Question: Can you tell me how the weapon we call a "gun" got its name?
Answer: Odd as it may seem, the "gun" may owe its name to a woman of the 14th century. Early Scandinavian mythology celebrated the warlike virtues. Women as well as men of Norse legend were often brilliant warriors. Likewise many proper names of Old Norse women were borrowed from the battlefield. One of these, "Gunnhildr," is a compound of "gunnr" and "hildr," both words meaning "battle." The Scandinavian element had been increasingly prominent in the language and life of England since the raids and the settlement began in the 9th century. One reflection of this importance is that the English of the Middle Ages sometimes gave their daughters these old Scandinavian names. At the same time men of that era often named their weapons and other inanimate objects which were considered as belonging exclusively to men's domain with feminine names, just as modern men often name cars or boats.One ballista (a large missile-thrower rather like a crossbow) which defended Windsor Castle early in the 14th century was named in Latin "Domina Gunilda," which translates as "Lady Gunilda." The same name may have been given to engines of war by the early Norsemen who knew its etymological significance. Or its use by the English may simply have been a fortunate coincidence. At any rate, the use of this particular name for the Windsor ballista was not an isolated instance. "Gonnylde" was the name of a cannon in an early 14th-century song. The word "gun," which we also trace back to the 14th century, is probably a shortening of "Gunnilda."
Question: What is the origin of the expression "neck of the woods"?
Answer: "Neck of the woods" is an Americanism and an extension of "neck" to refer to a particular place. As early as the 17th century, "neck" or fully "neck of land" was being used to designate a narrow strip of land, usually between bodies of water. It is not uncommon to find communities especially along the Eastern Seaboard with names that include "neck," such as Papasquash Neck in Rhode Island.
Also around the 17th century, "neck" became common in the constructions like "neck of meadow," denoting a strip of meadow. "Neck" could also refer to a narrow strip of woods. From this literal use, "neck of the woods" came eventually to refer to a community situated in or near the woods. Over time, however, the literal association with "woods" was lost, and any community or geographical area could be called a "neck of the woods." The phrase in its modern form was first recorded in 1839.
Question: It's beach season and bikini season. We were on the beach recently and wondered where the word "bikini" comes from. This is a very exotic sounding word for what I thought was an American invention.
Answer: The word "bikini" has a fascinating, if somewhat obscure, history. No one knows in precise detail how or why the term originated. Used to describe a woman's scanty two-piece bathing suit, the term comes from "Bikini atoll," the name of one of the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific, where atomic-bomb tests were performed in 1946. In 1947, the bikini hit the beaches of the French Riviera. The fashion quickly gained popularity, and the word "bikini" was borrowed from French into many other languages.
One theory of the coinage is that the effect achieved by a scantily clad woman appearing in public may be compared to the effect of an A-bomb blast. Another possible explanation is that the bikini leaves its wearer nearly bare, the way the bomb tests stripped Bikini atoll.
Interestingly, the word became so popular that in 1964 a punning variation of it was coined when some fashion-conscious bathers appeared in the topless bikini. The word "monokini," "mono" meaning "one" as "bi" often means "two" (though not in "Bikini"), came to describe the one-piece fashion statement. Today, the word "bikini" has a variety of meanings, including "a man's or woman's low-cut briefs."