member of a major U.S. street gang, founded in South Central Los Angeles 1971, the name supposedly originally was cribs, partly a reference to the youth of most of the original members, and when they began carrying "pimp canes" it was altered to Crip, which has been attested in U.S. slang as a shortening of cripple (n.) since 1918.
"the beaten dog in a fight," 1887, from under + dog (n.). Compare top dog "dominant person in a situation or hierarchy" (see top (adj.)). Its opposite, overdog, is attested by 1908.
I'm a poor underdog
But tonight I will bark
With the great Overdog
That romps through the dark.
[from "Canis Major," Robert Frost, 1928]
1590s, "a constellation, a group of stars," from Greek asterismos "a marking with stars," from aster "star" (from PIE root *ster- (2) "star"). Originally any grouping of stars, whether a constellation or not; in modern use usually the latter. The "Big Dipper" is an asterism; Ursa Major is the constellation which contains it. Other examples are the "Summer Triangle," "the sickle" of Leo, "the teapot" of Sagittarius.
1778, "slope," from French rampe, a back-formation from Old French verb ramper "to climb, scale, mount;" see ramp (v.). Meaning "road on or off a major highway" is from 1952, American English. Older sense (now obsolete or archaic) was "a leap, spring, bound" (1670s); earlier still, "a climbing plant" (late 15c.).
c. 1600, in ancient Greek music, in reference to one of the three standard tetrachords, from French diatonique, from Latin diatonicus, from Greek diatonikos, from diatonos "extending; pertaining to the diatonic scale," from dia "through, across" (see dia-) + teinein "to stretch," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch." In modern music, "using tones, intervals, and harmonies of the standard major and minor scales without chromatic alteration," 1690s. Related: Diatonically.
"female baton-twirler," 1938, short for drum-majorette (1938), fem. of drum-major (1590s; see drum (n.)).
The perfect majorette is a pert, shapely, smiling extrovert, who loves big, noisy crowds and knows how to make those crowds love her. [Life magazine, Oct. 10, 1938]
(The article notes that the activity "has been going on for about six years now").
late 14c., mevement, "change of position; passage from place to place," from Old French movement "movement, exercise; start, instigation" (Modern French mouvement), from Medieval Latin movimentum, from Latin movere "to move, set in motion" (from PIE root *meue- "to push away"). In the musical sense of "major division of a piece" it is attested from 1776; in the political/artistic/social sense of "course of acts and endeavors by a body of persons toward some specific end" is from 1828. Related: Movements.
early 13c., in frere menour "Franciscan friar," literally "minor friar," from Latin minor "less, lesser, smaller, junior," figuratively "inferior, less important," which was formed as a masculine/feminine form of minus on the mistaken assumption that minus was a neuter comparative, from PIE root *mei- (2) "small." Compare minor (n.). In some cases the English word is from Old French menor "less, smaller, lower; underage, younger," from Latin minor.
Meaning "underage" is from 1570s. Meaning "lesser or smaller (than the other)" in English is from early 15c.; that of "comparatively less important" is from 1620s. The musical sense is from 1690s in reference to intervals (and to tonalities and scales characterized by a minor third), so called because the interval is lesser or shorter than the corresponding major interval. Of triads or chords by 1797; their emotional effect is notable mournful, mysterious, gloomy, or wistful, hence figurative and extended senses. In the baseball sense, minor league, made up of teams below the major league, is from 1884; the figurative extension of that is recorded by 1926.
also garrotte, 1620s, "Spanish method of capital punishment by strangulation," from Spanish garrote "stick for twisting cord" (the method used in the execution), of unknown origin. Perhaps from Old French guaroc "club, stick, rod, shaft of a crossbow," probably ultimately Celtic, but possibly from Frankish *wrokkan "to twist" (cognate with Middle Dutch wroken "to twist").
I have no hesitation in pronouncing death by the garrot, at once the most manly, and the least offensive to the eye. [Major John Richardson, "British Legion," 1837]
brightest star by magnitude, late 14c., from Latin Sirius "the Dog Star," from Greek Seirios, said to mean literally "scorching" or "the scorcher." But other related Greek words seem to derive from this use, and the name might be a folk-etymologized borrowing from some other language. An Egyptian name for it was Sothis. Beekes suggests it is from PIE root *twei- "to agitate, shake, toss; excite; sparkle" if the original meaning of the star-name is "sparkling, flickering."
The connection of the star with scorching heat is due to its ancient heliacal rising at the summer solstice (see dog days). Related: Sirian (1590s). The constellation Canis Major seems to have grown from the star.
Homer made much of it as [Kyōn], but his Dog doubtless was limited to the star Sirius, as among the ancients generally till, at some unknown date, the constellation was formed as we have it, — indeed till long afterwards, for we find many allusions to the Dog in which we are uncertain whether the constellation or its lucida is referred to. [Richard Hinckley Allen, Canis Major in "Star Names and Their Meanings," London: 1899]
