The Word Detective (via) answers specific questions about the origin of words and the Online Etymology Dictionary provides the origin of everyday words.
According to the dictionary, crap doesn’t come from Thomas Crapper, despite folk etymology insistence.
Now this is something that I can relate to sense when I was a youngster in Oregon and raised on a farm. Being about sixteen years old or so I was chasing a Badger across the alfalfa field that had been cleared of the hay and was catching up to it and was willing and able and wanting to kick it in the chin with my new shoes that I had been given to wear (they were new and big and heavy) and I thought that they could do some real damage to that little critter. Well to make a long story short when I got about fifteen feet from it, it turned around and let out a deep growl and showed its teeth and I turned ten shaded of white and almost craped my pants They are really mean and tough. One badger can take on six good dogs and win. I am very lucky.
» Comment by Sil on July 21, 2003 @ 11:21 amSo the word crap comes from when Sil was a young lad sporting big new heavy boots with which to kick a badger and the badger turned on him, revealing huge vicious teeth.
I’ll submit it to the etymology dictionary.
» Comment by dan on July 21, 2003 @ 1:47 pmi was having a chat with my old man about norsemen and vikings, now i don’t remember the exact details as it was just an aside, but i’m quite sure that the word hooligan has a similar origin to that of the vandals, the meaning derived from the predominant traits displayed on encountering these people for the first time.
» Comment by oisin on November 7, 2003 @ 12:02 pmWhat do you think? worth a dig?
Merriam Webster suggests that the word hooligan is from Patrick Hooligan, an Irish hoodlum in Southwark, London. Vandal comes from the Latin Vandalii (plural), of Germanic origin.
» Comment by dan on November 7, 2003 @ 1:41 pm