REDISCOVER EVERYDAY PHRASES

Who was the Joe on “Cup of Joe”? Discover the origin of 10 slang terms

Image: Andreas Fickl

Think about how boring our vocabulary would be if we didn’t have a more laid-back, informal register on which we could fall back. Most of us don’t even realize how much slang we use in basically every conversation we have. What most of us don’t do is take a moment to look into the origins of those informal terms that we use daily. Well, we decided to research the astonishing beginnings of these ten slang words and phrases. Ever wondered why we decided that besides meaning cow meat, the word "beef" could be used as a synonym for a dispute? Keep on reading and find out!

Image: Jessica Lewis 🦋 thepaintedsquare

Let’s start this article the same way millions of people start their day. Whether it’s with a piping hot mug fresh out of your coffee maker, or a quick cup from your favorite barista on your way to work, a nice cup of joe is that magical fuel that helps so many of us go through our day. That being said, doesn’t that nickname seem a little strange to you? Have you ever wondered what’s the connection between a cup of coffee and the shortening of the name Joseph?

There are several different theories concerning this nickname. The most popular one states that it comes from WW1 Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels, who enacted a ban on alcohol consumption on all U.S. Navy ships. According to this theory, enraged sailors started using the Cup of Joe expression since coffee was the strongest drink they could have. Another theory believes that Joe is a shortening of "Jamoke", a 19th-century word for coffee.

Image: Michał Parzuchowski

Doing something in an above board manner means doing so in a completely honest and open way. Some believe that the phrase might come from the world of sailing since the best hiding place for contraband would be below the ship’s board: being above board could then be understood as the exact opposite. However, the first recorded appearances of above board date back to the 17th century, and they seem to suggest it actually references a game table (also known as a board). Keeping your cards above the board would show your companions that you are playing fairly and by the rules.

Image: Martyn Yakub

We’ll try to go through this entry with the least amount of cheesy puns possible. A little smirk or a quick chuckle after hearing a bad joke from a special someone might prove how cheesygoing you are. Heck, corny jokes aren’t just reserved for your dad: Maybe a cheesy, little pun might turn a date from just gouda into simply brie-lliant.

The origins of this expression are still not completely clear. The earliest usage of cheesy comes from the end of the 19th century, as slang used by U.S. students to describe an ignorant person. Perhaps the meaning we now use might come from the United Kingdom, where cheesy used to mean something "showy".

Image: Jon Tyson

The term flicks has always been associated with going to the cinema. We’ve all referred to an adrenaline-fueled movie as an "action flick" or a bloodcurdling, exciting movie as a "scary flick." In fact, the term is so heavily associated with going to the movies that the minds behind Netflix chose it as inspiration for their company’s name.

Before the term flicks, early films from the 1900s were known as flickers. Some believe that this name comes from the first Nickelodeon theaters, since their projectors would "flicker" through images while making a distinctive sound. Another theory states that it comes from primitive projectors, which definitively weren’t as good as the modern pieces of equipment we are now used to. These rudimentary machines would sometimes shimmer, which made the images on the screen slightly flicker.

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To get down to brass tacks is an extremely useful phrase if you feel someone is talking in a roundabout way and avoiding the point, since it means ignoring all secondary matters and focusing on the most important parts of an issue. Having said that, we are left to wonder how small pins specifically made of brass reflect the meaning of this term.

While most agree that it originated in the 19th century, linguists debate whether it comes from the world of upholstery (where brass tacks are regularly used), or if maybe it is derived from tacks used by shoemakers, among other possible origins. Another explanation states that it might come from Cockney rhyming, since the words facts and tacks sound very similar. But, if we get down to brass tacks (see what we did there?), the truth is that the origins of this phrase are still a mystery.

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The origins of this phrase might come as a bit of a surprise. While it means to innovate or to push boundaries, whenever you hear someone is pushing the envelope you might think of shady characters pushing envelopes filled with important documents across the table of a dimly lit room. What’s more interesting is that investigating the origins of this phrase reveals that it doesn’t even refer to a paper envelope at all.

American author Tom Wolfe brought this phrase into the spotlight with The Right Stuff, his 1979 book about the space program. Wolfe kept hearing this phrase among scientists and engineers who were describing something that was performing exceedingly well. The envelope they were referring to, however, was not a container of letters, but rather a mathematical envelope. When calculating curves on graphing paper, the shape made by the drawn lines is fairly similar to an envelope: therefore, something that pushes the envelope would be something that’s challenging the margins of what is expected.

Image: Dan Meyers

Besides being the title of an excellent Marvin Gaye song, the phrase I heard it through the grapevine is basically the more mature, sophisticated version of A Little Birdie Told Me, used by every parent dealing with lying children. While the image of a grapevine invokes whispers secretly heard between branches and leaves, it actually comes from the first messages sent through telegraphs. Since the miles of telegraph lines set in the 1800s resembled grapevine lines, people started to say "heard it through the grapevine" to mean something that arrived through the telegraph.

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Sadly, having beef with someone doesn’t always mean sitting down with a friend to enjoy a lovely barbeque. This common slang term is used to describe a dispute or disagreement between two or more people. You might even remember a series of hilarious ads run in the 80s by Wendy’s, in which they disparaged their competition’s products with the phrase "Where’s the Beef?"

