Wilton's Etymology Page

Following is a list of words and phrases whose etymologies are currently discussed at Wilton's Etymology Page.   To see one of these items, click on it in the alphabetical list below.  This will take you to the item at Dave Wilton's Web site .

Dave Wilton regularly adds items to his list, so at any given time the list at his site will probably contain new items that are not in the list below.  To see the very latest, go to <http://www.wordorigins.org/thelist.htm>.

Dave Wilton's home page is at <http://www.wordorigins.org/home.htm>.

America Balling the Jack Balls to the Wall
Barbecue Bated Breath Bedlam
Beefeater Big Apple Bit/Byte
Bimbo Bizarre Blackmail
Blimp Blind Tiger Blockbuster
Bloody Blue Moon Blurb
And Bob's Your Uncle Bogart Bogey
Booby Boondocks Boondoggle
Booze Brass Tacks "Break a Leg"
Broad Brothel Brownie Points
Buckley's Chance Bug Bullpen
Bulls and Bears Bumper Crop Bunk
Busman's Holiday "Buy The Farm" Cabal
Call a Spade a Spade Cancer Capitol/Capital
Catch-22 Caucus Cesarean Section
Chad Charger Plate Charley Horse
China Church Key Cloud Nine
Cockpit Cocktail Cold ... Brass Monkey
Cold Turkey Cold War Condom
Cop Cotton-Picking Cracker
Crackerjack Crap/Craps Curfew
Curmudgeon Cut the Mustard Cyber-
Dago Dark and Stormy Night Deadline
Denim/Jeans Devil to Pay Dirt Poor
Dixie Dog Eat Dog Dollar
Dollars to Doughnuts Dolly Dongle
Doozy Dope Doughboy
Drag Race Dressed to the Nines Dry Run
Dukes Dunce Dutch Treat
Easter Egg On Eighty-Six
Ethnic Cleansing Eureka Evolution
Face the Music Faggot Fat Lady Sings
Field Day Filibuster Five-By-Five
Fire Flea Market Flying Colors
Fortnight Free Lunch French Kiss
Fuck Fudge The Full Monty
Fuzz Gargoyle Gay
G.I. Glitch Globalization
Graveyard Shift Green Room Gringo
Guerrilla Guinea Gun
Gung Ho Hackney Handicap
Happy as a Clam Harlot Hat Trick
Heathen Hell-Bent for Leather Hell in a Handbasket
Hello Hermetic Seal Hero
Hobson's Choice Hogan's Goat Honeymoon
Hooch Hooker Hooky
Hooligan Humble Pie Hunky-Dory
Hustings Hysteria Indian Summer
In Like Flynn Ivy League Jack Robinson
Java Jaywalk Jazz
Jeep Jerk Jerry-Built/Jury Rig
John Bull Jones Kangaroo/Kangaroo Court
Katy, Bar the Door Keister Kick The Bucket
Kilroy Was Here Kit and Caboodle Kitty-corner
Knickerbocker Knight Ku-Klux Klan
Lead-Pipe Cinch Leatherneck Left Wing
Life of Riley Lock and Load Lock, Stock, and Barrel
Lollygag Long in the Tooth Lord
Lukewarm Lynch Martini
Mayday Mayhem Milquetoast
Misdemeanor Mojo Moll
Morphology Mortgage Muckety-Muck
Mulligan Murphy's Law Narc
Neck of the Woods Nerd News
New York Minute Nigger Nightmare
OK The Old Army Game On the Fritz
On the Lam Orange Mind Your P's & Q's
Pagan Pandemonium Paparazzi
Peanut/Peanut Gallery Peloton Phony
Piccaninny Picnic Pig
Pipe Dream Pizzazz Plugged Nickel
Poker Politically Correct Polka Dot
Poop Deck Port/Larboard/Starboard Posh
Pound Sand Pull the Wool Over His Eyes Pushing the Envelope
Pussyfoot Quiz Rabbit Test
Rain Cats and Dogs Raincheck Rap Sheet
The Real McCoy Redhanded Red Herring
Redneck Reggae Rhubarb
Ring Around the Rosie Riot Act, Reading the Roger
Round Robin Rube Goldberg Rule of Thumb
Sabotage Salad Days Sam Hill
Say "Uncle" Scab Scapegoat
Scot free Sea-change Secretary
Shark Short Shrift Skedaddle
Skid Row Sleep Tight Smart Alec
Smoking Gun Soho S.O.S.
Southpaw Spud Star
State of the Art Station Wagon Stool Pigeon
Swan Song Tabloid Taps
Teetotal Testify Third Degree
Three Sheets to the Wind Threshold Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater
Tinker's Damn Tongue In Cheek Tow-Headed
Trailer Trench Mouth/Foot Turkey
Twenty-Three Skidoo Uncle Sam Under the Weather
United Nations Up To Snuff Vampire
Wag the Dog Wake Weird
Welch The Whole Nine Yards The Whole Shebang
Widow Widow's Peak Wog
Wop Yankee

A reader may wonder why the links to the words in the above list are being provided at this site
instead of a single link being provided to Dave Wilton's Web site.  The answer is that
listing the words at this site causes them to be picked up by the two search indexes, so that if
a user searches on one of the words using one of the two search facilities provided for this Web
site, he or she will find it here and will be given a link directly to the word at Dave Wilton's
Web site.

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Last modification of this hypertext file: Tuesday 15 May 2001 12:55 GMT