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Sunday

Raise your glass for a toast, which is named for…toast. Long ago, spiced and charred bread was put in the shared drink before speeches of praise or congratulations were said, and the bread made the often-bitter wine more palatable. The celebrated person might then eat the wine-soaked bread, and was then called “the toast of the town.”

Monday

Wine and beer are very old drinks, indeed. The earliest confirmed alcoholic drink of any kind was brewed about 9,000 years ago in China, and solid evidence of beer production goes back 5,000 years in Mesopotamia. There is evidence of wine production as far back as 7,400 years ago found in jars in modern-day Iran.

Tuesday

Referring to people as “dregs,” such as in the “dregs of society,” is a pejorative term that likens them to the useless solid residue which settles to the bottom of many drinks, like coffee and wine. However, the ancient Greeks made great use of these “useless” solids with a lively and challenging drinking game called “kottabos” in which wine dregs were launched at bronze or clay targets.

Wednesday

The practice of labeling hard alcohol content by “proof” arose from a crude Middle Ages test for taxation. Higher-alcohol drinks were taxed more in England, so a drink’s potency was tested by soaking a gunpowder pellet with the booze to see if it was strong enough to then ignite. If it proved to be so by burning, it was called a “proof spirit” and taxed more. Fortunately, alcohol content measurements are more standardized and accurate nowadays, but the name remains.

Thursday

Bourbon is named for the street, not vice versa. Early New Orleans whiskey sellers, aware of the town’s large French population, put the stuff in oak barrels so the taste would remind residents of congac, aka “French brandy.” “That whiskey they sell on Bourbon Street” eventually became called “bourbon whiskey.” Bourbon Street itself was named for the French royal family in power when the city planner plotted and named the streets in 1721. But despite the European name origins, authentic bourbon must, by definition, be made in the US.

Friday

Another spirit native to North America is tequila, though the drink predates bourbon by centuries. However, authentic tequila must come from Mexico, since the Mexican government declared the drink its intellectual property in 1974.

Saturday

The name “brandy” comes from “brandewijn,” meaning “burnt wine” in Dutch. A 16th Century wine-shipping Dutchman realized he could save a lot of cargo space by evaporating water from the wine before shipping and adding it back at his destination. The fruit wine concentrate he delivered became known as bradewijn.

Sunday

“Champing at the bit,” often mispronounced as “chomping” (champing means to grind or chew) refers to a racehorse impatiently chewing the metal bit in his mouth as he eagerly waits to start his race.

Monday

A trained eye can gauge the age of a horse by its teeth, so the saying “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” reminds those who receive gifts not to over-scrutinize them and seem ungrateful.

Tuesday

In politics and other fields, a “dark horse” candidate is comparatively unknown. The term began in 17^th century horse racing and applied to little-known and hard-to-put-odds-on horses which were entered into races.

Wednesday

Who is this horse named Charley and why is your cramp named for him? At one time, “Charley” was a name for lamed racehorses. Many of these animals, however, got a second career dragging the dirt smooth at baseball games. According to one common origin story, players whose muscles cramped during play were compared to the limping equines, that is, the “Charley horses” and, by some accounts, it was one Charley in particular that worked for the Chicago White Sox.

Thursday

Royalty, noblemen, and knights historically rode on tall horses, looking down on common people both figuratively and literally. Hence, telling someone to get of their high horse reminds them to stop acting superior.

Friday

Needless to say, beating (or flogging) a dead horse won’t get you more effort from the animal. However, there seem to be some surprisingly nautical connections for this idiom, too. British sailors were historically paid in advance, but often spent the money quickly, sometimes before their ship even left port. They got no more pay until the already-blown advance was worked off, or until “the dead horse was flogged.”

Saturday

Horse traders were famously shrewd in their dealings, so the term “horse trading” for exchange and negotiation in politics came about in the early 19th century.

Sunday

The wedding veil’s tradition goes back to ancient Greece and Rome, when the veil’s purpose was to confuse and discourage evil spirits that might otherwise ruin the festivities. Though their exact color is debated (red? yellow?), early veils were supposed to make the bride look like a candle flame. Veils have also symbolized reverence to God and were used in Victorian times to indicate the bride’s status by their fabric quality, weight and length. The lifting of the facial veil (which also can hide the face from evil spirits) has also indicated – in more patriarchal times – transfer of the bride’s ownership from father to husband, and in the case of arranged weddings, made sure the deed got done before the groom might show any disappointment at first seeing his bride’s face.

