Thursday Trivia: Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail

So, what do this ...                                           and this:

 have in common?

Read on, and you'll see!

But first, let's talk about the origin of today's phrase. As we all know, if you're going to get something done in two shakes of a lamb's tail, you must be blazingly fast.

This idiom's been around a while. It began in the U.K., possibly as long ago as the late 18th or early 19th century. Its first use in print can be traced back to a memoir written in three stages, between 1840 and 1847, by a British clergyman named Reverend Richard H. Barham.

This memoir, entitled The Ingoldsby Legends, was a popular collection of humorous (and sometimes a bit gruesome!) folk tales.

Photo of lambs on hillside: Flickr Creative Commons 3.0 by Mance

Another thing: this first in-print example wasn't even the complete use of the phrase.
Our two shakes occur in the story called "The Babes in the Wood":

'I'll be back in a couple of shakes;
So don't, dears, be quivering and quaking,
I'm going to get you some cakes,
And a nice butter'd roll that's a-baking!'

Totally unrelated - but fun - Trivia:
Barham's collection of tales was so popular, in fact, that it inspired Walt Disney, who adapted one of the stories into the classic animated Fantasia.

The story was of a Lay-Brother named Peter and a certain incident with beer, which became the basis for the Sorcerer's Apprentice tale (Disney swapped the beer for bathwater).

Going forward a few decades, we finally track down the full use of the phrase, in a letter to the editor of a New Zealand newspaper in 1881, where the author observes:

"A Brooklyn man spent seven hours writing an essay to prove that a woman is inferior to a man, and then spent two hours more and a heap of profanity in an ineffectual attempt to thread a needle, a job which a woman finally did for him in about two shakes of a lamb’s tail."

But what in the world does all this have in common with radioactive material?

Simply this:
When nuclear physicists back in the 1950's were grasping for a simpler way to express the length of time it took for a single nuclear reaction to take place, they chose the phrase "two shakes of a lamb's tail" (shortened to "Shake") over "10 nanoseconds."

CMOS Wafer by Rico S. via Creative Commons

You still find it in use today, both in literature and in electrical engineering. Signal processing in an integrated circuit also occurs in the nanoseconds range, so the Shake is used here, too.

And for anyone who has a copy of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, go grab it and turn to Chapter 35. It's entitled "Three Shakes" for a reason!



And that's how a Shake became an official unit of time. No foolin'.

_____________________
Sources:
"The Lay of St. Dunstan" (or "The Lay Brother's Tale")
Text of The Ingoldsby Legends, by Rev. Richard H. Barham. Out of print/Public Domain.
Idiomation: "Historically Speaking - Two Shakes of a Lamb's Tail" by Elyse Bruce
Photo of lamb: Flickr Creative Commons 3.0 by Noel Reynolds
The origin of the Shake
Tom Clancy's "Three Shakes"

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Thursday Trivia: Lying Doggo

Here’s a question for our friends over the pond: is there any truth to the rumor that the British are fond of adding “-o” to the end of a word?
I ask because there is no definitive origin to today’s word. The closest we can come is a definition from Oxford, stating that it is “of obscure origin, apparently from dog + -o.”

I ran into many sites that claimed this was due to the British penchant for adding “-o” to the end of a word, often using the word “boyo” to prove their point.

So what say you? Truth or exaggeration?

Of all the many things I read about the origin of the phrase “lying doggo,” the most interesting was an obscure reference by author William Safire in his book, Watching My Language: Adventures in the Word Trade.

In it, Safire references another book and notes its glossary entry as stating that “doggo” meant “still” or “quiet”… and that it was of East Indian derivation.

Lying doggo. Photo: andrewasmith, Creative Commons

I have found absolutely nothing to back this up, and our go-to sources don’t say a word about this, so we find it highly suspect. Interesting, yet suspect!

There is also some debate on what “lying doggo” actually means. Some say it simply means to lay still, like a dog in hiding whereas others feel it has more complexity, suggesting that it conveys more of an impressions of “hanging back, “ or “staying out of the fray.”

Um, #DoggoFAIL? Photo: komehachi888, Creative Commons

The one thing we can tell you with absolute certainty is that it first appeared in a published work in 1899:

"I wud lie most powerful doggo whin I heard a shot," wrote British novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling.

If we heard a shot, we would, too, sir.

_____________________
 Sources:

The Works of Rudyard Kipling: Kim, Rudyard Kipling, page 304. Doubleday & McClure, 1899.
Word Detective 
Wordsmith.org 
New York Times
The Oxford Dictionaries

Thursday Trivia: Dogtrot or Foxtrot?

