This column is devoted to the origins of words and phrases, or as a linguist would put it, to etymology. Where words come from is a fascinating subject, full of folklore and historical lessons. The readers’ responses and requests are welcome

Devika from Moratuwa asks, “An Aussie friend of mine says the word ‘bloke’ originated in Australia. Is that correct?”

Bloke

Bloke isn’t an Aussie word, though perhaps nowadays they use it more than anyone else. Bloke is a British slang term for a man, which is commonly used in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The origin is shrouded in mystery, but it seems the word may have come from the ‘secret language’ Shelta, spoken by Irish and Welsh travelling salesmen and gypsies in the 19th century. Another thought is that the word may have originated from Hindi loke, meaning a man. (Romany, the Gypsy language, has originated in India.)

Pass the buck

Chandrasiri from Rajagiriya wants to know how the phrase ‘pass the buck’ started. The meaning of this phrase means “to evade responsibility by passing it on to someone else”. If you look up ‘buck’ in the dictionary, you’ll find a dozen meanings. The most common one is “slang term for the American dollar”. That’s not the buck meant here though.

If you look a little further down, you’ll find another definition: ‘an article used in a game of poker’ - and that’s the buck that was first passed. Poker became very popular in America during 19th century.

Players were highly suspicious of cheating or any form of bias. In order to avoid unfairness, the deal continuously changed hands during sessions. The person who was next in line to deal would be given a marker.

This was often a knife with a handle made of buck’s horn - hence the marker becoming known as a buck. When the dealer’s turn was done he ‘passed the buck’. Silver dollars were later used as markers and this is probably the origin of the use of buck as a slang term for dollar.

In the Limelight

Gerald from Colombo 3 asks “How did the word limelight origin?”

The word ‘limelight’ today refers to any position of public attention. Origin is straight forward. Thomas Drummond in 1816 devised a special lighting source for theatres. It was a cylinder of lime heated by an incandescence flame and placed behind a lens or in front of a reflector.

These ‘lime lights’ were very bright. Thus the star performer was quite visible to the audience as long as he stood in it. The performers became known as ‘limes’ in industry jargon.

Robot

Prasanna from Gampaha asks whether the word Robot is an acronym – (a word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the name.)

Early in the 20th century, Czechoslovakian playwright and author Karel Capek envisioned a world ruled by automated machines. The Czech term for compulsory work was robota, and so Capek shortened his characters to be robots. Capek crystallized this dark vision in 1920 in a play called R.U.R.

The initials stood for Rossum’s Universal Robots. R.U.R was a British firm that mass-produced robots designed to work as mechanical slaves. Ultimately, however, the machines triumphed in a rebellion, destroyed humanity and created a new world of their own. That is the origin of the word. It is not a acronym.