Pages

01 February 2020

Learning English at Salisbury Cathedral

Learnt two facts about the English language, the etymology of two words/phrases, while at the Salisbury cathedral...

Underdogs:  The word comes from carpentry.  When a tree is felled, the master carpenter and his apprentice would dig a ditch under the tree to saw off sections.  The apprentice would go into the ditch and hold one end of the long saw, while the master would be above the fallen tree.  (By the end of the sawing, the poor apprentice would be covered in sawdust and mud!)  'Dog' is a tool used by carpenters to hold back the fresh wood that they are sawing.  Thus the dog used by the master would be over dog and that used by the apprentice (who is in the ditch) as the underdog! 
(However, the common meaning seems to arise from a different source).

Second etymology, found it in the Magna Carta display room...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...