#mars and venus: or the mouse trap

[galina-ulanova]

What did it look like?  What we know of the ballet suggests it was an earnest pantomime play set to music by Henry Symonds, through in concession to popular taste it also included a comic Cyclops.  It was decent: the role of Venus was performed by the beautiful Hester Santlow, who eschewed the usual seductive poses for a more pristine and elevated 'Delicacy.'  There was no singing, no placards, no familiar tunes, and the story was conveyed purely through 'regulated gesture' and arch facial expressions (like masks) recalling those laid out by physiognomists interested in mapping the physical manifestations of character and emotional states.  Thus jealousy was shown as 'a particular pointing the middle finger to the Eye,' or anger as 'the left Hand struck suddenly with the right; and sometimes against the Breast.'  [John] Weaver described the gestures and movements he had in mind in some detail, and buttressed his account of the work with generous quotations from ancient sources. Not to be outdone, John Rich lost no time in mounting a reprisal: a burlesque cheekily entitled Mars and Venus: Or, The Mouse Trap, in which all of the serious roles were performed by dancers in the lowest Italian acrobatic style.  Weaver and Steele struck back the following year with Orpheus and Eurydice, including a 25-page-long program replete with references to Ovid and Virgil.  But this was less successful, and over time Steele was forced to bend deeper and deeper to popular taste – tricks, stunts, lewd comic touches.  Sensing defeat, Weaver left the theatre in 1721, by then the experiment forged by the two men had all but died out and the Drury Lane was moving inexorably toward the low pantomime entertainments that had made its rival such a success.

Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet

[autodidact-adventures]

Ballet History (Part 16): John Weaver’s Experiment

John Weaver was born in 1673 in Shrewsbury; his father was a local dancing-master who taught ballet to ��aspiring gentlemen” at the Shrewsbury School.  Weaver followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a dancer and a teacher; he would eventually run a respectable boarding school in town, and he taught social dancers to the nobility in London.

Weaver was known for his clowning and comic skills, and he had a taste for practical jokes.  He often performed in light entertainments, usually inserted between the acts of plays.  They had titles such as “that delightful Exercise of Vaulting on the Manag'd Hourse, according to the Italian manner.”

Weaver belonged to a small ground of like-minded ballet-masters who lived & taught in London.  They included Queen Anne's dancing-master Isaac, and Thomas Caverley, who ran a well-regarded school in Queen's Square.  This group (like dancing-masters everywhere) closely followed Parisian developments.  In 1706, Weaver translated & published Feuillet's treatise on notation.

Several years later, he also published An Essay Towards an History of Dancing, In which the whole Art and its Various Excellencies are in some Measure Explain'd.  The work was ambitious and freewheeling (and also plagiarized in parts).  It was dedicated to Caverley, and published by Jacob Tonson, a Whig bookseller who also published Congreve, Dryden and Milton.

Later, Weaver would publish Anatomical and Mechanical Lectures of Dancing, The History of the Mimes and Pantomime, and various other writings.

In the early 1700's, London became a thriving metropolis, and the centre of English cultural life (displacing the court).  In 1670, its population was 475,000; in 1750, it was 675,000.  One person remarked that the city was a “mighty Rendezvous of Nobility, Gentry, Courtiers, Divines, Lawyers, Physicians. Merchants, Seamen, and all kinds of Excellent Artificers, of the most Refined Wits and the most Excellent Beauties.”

The theatrical season drew aristocrats from their country estates to the city.  Art, entertainments, and leisure activities flourished. The Licensing Act lapsed in 1695, leading to a dramatic increase in publications, and the emergence of Grub Street (the world of impoverished “hack writers”).  Commercial publishers rivalled each other to fill the demand for literature, news and gossip.

Coffee-houses and clubs brought together like-minded people to discuss current affairs and topics.  One of them was the Kit Kat Club, which was founded in 1696 by a group of noble Whigs, including William Congreve and Jacob Tonson; also Horace Walpole, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (the latter two writers).

The Kit Kat Club was influenced by men such as the third Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, who had been educated by the philosopher John Locke.  They developed an ethic of “politeness”, and hoped that it would become the foundation of a new, stable, English urban & civic culture.  “All Politeness is owing to Liberty,” wrote Shaftesbury.  “We polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides by a sort of amicable Collision.”

