The Unexpected Evolution of Language (7 page)

Scottish television pioneer John Logie Baird produced what many consider the first television broadcast in 1925. He successfully took an image in one room of his apartment and broadcast it into another room of the apartment.

Baird’s technology required very hot lights, which made it impossible for a human subject to be the first “television star.” That honor, instead, went to Stooky Bill, the head of a mannequin. “Stooky” is a type of plaster of Paris.

Baird broadcast Stooky Bill’s visage, but at quite a price to the dummy, who now sits in England’s National Media Museum (formerly the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television). Due to the hot lights, Bill’s hair is singed, his face is cracked, and his lips are chipped.

broker

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
wine cask opener

NEW DEFINITION:
mediator between buyer and seller

In long-ago France, a “brokiere” was one who tapped kegs and opened wine casks. A prestigious job it wasn’t, but don’t tell that to today’s snooty, snarky sommeliers! The word “broach,” as in “broach the subject,” comes from the same root. If you broach a subject, you open it up for consideration. The lowly wine broacher developed into the slightly tonier wine merchant.

Fourteenth-century English folk borrowed the word “broker” and used it—sometimes with the word “love” in front of it—as a euphemism for pimp. A “love broker” opened up negotiations between a john and a soiled dove.

Ultimately, “broker” became a generic term for “middleman,” someone who negotiates between buyers and sellers. Nowadays, “broker” calls most immediately to mind a “stockbroker.” Those who blame Wall Street for the nation’s various economic crises may be pleased to know of the connection between brokers and pimps.

brothel

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
vile person of either gender; later, a prostitute

NEW DEFINITION:
a place where one procures prostitutes

Men of Chaucer’s day may have insulted other men by calling them “brothels.” They weren’t suggesting that these men frequented whorehouses. At that time, either men or women could be “brothels”: foul, vile, worthless individuals falling into ruin who could drag you down with them. The word was akin to something like “big jerk.”

Before the Middle Ages had even ended, “brothel” became associated exclusively with women. After all, women in those days were “ruined” if they “soiled themselves” before marriage, so prostitutes were referred to as “brothels.” Where did “brothels” ply their trade? In brothel-houses, of course.

By the time Shakespeare began writing plays, a metonymic shift had occurred. Metonymy substitutes one thing for something else closely related to it: “Suits” are powerful businesspeople, “crowns” are kings, etc. Thus, “brothels” stopped being people and became the buildings in which those people, um, worked.

browse

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
to feed on buds

NEW DEFINITION:
to skim; look casually

Poetic types may speak of cows “browsing” in a pasture, which means they’re looking for yummy stuff on which to nosh. For some 400 or so years, that’s all “browse” meant. It had a pastoral tinge.

“Browse” currently brings to mind walking through a bookstore, scanning the titles at the Redbox, looking through matches at an online dating site, or using a web “browser.” Yet, the modern sense of “browse” didn’t really come into common use until midway through the nineteenth century.

The metaphorical connection between the old and new definitions isn’t difficult to make. Farm animals “browsing” in a pasture are flitting about, seeking good buds, and simply passing by with a glance anything that doesn’t suit their fancy.

Change cows and goats to men and women, plop them down in front of a Vegas buffet, and they’ll do the very same thing: look casually, search for the just-right morsels, and ignore anything that seems unappetizing.

buccaneer

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
user of a “boucan”

NEW DEFINITION:
a pirate

What? You don’t know what a “boucan” is? It was a primitive version of today’s barbecue grill, used by West Indian natives. What do “boucans” have to do with pirates?

Indigenous West Indians used “boucans” to smoke oxen over a fire. They were among the first of the world’s peoples to have the equivalent of backyard barbecues. Then the English, Dutch, and French invaded the West Indies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was the “golden age” of Caribbean piracy, as glorified by Walt Disney World and Johnny Depp films.

It’s the French whom the English language has to thank for “buccaneer.” The French quickly borrowed the natives’ habit of roasting meat on “boucans.” Thus, they began to be referred to as “boucaniers,” or “those who use ‘boucans.’”

