Red Herring -- The flesh of a herring cured in salt has a strong reddish color. These fish, though tasty, have a powerful odor before being cooked, and at one time were used to train hunting dogs to follow a scent. Moreover, if a red herring was dragged across the trail of an animal the dogs were pursuing, they'd chase the herring rather than the game. "A red herring across the trail" has therefore long had the sense of a deliberate distraction, as in an argument.
Kick the Bucket -- A bucket wasn't always just a pail, it was also a beam from which slaughtered pigs were suspended by the heels. If the animal was still twitching, it might be said to be kicking the bucket. However, there is no evidence that anyone actually said this. Much more likely, the phrase refers to a suicide, standing on an overturned pail, who adjusts a noose around his neck and then -- kicks the bucket.
Canard -- In French, canard means duck, and an old expression vendre un canard a moitie literally means "to half-sell a duck." Since nobody can half-sell something, its actual meaning is to swindle or make a fool of. Whence the modern English and French canard: an anecdotal swindle, an absurd story or rumor.
Harbinger -- The original harbinger was simply an innkeeper (from French auberge, inn.) Later, he was the advance man for an army or royal party, pushing ahead to the next town or castle to arrange lodgings. Eventually, a harbinger became anyone or anything that foretells the arrival of something. In England, the cuckoo is the harbinger of spring, which, according to legend, begins when "the old woman lets the cuckoo out of the basket." In eastern North America, the robin is the advance man.
Hooker -- This word, which dates back to the 1840's, isn't quite a metaphor, since it literally means a woman who "hooks" her customers off the streets. But it took on a certain metaphorical color during the Civil War, thanks to General Joseph Hooker, who briefly headed the Union's Army of the Potomac. He won a well-deserved reputation for both military ineptitude and personal misconduct; the diplomat Charles Francis Adams called his headquarters "a combination barroom and brothel." Hooker was quickly demoted to his former divisional command, and Washington punsters christened the city's flourishing red-light district "Hooker's Division."
Kilkenney Cats -- Ben Trovato and his brethren have devised many legends to explain this phrase. The most plausible comes from the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift, who derived it from the constant battles between English settlers and native Irish in the small town of Kilkenney. Be that as it may, the immediate source of the expression is unquestionably a fairly well-known limerick:
There once were two cats of Kilkenney;
Each thought there was one cat too many.
So they fought and they fit,
And they scratched and they bit,
Till instead of two cats there weren't any.
I will toss in one of my own, as a red herring.
Thimk -- This unrecognized word can be traced to my father's verbal admonition, when I failed to react to his suggestion to begin work. By substituting m for n in the word think, he emphasized motion rather than neglect. It was usually accompanied with a firm slap to the back of my head. Given these foundations for the unrecognized word thimk, should Cognito ergo sum be changed to Cogmito ergo sum? I sent an email to Cicero requesting his opinion. Unfortunately, I must wait until hell freezes over for a reply.
Interested in word origins? Try Michael Quinion's website for the etymology of "Mugwump" and other weird words. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mug1.htm.
Added from Internet, source unknown:
Ineptocracy (in-ept-oc-ra-cy) n.- a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
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