etymological moment
Jun. 3rd, 2004 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffloOur new lj user ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maffick got me to thinking again, with a comment of hers, about the word "shebang." Googling "shebang etymology," I found this site:
ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY
I like its fundraising approach: "Sponsor 'peace.' Give your boyfriend 'lust.' Show your appreciation for 'candy.' Sponsor a word, and help keep the Online Etymology Dictionary free and open."
The entry for the word in question:
shebang - 1862, "hut, shed, shelter," perhaps an alteration of shebeen. Phrase the whole shebang first recorded 1869, but relation to the earlier use of the word is obscure. Either or both senses may also be mangled pronunciations of Fr. char-�-banc, a bus-like wagon with many seats.
maffick got me to thinking again, with a comment of hers, about the word "shebang." Googling "shebang etymology," I found this site:I like its fundraising approach: "Sponsor 'peace.' Give your boyfriend 'lust.' Show your appreciation for 'candy.' Sponsor a word, and help keep the Online Etymology Dictionary free and open."
The entry for the word in question:
shebang - 1862, "hut, shed, shelter," perhaps an alteration of shebeen. Phrase the whole shebang first recorded 1869, but relation to the earlier use of the word is obscure. Either or both senses may also be mangled pronunciations of Fr. char-�-banc, a bus-like wagon with many seats.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
The wonderful world of etymology
Date: Jun. 4th, 2004 08:29 am (UTC)Thanks for doing the legwork for all of us. You know a word I've been curious about is 'fag'. I know that it means burning materials or smoke stacks or something like that, but it is also another word for cigarette and I just wonder how it ended up also becoming a synonym for 'homosexual'? I wonder if it's derrogatory? I'm going to look it up on that site, but I doubt it will mention anything about the last connotation. Do you have any insights?