Sometimes we wonder how a word started. Let's look at how some words emerged for good reason. In the sixteenth century "blue jeans" described the material, not the trousers.

They were originated in Nimes, France, and the cotton material wasn't named for a person, but after a city--Nimes, France, and the cloth originally was called "serge de Nimes."

During the Gold Rush days in California, Levi Strauss, was a San Francisco merchant and is credited with adding brass rivets to the corners of the pockets so the stitches wouldn't pull loose in the places that had the greatest strain. Levi's rivets made a more durable pair of pants.

Those of us who, like me, grew up in a railroad family, knew that a "doubleheader" was, (and still is) a long-train having two locomotives. Now every baseball fan knows that his favorite team was playing two games in one day.

"Checkmate" has nothing to do with banks or lovers. It comes from a Persian word, "shah-mat," meaning "The king is dead."

Why are people in Indiana call Hoosiers, meaning "something big." One theory is that the word maybe the Indianians, hearing a knock on the door, called out, "Who's here?"

Why do we call a book of maps an atlas? Well, Atlas was one of the Titans. He was sentenced to spend his life supporting the pillars of heaven on his shoulders. This was his sentence. He was pretty smart but he had been convicted of try to overthrow Zeus.

Atlas tried to make it easier by going to the high mountains of North Africa, since the peaks were closer to the heavens and he would have a lighter burden.

I have never called a bathroom a "loo" but some people in England and France threw "slop" out a window. Of course a man walk's on the outside if accompanied by a female.

Maybe he may not have been chivalrous, just careful. In France we can understand that he is walking as far as possible away from buildings.

People without plumbing have a habit of throwing garbage out windows, regardless of whether anyone was walking below.

Some people do give a warning when they jettison all kinds of noxious products. They are sort of thoughtful by yelling "Gardez l'eau", which is French for "beware of the water."

Why is a ten-dollar bill called a sawbuck? You may have used a sawhorse, whose legs form a couple of x's with the crossbars. The Roman number ten is shown by an X on the ten-dollar bill.

Why do we turn green with envy? "Green" and "pale" were alternate meanings of the same Greek words. In the seventh century B.C. the poetess Sappho used the word "green" to describe the complexion of a stricken lover. The Greeks believed that jealousy was accompanied by an over production of bile, lending a pallid green cast to the victim.

Ovid, Chaucer, and Shakespeare followed suit, freely using green to denote jealousy or envy. Perhaps the most famous such reference is Togo's speech in Act 3 of Othello:

"O! beware my lord, of jealousy:

It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on."

Although we are now more likely to ascribe the pallor of a friend to a questionable tuna fish salad sandwich rather than on emotional fit, "green with envy" remains entrenched.

Dr. A.O. Goldsmith of Kennett is a retired director of the School of Journalism, Louisiana State University.