The Captain’s Log

Pontifications of The Great and Terrible Captain Cucamunga.

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 12:04:59 EDT

A Heaping Helping of Hospitality

The gerund helping that means a portion of something, typically food, is curious. Do you help someone to a helping? Or do you help yourself to a helping?

The Merrian-Webster website claims that the first recorded use of this sense of helping occurred in 1883. The same source claims that alternator, anthropogenic, and unhygienic also first appear in print in 1883.