ORMASH

Wiseacre: Wiseacre is a corruption of the then German weissager. The meaning of this word is a wise sayer or prophet.  But this word has lost its original meaning and is applied to conceited persons, wise only, '' in their own conceit.'' 

It is quite interesting to see how some words are originated. 'Quarter': To spare the life of an enemy in one's power- or to grant a quarter to an enemy. Both shows the same meaning.This word originated from an ancient agreement between te Dutch and the Spaniards that the ransom of a soldier should be a quarter of his pay.  This might have meant to 'grant condition'. In this sense quarter was commonly used once. 

It is interesting to see how certain words, phrases etc., derived. A PEDLAR: A pedlar is not a tramp who goes on his feet but a man who carries a ped or hamper without a lid. Fish or other articles are stored to hawk about the streets.

"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.