Monday

Proud modern brides might shudder at the historical significance of being walked down the aisle by their father. This tradition also hearkens back to when a bride was considered her father’s “property” until given to another man, sometimes also in payment of a debt, in exchange for other property, or to satisfy the dowry or bride price.

Tuesday

Opposed to kidnapping women into forced marriages? You should be, but the “best man” tradition originated to protect the groom against families coming for their abducted women. Although the disturbing practice of “marriage by capture” went on for centuries, it was among 16th century Germanic Goths that this groomsman did the kidnapping, then stood by the groom, armed and ready, to fight off the bride’s relatives or keep her from running away. Fierce and capable, he was chosen as the “best man” for the job of abducting and defending. So if your wedding day drama only involves hurt feelings and not split skulls, consider yourself lucky. In centuries past, weapons were stored in church floors for real wedding day family feuds.

Wednesday

Did you remind your bridesmaids to confound the demons and bandits? Probably not, but that was part of their original purpose. These identically-dressed women were to confuse would-be troublesome demons, and also serve as decoys against any would-be thieves of the bride’s dowry. In some cases (and rather awesomely), the bridesmaids were also to protect against angry ex-boyfriends of the bride. Notably, the first mention of bridesmaids was from a biblical three-way marriage between Jacob and sisters Rachel and Leah, where each woman brought a servant (bride’s maid) to their wedding.

Thursday

Plan to marry in the popular wedding month of June? This tradition started in part because people used to take their annual bath (yes, annual bath) in May.

Friday

Though the tradition of a wedding ring dates back to ancient Egypt, wearing it on the left hand’s fourth finger began in ancient Greece and Rome. This finger was believed to contain the “vena amoris” or “vein of love,” a vein which ran straight to the heart. Turns out that it doesn’t, but the convention firmly remains.

Saturday

The term “honeymoon” has roots both literal and cynical. Starting in the fifth century, a newlywed couple was given mead to drink during their first month (moon) of marriage. Mead is a honey-based alcoholic beverage reputed to be an aphrodisiac. Fast-forward eleven centuries, and “hony moone” appears in Old English, with “honey” representing the extreme tenderness and affection of newlyweds, but “moon” indicating the short-lived time before these excessive affections begin to wane.

Sunday

Enjoying those tasty nachos? You can thank the quick thinking of Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya Garcia. He was maitre’ d’ at a restaurant on the Mexican side of the Texas border in 1943 when a group of hungry American military wives came in from a nearby Air Force base. With no chefs to be found, Nacho improvised a snack by melting cheese on some tostados, popped a jalepeno on top, and served it to the delight of the ladies. Hence “Nacho’s especiales,” later shortened to just “nachos,” were born to huge success.

Monday

Ambrose Burnside was many notable things: A Rhode Island senator, a firearms manufacturer, a Civil War general, and a facial hair trailblazer. His style of sporting a clean-shaven chin and neck with bold, bushy whiskers down each cheek joined by a mustache became first known as “Burnside whiskers.” Later it was flipped and called “sideburns,” and we still use the term today for cheek whiskers, with or without mustache.

Tuesday

Dr. Franz Mesmer came up with the idea that he could cure people through their “animal magnetism,” which involved touching his patients with magnetized objects while looking into their eyes, the goal being to restore their internal “harmonious fluid flow.” This unique treatment was popular, though not exactly rooted in sound medical science (Benjamin Franklin, among others, was asked to investigate his methods). Nonetheless, many years after his death people started to use the term “mesmerize” as a synonym for hypnotize.

Wednesday

You’ve probably never looked at a cow and thought “What a maverick!” But you could have. The term came from the unbranded cows of 19th century Texan Samuel Maverick. Maverick claimed he didn’t want to hurt the animals by branding them, but some neighbors suspected this was just to let him claim any unbranded cow he encountered as one of his. While this term can still describe an unbranded animal, we usually see it now applied to independent or unpredictable humans.

Thursday

Fragments flying outward from an explosion are called “shrapnel” after Henry Shrapnel, the British army officer and inventor. Shrapnel developed an artillery shell packed with smaller lead or metal fragments intended to travel a distance into enemy lines before exploding in midair and spraying the fragments at opposing troops.

Friday

The diesel engine is named for Rudolf Diesel, the German mechanical engineer and inventor who developed this more efficient combustion engine to compete with the steam engines of the day. His engine’s basic principles are still used in diesel engines to this day.

