ORMASH

"Hear, Hear" In olden days, when one wished to indicate approval of what another said, one said, " Hear him." In the course of time the word him came to be dropped and the word hear came to be repeated instead.  So we nowadays use 'hear, hear.'

Wool-gathering: Many years ago the wool industry was of the greatest importance in England.  Wool was not plenty and poor people used to go about collecting any scraps of wool they could find by the wayside torn by thorns and bushes from the sheep's back.  In the course of their collection, they could have no set route and so they wandered about aimlessly and appeared to be putting little thought into their work.  In due course. this woolgathering and wandering aimlessly came to be associated together.  Nowadays we use the term to denote people whose minds are not attached or fixed to the subject on hand but wander. 

An Ostrich Buries its Head in the Sand: This is an incorrect belief.  Actually, it does not bury its head in the sand.  It is a popular, but an erroneous idea based on the assumption that if it buries its head in the sand, it could see nothing and so it cannot be seen by anyone else.  What really happens is that at the approach of danger, the ostrich sinks into a heap on the ground, where it is extremely difficult to distinguish it from the surrounding mounds and anthills.

It is very interesting to know how certain words, phrases etc., which we use now come into usage. Let's look at 'Bohemian.' BOHEMIAN: Bohemian is a person who leads a luxurious and carefree life is called a Bohemian. The Frenchman called the gipsies as the Bohemians because they thought that the gipsies who were careless  by wandering by came from Bohemia in Central Europe.  In this way the expression  'Bohemian' came into usage.

It is interesting to know how the present day names, usages etc., have derived. Trade Winds: They are named in this way because they are always trading or trading in one uniform track.  It is a mistake to derive the word from trade (commerce) under the notion that they are ' good for trade.'  The correct derivation is (Anglo-Saxon) Treddle-wind, a treading wind- ie. wind of a specific beat or tread ( from the word tredan- to tread). In the northern hemisphere, the trade winds blow from the north-east and, in the southern hemisphere from the south-east, about thirty degrees each side of the Equator. In some places, they blow six months in one direction  and six months in the opposite. 

'BADGE OF POVERTY': In the reign of William III those who received Parish relief had to wear a badge (with the letter P together with the initial of the Parish)  in red or blue cloth on the shoulder of the right sleeve, whence it is used to denote a poor person.

BACKGROUND: The idea is derived from the language of the artists.  Pictures have three distances called grounds, the foreground where the artist is supposed to be; the middle ground, where the most salient part of the picture is placed; and background or distance, beyond which the eye cannot penetrate.