This politeness was not the same as the “Court-Politeness” of Louis XIV's court, which had corrupted Charles II's court as well. Shaftesbury believed that France was a modern-day Rome: decadent and declining.  They needed a simpler style of social interaction, and an aesthetic that was “above the modern turn & species of Grace, above the Dancing-Master, above the Actor & the Stage, above the other Masters of Exercise.”  A new kind of moral authority would take precedence, with its roots in urban life and the freedoms of Britain's parliamentary system.

Addison and Steele founded The Spectator in 1711 for this purpose.  It soon became the most important journal of the time, and its essays were widely circulated and reprinted.  An issue cost a penny, which was a reasonable price, and it appealed to men & women of both the elite and aspiring classes.  “Mr. Spectator” was a gentleman of the time: he was born on a rural estate, lived in London, and spent his time debating standards of style and taste.

The Spectator (June 7th, 1711).

Weaver managed to convince Steele that ballet was a valuable civic tool.  Its manners and graces weren't necessarily effete and Frenchified-frilly, but a form of politeness that could be used for their aims.  In 1712, he published an open letter in The Spectator, with an introduction by Steele, arguing that dancing was not only a high art, but also an educational tool “of universal Benefit” (as he later put it) “to all Lovers of Elegance and Politeness.”  Also in 1712, Tonson published Weaver's Essay Towards a History of Dancing.

From then on, Weaver devoted himself to reforming French ballet, and making it a cornerstone of English civic culture.  Dancing could help men regulate their passions, and behave with civility.  It could be a social glue – used to smooth over the differences between people, and the tensions that threatened to undermine civic life.  Unlike French ballet, Weaver insisted, the point was not to support social hierarchies, but to quash them.  Politeness wasn't a shallow, surface thing – it could make you more moral on the inside.

Giovanni Andrea Gallini was an Italian dancing-master who had spent his life in London.  He added to Weaver's assertions, saying that dancing “ought to be recommended to all ranks of life...It is certainly not eligible for a nobleman to have the air and port of a mechanic; but it will not be a reproach to a mechanic to have the port and air of a nobleman.”  Steele said, “The Appellation of a Gentleman is never to be affixed to a Man's Circumstances.”

Weaver pushed ballet further, not being content with just politeness. He wanted to make it a respected theatrical art, and to do this, he moved away from France and towards antiquity – towards the classical art of pantomime.  The aristocracy studied Latin and Greek as part of their education, so this would help Weaver's goal of respectability.  It also fitted in with the early-1700's surge of interest in the Ancients, which included new translations such as Dryden's version of The Iliad (1700), and Pope's (1715-20).

Weaver believed that English ballet-masters were the right choice to create a path between the decadent, immoral spectacles of the French, and the low tricks of the Italians.  They would create a new and serious type of pantomime, modelling it on the Ancients.  It would be tasteful and moral without being dull.  Thus it would be an English form of ballet, and polite.

In 1717, he staged The Loves of Mars and Venus at the Drury Lane Theater, the first production of this new ballet genre.  He described it as “A Dramatick Entertainment of Dancing Attempted in Imitation of the Pantomimes of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.”

The Drury Lane was actually Richard Steele's theatre.  A while back, Jeremy Collier (critic & cleric) had started a strong debate over the morality of theatrical life in London.  He lambasted both directors and playwrights for “Their Smuttiness of Expression; Their Swearing, Profainness, and Lews Application of Scripture; Their Abuse of the Clergy; Their Making their Top Characters Libertines, and giving them Success in their Debauchery.”  Other calls for reform were made.  In response to all of this, in 1714 George I appointed Steele to govern the Drury Lane Theater.  One of Steele's colleagues, who agreed with the need for reform, was glad for this “happy Revolution”, which might create “a regular and clean Stage...on the side of virtue.”  John Gay (playwright) remarked that Steele knew how to “make virtue fashionable.”

Steele had rather a large challenge ahead of him: he still had to sell tickets, and the competition was fierce (including from Italian opera).  His main rival was the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater, which was run by John Rich.

Rich was part of a theatrical family, and he'd grown up playing Italian pantomimes on the boards of London theatres.  He knew what people wanted and how to give it to them, and he pitched his shows downmarket.  One critic later rubbished his shows as “monstrous Loads of harmonious Rubbish" - but he certainly brought in the crowds.

John Rich as Harlequin (c. 1720).