Saturday

Tupperware is named for Earl Tupper, who, in the 1940s, convinced his bosses at DuPont to sell him the company’s unused polyethylene slag. He converted that into a durable and flexible material for food storage and later developed the resealable lid. The product was not a great success until Tupper worked with saleswoman Brownie Wise, who had the products sold at home parties, usually by women who could move up through company ranks with exceptional sales.

Sunday

Something that sets a standard for quality or reliability in its field is often called the “gold standard.” For a much of money’s history before the 20^th century, currency was exchangeable for a fixed amount of gold set by the issuing government. For example, in 1834, the US government set the exchange rate of an ounce of gold at $20.67, where it remained for 99 years. Hence, “gold standard” came to convey a universal standard of measure. Money is no longer backed by precious metals, but is “fiat money,” only backed by the government that issued it.

Monday

The Golden Rule, simply stated as “Treat others as you would like them to treat you,” is a strikingly universal concept. It has been around in some variety since at least the 6^th century BC, and researchers report that the rule is “found in some form in almost every ethical religion,” and is “a concept that essentially no religion misses entirely.”

SOURCE: Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature, Why Violence Has Declined, New York, Penguin, 2011. (pg. 182)

Tuesday

Bling aside, pure gold is a remarkable metal. It is so dense that one ton can be packed into a cubic foot. It is the most malleable and ductile metal; gold has been pressed into a sheet two atoms thick (yes, atoms) and stretched into a one-atom wire without breaking. It conducts electricity and heat well. Plus, gold is rather immortal; it does not tarnish nor decompose in air, water, or even most strong acids and bases. This is why ocean treasure divers, tomb raiders, and other gold hunters can usually expect to find gold in good condition, regardless of its age.

Wednesday

The gold stored at Kentucky’s Fort Knox is a modern symbol of hyper-secure massive wealth, but there is one far larger stash. It is five stories below ground in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where over a half million gold bars representing about 25% of the world’s known gold wealth are painstakingly guarded deep in the rock of southern Manhattan.

Thursday

An extremely valuable person is sometimes said to be “worth their weight in gold.” However, in the metals world, at least two metals are typically more valuable than gold: rhodium and palladium.

Friday

In the US, the most famous “gold rush” began when when the shiny metal was discovered in 1848 in California’s Sacramento Valley. Over the next few years, approximately 300,000 people came from all around the world came to extract over 750,000 lbs. of gold from the land. The rush populated and developed the area, and it is why the San Fransisco NFL team is called the “49ers” (after the rush of 1849).

Saturday

“Golden handcuffs” or “velvet handcuffs” describe the good pay, vacation, retirement, or other benefits you may have at a job you might otherwise leave. If you’re a lucky executive, however, you may get a “golden parachute,” or a generous severance package when you’re let go from your company.

Sunday

“Make no bones about it,” meaning to speak frankly or accept a thing without objection, is an idiom which has origins in eating, with references back to the 15^th century. Finding a bone in your soup or other food obviously slows the process of eating it, and without this hindrance you can eat it without problems.

Monday

“Got a bone to pick” with somebody? You probably have an issue to discuss or believe that they’ve wronged you. This idiom goes back to about the 16th century and refers to a dog gnawing on, or picking clean, all meat from a bone.

Tuesday

If you did find a bone in your soup, however, you could throw this bone or some other table scrap to a begging dog to temporarily appease it. This is the origin of “throw (him/her) a bone.”

Wednesday

Despite common slang, the human male’s erection involves no bones. It is a purely hydraulic process driven by blood flow. Many other male mammals, however, achieve erections with a bone called a “baculum,” including gorillas, chimps, bears, wolves, and dogs.

Thursday

Despite their size, babies have about 94 more bones than their parents. This is because as babies grow, many of these little bones fuse together, such that they go from about 300 bones at birth to 206 as an adult.

Friday

Your “funny bone” isn’t a bone at all, but a nerve which runs from your neck to hand. It’s called the ulnar nerve, and in the elbow is particularly unshielded, surrounded only by fat and skin. This makes it vulnerable to impact, and the pain, numbness and tingling your hand feels.

Saturday

Your tailbone, aka your coccyx, is one of a handful of vestigial structures on the human body, this one leftover from when our prehistoric ancestors had tails.

Sunday

“SOS” is the international distress call, originally for ships, but does not stand for “save our souls / ship.” In fact, the letters don’t stand for any words, but the Morse code (3 dots, 3 dashes, 3 dots) to transmit the signal can be tapped out quickly and without pauses.

