capsized ship resembled a flipped turtle, making the origin of the phrase clear.

turn turtle

This phrase meaning to capsize or surrender has been around for at least 150 years. One way to catch a turtle is to flip it upside down on its shell to render it helpless. A capsized ship looked so similar to the flipped turtle that the origin of this phrase is clear.

trivia

My Why? book (Erin McHugh, 2005) tells us the following about the origin of this word describing unimportant matters.

In medieval times, education was divided into 7 categories. Arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (the sciences); logic, rhetoric, and grammer (liberal arts). The four sciences were known in Latin as the quadrivium, meaning the four ways. The group of 3 liberal arts studies were called the trivium. Anything learned on these subjects was trivial.

shoat

This is the last of the "offspring series". A shoat is the offspring of a hog.

leveret

The offspring of a hare.

Apparently, bunny isn't good enough.

(I tried to post this from my pda yesterday and thought it went through. Just found out that it did not post. Bummer.)

spat

The offspring of an oyster.

It's true!

ultracrepidarian

This is a person who offers opinions and criticisms beyond his knowledge and expertise.

odynometer

This is an instrument used to measure pain.

Hmm. I know a lot of folks that would be off the scale for snow shoveling pain. I'm an eleven!

facinorous

extremely wicked

yard sale

I was checking out the slang dictionary and found this skiing slang phrase. It's the term for what it looks like after you fall and all your equipment flies off and goes all over.

This happened to me once or twice. And now my knee clicks when I walk up stairs.

valentine

The first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on St. Valentine’s day, the 14th of February, when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing year.
- Francis Grose's The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Hope everyone had a pleasant Valentine's Day and didn't spend the entire thing shoveling snow like I did.

wrapt up in warm flannel

Drunk with spirituous liquors. He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother’s smock; saying of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies. To be wrapt up in any one: to have a good opinion of him, or to be under his influence.
- Francis Grose's The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Right now here in Cleveland, we would all be well to be wrapt up in warm flannel...as in the "drunk with spiritous liquors" aspect of that phrase. It's a fit night out for neither man nor beast!

quipo

Felt like a "q" kinda day.

A quipo is a contraption of knotted cords used by the Incas for making calculations.

skijoring

I saw this on TV this morning. It's a sport that is a cross between dog sledding and cross country skiing. A dog, or team of dogs of 2 or 3, are harnessed up and attached to a human on cross country skis. They race around a twisty, turny course and try to get the fastest time.

The race I saw was being held in New Hampshire. There were at least a dozen spectators! One contestant didn't get hooked up in time and his 3 dog team took off without him. I was not inspired with confidence for his chances of winning.

afterwit

Afterwit is knowledge that is obtained too late for it to be worth anything or do any good.

[I feel like I'm overflowing with afterwit.]

bad egg

The origin of this phrase does not come from getting a rotten egg within a dozen once in awhile. According to Common Phrases (Mordock and Korach), it comes from a notorious American criminal named Egg. He paid for his crimes under the law and at society's hands, as well. His name became used to describe a thoroughly nasty person, a bad egg.

Kind of like his name is Mudd. One story says that this phrase came out of Dr. Samuel Mudd helping fix the leg of John Wilkes Booth after Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mudd said he had no idea of what Booth had done and informed authorities the following day of his encounter with Booth. Dr. Mudd was convicted of conspiracy by a military court, though he wasn't a soldier, and sentenced to life in prison. He was pardoned 4 years later in 1869 after he stopped a yellow fever epidemic at the prison; but his name remained synonymous with doing something bad. Since the 1930s, the Mudd family has been trying to clear his name and have the conviction overturned. It seems that it is still up in the air. Apparently, no one seems to have authority to overturn the verdict since it was a military tribunal and Dr. Mudd accepted the presidential pardon, making the conviction moot. Others question his pleas of innocence because he was allegedly a confederate sympathizer and was acquainted with Booth despite protests to the contrary.

Another story says that his name is mud was in use for at least 45 years prior to this incident. Mud was a slang term for a stupid person, a dolt or fool.

brochity

This is when one's teeth project out or are crooked.

opisthenar

The back of your hand.

Who knew?

blepharospasm

Uncontrollable winking.

lick your chops

This phrase meaning to eagerly anticipate something comes from a "lost word". Chop comes from the lost word, chap, which until the end of the 17th century meant the jaw. As we know, animals often lick their chaps/chops before eating, in eagerness presumably.

The Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970) indicates that the phrase also means: "The tuning up musicians do before a jam session."

ignivomous

Vomiting fire; from Latin ignis, fire, and vomere, to vomit.

Back in the day, they used to refer to volcanoes as ignivomous mountains.

artilect

This word combines the words artificial intellect. It is used to describe man-made devices that show independent learning behavior.

velocitation

This word comes from Bruddah Steve today. Guess it's my birthday present.

Velocitation is when one unconsciously drives too fast. It is caused by long periods of high-speed driving. Your eyes get tired and they cannot judge horizontal speed correctly.

groat

Said of any person remarkably unsuccessful in his attempts or profession.
- Francis Grose's The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue