Definition:
Adhering to a routine that one should try to get out of
Description:
In the horse and buggy days the dirt roads would get worn with ruts from the wagon wheels.
Once you got your wagon wheels into these ruts it was very hard to get them out, you had to follow the same old path.
Thomas Carlyle (1839): Essay on Chartism - “Parliaments, lumbering along in their deep ruts of commonplace.”
Source:
Thomas Carlyle (1839) - Essay on Chartism
Mar 04
adminPolitical animal, british, english, french, german, military
Definition:
an officer of the highest rank in some military forces
Description:
A logical assumption is that ‘marshal’ is related to ‘martial,’ but the resemblance is purely coincidental. Although most French words are derived from Latin, a few result from the 3rd-century Germanic occupation of France, and the early French ‘mareschal’ is one such word. ‘Mareschal’ came from Old High German ‘marahscalc,’ formed by combining ‘marah’ (horse) and ‘scalc’ (servant). ‘Mareschal’ originally meant ‘horse servant,’ but by the time it was borrowed into Middle English in the 13th century, it described a French high royal official. English applied the word to a similar position, but it eventually came to have other meanings. By contrast, ‘martial’ derives from ‘Mars,’ the Latin name for the god of war, and is completely unrelated.
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Mar 04
adminLegal, Political american, english
Definition:
kill without legal sanction
Description:
Lynch law (lynching) is a term describing the rough-and-ready administration of justice by a mob in cases where the law is inadequate or dilatory (nowadays popularly meaning the execution of a supposed criminal). The term originates from the practice of Charles Lynch, a farmer in Virginia, USA who during the later part of the 18th century supported revolutionary principles in the district where he lived by catching ‘Tories’ and infamous people, whom he then hanged by their thumbs until they cried out ‘Liberty for All’.
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Mar 04
adminPolitical
Definition:
Adhering to a routine that one should try to get out of
Description:
In the horse and buggy days the dirt roads would get worn with ruts from the wagon wheels.
Once you got your wagon wheels into these ruts it was very hard to get them out, you had to follow the same old path.
Thomas Carlyle (1839): Essay on Chartism - “Parliaments, lumbering along in their deep ruts of commonplace.”
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Mar 04
adminPolitical people
Definition:
The name given to white people.
Description:
This word is taken from the white slave owner cracking his whip at his slaves.
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