Monday

FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation, though the letters also make up the Bureau’s motto of “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity.”

Tuesday

AM / PM = Ante Meridiem (Latin: before midday) and Post Meridiem (after midday).

Wednesday

EPCOT = Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. Founder Walt Disney imagined this not as a theme park, but an actual working city of people planning a better future.

Thursday

REI = Recreational Equipment, Inc.

Friday

IBM = International Business Machine

Saturday

GOP = Grand Old Party, used in the US to refer to the Republican party since the 1870s.

Sunday

Rough day in court because the judge threw the book at you? “The book” in this idiom refers to the full list of applicable laws, that is, the all the laws you broke and penalties you’re facing.

Monday

Have a great reason why you’re innocent, like being far from the crime scene at the time in question? That’s your alibi, which is Latin for “elsewhere.”

Tuesday

Aspiring attorneys take the bar exam, hope to join the local bar, then get disbarred if they’re too naughty. All this bar business goes back to Middle Ages England, where a physical barrier in the courtroom (often an actual bar) separated attorneys authorized to argue cases before a judge from spectators and others. Hence, the English “barrister” was one who had been “called to the bar” and had this courtroom role. To this day, many courts still keep some separation (think of that little gate) between spectators and the seating places for the judge, jurors, attorneys, witnesses, and courtroom personnel.

Wednesday

When the tradition of judges wearing robes jumped the Atlantic from England to the US, early American judges opted for black robes instead of the colorful ones their British counterparts were wearing, and also ditched the tradition of wearing white powdered wigs. As US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor has noted, however, the wearing of simple black robes continues only through tradition, as there are no formal rules or laws governing justices’ apparel. Judges and justices down the centuries have kept with the tradition, with some hints of flair, such as US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg using the collar she wore over her robe to signal her position in certain cases (after they’d been decided, of course).

Thursday

Another piece of American judicial tradition far predates the country itself, as every day of arguments of the US Supreme Court begins with the court marshal calling out “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are now admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the Court is now sitting. God save the United States and this Honorable Court!” Pronounced “oh yay,” this term goes back to 13th century old French “oiez” and translates to “hear ye / hear this / listen up.” Modern Spanish speakers make the same sound and meaning when they say “oye.”

Friday

In the US, “attorney” and “lawyer” are often used interchangeably, but they are technically different. A lawyer has a law degree, but is not necessarily licensed to practice law in court. An attorney has a law degree, has passed the bar exam and is licensed to practice in at least one jurisdiction. Hence, all attorneys are lawyers, but not all lawyers are attorneys.

Saturday

Dramatic courtroom gavel-banging is now more a product of Hollywood than reality, as most modern judges rarely, if ever, use them. However, courtroom gavels are a uniquely American invention which most likely come from the symbolism-heavy Freemasons’ use of this stoneworking tool in ceremonies. From there it likely came in the US Senate, where a handle-less ivory model is still banged a lot, and from there to American courtrooms. Yet you won’t find these (and never could) in the courtrooms of England or other countries which inherited English law.

Sunday

The good-mannered custom of men removing their hats began in Medieval churches as a gesture of respect to God. Then men began removing hats indoors, and also while passing or speaking to women or someone especially honorable. Women, on the other hand, were historically welcome to wear their hats full time almost anywhere indoors or out, and especially in church, since removing it would expose hair and flesh and may spark unwholesome thoughts in nearby men. Quite conversely, Orthodox Jewish men show humility to God by keeping their head covered, and single women in synagogues are discouraged from wearing hats at all.

Monday

Armor-wearing knights used to lift their helmet visors to show their face to their kings and queens in friendliness and respect. The usually-favored right hand was used to prove that it didn’t hold a weapon, while also showing submission to their monarch. In the mid-1700s, soldiers who previously removed their hats or helmets while passing officers were ordered “only to clap up their hands to their hats and bow as they pass [their officers].” This was both safer, since no helmets were removed on a battlefield, and since removing part of the uniform – even a hat or helmet – was increasingly viewed as disrespectful. Hence, the right hand-to-forehead salute caught on, and, with some regional variation, is still the norm (though is now more proper if the saluter is hatless, and palms-down in the navy to hide palms made dirty by typical ship work).

