Real Words?
There are two words I have used and heard used which some people say I made up. (I did not.) Anyway, I wondered about the origins.1) Pine: (to want) as in "He pines for her."2) Jake: (satisfactory) as...
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Your friends must not have dictionaries.The AHDO says about your sense of pine:Middle English pinen, from Old English pnian, to cause to suffer, from *pne, pain, from Vulgar Latin *pna, penalty,...
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Regarding the first one, your friends are complete idiots. I can forgive not knowing about "jake," but "pine" is pretty commonplace.
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You said it! I mean, haven't they even heard about how Norwegian Blue parrots pine for the fjords?
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That's exactly what I'm talking about. And by the way he's not dead; he's resting. Or you may have stunned him.Also, just so we're clear, I said people I knew not friends. I tend to come into contact...
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And from our inaccessible archives we have a tangential discussion of "jake-leg:"dmadams(11/24/03 12:21 am)Reply Re: jack-leg FWIW, I found this, (in which 'jake-leg' is highlighted). The author cites...
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According to Cassell's Dictionary of Slang: [1910+] 1 (Aus./N.Z./US) satisfactory, as required, esp. in phrase she's/she'll be/we're jake. it's fine, it/things will be fine, we are fine.
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Looking at the above dictionary reference, can I assume that jake came into use @1910? Also, it seems like maybe it originated in Australia and was adopted by the US. Kind of like Billabong (brand...
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The OED2 gives a first cite of 1914 and claims a US origin.In previous discussions it's been mentioned that some prominent dictionary editor has a habit of giving guesstimated dates of origin instead...
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Cassell's does that. Chambers gives the specific year.What Cassell's does is place it within a decade. The [1910+] means it came about between 1910 and 1920.
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