What’s the Word: A column spicier than plain vanilla

OK, I’m not Clint Eastwood. Oh come on, quit snickering. I’m not alluding to the rather obvious physical differences. After all, I’m certainly more Nero Wolfe than Josie Wales. Appearance-wise that is. What I’m referring to is Mr. Eastwood’s reputation as the “strong silent type” and “a man of few words.”

Well, not me. Unlike the steely-eyed, closed-mouth Clint, I like to talk. I enjoy conversation. It’s fun. It’s stimulating. And depending on who you’re talking to, it can be informative and even educational.

It’s also where I get most of my ideas for my columns. My friends, relatives and co-workers are well aware that my column is about words, phrases, old sayings and unusual terms, so if one of these pops up in the middle of a conversation they’ll sometimes just stop and go, “Hmm, wonder where that comes from?” With the unspoken implication being, “Hey Charlie, see if you can find out.”

So here’s a few terms that have come up in some recent chats that set me thinking.

The first is “plain vanilla.” I’ve heard this all my life. It usually refers to something simple, without any frills. It’s been around for a long time and is in very common usage. We use phrases like “plain vanilla radio” ? i.e., one with no options. Most people agree this came about because vanilla is considered to be the basic flavor of ice cream, which makes sense, but there is still some question as to how it came to be such a popular slang expression.

There are, of course, several theories, but my personal favorite, being a music lover, is the one that claims that saxophonist Lester Young coined the phrase circa 1935 or so. Seems he used to advise young musicians to “play the vanilla” or “play the plain vanilla” chords to a song. In other words, keep it simple, not flashy or showy. Other musicians, like drummer Gene Krupa, were quoted using it, and from there it spread outside the musical community into general usage.

Next is a term used to described something I have been accused of on more than one occasion, usually by one of my elders, “tomfoolery.” Tomfoolery means “foolish or silly behavior.” This one, not surprisingly, evolved from the nickname Tom, derived from Thomas, which was once so common it was often used as a personification before nouns. A “Tom Long” for instance, was someone who took a long time to tell a story. And “Tom Piper” was used to refer to a piper, which can actually be found up in a poem by Spenser.

So a “Tom Fool” was a foolish person. This eventually became “tomfool,” and from there it wasn’t far to tomfoolery, which, of course, is used to describe the behavior of a tomfool. I first heard the expression when my cousins and I used to get rowdy and boisterous at family gatherings and some adult would invariably come up to us and say, “Now, you kids are going to have to cut out all this tomfoolery and be quiet.”

We never questioned what tomfoolery was because that was pretty obvious, we were doing it. But I did always wonder about the origin of the term.

The next thing I’m going to talk about is a pet peeve of my boss, James Clark. It’s a common word that is commonly misused. It turns up all the time in the Standard, but fortunately James usually catches it.

It’s “host.”

Host, James will point out, is a noun, not a verb. In other words, one can “be” a host, but one can’t “host” something.

Of course “host” is just one of a whole “host” of words that are used incorrectly, something I plan to make the subject of a future column.

Stay tuned.

Charlie Johnson is news editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].