# Innocent words with disturbing etymologies **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 6, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974 "2015-02-06T15:18:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/1 "2015-02-06T15:18:12Z")
Like a lot of four-year-old boys, my son is fascinated with heavy equipment. Most of those big wonderful machines have names that describe their form or function. Front Loader. Excavator. Dump Truck. It’s easy to see where they came from. And then there’s Bulldozer. One day, I wondered how that name came about. Oh. > [@World Wide Words](#): > > The earliest sense had nothing to do with machinery, but referred to a severe punishment, in particular one applied with a bullwhip. Detailed explanations appear in several US newspapers in the latter months of 1876, the earliest I’ve found being the day before the presidential election of 1876, which historians suggest may have been the most hard-fought, corrupt and rigged election in the history of the Union. All say that it came into being as a result of a determined attempt by Democrat supporters in the Southern states to stop blacks from voting Republican. This is the way the origin of the expression was explained in the Gettysburg Compiler of 11 January 1877: > > In very obstinate cases the brethren were in the habit of administering a “bull’s dose” of several hundred lashes on the bare back. When dealing with those who were hard to convert, active members would call out “give me the whip and let me give him a bull-dose.” From this it became easy to say “that fellow ought to be bull-dosed, or bull-dozed,” and soon bull-doze, bull-dozing and bull-dozers came to be slang words. > > \ > > By the early 1880s, to bulldoze was to intimidate or coerce by violence, specifically the threat of a flogging. A bulldozer could be a bully, an intimidator, or a member of a vigilante mob. [Cite](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bul2.htm). > [@The Word Detective](#): > > The first “bulldozers,” however, were not machines, but violent bullies. The root meaning of “to bulldoze” (or as it appeared originally around 1876, “to bull-dose”) was to beat someone extremely brutally, inflicting the “dose” of flogging one would give a bull. Some of the earliest “bull-dozers” were racist thugs who terrorized African-Americans in the post-Civil War South, conducting a campaign of terror that included brutal beatings and murder. “Bulldozer” or “bull-doser” was also used to describe thugs in general, and by about 1881, the term was being used as slang for a very large pistol, as in one 1881 account: “A Californian bull-doser is a pistol which carries a bullet heavy enough to destroy human life with certainty.” > > Given the use of “to bulldoze” as a synonym for “to intimidate through overwhelming force” and “bulldozer” as a label for anything that “gets the job done,” it’s not surprising that “to bulldoze” soon took on the metaphorical meaning, still used today, of “push through” or “overwhelm.” [Cite](http://www.word-detective.com/101800.html). Well, that’s…unfortunate. Now every time I use that perfectly innocent word, which is pretty often when you have a machinery-obsessed four year old boy in the house, I have to think of that awful etymology. Gee, thanks, Internet! What are some other examples of terrible histories lurking behind words that are completely inoffensive today? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/2 "2015-02-07T02:34:47Z")
All the ones I can think of right now are apocryphal: golf (from gentlemen only, ladies forbidden), picnic (from pick(?) a ni\*\*er), rule of thumb (from the maximum acceptable girth of a stick for beating your wife). Oh, I know … [buckeye](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=497655)! d&r ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/3 "2015-02-07T02:46:34Z")
[Orchid.](http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=orchid&allowed_in_frame=0) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/4 "2015-02-07T03:01:23Z")
I love the fact that “bless” comes from an old word for “blood,” possibly from the idea that you consecrate something by marking it with blood. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/5 "2015-02-07T03:06:11Z")
[Assassin](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/assassin?s=t) comes from an Islamofascist group that would go on Jihad while high on hashish. Hence, hashishins. The mineral [amethyst](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/amethyst?s=t) is literally from the Greek a-methys, or “anti-wine”. There was a belief that wearing an amethyst amulet could keep you from getting drunk. The Ancient Greeks considered anyone who did not speak Greek to be a “[barbarian](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/barbarian?s=t)”. The term comes from the Greek practice of mocking foreign language speech as “bar bar bar”. In other words, a barbarian is a blah-blah-head. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/6 "2015-02-07T03:23:16Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Well, that’s…unfortunate. Now every time I use that perfectly innocent word, which is pretty often when you have a machinery-obsessed four year old boy in the house, I have to think of that awful etymology. Gee, thanks, Internet! Don’t worry about political correctness, which is what this smacks of. A word only means what it means in its context and today (and for a century or so) bulldozer means a machine. It makes no difference what it used to mean. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/7 "2015-02-07T03:28:56Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Don’t worry about political correctness, which is what this smacks of. A word only means what it means in its context and today (and for a century or so) bulldozer means a machine. It makes no difference what it used to mean. That’s why I said about three times that it is a perfectly innocent word. If you’re not interested in unusual word histories, perhaps you would be happier in a different thread. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/8 "2015-02-07T04:01:39Z")
