Accessibility links
Code Switch: Word Watch Each week, we take a look at a word or phrase that's caught our attention, whether for its history, usage, etymology, or just because it has an interesting story. This week, we look into how we came to call cannabis "marijuana," and the role Mexico played in that shift.
Special Series

Code Switch: Word Watch

A History Of Indentured Labor Gives 'Coolie' Its Sting

Nine out of 10 workers on the transcontinental railroad were Chinese. These indentured laborers, derogatorily called "coolies," became a prime target for criticism in the mid-19th century. Joseph Becker/Library of Congress hide caption

toggle caption
Joseph Becker/Library of Congress

Code Switch

A History Of Indentured Labor Gives 'Coolie' Its Sting

Although the slur today is used mostly in the context of the Caribbean, in the past it was often applied to low-wage, immigrant laborers in the United States.

What A Thug's Life Looked Like In 19th Century India

A photograph of a group of elderly men sitting on a mat, taken in Peshawar, now in Pakistan, circa 1865. Two of the men are looking at each other with contempt, suggesting that they may actually be enemies who have been persuaded to be photographed together as examples of native "thugs." Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Getty Images

Code Switch

What A Thug's Life Looked Like In 19th Century India

Today's thugs can trace their literary ancestry to the highway robbers who formed the Thuggee Cult of India. The thuggees were hunted down, imprisoned or killed in the 19th century during British rule.

Where Do 'Hoodlums' Come From? San Francisco

Anton Refregier's Beating the Chinese is a panel in the History of San Francisco mural at the city's Rincon Center. Chinese immigrants were frequent targets of hoodlums in the late 19th century. Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress hide caption

toggle caption
Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

Code Switch

Where Do 'Hoodlums' Come From? San Francisco

The unexpected story of how the "young men and lads" who "commit acts of violence and mischief" came to be known as hoodlums. The term was first widely used in the 1870s in San Francisco, where gangs often targeted Chinese immigrants.

The History Of How A Shogun's Boast Made Lincoln A 'Tycoon'

The arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's "black ships" in Tokyo Bay in 1853 helped persuade the Japanese to negotiate a treaty. Perry had more firepower than all the coastal artillery defending Tokyo Bay. AP hide caption

toggle caption
AP

Code Switch

The History Of How A Shogun's Boast Made Lincoln A 'Tycoon'

What do Commodore Matthew Perry, President Abraham Lincoln and writer F. Scott Fitzgerald have in common? Go ahead and guess. The answer involves an inferiority complex, a nickname and a novel cut short by the author's untimely death.

How Far Is It To The 'Boondocks'? Try The Philippines

The "boondocks" or "boonies" refers to places that are in the middle of nowhere. But few people know that the phrase was made mainstream by a fatal military training accident. iStockphoto.com hide caption

toggle caption
iStockphoto.com

Code Switch

How Far Is It To The 'Boondocks'? Try The Philippines

For more than half a century, Americans have used "the boondocks" or "the boonies" to refer to a place in the middle of nowhere. But few people know that the phrase is a relic of American military occupation in the Philippines that was brought into the mainstream by a fatal training accident.