Our English language is loaded with words and phrases that came from places or experiences or customs completely unknown to us. I selected a few to share with readers, thanks to information provided by William and Mary Morris in their Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins.

Best man: We all know what the best man does at a wedding but the origin of the term might surprise you. It has a Scottish root, reaching back many centuries to a time when the groom kidnapped the selected woman and took her away. (Think of all the money they saved on flowers, musicians, and reception food and beverages.) The groom took along some of his friends to help him pull off the caper. They were called "groomsmen". The guy in the group who was the closest friend of the groom was known as the best man.

Bridesmaids: In the scenario described above, there were close friends of the bride (the woman being kidnapped) who either helped or pretended to defend the bride from the abducting groom.

Brass: Sometimes the bosses in a company are referred to as "the top brass"; sometimes the term is used for high-ranking military officers. Brass is a shortened version of brass hat, used in the British Army as far back as 1890. The term referred to the gold braid worn on officers' hats as a symbol of their rank. In World War I, enlisted men in the U.S. Army borrowed the term to refer (contemptuously) to top-ranking officers.

Golf: The game dates back to at least the 1300s, but no one is quite sure where it started. The word golf may have come from a Dutch word kolf that means a club for hitting balls. Another theory is that it comes from the Scottish word gowf that means "to strike". Golf was brought to the U.S. around 1888.

Mob: We know what a "mob" is--a huge, noisy crowd or, in terms of New Jersey, a network of families who operate on the other side of the law, inspiring lots of colorful movies. Originally, the Latin term mobile vulgus (meaning an excited or vulgar crowd) was the beginning. Later, the phrase was shortened to mobile in the 1500s and then even later to mob in the seventeenth century.

Naked truth: Plain, unadorned truth is what we mean when we say "I'm telling you the naked truth." The expression comes from a fable in which Truth and Falsehood went swimming in a stream. Falsehood came out of the water first and pulled the sneaky trick of dressing in Truth's clothing. Truth, not wanting to put on Falsehood's clothes, stayed naked.

Nightmare: This term has nothing to do with a female horse. Its origin is in the Anglo-Saxon word mare meaning "incubus"---an evil spirit or monster that sat or lay on a person's chest during sleep. In the Middle Ages, this creature was sometimes called the night-hag. Currently, it means any kind of frightening dream or an extremely unpleasant daytime experience: That tax audit was a NIGHTMARE.

Riffraff: Exclusive social groups (or even gated residential communities) may talk about keeping out the "riffraff"--people at the bottom levels of the social scale. The word came to English from the French term rif et raf, which meant one and all. A Swedish word raff (sweepings) may have blended in to help create this phrase for bottom-feeders in the community.

Turnpike: In an earlier time, the pike was a pole set on a vertical post, used for barring movement along a road. When the traveler paid the required fee, the pike was moved out of the way to allow the traveler to move on. In the early days of our toll roads, turnpike was applied to any important road.