The first usage of beef as a derogatory term comes from the 19th century when it was used as a synonym for complaint or grievance. It is believed that its origins can be traced back to a British expression for alarm, where beef is used as a rhyming slang for the word "thief."

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Alongside beef, having a big slice of humble pie is not as delicious as it sounds. This expression is used whenever someone has to embarrassingly admit their mistakes and apologize for them. And while you might think that the "humble" in this pie comes from the modesty of admitting our mistakes, the actual origins of this idiom are slightly more disgusting. Humble comes from the 14th-century word "numbles", which is a term used to describe the heart, liver, and other entrails of animals, particularly deer. A humble pie was, as you might have guessed, a pie filled with these entrails, usually eaten by servants or hunters.

Image: Nick Fewings

We’ll end this list in a sort of meta way. We all know that slang is used for vocabulary used in an informal register, but have you ever stopped to think about why we call these words and phrases slang? While it does seem fitting that such an odd-sounding word is used to describe these pieces of unconventional vocabulary, tracing back the etymology of this word might be tricky.

Slang was used in the Scots dialect of the 19th century to describe "gossip or idle chat", while it meant "impertinence" in the Northern English regions. The exact origin of the word can’t be traced, but some believe it might be derived from the Scandinavian word sling, which means "to throw". Some linguists believe that slang might be derived from it, since the quick and unconcerned way in which we use slang might resemble "throwing" words.

Naming names

Your name can be a word: Meet the curious world of eponyms

Image: Alexandra Lawrence

Not all words are created equal. Some are meant to name something, and some others are meant to name someone, or someplace. We call the latter ones names. But, sometimes, the people behind those names end up being associated with particular things that, in turn, inherit the names of those individuals. Did you know that Sandwich was a man who invented the meal? Or that Braille was an individual who created the reading method used by blind people? Take a look at these 12 cases of eponyms. Which ones did you already know about?

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Let’s get this one right out of the bat, in case you are getting hungry. John Montagu was the 4th Earl of Sandwich, and he, supposedly, asked for meat between two slices of bread so he could keep playing cards without getting greasy fingers.

His invention proved successful, and since then, his name has been associated with the delicious and practical treat.

Image: Arief Fachtomi

The diesel engine is named after German engineer Rudolf Diesel, who invented it in the 1890s. It works by using heat from compressed air to ignite fuel, which is why it's also called a compression-ignition engine.

Diesel's invention was a major leap in efficiency over steam engines. He even imagined it running on vegetable oil: an idea that helped inspire modern biodiesel.

Image: Paras Kapoor

The second food entry in our list, though not the last, belongs to the beef patty. James H. Salisbury was an American doctor who promoted a meat-heavy diet to treat digestive issues. He called his recommended dish "muscle pulp of beef."

The name Salisbury steak has been used since 1897 for a ground beef patty, though today’s version differs from his original recipe.

Image: Lukas Kubica

The name Jacuzzi comes from a family of Italian immigrant brothers who founded the company in 1915. Originally focused on aviation and agriculture, they later shifted to water systems, inventing the first submersible pump in 1925.

In 1968, Roy Jacuzzi created the first self-contained whirlpool bath, called the Roman. Though Jacuzzi is a trademark, the name is often used generically for jetted tubs and hot tubs.

Image: Joshua Hoehne

Perhaps not the most luxurious cracker, but a trusty one, indeed, the graham cracker is named after Sylvester Graham, a 19th-century preacher and health reformer who promoted a diet of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Graham created a coarse, bland cracker made from graham flour as part of his health-focused diet. The snack was meant to support clean living and became a symbol of his nutritional ideals.

Image: Jonas Schöne

Braille is a reading and writing system for the blind, created by Louis Braille in the early 1800s. It uses raised dots in a 6-dot cell to represent letters, numbers, and punctuation.

Braille lost his sight as a child and later improved on a complex night writing code. He simplified it and published his system in 1829, which became the global standard for blind literacy we know today.

Image: Nadin Mario

The cardigan sweater is named after James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, a British officer known for leading the Charge of the Light Brigade.

He was said to wear a knitted, front-opening sweater under his uniform during the Crimean War, inspiring the name of the now-classic garment.

Image: Jarosław Kwoczała

The Fahrenheit scale is named after German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who introduced it in 1724. It gained popularity in the British Empire and is still used in the U.S. today.

Fahrenheit set 0°F as the freezing point of brine and 96°F as body temperature. The scale was later adjusted to place water's freezing point at 32°F and boiling point at 212°F, creating 180 degrees between them.

Image: Austin Crick

The word boycott comes from Captain Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland. In 1880, locals refused to work with or speak to him to protest unfair rents and evictions.

This method of social and economic isolation was so effective and unique that his name became the term for it. Today, a boycott is used worldwide to describe similar protests.

Image: Randy Kay

Mausoleum comes from the grand tomb of Mausolus, a Persian ruler in ancient Greece. His burial site, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Its fame led to the use of a mausoleum for any large, impressive tomb built to honor important people.

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The name of the Zeppelin aircraft comes from Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German general who led the development of rigid airships.

His airships were called Luftschiff Zeppelin, and his name itself traces back to the town of Zepelin in Germany.

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Leotard comes from Jules Léotard, a 19th-century French acrobat known for his trapeze acts. He originally called the garment a maillot.

Over time, the tight, one-piece outfit he wore became linked to his name, and the leotard became the standard term for this kind of clothing.