The word passed into English as “buccaneers.” Since most of the French busy using “boucans” were pirates, “buccaneer” became synonymous with freebooters.

buffoon

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
pantomime dance

NEW DEFINITION:
a clown; a fool; a simple-minded person

Mimes, fairly or unfairly, tend to be among the most denigrated of performers. Plug the words “everyone hates a mime” into Google, and you’ll get over 70,000 results. YouTube has plentiful videos carrying the same theme. You may wonder—if you ever wonder about mimes—if there was a time when mimes were loved and adored. Well, no, not since ancient times.

Originally, a “buffoon” basically was a mime, and some people (the French?) may have found him amusing. He (you know it must have been a “he”) would prance around, act silly, and puff out his cheeks. The last part is important because “buffoon” derives from a word meaning “to puff out one’s cheeks.”

Somewhere between the mid-sixteenth century and today, “buffoon” was used to describe anyone who acted foolish. The “puffing cheeks” no longer were as important as the fact that a “buffoon” was—and is—someone who doesn’t have much of substance to say and who acts simple-minded, despite (presumably) having normal intelligence.

Everybody Loves a Mime

Mimes were never a big hit … except, as it turns out, in ancient Rome. The Latin word “pantomimus” means “imitator of everything.” Using simple masks, body language, and dance, a “pantomime” would silently act out all the characters of a tragedy.

Did you catch that? A tragedy. That’s one of the main differences between a “pantomime” and a just-plain “mime.” Pantomimes were figures of tragedy, while mimes typically are figures of farcical comedy. Pantomimes made you cry. Mimes make you laugh.

The “pantomimus” first “took off” during the reign of Augustus (63
B.C.E.
–14
C.E.
) and remained popular until the Roman Empire fell. Since that time, most people have indeed hated mimes (and pantomimes too, for that matter).

bugger

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
heretic

NEW DEFINITION:
derogatory slang for one who engages in sex acts some consider unnatural; performing such acts

For most people, the Greek Orthodox Church is the place that has the annual festival with all the yummy desserts. The rest of the year, no one (who isn’t Greek Orthodox) gives it much thought. Is it Catholic? Is it Protestant? Who knows? Pass the baklava!

The church is in fact part of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which is very similar to Roman Catholicism. But don’t say that, even today, to members of either church. These faiths are close to the same age but differ on such key issues as marriage for priests (okay in Eastern Orthodox, as long as he was married before ordination; a no-no in Catholicism) and the Immaculate Conception of Mary (Catholics say yea; Eastern Orthodox says nay). For Protestants and folks who sleep in on Sunday, these matters seem like mere quibbles.

What does this have to do with “buggers” and “buggery,” you ask? Plenty, as it turns out.

Roman Catholicism felt that members of the Eastern Orthodox Church were heretics. One sect Catholics hated most practiced their faith in Bulgaria. Thus “buggers,” as these Bulgarians came to be known, were heretics.

Since the Catholics didn’t like them anyway, they decided these “buggers” weren’t just heretics. By the 1500s, Catholics believed they engaged in sexual practices that included anal sex between same-sex partners and the deflowering of farm animals. It was really just a case of vilifying competitors.

This derogatory notion of “buggers”—sparked by religious feuds—gave rise to the modern sense of “bugger” and its related term, “buggery.”

bully

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
sweetheart

NEW DEFINITION:
one who threatens or harms others without cause

Talk about a change of heart! Initially, “bully” was a positive word. It came from roots that meant lover or brother (as in, friend … you know, “What’s happening, brother?”). Thus, either gender might make goo-goo eyes and call one another “bully.” This would have been done until the early 1500s.

At least two theories abound that suggest why “bullies” gained their negative reputation. One possibility is the resemblance of “bully” to “bull,” a word that took on metaphorical meanings: stubborn, nonsense, large, etc.

The other theory is juicier. At one time, “bully” was a synonym for “pimp.” Perhaps it was used sarcastically, perhaps not. The problem with this theory is that “bully” already had come to mean “guy who beats you up on the playground because he outweighs you by fifty pounds” before the first recorded use of “bully” as a synonym for “pimp.” It may have been used verbally before it appeared in writing, however.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Bullying?

Fans of Theodore Roosevelt may recall that “bully” was a favorite word of the twenty-sixth president. He was using it in the earlier, more positive sense. He also coined the term “bully pulpit.”