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In mid-19th century Edinburgh, the G. Mackay distillery produced a well-regarded whiskey. When comparing this product to imitators, Scotsmen talked of “the real Mackay.” Scottish migrants brought this catchphrase to the United States and applied it to anything considered authentic. Over time its spelling was changed to “the real McCoy.”

Beginning in the Middle Ages washed wool fabric was stretched tightly on wooden frames called tenters.. The wet fabric was attached to L-shaped hooks along the tenter’s perimeter to keep it from shrinking.  When in a strained state we still say we’re on tenterhooks.

Robinson J. Peepers, the bespectacled junior high school science teacher played by Wally Cox on television from 1952 to 1955, left his name behind as shorthand for timid, spectacles-wearing men like him:  Mr. Peepers.

In 1958 a new character was introduced to the comic strip Popeye: a dimwitted nephew of the sailor man named “Dufus.”  Over time the re-spelled term “doofus” became slang for clueless individuals.

At parties a century ago women hung small cards from their wrist on which they jotted down whom they’d be dancing with.  That’s what we refer to when we say “My dance card’s full.”

Calling an inconsequential event “no skin off my nose” references the way boxers described a wimpy punch:  too weak to scrape skin off an opponent’s nose