Who's the boss
"Boss" came into English from the Dutch "baas," meaning "master," probably around the middle of the 17th century. It came to us by way of New Amsterdam, or New York, as it was renamed when the British colonists took over.Our earliest citation for the word with its current spelling comes from 1679, say editors at Merriam Webster Inc. By the early 19th century many commentators, including James Fenimore Cooper, viewed the word with distaste, although members of the working class embraced it readily. Part of the success of "boss" seems to have resulted from an American aversion to the word "master," which was then common in British use.
The 19th century was a productive time for "boss." It was first used as a verb in 1837, and the noun was first applied to political bosses in the 1860's. The political use got a big boost from the notoriety of Boss Tweed of New York in the 1870s.
Never done
A task described as "Sisyphean" is one that requires continual effort and will probably never be completed. The word derives from the Legend of Sisyphus, a king of ancient Corinth, say editors at Merriam Webster Inc.
According to the Legend, Sisyphus used his craftiness to cheat Death. When Death came to bring him to the underworld, Sisyphus had him chained. As a result, no one, including Sisyphus, could die. But Death was rescued by Ares, the god of war, an Sisypus was forced to accompany him to Hades, before he was forced to leave, however, he had instructed his wife, Merope, not to perform the customary ceremonies and to leave his corpse unburied. When he arrived at Hades, he demanded to return to Corinth to punish his wife for failing to properly perform his funeral rites. He was allowed to do so, but having once again escaped Death, he resumed his life with the living.
Eventually Death reclaimed Sisyphus, and it is for the eternal punishment he received that he is most famous. He was condemned to having to repeatedly push a huge boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down again. It is this part of the legend that gives rise to the use of "Sisyphean" to refer to toil that seemingly has no end.