Most of the dictionaries can`t tell us where conniption might have come from. Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable suggests that it might have come from convulsion. Etymonline says that it is perhaps related to corruption or a rare English word...
psychiatrist - podictionary 2
In ancient Greece psyche referred that ethereal aspect of ourselves, also more literally to our breath, and by extension, this word for the fluttery breath of life became the Greek word for "butterfly."
dapper - podictionary 913
The source of the word dapper doesn`t mean "well dressed," but instead means "heavy." The idea is that someone who is weighty and important will look the part.
crisis - podictionary 912
the reason a crisis is called a crisis is because it is in crisis that new directions are decided upon
regurgitate - podictionary 54
a word like regurgitate implies the existence of another word, gurgitate.
quaff - podictionary 911
The word quaff, meaning "to drink deeply" appeared in English in the early 1500s, can you hear the sound of a beer being sucked back in the word?
dice - podictionary 53
they are called dice, because they give the numbers. The word dice comes from Latin datum meaning "that which is given."
spruce - podictionary 910
Is there a connection between "spruce up for a party" and spruce trees?
junket - podictionary 908
Where junket started was in Latin and then in French where words for "rushes" were applied to woven baskets.
bayonet - podictionary 907
The name is usually attributed to a town in France. Bayonne is thought to have become famous for the kind of knives or swords they made.
migraine - podictionary 49
hemicrania meaning "half the head" became migraine. So it is pain in half the head that lead to the name.
nicotine - podictionary 906
the plants were named nicotaine is because a guy named Jean Nicot was singing their praises as a cure for everything from headache to cancer
quarantine - podictionary 905
By the time the word quarantine got into English it meant "a forty day period"
penthouse - podictionary 904
magazines like this often end up in bathrooms. A look at the etymology of the word penthouse makes this location kind of appropriate
hobby - podictionary 47
the reason a horse got called a hobby was that many little working horses were actually named Hobby or Robbie or Hobin or Robin
bellwether - podictionary 903
I took a look in the newspapers at how the word bellwether was being used.
The shopping trends between American Thanksgiving and Christmas are said to be a bellwether of the economy.
The number of Harvard grads taking jobs in the financial sector was...
pretzel - podictionary 902
The religious observance drains out of his account when he relates that the temperance movement has caused wines, cordials and liquors to be replaced with coffee and lemonade.
vitamin - podictionary 901
And so it was that the word was punished by the removal of its "e" so that people wouldn`t ever be fooled again into thinking that a vitamin needed to be an amine.
museum - podictionary 44
The Museum was singular, there was only one, and it was at Alexandria in classical times. In Greek it was the Museion because it was the temple of the muses.
interview - podictionary 900
The word comes from French and was once two words entre voir literally meaning "to see between" but more figuratively "to see each other." By that definition telephone interviews would be an impossibility.
