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[yucca]

Кто еще не подписан на dictionary_wotd?

Вот, скажем, слово blackguard, обозначает какого-то нехорошего человека. Сразу в голову (мою, по крайней мере) приходит "черный страж", назгулы там всякие, Дарт Вадер и прочие страсти. А на самом деле это вот откуда:

Blackguard is from black + guard. The term originally referred to the lowest kitchen servants of a court or of a nobleman's household. They had charge of pots and pans and kitchen other utensils, and rode in wagons conveying these during journeys from one residence to another. Being dirtied by this task, they were jocularly called the "black guard."

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2005/02/25.html