And yet against all this, The Love of Mars and Venus was a hit.  It was a pantomime play set to music by Henry Symonds, and a comic Cyclops was included in a concession to popularity.  No singing, familiar tunes, or placards were used.  Hester Santlow performed the role of Venus, dropping the usual seductive poses for “Delicacy”.

The story was told through “regulated gesture” and facial expressions (like masks), which were like the expressions laid out by physiognomists who mapped the physicality of character & emotions.  Jealousy was shown as “a particular pointing the middle finger to the Eye”; anger was “the left Hand struck suddenly with the right; and sometimes against the Breast.”

John Rich struck back with a parody: a burlesque called Mars and Venus: Or, The Mouse Trap.  The serious roles were performed in the lowest Italian acrobatic style.

The next year, Weaver & Steele staged Orpheus and Eurydice, with a 25-page programme full of references to Ovid and Virgil.  But it was less successful than Mars and Venus, and it was only downhill from there.  Steele was forced to make more and more concessions to popular taste, with lewd comic touches, and tricks and stunts.  Weaver left the theatre in 1721, but by then their experiment had already died out.  The Drury Lane was being taken over by the low pantomime entertainments they had tried to rise above.

In 1728, Weaver tried again to make people listen, with a bitter, self-important account of serious pantomime theater.  But people were no longer interested.  Steele died the next year, and Weaver retreated to Shrewsbury and private life.  He ran his school, where he taught dance and rehearsed pantomimes from the old days.  He died in 1760, and it was hardly noticed.

[sandiegodjstaci]

MaiAda & Nick's Published Martin Johnson House Wedding

MaiAda & Nick's Published Martin Johnson House Wedding

Of all the San Diego wedding DJs in the county, Maiada and Nick chose me to DJ and MC their Martin Johnson House wedding on Saturday, August 11, 2018. This wedding was published on Green Wedding Shoes on October 11, 2018 as “Talk About Tropical: Colorful Tiki Bar-Themed Wedding in San Diego.”

  From Green Wedding Shoes

THE LOVE STORY

Since she was a little girl, MaiAda had assumed that, one day, she would get married in Rome and that, after the ceremony, a carriage pulled by white horses would meet her & her new hubby in front of her favorite fountain and carry them away over the cobblestone streets. Nick realized this was a tad impractical, but, on a family trip to Italy for Christmas in 2016, Nick proposed at the fountain in front of the Pantheon on a moonlit January night.

  (c) My Sun and Stars Co

  Together they enjoy brunch, going to Target, bike rides with their dog Fluffy-gans who has his own little bike basket, playing Mario Kart, tattoos, the zoo, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, complaining about patriarchy, road trips, going to their fave local watering hole–Kindred, downing tiki drinks, going to concerts, remembering their trip to Japan, singing along to Dashboard Confessional, playing nerdy board games, and Nick cooking while MaiAda eats.

  From Green Wedding Shoes

THE MARTIN JOHNSON HOUSE WEDDING RECEPTION

➔  Toasts  ➔  champagne  ➔  “Ladies & gentlemen, may I have your attention please for the toasts. Please welcome our first speaker:

➔  the Maid of Honor, Lily C, & the bride’s Best Man, Davide C

➔  Brother of the Groom & Best Man, Alex T

➔  Father of the Bride, Claudio C

➔  Mother of the Groom, Leslie W

➔  Mother-Son Dance  ➔  No One’s Gonna Love You by Band of Horses   ➔  fade early: yes    ➔  “Nick says, ‘My mom worked her ass off everyday to support me by herself. She sacrificed everything, and I’m super appreciative.’ Let’s welcome Nick & his mother, Leslie, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔  Father-Daughter Dance  ➔  Alla Fiera Dell’Est by Angelo Branduardi  ➔  start at 0:50ish  ➔  fade early: yes  ➔  “Now let’s welcome MaiAda & her father, Claudio, to the dance floor. The song that they chose for this dance is one they used to listen to when MaiAda was a little girl. She says the song represents the Italian culture that her dad helped her connect to.”

