Exploring the origin of words and phrases

When I said to my daughter ‘night night, sleep tight’ the other evening, it got me thinking about where the saying ‘sleep tight’ came from, and set me off exploring the origins of other phrases. It’s interesting how words and phrases change over the years, for example who remembers when ‘gay’ meant jolly. Some original meanings of words are forgotten about altogether such as the word ‘pay’, which originally meant to appease or pacify, before it became a word meaning to give money for goods or services, and ‘budget’ which historically meant a wallet.

This article is the result of my fascination with words and phrases.

Sleep tight is a phrase that has been common for many years. "Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite", is often said to someone retiring to bed. There are several theories as to the origin of the phrase.

One theory dates back from the days when mattresses were supported by ropes, which needed to be pulled tight at night to produce a well sprung bed. Another theory suggests it comes from bedclothes being pulled tightly to stop bedbugs biting.

However the first citation of the phrase was in Susan Bradford Eppes diary; ‘Through some eventful years’, in 1866, and it was not found again till the early twentieth century. As this was after the period when ropes were pulled around beds it doesn’t support that that theory of the phrases origin.

In Susan’s diary there was a clear link between ‘sleep tight’ and ‘sleep well’, and with ‘tight’ meaning firm sound and secure, this is a more likely explanation. ‘Sleep tight’ purely means sleep soundly.

However others simply believe that ‘sleep tight’ came about as a rhyming word to be used with ‘good night,’ or ‘bed bugs bite’.

We all use the term ‘Boycott’ meaning to refuse to have dealings with a person or organisation, however have you ever wondered how the word came about? ‘Boycott’ actually comes from Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, who was working in Ireland as a land agent for an absent landlord in the 1870’s. At the same time the Irish Land League were campaigning to reform the landholding system. In 1880 protesting tenants demanded Boycott reduce their rents and he didn’t, so they came up with the idea that everyone in the locality should refuse to have anything to do with him. Local shops stopped serving him and he even had trouble receiving his post.

The events made big news, and people felt passionately about the reforms, so ‘Boycott’ quickly became used as a byword, and within weeks it had spread all over Ireland and England. By the time Boycott died in 1897 it was a well used term in the English language.

The phrase ‘In the Limelight’ meaning at the centre of attention came about in the theatres of the nineteenth century. Limelight is a bright white light produced by heating a piece of lime in a flame of burning oxygen and hydrogen. It was discovered by Goldsworthy Gurney in the 1920’s, and developed by Thomas Drummond to be used in theatres to illuminate the leading actors. It began to be used as a phrase meaning what it does today around the turn of the twentieth century.

The ‘Bees knees’, meaning excellent and of the highest quality, is another saying with an unclear origin. It doesn’t appear to have any connection with the phrase ‘a bees knee’ which in the eighteenth century meant smallness and has now disappeared from our language. It does however seem to have been coined in 1920’s America, and first appeared in an Ohio newspaper The Newark Advocate.

Theories as to its origin include; that it refers to bees carrying pollen on their legs, and that the concentrated goodness of the pollen was found around a bees knee. However there is no evidence to support this theory.

Another suggestion is that it refers to a dancer Bee Jackson, who was credited with introducing the Charleston to Broadway. It may be that the ‘bees knees’ was a reference to her and her active knees.

However it is just as likely that ‘bees knees’ came about due to the 1920’s trend of inventing nonsensical terms for excellence, such as the ‘kipper’s knickers’ and the ‘cat’s pyjamas’.

If these explanations of the origins of words and phrases have sparked your interest, as they have mine, you can check out a variety of sayings at www.phrases.org.uk. Or have a read of one of the many books available on word origins.