Question: Recently on "This Week With David Brinkley," Mr. Brinkley asked the question "Why do they call it a straw poll?" Perhaps you can answer this.
Answer: The "straw poll" (or "straw vote") is an American political innovation that goes back over a hundred years. We define this term as "an unofficial vote taken (as at a chance gathering) to indicate the relative strength of opposing candidates or issues." The first straw vote is reputed to have taken place as early as 1824, but the first actual record of "straw vote" comes from 1866, in the Cleveland (Ohio) Leader: "A straw vote taken on a Toledo train yesterday resulted as follows; A. Johnson 12, Congress, 47." The now common synonym "straw poll" first appeared only about 60 years ago.
Some have suggested that the "straw" of "straw vote" derives from the notion that, like a bit of straw thrown into the air, such a vote "shows which way the wind blows." In fact, though, this use of "straw" is consistent with older uses of the word to characterize people or things that lack substance, as in the phrase "man of straw." A straw vote is presumably so called because, having no official value, such a vote is ultimately "not worth a straw."
Question: Occasionally when I don't know quite how to do something, I wing it and hope that everything comes out OK. While explaining to a co-worker recently that I was just going to "wing it," I got to thinking about the phrase: Where does it come from?
Answer: The phrase "to wing it," meaning "to do or perform without preparation or guidelines: to improvise," is not related to a bird's wings, as you might suppose, but to the "wings" of a theater - that is, "the areas at the side of the stage out of sight." The phrase developed in theater slang a little more than 100 years ago, when it was applied to actors and actresses who played a part on short notice without memorizing the lines. The underlying notion appears to have been that the actor would quickly study the part in the wings before going on stage or would receive help with the part from a special prompter who stood in the wings.
Use of the phrase was at first confined to the theater, and as late as the 1930s "wing it" was still unfamiliar enough to require explanation when used elsewhere. But by 1959 the phrase had acquired the more generalized sense that is familiar to us today.
Question: Years ago on a trip to Hawaii a tour guide told me an interesting story about the history of the word "ukulele." Unfortunately, over the years I have forgotten most of the details. Can you refresh my memory?
Answer: In the 19th century, a British army officer named Edward Purvis lived in Hawaii as an official at the court of King Kalakaua. He was a small, quick, and lively man, and it is said that he was nicknamed "ukulele," Hawaiian for "jumping flea." When the Portuguese brought a new instrument - a small four-stringed guitar - to the Hawaiian Islands from Madeira in 1879, Purvis was taken with it and soon learned to play it well. As the instrument became a popular favorite in Hawaii, its Portuguese name ("machete") and origin were forgotten. The name we now use for this instrument is apparently a tribute to the man who made it popular, the man called "jumping flea."