Well, I have to admit, when I heard the phrase “dog trot,” my brain immediately did a mental substitution.

I kept expecting to find it defined as a type of dance – but nothing of the sort came up in my research.

Of course by now, you’ve already guessed that I had transposed “foxtrot” and “dog trot”.

A foxtrot is a dance that debuted in 1914 and almost exclusively was performed to ragtime music. It was the first dance to combine both quick and slow steps, allowing for greater versatility on the dance floor.

Foxtrot illustration: Creative Commons,
by Helena Perez Garcia

According to musician and songwriter W.C. Handy, the foxtrot was created by a husband-and-wife duo named Vernon & Irene Castle.

Handy claimed the Castles originally named the dance the ”Bunny Hug” but had a mid-voyage change of heart while traveling abroad, wiring back the news that it was now to be called the “Foxtrot.”

As interesting as this tale may be, the vast majority of dance history buffs argue that the dance was created by early-1900’s Vaudeville entertainer Harry Fox, thus its name.

Despite its murky origin, there is one point on which all dance historians agree: the foxtrot made a powerful impact on ballroom dancing and many argued it even influenced the music written during the early twentieth century.

On the other hand – or should we say paw? – “dog trot” simply meant “a slow trot, as that of a dog.” (well, duh.)

And lest we leave you thinking that the fox has upstaged the dog in this week’s trivia, we would like to point out that “dog trot” has an interesting alternate meaning, one that those living in the Deep South may recognize.

Dogtrot house, Dubach, LA, via Billy Hathorn

A dog trot is an architectural element found in many homes in the rural south. This open (but covered) breezeway connects two separate but enclosed structures under one roof.

It allowed for more air circulation and cooler temperatures during hot summer days.

(In fact, Apple may have learned a thing or two from these 19th century southern architects in their new Mac Pro design – it has a breezeway running right through its center, too. Not that we would know – we don’t make enough kibble over here between the three of us kitties to get one for ourselves!)

At any rate, the dog trot predated the foxtrot by almost a century!

Too bad Harry Fox wasn’t named Harry…Dog?
______________
Sources:
W.C. Handy's version of the origin
Wise Geek – What is a Dogtrot 
Omnilexica Online: Dogtrot 
The history of the foxtrot
Dancelovers.com: Foxtrot dance history
Examiner.com: history of the foxtrot
The Mac Pro
Definition of a Dogtrot house
Dog trot house, Dubach, LA courtesy Billy Hathorn, via Creative Commons 3.0

Thursday Trivia: In a pig's eye!

In the past year, a few shelters in our city have housed the occasional potbellied pig - at least until its owner was located. (can you microchip a pig? we assume so.)

That gave us the idea for today's phrase: "In a pig's eye!"

Surprisingly to us, this phrase did not trace its roots back to a pig - nor any animal, in fact. Except for the human animal.

Portrait of a Saxon Princess, by Lucas
Cranach the Elder, 1517. Public Domain

The Oxford English Dictionary pins the origin of this phrase back to a word used in the late 14th century.

“Piga” was the Saxon word for “girl” and “pigsney” an endearment used for a beloved girl or sweetheart.

Probably the oldest use in print dates back to Chaucer’s “Miller’s Tale” in 1390:

“Hir shoes were laced on hir legges hye; She was a prymerole, a piggesnye, For any lord to leggen in his bedde.”

Later, though, the OED tells us the term began to be used in a derogatory fashion. And by the mid-1800’s its use was almost exclusively associated with an exclamation of derision and disbelief – the same as it is today.

We traced its first use in print based on the modern definition to a former soldier named J. Jacob Oswandel, who fought in the Mexican-American War. In his 1847 memoir, entitled “Notes on the Mexican War,” he wrote:

“Nicholas P. Trist, Commissioner, is on his way to negotiate with the Mexican government to make peace. How are you peace—peace in a pig's eye.”

Baby Potbellied pig - eyeing you!  Photo: Marianne Perdomo

____________
Sources:

Somerset Record Society, Volume IX, 1859. TAUNTON : FREDERICK MAY, HIGH-STREET LONDON : BELL & DALDY, FLEET-STREET. 1860.

Chaucer Miller's Tale, line 3268, c 1390.

The Oxford English Dictionary 

Word Origins
Online Etymology Dictionary
The Stack Exchange - English Questions