Word Drift
History of Words
Short, sourced answers to where everyday words and names come from, from Word Drift, the calm history-of-words channel for sleep. Each page gives the short answer first and links its dictionary source.
Where does the word come from?
- Where does the word "salary" come from?
"Salary" came into English in the late 1200s from Anglo-French salarie and Old French salaire, "wages, pay," from Latin salarium, "an allowance, a stipend."… - Where does the word "deadline" come from?
"Deadline" in the sense of a time limit is recorded by 1919 in American newspaper jargon, for the last minute copy could go to the printer. It is simply dead… - Where does the word "picnic" come from?
"Picnic" is recorded in English in 1748, in Lord Chesterfield's Letters, from French piquenique (1640s). At first it meant a fashionable social meal, not… - Where does the word "mentor" come from?
"Mentor," a wise adviser, comes from a name. In Homer's Odyssey, Mentor is the friend of Odysseus and adviser of his son Telemachus, though often it is… - Where does the word "soccer" come from?
"Soccer" is British, not American, in origin. It began as English university slang, recorded as socca in 1889, socker in 1891 and soccer by 1895, made from… - Where does the name "America" come from?
The name "America" first appears in 1507, in mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae Introductio, for the lands of the western hemisphere. It is…
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