The first recorded use of 'by hook or by crook'
is from the fourteenth century. In medieval times, the peasantry
was not allowed to cut down trees, but they were permitted to
gather firewood from loose or dead branches using a hook
(bill-hook) or a crook (a staff with a curved end like those
used by shepherds). Some peasants exceeded the strict use of
these tools, and so the term has evolved into its current usage,
meaning to achieve something by whatever means possible.
The word 'deadline' was
originally used literally. During the Civil War, prisoners at
one camp were confined to a pen and surrounded by a “deadline”;
so called because if a prisoner crossed it, he would be shot
dead. Now it is a synonym for “due date” or “time limit,”
Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th-century journalists who
were referring to the fact that its residents were “windbags”
and “full of hot air.”
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