what is the origin of the term Parothead?
397821
Parrot head got their names because of the kids that followed the Grateful Dead being called Dead Heads, therefor with the hole Island/tropical theme that surrounds the Buffet shows.  Not sure why they chose Parrots exactly
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
798665
The history of the origin of this synbol dates as far back as ancient Eqypt.\n\nCheck out this website!\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_prescription
59836
Our word comes from:\nMiddle English - knif\nOld English - cnf\nOld Norse - knfr\n\nWhilst the French now use the word 'couteau', not long ago the word 'canife' was more common. Not surprising perhaps when the part of modern France called Normandie was the place of the North-men (Norse).
38441
par·tic·i·pa·to·ry (pär-tĭs'ə-pə-tôr'ē, -tōr'ē) \n\nadj.\n\nMarked by, requiring, or involving participation, especially affording the opportunity for individual participation: a participatory democracy.
1170816
This originated in the early 1980s. It is generally regarded as an American expression. This item from the New York newspaper the Syracuse Herald-American, Feb. 1982, which is the earliest version in print that I can find, puts that in some doubt. It's in a piece by Jerry Buck, writing out of Los Angeles, about actress Lauren Tewes
489316
I think it was called the Althing.
117976
In Middle English it was farten, while in Old English it was thought to be *feorten (that is a reconstruction as the Old English form has not survived in writing).  The Indo-European root is *perd- "to fart, to break wind".  That root gave Greek perdon "fart", which turns up in the genus name of a type of mushroom, the puffball, also know as the "wolf's fart" (from the literal translation of its Greek name: lycoperdon).  Puffballs shoot their spores out in what resembles a puff of smoke, hence this name and the English dialect name puck-fist ("Puck's fart"). \n\nThe Indo-European root *perd- is thought by some to have been imitative of the sound of farting.  Other languages with similarly-derived words are German (farzen), Swedish (fjarta), Danish (fjerte), Russian (perdet), Polish (pierdziec), and Greek (pordizo).  Oh, and let's not forget English partridge!  Etymologically it is the "farting bird" because the name derives from Greek perdix, which refers to the whirring sound the bird makes when suddenly flushed out of hiding.  The Greeks thought it sounded like farting!\n\nWe can't move on before telling you that the earliest occurrence of a form of fart in the English written record comes from a song called The Cuckoo Song, or Sumer is icumen in, from about 1250:
909327
"garantujeme původ" means "we guarantee origin" ... probably would loosely translate to "we know when it came from"
741742
I think it's a euphemism for "jacksh-t"\nSo now the question is, where did THAT phrase come from?
985458
Parijanik? I don't know but I'm guessing an Indian name. Hope I'm close =)
497266
The story -- often repeated in print & orally -- is this:\n>\n>    The phrase "Rule of Thumb" comes from English Common\n>    Law which deemed it a man's right to beat his wife\n>    with a stick no thicker than the diameter of his thumb.\n>\n>For the last 6 or 7 years I have been looking for **RELIABLE** confirmation\n>of this, and/or the earliest legal reference to this "Common Law."  I have\n>found MANY sources that *claim* that it stems from English Common Law, but\n>searches of legal decisions (by friends who are lawyers or legal researchers)\n>and/or of Blackstone, etc. never turn up any actual reference to a legal\n>decision citing this "common law" or even any reference to it.  I'm beginning\n>to wonder if this is another Academic Myth.\n>\n>Please reply privately, and I will summarize for the list if there is interest.\n>------------------------\n>Ruth Ginzberg <rginzberg  AT  eagle.wesleyan.edu>\n>Philosophy Department;Wesleyan University;USA\n \nThe only place I know to look for answers to such questions is the OED.\nIt won't state straight out that such-and-such is the case, but if you know\nhow to read the OED you can often figure out likelihoods.\n \nThe whip thing is a bit of modern folklore.  It is typical of such back-formed\nexplanations well-known to linguists and folklorists.  (The folk etymology\nof 'asparagus' as 'sparrow-grass' and the plague interpretation of 'Ring\nAround the Rosie' are two others.)\n \nThe real explanation of 'rule-of-thumb' is that is derives from wood\nworkers (or other constructors) who knew their trade so well they rarely\nor never fell back on the use of such things as rulers.  Instead they'd\nmeasure things by, for example, the length of their thumb;  they measured,\nnot by a rule(r) of wood, but by rule of thumb.  The term was already in\nmetaphorical use by the late 17th century.\n \nI'd like to see the accumulated references to the wife-beating explanation.\n I wonder for instance just when that back-formed 'origin' came into being?
381178
Middle English "walet", knapsack, possibly from Old North French *"walet", roll, knapsack.
168470
Wikipedia cites Webster's dictionary.\n\n"Webster's 1913 dictionary states that the term '... is so called from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit, (an apple) sticking in the throat of our first parent.'"\n\nThis isn't really a complete answer, but it might be a start.
1138109
'tie on one'\n\n"From "The Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Reference, New York, 1983, 1990) -- "Tie one on, to - To get drunk. (Eric) Partridge suggests that this expression is derived from 'hang one on' (ca. 1935), which originated in the United States and was later adopted in Canada. It is clear that a 'hangover' -- more politely, 'the morning after' -- is the miserable memento of having 'hung' or 'tied one on.' We are uncertain as to why drinking is described as tieing, hanging or belting...""\n\n'belly up to the bar'\n\n" "belly up! belly up to the bar, boys!" Drinks on the house, boys!: Canadian: 20th century. Cf. the US underworld, mostly pickpockets', catch phrase "belly up?," Have a drink!--c. 1930-50. Prompted by the English-speaking world's toast "bottoms up!""\n\nor:\n\n"belly up to: To approach something straight on, to move straight ahead; fig., to push one's belly toward or up to something. 1953: ". . . For a fellow to belly up to a bar and buy a round of drinks. . . ." "
809846
Blast from the past- it means up to mischief or " no good"  I do not know where it came from but it has been around since at least the 30-40's  \n\nI just googled shenanigans and it is from the 1920's and there actually was a play named that.  Try Wikipedia- but I am right about the meaning.
446304
I found this on line,\n\n"Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases" by Hugh Rawson (toExcel, Iuniverse.com, 1994, 2000). This reference has some new information on the origins listed here (new information in parenthesis), new origins and what could be the actual origin. \n\n: : 1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War. \n: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. \n: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. \n: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect." \n: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.\n: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")\n: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")\n: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.\n: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War. \n: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. \n: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew. \n\n: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:\n: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.\n: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.\n: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.\n: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords. \n: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.\n: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.\n: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.\n\n: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetai