- apprenticeship
- 1590s, from apprentice + -ship. Replaced earlier apprenticehood (late 14c., from -hood, q.v.).
- apprentice (n.)
- c.1300, from O.Fr. aprentiz "someone learning" (13c.), from aprendre (Mod.Fr. apprendre) "to learn, teach," contracted from L. apprehendere (see apprehend). Aphetic form prentice was long more usual in English. The verb is first attested 1630s.
- prentice
- c.1300, aphetic for apprentice (q.v.).
- stooge
- 1913, "stage assistant," of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of student (with the mispronunciation STOO-jent), in sense of "apprentice." Meaning "lackey, person used for another's purpose" first recorded 1937, perhaps influenced by the Three Stooges film comedy act, which had been appearing in movies since 1930, starting as "Ted Healy and His Stooges."
- snob
- 1781, "a shoemaker, a shoemaker's apprentice," of unknown origin. It came to be used in Cambridge University slang c.1796 for "townsman, local merchant," and by 1831 it was being used for "person of the ordinary or lower classes." Meaning "person who vulgarly apes his social superiors" arose 1843, popularized 1848 by William Thackeray's "Book of Snobs." The meaning later broadened to include those who insist on their gentility, in addition to those who merely aspire to it, and by 1911 had its main modern sense of "one who despises those considered inferior in rank, attainment, or taste."
- bowling
- 1535, "playing at bowls" (1440, implied in v. bowlyn), from gerund of bowl "wooden ball" (1413), from M.Fr. boule "ball," ult. from L. bulla "bubble, knob, round thing." Bowling alley is from 1555.
"Noon apprentice ... [shall] play ... at the Tenys, Closshe, Dise, Cardes, Bowles nor any other unlawfull game." [Act 11, Henry VII, 1495]
- apprehend
- late 14c., "to grasp in the mind," from L. apprehendere "to take hold of, grasp," from ad- "to" + prehendere "to seize" (see prehensile). Metaphoric extension to "seize with the mind" took place in L., and was the sole sense of cognate O.Fr. aprendre (Mod.Fr. apprendre "to learn, to be informed about;" also cf. apprentice). Original sense returned in Eng. in meaning "to seize in the name of the law, arrest," recorded from 1540s, which use probably was taken directly from Latin.
- punk (2)
- "worthless person" (especially a young hoodlum), 1917, probably from punk kid "criminal's apprentice," underworld slang first attested 1904 (with overtones of "catamite"). Ultimately from punk "prostitute, harlot, strumpet," first recorded 1596, of unknown origin. For sense shift from "harlot" to "homosexual," cf. gay. By 1923 used generally for "young boy, inexperienced person" (originally in show business, e.g. punk day, circus slang from 1930, "day when children are admitted free"). The verb meaning "to back out of" is from 1920. The "young criminal" sense is no doubt the inspiration in punk rock first attested 1971 (in a Dave Marsh article in "Creem"), popularized 1976.