➔  First Dance  ➔  I Really Like You – Carly Rae Jepsen

➔  Group Photo on Dance Floor

➔  Open Dancing (estimated – 7:15 pm +/-)

8:00 pm ➔  Bride & groom leave for sunset pics

8:15 pm   ➔  Photographer leaves

9:45 PM  ➔  last call

9:50 PM  ➔  Last Dance

  From The Knot

THE MARTIN JOHNSON HOUSE WEDDING PLAYLIST

For the cocktail hour/dinner playlist at this Martin Johnson House wedding, the bride and groom requested songs from…

Cocktail Music  ➔  Awake – Tycho, Deli – Delorean, Bros – Wolf Alice, VCR – the xx, Bombay  – El Guincho, I’m a Cuckoo – Belle and Sebastian, Shut Up Kiss Me – Ashley Olsen, Soco Amaretto Lime – Brand New, Ma il cielo e sempre piu blu – Rino Gaetano, Wolf Like Me – TV on the Radio, Hallways – Islands, Island in the Sun – Weezer, The Mother We Share – CHVRCHES, The Middle – Jimmy Eat World, REALiTi (Demo) – Grimes, Here Comes The Summer  – The Fiery Furnaces, Lust For Life – Girls, Best To You – Blood Orange, Closer – Tegan & Sara, Per Dimenticare – Zero Assoluto, You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos!, La Loose – Waxahatchee, Los Angeles – St. Vincent, Che fantastica storia e la vita – Antonello Venditti

  From Green Wedding Shoes

  Dinner Music  ➔  First Day of my life – Bright eyes, Feeling Good – Nina Simone, push pull – Purity Ring, La Descrizione Di Un Attimo – Tiromancino, Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National, Pedestrian at best – Courtney Barnett, Challengers – The New Pornographers, Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect – The Decemberists, Mi Fido Di Te – Jovanotti, I Put A Spell on You – Nina Simone, You Send Me – Sam Cooke, Nobody – Mitski, Heart It Races – Dr Dog, Feel Good Inc – Gorillaz, Notte Prima Degli Esami – Antonello Venditti, Bend and Not Break – Dashboard Confessional, In the Aeroplane over the sea – Neutral Milk Hotel, The Gardener – The Tallest Man on Earth, I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie, Per Dimenticare – Zero Assoluto

♥  T H E   D A N C E   M U S I C  ♥

Play A Lot  ➔  Hip Hop/R&B, Alternative/Rock/Metal, Indie Dance Music

Play Some  ➔  90s Pop/Rock/Rap, Trap, Danceable Rap, R&B, early 2000s pop punk, emo & alternative

Play 1 or 2   ➔  Slow Dances (i.e. Miley Cyrus – Adore You, Alicia Keys – No One)

♥  M U S T – P L A Y S  ♥

Beyonce – Crazy in Love, Grimes – Flesh Without Blood, Carly Rae Jepsen – Run Away With Me, Cardi B – I Like it Like That, Charli XCX – Boys, LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is Playing at My House, Los Campesinos! – Avocado Baby, Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas – Deceptacon, No Doubt – Just A Girl

  (c) My Sun & Stars Co

  ♥  P L A Y   I F   Y O U   C A N   ♥

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – Y Control, Yeasayer – Rome, ONE, Bruno Mars/Cardi B – Finesse (REMIX), Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee – Despacito (no Justin Beiber), Shakira – Hips Don’t Lie, The Killers – Mr. Brightside, Miley Cyrus – Wrecking Ball, Outkast – Hey Ya, Drake – Started From The Bottom, The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face, Sia – Cheap Thrills, Janelle Monae – Tightrope, Q.U.E.E.N., or Do My Thing, Beyonce – Flawless, 7/11, Love on Top, Blink-182 – All the Small Things, Weezer – Buddy Holly, Purity Ring – fineshrine, Missy Elliott – Work It, MGMT – Electric Feel, Passion Pit – Sleepyhead or Little Secrets, Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill, LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls, Dance Yrself Clean, !!! – One Girl/One Boy, Lizzo – Good As Hell, Alicia Keys – Girl On Fire, Ariana Grande – Love Me Harder, Destiny’s Child – Bootylicious, Usher – U Got it Bad, Kanye West – All of the Lights, Will Smith – Gettin’ Jiggy With It, M.I.A. – Paper Planes, Justin Timberlake – Suit & Tie, A$AP Rocky – F**ckin’ Problems, Snoop Dogg – Drop it Like it’s Hot / Gin & Juice, Ginuwine – Pony, Ying Yang Twins – Get Low, Nicki Minaj – Super Bass, La Roux – In For the Kill, Kenrick Lamar – King Kunta / DNA, Arcade Fire – Lies, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Pheonix – 1901, Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark, Modest Mouse – Float On, R Kelly – Ignition (Remix), DJ Snake, Lil Jon – Turn Down for What, Lady GaGa – Just Dance, Bad Romance, STRFKR – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Santana – Smooth, Chainsmokers – Closer, Amy Winehouse – Valerie, Chromeo – Fancy Footwork, Bonafied Lovin, Justice – D.A.N.C.E., Hot Chip – I Feel Better or Over and Over, Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire or Lights & Music, Gorillaz – DARE, Miike Snow – Genghis Khan, M83 – Midnight City, The Rapture – How Deep is Your Love?, Future Islands, Phantogram – Don’t Move, You Don’t Get Me High Anymore, Spice Girls, Blondie – Heart of Glass, The Weather Girls – It’s Raining Men (Mother of the Groom request), Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’, Hall & Oates – Rich Girl, Maneater,  Sia – Chandelier

