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Words that aren't what you think they are
If something happens in one fell swoop, it happens all at once, as if in a sweeping movement,
falling from above. But "fell" here does not come from "fall." "Fel" was an old word for
cruel, or wicked. It's related to the words "felon" and "felony." When Shakespeare used
this phrase in Macbeth it was to conjure the image of a ruthless bird-of prey, sweeping
down from the sky to kill someone's entire family. That's pretty 'fel.'
Wait, is that how you spell it? Yes, it is. It's desert with one 's.' When someone gets
their just deserts, they do not get cake. This "desert" is a noun, not much used anymore,
related to the word �"deserve." Your just deserts are your rightly deserved things.
Sometimes that might actually be cake, but the cake kind of dessert, with 2 's's, is
a different word, from a later French borrowing having to do with de-serving, or removing
the plates from the table.
When you eke out a living, you're just squeaking by. The "eek" sounds seems to fit. But the
"eke" of this phrase is an old verb meaning to add, grow, or increase. When you eke out
a living you try to extend or stretch your means. It's the same "eke" from the word "eke-name"
or 'additional name' which later turned into "nickname."
When something whets your appetite, it may make your mouth water, but that's not the
wet we're talking about here. It's the "whet," with an 'h,' of whet-stone or knife sharpener.
When you whet your appetite, you sharpen it. However, when you wet your whistle, it's the
other "wet." Have you ever tried to whistle with a dry mouth?
Something that's an outrage can really throw you into a rage, right? But there's actually
no rage in the word outrage. It goes back to the word "ultra" as in 'extremely very,'
or 'beyond.' In Old French they said "ultrage" to mean 'ultra-ness' -- the same ending in
plumage, or baggage, or usage. Outrage is 'ultrage.' Something that's an outrage, is
like, totally, way beyond.
Bombast can be loud, aggressive, pushy, like a bomb going off in your face. But there's
no bomb there at all. Bombast is actually kind of soft and pillowy. Another thing we
borrowed from French, it's from bombace, the name for raw cotton. It used to be used as
padding for clothing. Bombast is high-falutin' talk, puffed up and stuffed with pretension,
like a padded out, cotton-filled suit.
When someone leaves you in the lurch they might leave you stumbling and off balance,
looking for a steadying hand, but that's not the "lurch" in this phrase. The staggery "lurch"
comes from old sailor vocabulary, but this lurch comes from an old French backgammon-type
game called "lourche." It led to the term "lurch," meaning beating your opponent by
a huge score, leaving them in a bad position. It got extended to the meaning of getting
the better of someone in general, or cheating them.
Sleight of hand involves quick, nimble fingers, and a light, small, slender, unnoticeable
touch. Which suggests a differently spelled 'slight.' But the sleight here, with an 'e,'
is something else, an old word for crafty or cunning. In fact, what used to be the abstract
noun for the adjective 'sly.'
And now that you know the tricks of these words, you'll never be fooled by their sleight
again.