Origin of the Word Pikey

Nowadays we use this word in a pejorative way to refer to Irish travelers, gypsies or people of low social class. But this word is centuries old and comes from the noun "piker", from the 16th century, when it referred to a tramp or vagrant. The original pikeys were vagrants who travelled the roads of 16th century England. And still retains the sense of traveller or gypsy.

Origin of "Slush Fund"

"Slush" is an old word for used fat or grease. During the 19 century sailors would scrape out all the old fat and grease that had been used to cook the endless meals of salted pork that they were fed when the pease pudding had run out, and sell the used fat to people on the port who didn't know where this came from. The cash from this dodgy business would go into a kitty and be used to buy food and especially alcohol for the whole crew. From all this comes the idea that a "slush fund" contains money siphoned off to finance illicit enterprises.

Origin of the Term "Sidekick"

Sidekick is criminal slang, but did not originally mean an accoplice or partner. The word comes from the old fashioned name for the hip pocket in a man's trousers. Pick pockets used to name the various pockets they would try to steal from. So the inside breast was called the "well", the back pocket was called the "kick", and so on. But the hardest pocket to pick was the "sidekick" (the hip pocket), and therefore people who wanted to keep their wallets safe would put them in there. With time the term came to mean anything that's dependable and kept close at all times, and now means a partner or best mate.

Origin of the Term "Quack"

From more than three centuries, unqualified doctors have been known as "quacks". The word is an abreviation of "quacksalver", which meant someone who stood in the street selling salves, or curing potions (he quack part comes from the old Dutch word, "quacken", meaning to boast or cry out).
The hawkers may have boasted about the miraculous properties of their cures, but whatever they sold was more likely to make things worse rather than curing the sick. So the term quickly came to mean a medical charlatan.

Origin of "Rope Someone In"

Ancient Greece was a true and exagerated democracy. Everyone had to vote on everything (unless you were a woman or a slave). But many bussy citizens became fed up with having to go and vote every time on civic matters, and stopped going to the less important votes.
On days when important issues were going to be voted on, slaves would be sent out with lengths of rope dipped in paint or tar, and would slash any man who was on the street rather than taking part in the vote. This way, their togas were marked and everybody could see they had dodge their responsabilities. Hence the expression to be "roped" into doing something.

Origin of "Pan Out" and "Flash in The Pan"

During the gold rush people were trying to make fortune panning rivers, looking for nuggets of gold. But few rivers ever panned out enough of the stuff to make them rich, but the practice did enrich the English language with this phrase, plus, another one: "Flash in the pan", a hint of something valuable that turns out to be short-lived and disappointing, probably from the flashes of what were thought to be chunks of gold in your pan, but turn out to be other, worthless metals.

Origin of "No Room to Swing a Cat"

Popular etymology says that the cat in question was the cat o'nine tails, a whip for flogging prisoners, which got its name because the scars nine lashes left on a sailor's back looked like a cat's scratches. Punishment whippings were usually carried out on deck, because below deck there was not room to swing a cat.

Origin of Make a Beeline

For centuries bees have been associated with industriousness, but in the past it was also thought that they always flew in a straight line to the hive when they had collected their pollen, similar to the way we still use the expression "The way the crow flies" to indicate a unimpeded route. Although there is no evidence of the bee flying in a straight line, that hasn't impeded the use of the word "beeline" as a way of indicating a hasty, direct route to something.

Origin of The Expression "Off The Cuff"

In the past before such things like personal organisers and similar.... Gentlemen sometimes used the cuffs of their shirts to write down notes and reminders. Likewise, informal dinner speeches were often made with the aid of a couple of notes scribled down hastily on a cuff.
From this practice, we have the idea that something spontaneous and made with little preparation is "Off the cuff."

Origin of The Expression: "To Be Mad as a Hatter"

Hat makers have been associated with madness since the early 19th century. At the time, felt hats were the fashion all over Europe, and the processes by which hatters processed cheap animal fur into felt substance made much use of mercury, a substance that causes brain damage after prolonged exposure.
Working in poorly ventilated workshops and breathing in mercury fumes, took its toll on the hat-making business, which lost many men to brain damage and madness. To this day, the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include trembling, loss of teeth, loss of coordination, slurred speech, loss of memory and depression, are still known as "mad hatter syndrome".

