11 November 2008

History is where you find it

Rico says he came upon some interesting word derivations in this book, all dating from the election of 1840.

There were new catch-phrases never before heard that would enter forever into the American vocabulary:
Keep the ball rolling
booz(e) (meaning liquor, after E.G. Booz, the Philadelphia distiller who supplied the hard cider for the Whig campaign in log-cabin shaped bottles)
and O.K. (now normally spelled okay) for Old Kinderhook, the nickname for Martin Van Buren

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