What is the origin for the word "yeomanry"?
364524
The class of yeomen; small freeholding farmers. \nA British volunteer cavalry force organized in 1761 to serve as a home guard and later incorporated into the Territorial Army. \n\n\nalso:  in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary
998592
It comes from the early 1800s in London.  The term "pig" for a contemptable person was around a long time before that.  Particularly, the name refers to a certain group of Police called the Bow Street Runners that criminals referred to as China Street Pigs.
116632
Many supposed origins- my pick is because Marines in the eary 19th century wore tall covers resembling jars, thus jarhead.  Never in my time in did I ever hear the word used by Marines except in derogatory terms.\n\nUPALLNITE- Teufelhunden is plural, "devil dog" is teufelhund- you F*cking Jarhead.
308790
Came from General George Patton during WWII.  It stands for \n"Situation Normal All Fouled Up"  One may substitute a different word starting with "F" should one be so inclined. The original I believe used by General Patton was the substitute word beginning with "F".
69538
It seems to have come out of the military.  Originally the A stood for Arse (or the three letter word meaning the same).  Now the phrase has been modified (soldiers telling their girlfriends what it means) by saying that the A stands for Awesome.\nThe phrase is used to express any emotion, but usually implies agreement with what had just been said.
641790
Etymology\nThe word jaywalker traces back to 1917, though it may have been in use as early as 1900. It is generally considered to have originated in the United States, possibly from the city of Boston. It is a portmanteau of the words jay and walk; in this context, jay is used in the obsolete slang sense, referring to a stupid or dull person, or a rube, i.e. someone from a rural area and not familiar with "city ways". At the time, vehicles and traffic signals were a new concept, gaining popularity in the larger cities, so this term would have been used to describe newcomers who were unfamiliar with these recent developments and by extension, to ridicule people who behaved like newcomers but should have known better.
18458
Used as a nickname for a native or resident of Indiana.\n\nWord History: We know where Hoosiers come from: Indiana. But where does the name Hoosier come from? That is less easy to answer. The origins of Hoosier are rather obscure, but the most likely possibility is that the term is an alteration of hoozer, an English dialect word recorded in Cumberland, a former county of northwest England, in the late 19th century and used to refer to anything unusually large. The transition between hoozer and Hoosier is not clear. The first recorded instance of Hoosier meaning “Indiana resident” is dated 1826; however, it seems possible that senses of the word recorded later in the Dictionary of Americanisms, including “a big, burly, uncouth specimen or individual; a frontiersman, countryman, rustic,” reflect the kind of use this word had before it settled down in Indiana. As a nickname, Hoosier was but one of a variety of disparaging terms for the inhabitants of particular states arising in the early 19th century. Texans were called Beetheads, for example; Alabamans were Lizards; Nebraskans were Bug-eaters; South Carolinians were Weasels, and Pennsylvanians were Leatherheads. People in Missouri might have had it worst of allthey were called Pukes. Originally, these names were probably taken up by people living in neighboring states, but belittled residents adopted them in a spirit of defiant pride, much as American colonists turned the derisive term Yankee into a moniker for their spirit of rebellion. Today, most of these frontier nicknames have disappeared from the landscape. A few like Okie still exist with much of their original animus. Others survive as nicknames for the sports teams of state universitiesthe North Carolina Tarheels, the Ohio Buckeyes, and so onfighting words only on the playing field or court.
422874
Although i have NEVER been called this...\nchicken  \nO.E. cycen "young fowl," which in M.E. came to mean "young chicken," then any chicken, from W.Gmc. *kiukinam, from base *keuk- (possibly root of cock, of echoic origin) + dim. suffix. Sense of "cowardly" is at least as old as 14c.; the v. meaning "to back down or fail through cowardice" is from 1943, U.S. slang; as a game of danger to test courage, it is first recorded 1953. Chicken hawk "public person who advocates war but who declined significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime" is attested from at least 1988, Amer.Eng. Chicken pox (c.1730) may be a disparaging name because of their mildness compared to smallpox. Chicken feed "paltry sum of money" is from 1904. Chickweed (c.1440) was in O.E. cicene mete "chicken food."
644498
This is actually a direct reference to the Trojan Horse being used at the tail end of the Trojan Wars.  The horse was of a different color (method of thinking) than the besiegers, so it was considered a novel idea and trustworthy.
188149
calvary means soldiers on horseback so calvary fighters fought on horsback until the 20th centry when most horses were replaced by automobiles (tanks, hmv's,etc) but are still called calvary.\nIn the civil war there weren't many calvary brigades, however, b/c most generals (esp. in the south) had to provide their own equip. so the most common soldier was a foot soldier
204303
British racial term originating in the colonial period of the British Empire. It was generally used as a label for the natives of India, North Africa and the Middle East. By the 1950s it had become a pejorative term used in order to offend.\n\nThe origins of the term are unclear. Most dictionaries say "wog" either possibly or likely derives from the generic term golliwog after the Golliwogg, a "grotesque" blackface minstrel doll-character from a children's book published in 1895. Various facetious explanations include the claim that it originated from acronyms for "Westernized/Worthy/Wily Oriental Gentleman" or variants thereof, or for "Workers of Government" or "Wards of Government", used to refer to early immigrants into the United Kingdom. Such attempts to explain the word's origin are apocryphal at best.
748780
Try searching under the spelling "tickety-boo"\n\n"But some find a link with the British Army in India, suggesting it comes from the Hindi phrase tikai babu, which is translated as “it’s all right, sir”."
