Colonel – Colonel is originally Italian, a colonel being the commander of a military column or in Italian colonna. The French adopted the military rank, and in so doing switched the L for R (L/R switches are a common pronunciation shift). English adopted the French word, with an R spelling coronell in the mid-16th century. Starting in the late-16th century, translations of Italian military treatises started using the etymologically correct L spelling, and by the mid-17th century, colonel was the accepted English spelling. But the R pronunciation was firmly established and did not change.
Cold Turkey -This phrase meaning without preparation dates to 1910. The use in relation to withdrawal from an addictive substance (originally heroin) dates to around 1922. The derivation is from the idea that cold turkey is a food that requires little preparation in the kitchen. So to quit like cold turkey is to do so suddenly and without preparation.
Jody/Joe The Grinder -Anyone who has seen a movie about the U.S. Army has heard soldiers chanting and singing as they march or run. These chants or cadences are called jodies or jody calls, after a character in many of the songs. The character Jody is a civilian who has stolen the affections of the soldier’s sweetheart back home. The military use of jody call and the sense of jody meaning a civilian of draft age date to World War II and were introduced to the U.S. Army by African-American soldiers. Jody is a clipping of the name of Joe the Grinder, a slightly older character in jazz and blues mythology. Joe the Grinder is the name of mythical ladies man in blues tunes who seduces the wives and sweethearts of prisoners and soldiers. He’s also known as Joe De Grinder and Joe D. Grinder. The term dates to at least 1939. Grinder is from an old slang verb, to grind, meaning to copulate (1647-present).
Jerk – is an old word, dating to the sixteenth century. The word echoes the sound made by a short, sharp movement. The word is unremarkable, except that it has several modern, slang usages that are interesting. A soda jerk is someone who makes a living by jerking, or pulling, sodas at a lunch counter, the name coming from the jerking motion required to open a tap. A jerkwater train was originally a small locomotive that serviced branch lines. Its small boiler requiring frequent filling by train crews which would have to dismount, form a bucket brigade, and jerk water from a river to feed the steam engine. The term dates to the 1870s and is American in origin. The term jerkwater town eventually came to mean any rustic or backwards town, along a train line or not. Finally, the most common usage of jerk, meaning a fool or inept person, probably derives from jerkwater. A jerk being a resident of a jerkwater town. This usage dates to the 1930s.
Face the Music – this is an American phrase first attested to in 1850. It derives from the stage. Musicians played in a pit in front of the stage. To face the music is to turn toward the audience.
Catch 22 – means a situation where one bureaucratic regulation is dependent on another, which in turn is dependent on the first. It derives from a 1961 novel “Catch 22″ by Joseph Heller.
Bedlam – is a Middle English form of Bethlehem, referring to where Jesus was born. The sense of meaning madness, uproar, or confusion comes from the Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem in London. The hospital was founded as a priory in 1247 and is first mentioned as a hospital in 1330. In 1547 it was incorporated as a lunatic asylum. So, the modern sense is an extension of the idea of a lunatic asylum.
Barbecue – This American contribution to international cuisine actually originated in the Caribbean, and the word comes to us via Spanish from it Indian roots. The original sense of barbecue is that of a raised, wooden (later metal) framework used for either sleeping upon or curing meats. The Indians of Guiana called it a babracot and the Haitians a barbacoa. The Spanish evidently acquired the Haitian word and it came into English from the Spanish.
Jump on the bandwagon – In 19th and early 20th century America, a bandwagon was exactly what it sounds like, a wagon, usually horse-drawn, which carried a musical band. Bandwagons were used in circuses, to lead parades, and at political rallies. Hence to join or jump on the bandwagon was to follow the crowd, and in a political context with the connotation that one was there for the entertainment and excitement of the event, rather than from deep or firm conviction.
