Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 168.
The word origin today is rubberneck Okay. Let's take a look at the board here.
If somebody wants a screenshot. All right. Let's get right to it. The
word rubberneck can be used both as a verb and a noun. Nowadays,
It is used mostly with people who look at
something, especially a car accident as people pass by or as they drive by.
That's the way I hear it. Most commonly like if there's an accident on the side
of the road and as people are driving by they
actually slow down and they often kind of stretch their neck
to try to see what's happening. So this is where the term
kind of rubberneck comes in. It is because you're stretching your neck
to look at something. That's why it's called rubberneck.
It can also refer to a person who stares inquisitively at something. You know,
inquisitively with interest, but in a questioning way.
You're questioning something or a tourist visiting sites or at
least that's how it originally started. All right. Let's continue. The origin
of this term dates all the way back to the 1890's
and referred to tourists ,especially tourists who were in wagons
and buses used in tours through American cities.
Yeah in the 1890's. It probably was mostly wagons then because you know
cars didn't really start to get invented until the early
1900' s. You know like around, I don't know 1901 2, 3, 4 ... Around that time. So and
probably took a little bit longer for buses. So
buses probably weren't really you know
going full time until I don't know maybe around 1910 or something
around that area. Okay. Anyway So let's go back here . Tourist in American cities.
cities Many went through Chinatown. Okay,
and used megaphones you know, those big phones that you know,
make your voice louder. You know, megaphones to comment
on the city. So they had tours going by and the people and
talking about this street, that street, this building. That building.
So the really early days of tourism probably definitely through. New York
City. I don't know maybe San Francisco or some other place like that. Or you know,
the major New York cities. The. the major American
cities. Okay. So let's continue. And we have three
examples of just how we would use this here's. The first one the traffic is
crawling. Remember if we say crawling, it means
it's moving very slowly. A lot of like you know, stopping , starting , stopping,
starting , moving very slowly. The traffic is crawling due to all those
rubbernecks. All right. So here you're using as the noun, You're referring to
the people who are trying to get a good look at
the accident as they pass by. Yeah. You often, you
often hear that. That's you know, people often blame the
rubbernecks. Those people that are slowing down because they have to take a
look. If it wasn't for them. The traffic would
probably flow by better. But there's too many rubbernecks that are
stopping and stretching their neck. So that they can
take a look at the accident as they pass. Okay. Number two here. Another accident
was caused because of a motorist who was rubber
necking and slammed into the car in front of him.
So if you're stretching your neck too much this way ... if you're not paying
attention maybe the traffic slow down there boom. He hit him
from behind. Maybe rear-ended the car in front of him. Okay. Good and number
three here. That celebrity built a high fence around
his property to stop people from rubbernecking, as
they passed by. So maybe a lot of people knew that
this famous star lived there and he didn't like all these
strangers kind of you know stretching their neck
to try to see maybe they wanted a peek at the celebrity or their family or
whatever. So he built a high fence to stop them from
rubbernecking. So they won't be able to see anything.
Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. I hope it was very informative.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.