Tuesday

In East Asian countries, bowing is more common as a greeting, a goodbye, conveying an apology or thanks, and an indication of respect. It also plays a role in martial arts, tea ceremonies, and religious ceremonies, and bowing has it’s own etiquette involving depth and length of bow and proper response to another’s bow. Zen Buddhists begin the day with 108 bows, and sometimes many more. Notably, the term “kowtow” comes from the forehead-to-the-ground bow used to show the highest reverence in the older Imperial Chinese tradition. In the US, bowing was common in the republic’s early days but slowly disappeared and was very rare by WWII. Thomas Jefferson may have sped bowing’s American decline; this president reportedly preferred handshakes.

Wednesday

The “curtsy,” or rough female equivalent of the bow, is shortened from “courtesy,” and wasn’t always just for women. Though less common now, it still might be seen to acknowledge those of higher rank, Royal Family members, among square dancers, or for a ballerina to salute her teacher or the musician.

Thursday

The “Bellamy Salute” that American children were taught to give the flag since 1890 would strike modern viewers as disturbingly similar to the Nazi salute. For this reason, it was replaced in 1942 by the current “right hand over the heart” salute, which Americans are also encouraged to do when the Star Spangled Banner plays.

Friday

The great honor of a 21-gun salute was born from a combination of symbolism and storage space. The practice of saluting with cannons is nearly as old as cannons themselves, and early ships began using salutes of seven guns, likely because that number had astrological and biblical significance. However, batteries on land could store more gunpowder than ships and hence fire more, so a multiplier of 3 was chosen, likely also because the number had mystical significance in many ancient civilizations. In the US, the 21 gun salute has been the presidential salute since 1842, the internationally-recognized salute since 1875, and the national salute since 1890.

Saturday

Star Trek’s famous Vulcan split-finger “live long and prosper” salute made famous by Spock began as one of Leonard Nimoy’s vivid childhood memories. The shape is approximately that of the Hebrew letter shin, first letter of many important words, including “Shekhinah” which is both a name for the feminine aspect of God and a prayer to bless the congregation. As a boy, the curious Nimoy opened his eyes during a Boston synagogue service when he wasn’t supposed to (as this deity is said to shine with brilliant light) and saw many people making this shape, though with two hands together. Nimoy later proposed that the single-handed shape should be used as a salutation and greeting among Vulcans in the first episode (“Amok Time”) when we meet others of his species.

Sunday

You might like a drink on the rocks if your relationship is on the rocks. In the first idiom, rocks just mean ice. The latter originally refers to a ship in dire trouble because it has run into rocks which are breaking it apart, a particular danger when most ships were made of wood.

Monday

Something essential is often called a “cornerstone” because the stone in the corner of a building, where two walls begin from, was traditionally a first and foundational part of the structure. Since they are often laid in a ceremony to mark the start of construction, cornerstones frequently have dates or other inscriptions on them, and some are hollow and filled with items like a time capsule.

Tuesday

The first person to think that they just passed a major milestone was likely traveling the Appian Way near Rome about 2,300 years ago. This remarkable road – still usable today – was the first to use stones as inscribed distance markers. Modern travelers may navigate with GPS rather than stones, but the term “milestone” remains for markers on this road that is life.

Wednesday

That popular language-learning app is named Rosetta Stone for a reason. Found by Napoleon’s forces in 1799 near Rosetta, Egypt, the Rosetta Stone became the key to deciphering the ancient and disused language of hieroglyphics, since the stone contained identical passages in Greek, Egyptian demotic, and Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Thursday

We all know that “a rolling stone gathers no moss,” and hence the name of that famous band and magazine. Curiously, however, moss is a metaphor for stability, relationships, and wealth in this old proverb, and since slow-growing mosses and lichens rarely thrive on moving surfaces, by the early 17th century, a “rolling stone” referred to an unstable and unproductive wanderer.

Friday

References to “rocking and rolling” had been around since the 17th century to describe the motion of a boat on the ocean, with “rocking” being the forward and back motion and “rolling” the side to side motion, and were often a reference to sex as well. As to music, however, a comic song called “Rock and Roll Me” was performed in 1886 in Australia, and various songs referring to either rocking, rolling, or both appeared in the following years, until The Boswell Sisters recorded a hit song just called “Rock and Roll” in 1934. The term continued to appear in music, and in the early 1950s, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed started to apply the name “rock and roll” to the music he was playing, and the name stuck.

Saturday

The Rock of Gibraltar, longtime symbol of strength and stability, is not only modern logo of the Prudential Insurance Company, but also was one of the markers, according to ancient legend, of the limits of the known world (or at least of navigation).