I think that was on Johnny Carson, where Robert Goulet repeated the old chestnut about “sirloin” steak having been knighted by some English monarch because it tasted sooooooo good.
Of course, it comes from the French sur la longe, meaning “above the loin,” which is where the cut comes from.
Wait, my cites of actual etymology in dictionaries is insufficient to dispute your half-remembered quote from an actor on some TV talk show? :smack:
How about I put it a different way: you gotta cite for that, because everything I can find makes no mention of childbirth.
Actually, I pulled the definition from the first link, but the third entry, which is the etymology.com definition that also happens to be cited in the second link. However, since you do not find that as sufficient, I looked up “emerge”.
Underlining added. No mention of childbirth. Now that’s the root word “emerge”, not the derived word “emergency”, but I’m afraid I’m going to need something more substantial than “Tony Randall said” to justify the idea that someone decided they needed a word to describe childbirth as an urgent medical situation, and that’s the first emergency, as opposed to, say, getting a limb amputated, or getting skewered by a sword, or getting shot by a musket (or arquebus). Or getting hit in the head, or getting run over by a wagon, or kicked by a horse, or pretty much any other kind of medical situation that could be treated by immediate attention.
Or, to boil it all down to one word, cite?
First of all, I said
and
But you pulled up some ***definitions ***of the word, not etymologies, and claimed that the definitions cast doubt on the childbirth story. I was merely saying that what you presented didn’t offer a more likely explanation for the origin of “emergency” than mine.
In case your parents didn’t explain this to you, when a child is born, it emerges from its mother’s body. Whereas nothing is emerging in the other examples you’ve given, except perhaps blood or guts.
Does it not seem conceivable to you that the sense of urgency surrounding the emergence of a baby (which not so long ago posed a serious threat to the lives of both mother and child) could be the source of the word “emergency”? It did to me.
Now it may be that blood emerging from a wound is the origin of “emergency.” A few etymology sites I’ve found suggest that that may be the case. In an admittedly cursory search, I haven’t found anything definitive about blood, guts, or children being the origin.
But I *like *the idea of it being childbirth. And that’s all I’ve ever claimed. If that’s not good enough for you, Irishman, please feel free to depart the field victoriously.
Not to disabuse you of your romantic notion that “emergency” derives from childbirth, but it looks pretty tenuous. ISTR “emerge” being used on occasion, not often but every now and then, to mean “become apparent”, as in, “… it emerged that so and so had done thus and such …”. Whence one can easily draw the connection from facts to events, because facts are frequently based on events. If events can be seen as emerging from the bland backdrop of ordinary life, it is but a short step to “emergency” (Latin emergens being the present participle, “emerging”) being the description of major, significant events, happening or recently having happened, that need to be addressed now. To me, that seems more likely than a crowning (or breeching).
Perhaps the thing to do would be to ask Grant and Martha
Which is why the owner is a restaurateur (a restorer) and not a restauranteur.
Wow, congratulations on not getting the point in the most obnoxious way ever. You posted a spurilous proposed origin of the word based upon some story you heard from an actor on a talk show and your personal appreciation of that story. I merely stated that it was unlikely and that I could not find any evidence to support that notion. From there, you berate me for being unable to disprove your baseless speculation. There’s this thing called “burden of proof” - look it up.
I find it amusing that your first source is one I already cited, and your second source primarily recounts the first source, then adds a reference to The Free Online Dictionary that provides a description not substantially different from the one I provided that comes from the Online Etymology Dictionary. You are correct, there is nothing substantial in any source I have found that describes what was “emergent” that made it mean “unforeseen occurrence” or “requiring immediate attention”. Therefore, there is nothing to support your claim it comes from childbirth, as opposed to any possible other source of “unforeseen occurrences requiring immediate attention”.
I never claimed to provide the answer, I merely demonstrated I could not find any support for your claim. So feel free to enjoy your story because it sounds good to you, but don’t go around claiming it’s true.
My favorite: “idiot”= ἰδιώτης, person who does not hold public office.
Yes, the source is unclear, but the online etymology dictionary does mention a possible source of this slang term:
(No smiley-face. This is a test to see if Dopers can detect tongue-in-cheek amusements.)
Pigs are a new world animal? What’s up with all the mentions of wild boars in medieval literature then? Wild boars are pigs and are native to Europe. Romans would definitely have seen them.
No, the jabali is a new-world animal, often called a “wild boar” in English due to its resemblance to the old world animal of that name. Rather like European and Anerican Robins.
“Gymnasium” and its related forms come from the Greek word “γυμνός”, meaning “naked”. Because the Greeks exercised naked.
I still internally giggle like a 12-year-old whenever I go to the gym.
The French word “adieu” is similar (“Dieu” being “God” in French).
Possibly even funnier for real 12-year-olds in Germany who may go to a gymnasium (a selective secondary school) every day. I believe the word comes from the idea of “training” related to gyms.
[Voice of Johnny Carson]: I did not know that!
Got a cite for that? My google of “jabali” turns up a wikipedia page in Spanish that in translation is for “wild boar”. I can’t find a description of “jabali” that is not of the same species, Sus scrofa. Unless you want Warren Jabali.
Try peccary?
Ah, thanks. I now see the original link that spawned the comments. :smack:
Also notable in the title of one of his more popular comedies, A Lot of Nonsense About a Vagina.
“It is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying a vagina.”
Ah, that’s interesting. I stand partially corrected. My further research has confirmed that butt was an old word for the whole barrel or cask, not just the bottom of it. However, most sources are clear that the scuttlebutt, or scuttled butt, was called that because it had a hole cut or drilled into it. The hole is usually described as being in the top, but occasionally in the side. I haven’t been able to find a picture of one though.
That’s a new one for me! The thing I like about both scuttlebutt, and now furphy, is the consistency it shows in human behavior over the centuries. If you drink water with coworkers, then you naturally trade gossip with them.
“Vagina will come of vagina.”
