Giving the sack to stupid etymologies
Here’s a cute Internet-driven myth about a slang phrase that likely rose from the days of mimeographed bulletin-board postings, which in turn likely rose from the “long-ago” days of town criers spouting idiotic folk etymology. Well, the town criers didn’t do that, to my knowledge, but for a moment, imagine the clang of bells and shouts of “Hear ye! Hear ye! Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down—hence the expression, ‘to get fired’!” Clang clang clang.
So goes one etymological canard, to which I clang my bell and cry in return, “Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Yeah, sure, and Donald Trump was holding the torch, made out of scripts from The Apprentice and possibly his toupee!”
Ignore the fact that somewhat barbarous people were unlikely to investigate compromise relocation solutions for their neighbors
JS OK, I never said the footnote had to be shorter than the subhead, so here's more of the story: Sirbin came over from Old French as surbinge, meaning the cut of meat that was above (sur) the loin. You see this prefix in surpass (“to go beyond”), surcharge (“to charge extra”), survive (“to live beyond”), and the long obsolete but too-lovely-to-ignore sur-douded (“shaded from above”). Also— surname, the name above the name, or beyond the name. Now, surname experienced the same spelling shift as surbin—I instead of U —for a time, because the folk etymology at the time associated the word with one’s father, or sire. John Williamson is John, William’s son, so it would make sense that William’s son was the “sir name.” But that bit of mistaken punnery didn’t take hold, and so the spelling remains surname. On the other hand, the punnery around benighting one’s meatsteak very likely set the sirbin spelling into concrete. By the way, it seems kings ate very well in Medieval times, as one would expect, as joining James I ("the second Solomon”) as the purported beknighter in the lands of Etymologia Mythica are Charles II (“the Merrie Monarch”) and Henry the VIII (“I am I am”).
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Bill Brohaugh
who irritated them because of who knows why (didn’t mow their lawns often enough? played their stereo bagpipes too loud after dusk?). I suspect that such clans relied on that classic relocation solution known as a “threat." We don’t want to kill you, so leave, and we won’t. Saves matches that way.
Now, layer on the fact that “to fire” someone is American slang. I challenge the author of this myth to name more than zero “clans of long ago,” Braveheart style, in the U.S., which doesn’t actually have that much “long ago.” And a synonym of fire, as in “fire a gun,” is discharge. Which can mean ... well, it doesn’t mean “burn your house down.”