  From Green Wedding Shoes

  ♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   G E N R E S   ♥

60s/70s Old School, Motown, Funk, Disco, Oldies50s + 60s Rock/Pop, Electronic Dance Music, 70s/Classic Rock, Big Band/Rat Pack, Country, Tween music, Old stuff

♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   S O N G S   ♥

Blurred Lines, Pharell – Happy, WAGON WHEEL, Miike Snow – Animal

♥  D O   N O T   P L A Y   A R T I S T S   ♥

CHRIS BROWN, Ed Sheeran, Elvis, Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, Justin Beiber

Again, I was honored to be the one and only San Diego wedding DJ MaiAda and Nick trusted with their big day. Thank you! See more at #MaiTiesTheTut.

  From Green Wedding Shoes

SAN DIEGO WEDDING VENDOR LIST

Here is the amazing team of San Diego wedding vendors I had the pleasure of working with on this published wedding:

Ceremony Venue ➔  Martin Johnson House

Day-Of Coordinator ➔  Robyn Fallon from Robyn Nicole

Caterer ➔  Giuseppe’s

DJ/MC  ➔  DJ Staci, the Track Star

Photographer (featured image credit)  ➔  My Sun and Stars Co

Officiant  ➔  Joe Thompson 

Cake Bakery ➔  Sweet Cheeks  

Florist ➔  Native Poppy 

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  GIVE IT TO ME BABY

[itsiotrecords-blog]

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The study of etymology can lead to some surprising results. Between English’s mixed Latin, Germanic and French origins, explorers traveling the world and borrowing words, and Britain’s time as a worldwide empire, many English words have bizarre and muddled origins. The journeys of these ten words from their original meaning to their modern definition are especially surprising.

#1 The Color Orange Used to be Geoluhread Color is an abstract thing. What we think of as one particular color might just look like a combination of two other colors to someone else. For example, the Greeks didn’t have a word for blue.  The way we look at the color spectrum is totally different across every culture. Western culture sees things in terms of the rainbow: yellow, orange, red, etc.  We use the word “orange” in part because of the fruit, but before the fruit became popular English speakers used the word “Geoluhread.” Geoluhread is old English and can be split up into Geoluh (now pronounced in modern English as “yellow”) and Read (now pronounced as “red”). So before we had the fruit we were essentially calling orange “yellowred.”

#2 Goodbye is a Contraction of God Be With Ye The influence of Christianity is everywhere in western culture. Many of the common first names we use, like Peter, James and John, are names from the Bible. The customs of English speakers and many English words are based on religion, often without most people being aware of the fact. In this vein, our most common phrase to bid someone farewell is “goodbye.” While it seems like a mundane, secular word, goodbye is actually a contraction of the phrase “God be with ye,”  an expression that dates back to the 14th century.

#3 Cushy is an Urdu Word Cushion comes from the Anglo-French word cussin, which in turn comes from the Latin coxa, or hip. It’s no wonder then that the word cushion originated as somewhere to relax your hip on, and most people assume that the word cushy in turn comes from cushion, because what’s more relaxing that lounging on a cushion?  However, cushy is actually a word English took from Urdu. In the Urdu language, “kusi” translates as easy or comfortable. The British army picked up the word in India, and then spread it during World War I as a word used to describe an easy task. So remember the irony of a word like cushy becoming popular in wartime the next time you use it.

#4 WWI made Pipsqueak Famous Speaking of World War I, soldiers in the trenches spent a lot of time trying to think of other things than the horrible conditions they found themselves in. In typical dark soldier humor, they gave cute names to the artillery shells that were constantly killing and maiming their friends and comrades. Some of these names, like “whizz-bang” and “plonker” still exist in the English vocabulary, but the one that really took off was “pipsqueak.” It’s hard to imagine any artillery shell being described as a non-threatening runt when it’s zooming in on your location, but there you go.

