1722, originally nautical, also close-fights, "bulkheads fore and aft for men to stand behind in close engagements to fire on the enemy," it reflects the confusion of close (v.) and close (adj.); "now understood of proximity, but orig. 'closed' space on ship-board where last stand could be made against boarders" [Weekley]. Compare also closed-minded (1880s), a variant of close-minded, as if "shut" rather than "tight," also closed-fisted, occasional variant of close-fisted "stingy."

from French plat du jour "dish of the day," which appeared from early 20c. on restaurant menus; abstracted as an all-purpose modifier by 1989. For jour "day" see journey (n.).

"final result, central or salient point," 1832, a figurative use from profit-and-loss accounting, where the final figure calculated is the bottom line on the page. Also (especially as an adjective) bottom-line, bottomline.

Latin legal term, "on the one side only," from ex "out of" (see ex-) + parte, ablative of pars "a part, piece, a division, a fraction, a side of the body" (from PIE root *pere- (2) "to grant, allot").

U.S. military decoration awarded for gallantry in action, originally (1918) a small badge worn on the ribbon of a campaign medal; as a distinct medal, it was established Aug. 8, 1932.

"occasion on which entertainment or profit is derived from injury or death of another," 1860, originally in reference to holidays for gladiatorial combat; the expression seems to be entirely traceable to an oft-quoted passage on a dying barbarian gladiator from the fourth canto (1818) of Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage":

But where his rude hut by the Danube lay

There were his young barbarians all at play,

There was their Dacian mother. He, their sire,

Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday!

"human being eaten as food," by 1848, in stories from the Fiji Islands, said to be a literal rendering of a local term, in one version puaka balava.

Bau literally stank for many days, human flesh having been cooked in every house, and the entrails thrown outside as food for pigs, or left to putrefy in the sun. The Somosomo people were fed with human flesh during their stay at Bau, they being on a visit at that time; and some of the Chiefs of other towns, when bringing their food, carried a cooked human being on one shoulder, and a pig on the other; but they always preferred the "long pig," as they call a man when baked. ["FEEJEE.—Extract of a Letter from the Rev. John Watsford, dated Ono, October 6th, 1846." in "Wesleyan Missionary Notices," Sept. 1847]

1590s, "one, two, three," etc. as opposed to ordinal numbers "first, second, third," etc.; so called because they are the principal numbers and the ordinals depend on them (see cardinal (adj.)).

"ordered by separate items" (itemized on a bill); distinguished from a table d'hôte, indicating a meal served at a fixed, inclusive price; 1826, from French à la carte, literally "by the card" (see a la + card (n.1)).

1931, in deoxyribonucleic acid (originally desoxyribonucleic), a nucleic acid which yields deoxyribose on hydrolysis, from deoxyribose (q.v.) + nucleic acid (see nucleic). It is generally found in chromosomes of higher organisms and stores genetic information.