Origins of words

[Brent Burns]

I thought it would be interesting to mention words or phrases that have been part of our English language over the years. Of course, most of them would not meet the definition of Standard English. Some of the names were named after a person for good reasons.

I am always piqued by the mention of "usual suspects," so I am wondering if this phrase came from a movie many years ago. Any idea of how this phrase originated.

I am sure you all know how the word sandwich came into being. I am really curious if any of you have any versions of the story of how the word, "sandwich" became part of our daily lexicon. What I understood was that the Earl of Sandwich (I can not recall the exact year) was playing card games with his buddies, and he could not leave the table to have lunch or dinner. He just told his servant to get two slices of bread and put the meat in the middle. That was how "sandwich" was born.

[Gregg Pathiakis]

If anyone finds themselves really intrigued by this subject, but about the actual root of words and how language is formed from scratch, I highly recommend The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutcher. I just finished it about a week ago. It's not an easy read, but I learned a ton from it. Very interesting.

[KnoxVegas]

Brent, you need to read the book The Professor and The Mad Man. It is about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. Fascinating.

[Brent Burns]

If anyone finds themselves really intrigued by this subject, but about the actual root of words and how language is formed from scratch, I highly recommend The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutcher. I just finished it about a week ago. It's not an easy read, but I learned a ton from it. Very interesting.

Gregg, I just read an internet outline of Guy Deutcher's book and found a brief excerpt of Chapter 6 quite interesting and also humorous about a discovery of a personal message written to someone about trying to settle a dispute and then suddenly requested sesame oil.

Anyway, it is interesting to see how much time he has in researching all of that stuff especially in his speciality- Ancient Mesopotamia.

[Gregg Pathiakis]

If anyone finds themselves really intrigued by this subject, but about the actual root of words and how language is formed from scratch, I highly recommend The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutcher. I just finished it about a week ago. It's not an easy read, but I learned a ton from it. Very interesting.

Gregg, I just read an internet outline of Guy Deutcher's book and found a brief excerpt of Chapter 6 quite interesting and also humorous about a discovery of a personal message written to someone about trying to settle a dispute and then suddenly requested sesame oil.

Anyway, it is interesting to see how much time he has in researching all of that stuff especially in his speciality- Ancient Mesopotamia.

The most amazing aspect, in my opinion, is in the last few chapters where he is able to take a basic language (known as the Me Tarzan language.. simple expressions like "Girl food eat") and transform it into a full, complex language by describing how it actually probably really happened.

[Brent Burns]

Brent, you need to read the book The Professor and The Mad Man. It is about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. Fascinating.

Groan! I should not have started this thread. On the other hand, this topic is also intellectually stimulating for some of us. If I have TONS of time and plenty of $$$, I would love to read those kinds of books.

Back to my original question, I am just basically wondering if the phrase, "usual suspects" came into vogue because of a movie or something else. I doubt its orgin came from Ancient Mesopotamia. This phrase is being used in any type of every day language. I know there is a lacrosse team called Usual Suspects.

The Grimm Brothers were largely responsible for influencing future dictionary developers from what I understood from reading other sources about them. My interest was piqued after watching a movie, The Brothers Grimm played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. Because of their nationalistic pride, the Grimm Brothers wanted to develop a dictionary for their German-speaking brethren.

Well, it is 10:43 pm CST, so I gotta get some shut-eye. Anyone care to know what a toxophilite is.

[Campbell]

Well don't get the Professor and the Madman then Brent, after spending $10 on that you will want to go drop the $1400 to get the OED in its full version. That is a great book though. I read his second book The Map that Changed the World about the first geological map. Interesting that his main field of study is geology.