Origin of "Loose Cannon"

An unpredictable person or thing, liable to cause damage if not kept in check by others.

Origin:
Arming ships with heavy guns was a hazardous business, even if the vessel was not in battle. The weight of the cannons would affect the steering of a ship and make it difficult to control. But even worse, if the ship hit a storm, and the cannons were not properly secured, they would slide around, knocking holes in the hull. And of course during the battle the cannons needed to be well secured, otherwise, when they were fired, the recoil would send then shooting backwards, causing more damage.

Origin Of "Hands Down"

This was originally a horse racing term. Jockeys raise their reins on nearing the end of a race to get a final burst of speed out of their horses. However, if a horse coasts to victory by so many lengths that there is no need for the jockey to raise his reins, he is said to have won "hands down". In the 19th century it became a common taunt among trainers to claim their horses would win "hands down", and gradually the expression made its way into mainstream usage, shedding its literal sense, but retaining the meaning of a easily won victory.

Origin of "Keep Your Shirt On"

This expression comes from England, around the year 1600 on.
The current murder rate for the UK a couple of years ago was 1.6 per 1000,000. But between 1600 and 1700 it was seven times that. Fighting was still the most common way to resolve differences, but fighters would remove their shirts before the fight. Clothes were still hand-made and too expensive to get torn and bloodstained. If during an argument someone took their shirt off, it only meant one thing. So telling someone to keep their shirt on became equivalent to telling them to calm down.

Origin of "Lily-Livered"

This terms comes from the ancient Greeks. They used to sacrifice an animal before going into battle, and inspect its liver as an omen of how successful fight would be. If the liver was red, it was a good omen. But when the liver was pale, it meant bad news for the battle.
Since the outcome of any battle was largely dependent on the bravery of the troops, by extension the liver of a coward was thought to be as pale as a lily. And this is the reason a coward was regarded as lily-livered.

Origin of "Kick the Bucket"

Many people think that this euphemism for dying comes from the last action of someone about to hang themselves, kicking away the bucket on which the person is standing. But in this case, the bucket which is referred to is a different bucket. In the 16th century, the beam in a slaughterhouse that used to hang animal carcasses was called a bucket. The freshly slaughtered animals, with their spasms used to kick the bucket on which they were hanging, so to die became "To kick the bucket".

Origin of the Expression "Know the Ropes"

This is an old sailing expression. In the past, the rigging of large ships used to be made up of many miles of rope, divided into hundreds of separate lengths, and each of these with a separate name an purpose.
To know the functions of all these ropes took years of sailing experience. Only old see dogs knew the ropes, and so when we say that someone knows the ropes, we mean  that someone has a lot of practical experience.

ORIGIN OF THE WORD "JUNK"

The word junk, meaning rubbish or trash was originally a nautical term. Junk has been a word for useless objects since the 17th century, but it was originally the name for a type of rope: junk rope. It was made from woven rushes, and it was of very poor quality compared with hemp rope. And from this, people started to understand the word junk as an adjective that could be used to describe something that was of poor quality or useless.

ORIGIN OF "TO BE IN THE GROOVE"

Early record players were of questionable quality, but everyone regarded them as a marvel. Instruction on manuals informed the owner of this new machines to make sure that the stylus stayed firmly in the groove of the record to improve the cuality of the playback.
When the time of jazz came along in the 1920s, people were talking of musicians and dancers as being "in the groove", meaning their playing was spot on.

USING THE F WORD THE RIGHT WAY

22 different uses of the F word, using it properly.

Link: Amazon

ORIGIN OF "HAIR OF THE DOG"

"Hair of the dog" is a colloquial English expression predominantly used to refer to alcohol that is consumed with the aim of lessening the effects of a hangover. Because it kick starts your liver into processing all the alcohool tha's still around your system from the night before.
But, where this term comes from?
It refers back to the practice of treating dog bites with an ointment containing the hair of the dog that attacked you.
The use of the phrase to refer to a hangover dates back to the mid-16th century until nowadays, while the practice of putting dog hair on bites is much, much older.