Well, this summer I’m taking the wife and kid to the Grand Tetons… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/9 "2015-02-07T04:50:15Z")
QUOTE]n very obstinate cases the brethren were in the habit of administering a “bull’s dose” of several hundred lashes on the bare back. [/QUOTE] Ridiculous! This would invariably be fatal, well before “several hundred lashes”. (Probably for the person delivering them, too, from sheer exhaustion.) Roman law limited lashings to 40 strokes. And the romans knew a bit about whippings. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/10 "2015-02-07T05:42:01Z")
QUOTE]n very obstinate cases the brethren were in the habit of administering a “bull’s dose” of several hundred lashes on the bare back. [/QUOTE] Ridiculous! This would invariably be fatal, well before “several hundred lashes”. (Probably for the person delivering them, too, from sheer exhaustion.) Roman law limited lashings to 40 strokes. And the romans knew a bit about whippings. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/11 "2015-02-07T05:46:11Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > **All the ones I can think of right now are apocryphal: golf (from gentlemen only, ladies forbidden)**, picnic (from pick(?) a ni\*\*er), rule of thumb (from the maximum acceptable girth of a stick for beating your wife). > > Oh, I know … [buckeye](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=497655)! > d&r I heard it was because all the other four letter words were taken. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/12 "2015-02-07T05:49:28Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > [Orchid.](http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=orchid&allowed_in_frame=0) I’ve had [orchids](http://flowerinfo.org/wp-content/gallery/orchid-flowers/orchid-flower-14.jpg) in my house plenty of times and while I’ve thought they resembled something it’s never been testicles. [Then I finished reading the definition (and double checked it on wiki).](http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/qjmed/98/9/625/F1.large.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/13 "2015-02-07T05:50:10Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > QUOTE]n very obstinate cases the brethren were in the habit of administering a “bull’s dose” of several hundred lashes on the bare back. Ridiculous! This would invariably be fatal, well before “several hundred lashes”. (Probably for the person delivering them, too, from sheer exhaustion.) Roman law limited lashings to 40 strokes. And the romans knew a bit about whippings. [/QUOTE] And your point is? Or were you under the impression that they had an interest in keeping the subject alive? ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/14 "2015-02-07T06:10:41Z")
lousy - infested with lice nitpicking - picking the nits of head lice ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/15 "2015-02-07T06:29:21Z")
“discombobulated” has no etymology, it is a word made up from whole cloth, at a time when that was fashionable, and it just caught on. I think “humongous” has a similar sort of origin. No etymology at all can be as interesting as the weird etymologies. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/16 "2015-02-07T06:45:35Z")
A “filibuster” isn’t originally a US Senator trying to stop a bill. It’s more like, “thug who enters a country to conquer, harass, or profit from adventure.” I grew up with the colloquial verb “gip,” which I can totally see annoying anyone Rroma. ---
**Author:** ![bleach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bleach/32/3106_2.png) [@bleach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bleach)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/17 "2015-02-07T07:48:43Z")
Turns out that _sarcasm_ and _sarcoma_ have the same etymologies, namely _meat_. Sarcasm has its Greek root in stripping the flesh/meat off something. A sarcoma is a ‘fleshy’ tumor of connective tissue. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/18 "2015-02-07T09:38:38Z")
“Bad” is probably the most common word with a weirdly offensive etymology. There was a word “bæddel” in Old English which meant homosexual or effeminate. At some point people began using it the same way some people now use “gay” as a general term meaning stupid, defective, weak, etc. It then slowly became the standard antonym to “good” in English: > **[bad | Etymology, origin and meaning of bad by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad)** > > BAD Meaning: "inadequate, unsatisfactory, worthless; unfortunate;" late 14c., "wicked, evil, vicious; counterfeit;"… See origin and meaning of bad. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/19 "2015-02-07T09:55:51Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > I grew up with the colloquial verb “gip,” which I can totally see annoying anyone Rroma. I’m British, and had long imagined that “gip”, to cheat or con, alluded to the people of Egypt. Reason being that in British Empire times, the inhabitants of the more on-the-beaten-track parts of Egypt were seen as tirelessly ingenious in all kinds of enterprises to part from their money, British and other Western folk encountered in their country: in particular, people transiting the Suez Canal. I’d thought “gip” to be a Britishism derived from that: implying some grudging respect for the locals’ skill and dedication re, often, getting visitors’ cash off them and delivering little in return. With the word seemingly being current also in America, though – I suppose that the victims of the slur, must be the Roma. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974/20 "2015-02-07T12:57:40Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I love the fact that “bless” comes from an old word for “blood,” possibly from the idea that you consecrate something by marking it with blood. Yep, in fact the French word for wound (current and common, not archaic at all) is still _blessure_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/innocent-words-with-disturbing-etymologies/711974.md?page=2)