315383
Son of a gun \nMeaning\n\nA rogue or scamp - "you are naughty, you old son of a gun". Also used, although this is uncommon outside the USA, as a euphemism for 'son of a bitch'. Some say that the origin is 'son of a military man'. This explanation is disputed (see below) but, correct or not, the phrase is no longer used to convey that meaning. \n\nOrigin\n\nThere is dispute amongst etymologists about the origin of this phrase. As always, disputes only occur where there is no definitive evidence so, as you might guess, there is conflicting circumstantial evidence. I'll put the sources here and let you decide for yourself.\n\nThe two points of view are primarily these:\n\nThe phrase originated as 'son of a military man' (i.e. a gun). The most commonly repeated version in this strand is that the British Navy used to allow women to live on naval ships. Any child born on board who had uncertain paternity would be listed in the ship's log as 'son of a gun'. While it is attestable fact that, although the Royal navy had rules against it, they did turn a blind eye to women (wives or prostitutes) joining sailors on voyages, so this version has plausibility on its side. The sources for this point of view are:\n\n- The Royal Navy Museum, who confirm that women sometimes travelled on their vessels during the age of sail.\n\n- The Sailor's Workbook; William Henry Smyth, 1867. [son of a gun is] "An epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands at sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage”. \n\n- Fighting Words, Christine Ammer, 1999- "A baby conceived during wartime. In World War I the term denoted the illegitimate offspring of servicemen."\n\n- Jon Bee, a Dictionary of the Turf, 1823, ... means 'a soldier's bastard'. \n\nThe first known printed source is The British Apollo No. 43, 1708 - "You'r a Son of a Gun". That source doesn't mention the military and Smyth's version comes 150 years later, but he was himself a Royal Navy admiral and in a better position than most to know what went on aboard naval ships. Whether or not the military/naval version is the origin it is clear that, in 1823 at least, the term was used with that meaning. \n\nCounter to that you might think it unusual that military men didn't appear to have daughters, or you may just put that down to the prevailing sexism of the time. There are several phrases including the word son, some of them quite recent: \n\nEvery mother's son \nGo on my son \nLike father, like son \nMy son the doctor \nNumber one son \nOn me 'ead, son \n\nwhereas it's difficult to think of anything other than 'don't put your daughter on the stage' for daughters. \n\n\nThe term is euphemisitic and derived as a conveniently rhyming alternative to 'son of a bitch/whore'. That term has been part of the language for centuries, certainly long enough for people to some up with a euphemism for it. Shakespeare used something like it in King Lear (1605) - "One that art nothing but the composition of a Knave, Begger, Coward, Pandar, and the Sonne and Heire of a Mungrill Bitch." \n\nAlso, other sources in print in the 19th century point to the meaning at least of the phrase as indicating contempt: \n\nBarnam Ingol. Legends, Cynotaph, 1840, "We heard the rough voice of a son of a gun Of a watchman, ‘One o'clock!’ bawling."
427577
Cows are descended from a European species called the Aurock.  The last Aurocks were killed by board German soldiers during WWI.  They just felt like shooting something.
896971
The word "piggyback," as in, "Honey, it's my turn to get a piggyback tonight," derives from the terms "pickpack," "pickback," and even "pick-a-pack," all used in the 17th century to indicate the act of hoisting something onto someone's back for carrying. According to the Random House Word of the Day, most etymologists assume "pick" is a variant of the verb "to pitch," meaning "to throw." "Pack" refers to items meant for carrying.\n\nBut how did the piggy grunt its way into the mix? Did giant domesticated hogs, back in the day, do the work of packhorses? No, what we have here, apparently, is a failure to communicate: a textbook case of folk etymology, in which a word is modified to something more common or easily understood when the original term has become obsolete, and thus devoid of meaning. Some examples of folk etymology at work, according to Wikipedia, are the evolving of the words "shamefast" into "shamefaced," "buttonhole into "buttonhold," and "sweetard" into "sweatheart." (But there's no truth to the rumor that Ask Yahoo! used to be called "Axe Yahoos," back in the dot-com downturn days.)
1127617
There are a couple of stories about how the name originated, though no one knows for sure.  The first recorded use of the term dates back to the 1860's.\n\nThe traditional and most publicized story is in the article "What Is A Flea Market?" by Albert LaFarge in the 1998 winter edition of Today's Flea Market magazine. In his article LaFarge says, "There is a general agreement that the term "Flea Market" is a literal translation of the French marche aux puces, an outdoor bazaar in Paris, France, named after those pesky little parasites of the order Siphonaptera (or "wingless bloodsucker") that infested the upholstery of old furniture brought out for sale."\n\nThe second story is printed in the book Flea Markets in Europe published by Chartwell Books. In the Introduction of this book, the author writes, "In the time of Emperor Napoleon III, the imperial architect Haussmann made plans for the broad, straight boulevards with rows of square houses in the center of Paris, along which army divisions could march with much pompous noise. The plans forced many dealers in second-hand goods to flee their old dwellings; the alleys and slums were demolished. These dislodged merchants were, however, allowed to continue selling their wares undisturbed right in the north of Paris, just outside of the former fort, in front of the gate Porte de Clignancourt. The first stalls were erected in about 1860. The gathering together of all these exiles from the slums of Paris was soon given the name "Marche aux Puces", meaning "flee market", later translation.\n\nInteresting question, and it was interesting to find a possible answer ... I love flea markets!
246006
Wikipedia gives a few possibilities about where the name came from.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_horse