#5 Buffalo Wings Come from Buffalo We all know that buffalo wings don’t actually have anything to do with buffalo, but have you ever wondered why? For starters, buffalo itself entered the English language by mistake. The animal we call a buffalo in American English is actually a bison  — a buffalo is a large cow found in Asia and Africa. As for buffalo wings, they come from Buffalo, New York. They’re a relatively new food on the International stage, as they were largely unknown outside of Buffalo until the Buffalo Bills went to the Super Bowl an unbelievable four times in a row between 1990 and 1993. The Bills lost every single one, but the media spotlight helped buffalo wings conquer North America.

#6 The Venus Fly Trap isn’t From Venus The Venus Fly Trap was discovered in the swamps of the South Eastern United States.  It has fascinated people for decades with its seemingly un-plant-like ability to eat any insects that stray too close to its “mouth.” Many assume that this alien quality is why we call it the “Venus” Fly Trap, but the truth is much, much sexier. The plant, with its soft red juicy petals and hairs that trigger the trap to seal its victims fate, set the off the dirty minds of colonial botanists. They gave it a scientific name, Dionaea Muscipula, which served as an inside joke. Dionaea means daughter of Dione, aka Aphrodite, the Goddess of Sex. You’d think that Muscipula translates as eater of insects, which is what the plant actually does, but “Insect Eater” is actually Muscicapa.  Muscipula means mouse trap. So, the botanists created a name that alludes to the female anatomy by choosing a Latin word that basically means sexy mammal trap. This was then cleaned up a bit to get the name we all use.

#7 Caesar Salad Has Nothing to do With Julius Caesar Julius Caesar is so famous that that his “Caesar” actually means leader in multiple languages — Russian  (Tsar) or German (Kaiser) are just a couple of examples. But of all the things Caesar is famous for, he did not invent or inspire the classic Caesar salad. That honor can be traced to one humble man in Tijuana, Mexico, Caesar Cardini. Cardini owned a restaurant in Tijuana during American Prohibition. Americans in search of liquor would stream over the border to enjoy alcohol in Mexico. During a boozy Independence Day celebration, Cardini’s restaurant ran out of many ingredients, so he threw together a salad with what he had left and sold it with a dramatic table side tossing by his chef.  The dish has since gone from a simple start in Mexico to a meal you can find all over the world.

#8 Bear Is a Codeword Bears have been regarded with fear and respect wherever they interact with man. The ancestors of the English language were so fearful of them that, like Voldemort in Harry Potter, people refused to use their name out of fear that uttering the word would cause a bear to appear. Instead they used a version of “He who should not be named,” which translates as “the brown one”.  This would evolve into the word we know today, “bear.” The actual original word is lost to history, although we have a pretty good guess. Long story short, today it would be pronounced like ‘wrought’ or ‘rout’.  As in “Don’t go down that path!  There is a wrought in the forest and it might eat you!”

#9 Strafe Meant to Punish We’re going back to World War I for this one. It’s easy to see why the Great War is the origin of so many words — it was a giant melting pot of races, social classes and cultures. Words that were used in the trenches would spread between armies, and then spread around the world as the soldiers went home. “Gott strafe England!” (“God punish England!”) was a German phrase used in German propaganda. It spread to the Allied armies as slang for punishing, bombarding or reprimanding someone.  With the advent of air warfare it evolved even further, lost its former meaning, and took on the new life of attacking ground forces with a machine gun from a low-flying aircraft.

#10 Bless You is a Pagan Sacrificial Phrase Just like Christianity, the western world’s pagan roots pervade the English language. Even today the days of our week are named after the old Gods. Tuesday is “Tiw’s Day,” Tiw being another name for Mars. Thursday is actually, “Thor’s Day,” while Wednesday references Woden (Odin). The term “Bless You” is associated with Christianity, but like Easter and Christmas it has its roots in Pagan tradition. It comes from the phrase “blessen,” which means “mark with blood”. In the Germanic Pagan tradition you made something holy when you sacrificed to it or marked it with blood. So every time you say “Bless You” you’re saying you’ll mark the recipient with blood, which is certainly a twist on the intended message.

Source: TopTenz