Why Do We Say It? Looking at Several Phrases in the Light of Eighteenth-Century Canting

The above is the title of an article written by James Sherwood. The article explores some of the phrases we say on a daily basis and explains where that phrase comes from. For instance, did you know that the phrase "I don't give a damn" actually originated in India? A dam (then spelled dam) was a coin made by British buisnessmen and minted in India. It was made out of tin and therefore worth only around a quarter of a cent under the British gold standard. For the rest of the article go to this website:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/100312/the_history_of_some_of_todays_most_pg3.html?cat=37

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great is an important figure in the British Monarchy and the history of the English language. I did some additional research on him and found this website Alfred about him and his reign.

Meanings change

Sitting in class today I actually had somewhat of an epiphany. Getting lectured about nouns in old English led me to think about words that we use today that mean something completely different than what they meant 30 or 40 years ago. I also wonder about some nouns that are now verbs...like google (ex. "I googled H1N1 only to discover that I have all the symptoms). How many other nouns can be used (and make sense) as verbs?

History of English Language

This website provides some additonal information about the history of the english language. It starts were we are going to start next week at 1066 A.D. It provides a brief synopsis.

To begin...

This is a blog about different items covering the PSC ENG440-History of the English Language. Also, this will be used to share my/our little fun sayings that we share with the world around us...

My recent phrase that I use a lot is "sad day." I don't know why I say it...it just seems to fit. It's better than throwing out various curse words, believe me I can make a sailor blush...I use "sad day" to show my disappointment in a situation where I can't change things.