People who like common words/phrases origins

[relthereturn]

At least a year ago I saw this TV program. It was one of those not much on Sunday afternoon jobbies, and boy am I glad I watched it. It was a ten minute thing about the origin of certain phrases to do witht the house, like dead as a door nail. Really fascinating, but too brief! Were there any others, seems likely to be part of a series. Did anyone catch it?

[Quizmonster]

It was, indeed, a series called 'What's in a Word', which was presented by Tim Grundy and broadcast by Channel 4.

[monty0703]

I Managed to catch the last 5 mins of one a while ago. It was about everyday word and phrases that had nautical origins. It was really interestin - wish they would repeat it.

[jenstar]

I did see a couple of those programmes but I have to say that there were quite a few "folk etymologies" trundled out, i.e. interesting stories that don't actually stand up to scrutiny. Word origins seems to be an area that invites fanciful stories, for some reason. (Even Adam Hart-Davis fell for one in his otherwise excellent series on the Victorians, claiming that "tip" came from the phrase "To Ensure Promptness". Several people picked him up on that one on the BBC messageboards and he apologised.)