Q & A: By any other name it tastes just as sweet

What does Enza stand for? Not "Eat New Zealand Apples," surely?


No. Enzafruit, which used to be called the New Zealand Apple and Pear Marketing Board, tells us that before 1991, New Zealand apples and pears were marketed under the name "New Zealand." However, "New Zealand" can be used by any exporter from this country, regardless of the quality of the product - and it cannot be registered as a fruit brand. So in 1991, Enzafruit introduced the brand Enza for its export pip fruit. The letters don't stand for any words, they say; Enza was chosen because it is culturally acceptable (which presumably means that it does not mean anything rude in any other language) and it's short and snappy.

Why do you speak of someone who loses a job as "getting the sack?"


It appears to have been a literal sack handed to the dismissed worker, presumably containing his or her possessions and final pay. The phrase is found in French ("on lui a donnaacé son sac") as far back as the 17th century, with similar expressions in Dutch and German, although it does not appear in English until the 19th century.

Why are women named Margaret called Peggy? Or is it only among senior citizens?


Cassell's Dictionary of First Names says that Peggy (which gets shortened to Peg) is an "independently adopted variant of Maggie which is itself a diminutive of Margaret." Margaret becomes Maggie becomes Peggy in the same way that Mary becomes Molly becomes Polly. We realise that doesn't go far towards explaining why it happens. We can only say that names, more than any other words, are apt to be changed to suit the level of formality or informality required.


Articles about retirement often mention American savings funds called 401k. What are they and why are they so named?


The so-called 401k plans are a highly tax-efficient and flexible employee superannuation scheme. An employer pays money into an employee's account, tax-free, which is to say the payments come out of the company's profits before they are assessed for tax.

The more the company gives, the less profit it makes and thus the less tax it pays. It is named after the section of the Internal Revenue Service code which brought it to life in the 1980s. The employer's contribution may be a straight grant or the employee can contribute (also out of pre-tax income) up to the employer's contribution. Employees can choose to have the money invested in safe or higher-risk (and thus higher-return) investments. They are also portable if you change employers.

Payouts, which can begin at 59, are made tax-free until the employee has drawn down all his or her contributions; the rest of the fund (employer's contribution, interest, dividends, capital gains) are taxed as they are paid out.

Why are serving members of the Royal Navy named Collins called "Jumper"?


Nicknames have attached themselves like barnacles to surnames for generations. The reasons for some, like "Rusty" Steel, "Bunny" Warren, "Spider" Webb and "Sherlock" Holmes are obvious. More obscure are the explanations for ones like "Pincher" Martin and "Jumper" Collins. Perhaps readers can help.

What are the seven seas we are meant to have once sailed? I counted 74 in the atlas before I ran out of steam. What is a sea and what is an ocean?

The seven seas (or Seven Seas) were the North and South Atlantic, the North and South Pacific, the Arctic, Antarctic and Indian Oceans. The Atlantic and Pacific made two "seas" each because the term was coined in the days when a journey beyond the equator was a much bigger undertaking than one conducted entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. In modern terms, an ocean is one of the five listed above and the seas are smaller areas of geo-political significance within them (the Tasman, Timor, Caribbean, Irish or Mediterranean, for example). But the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake and the Dead Sea and Caspian Sea are inland bodies of water.

Is rifle (the weapon) related to "rifle," meaning to ransack?

Yes. Both come via Old French from an old Germanic word meaning to scratch. The distinctive thing about a rifle is the rifling - the spiral-shaped grooving scratched on the inside of the barrel which imparts a spin to the bullet, ensuring greater stability in flight and thus greater accuracy over a longer range. When one rifles through something, the motion is a scratching one.

My cousin in Canada heard on a radio programme that the New Zealand parliamentary vote on women's suffrage was tied and a Maori chief broke the tie in favour of giving women the vote. Is this true?


No. Professor Raewyn Dalziel, of the History Department at the University of Auckland, tells us that New Zealand women got the vote (for members of the House of Representatives) in 1893, but only after several earlier attempts had foundered. In 1891 the Bill passed the House of Representatives but was lost by two votes in the Legislative Council, the upper house of the day.

"Two Maori members, Wahawaha and Taiaroa, voted against the bill and there was a common saying that two Maori men had defeated suffrage that year although you could have said the same of any two men who had voted against the bill," she writes. "In 1893 the bill passed through the Legislative Council with a majority of two."

Women in several states of the United States received the vote for state legislatures before 1893. New Zealand is often said to have been the first country to give women the vote, but it's a moot point: Pitcairn Island had done so earlier, and it might be said to be a country.