codex

Pronounced: KOH-decks, noun

Notes: I keep getting this word and another one confused

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Yesterday’s word

The word jawboning is “the use of public appeals to influence the actions especially of business and labor leaders” – such an appeal is often made by a political leader such as a president.

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1960s

Background / Comments

One of my thoughts upon seeing our word was that it meant something like “idle chatter”. The other was caused by thinking about Samson of Biblical fame, who killed a lot of men with a jawbone, so if our word didn’t mean “chatter”, I thought it may have something to do with a figurative slaughter — perhaps “talking an idea to death”… so much for my guesses. Back in the late 1800s, the word “jawbone” meant “credit”… possibly because one had to talk people into lending money on credit. By the mid-1960s, as a verb, “jawbone” meant “to talk about to gain some end”, and our word was born a few years later.