Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings

by Trench H. Johnson

Dame School. The old name for a girls’ school taught by a spinster or dame.

Damsons. Properly Damascenes, from Damascus.

Dancing Chancellor. Sir Christopher Hatton so pleased Queen Elizabeth by his dancing at a Court masque that she made him a Knight of the Garter; subsequently he became Lord Chancellor of England.

Dandelion. A corruption of the French dent de lion, from its fancied resemblance to a lion’s tooth.

Dandy. From the French dandin, silly fellow, ninny.

Dantzic. Expresses the town settled by the Danes.

Danvers Street. From Danvers House, in which resided Sir John Danvers, to whom the introduction of the Italian style of horticulture in England was due.

Darbies. A pair of handcuffs, in allusion to Darby and Joan, who were inseparable.

Dardanelles. After the city on the Asiatic side founded by Dardanus, the ancestor of Priam, the last king of Troy.

Dark and Bloody Ground. Kentucky, the great battle-ground of the Indians and white settlers, as also that of the savage tribes amongst themselves.