101

101, meaning basic, when it comes to knowledge (as in Photography 101 or Cooking 101), is not used much in Britain. I had to look it up when I came across it recently.

 

But where could I look it up? It's easy enough to look it up in an online dictionary as you can type in the digits 1-0-1, but what about the big dictionaries I have on my bookshelf? The answer is "it depends on the dictionary". The single-volume ODE has about ten 'words' made up of digits (including 9/11, 20/20, 24/7 but not including 101) at the very end of the dictionary - after the Zs. In Collins I will find the entry 9/11 (written first as 'nine-eleven') in the Ns; it's the entry immediately after nine-days wonder. 24/7 (written 'twenty-four-seven' first) is the entry immediately after twenty and immediately before twenty-one (meaning the game of pontoon). Collins doesn't contain 101 either.

 

101 is a relatively new slang term but, interestingly, it is in the OED (at the very end, after the Zs, but easy to find in the online version), with a citation from 1929. The two earliest citations in the OED (1920s and 1930s) use 101 in its original sense - where it meant a beginners' or introductory course at a college - as in the citation from 1936 "Art 101 provides a historical introduction to art". By the 1970s it was being tagged on to other words, not just college courses. A 1972 citation in the OED begins "Since this is a series that emphasizes Social Relevance 101 — a basic course on TV these days — ...". 101 is described as an adjective in the Dictionary (it's a postpositive one), and as a postmodifier. The Dictionary also says that it is chiefly humorous when used in the broad sense.

Comments

[John]

I just read an article in the Washington Post in which a McAfee Labs researcher referred to an alleged cyber attack, saying "This is Cyberwarfare 101".

The". ....... 101" expression is fairly common here in the US.

[Alan]

I have never heard of 101 but the Germans use the expression nullachtfünfzehn - usually pronounced nullachtfuffzehn - to indicate something basic, completely ordinary, nothing special.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thank you both for your comments. John is American and Alan is British, which explains why, like me, he didn't know the term 101.

That is fascinating about the German word, Alan. I know German very well, but didn't know this before. I see from Wikipedia that the word comes from the World War I standard German machine gun, the MG08/15 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/08/15_(Redewendung)

[John]

Susan,
You were correct in your initial assessment. The "..... 101" originated, I believe, with the American universities' course numbering system which typically starts with 100-level introducrory courses and progresses through 200, 300, 400 over one's four years. The system usually is not absolutely rigid, but there are normally limits on the quantity of low-level courses one can take and still graduate.

[John]

I must learn to spell on my Droid. Apologies.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks for that info, John. That matches what the OED says.

[Belstaff Icon Jackets]

It's great to hear from you and see what you've been up to. In your blog I feel your enthusiasm for life. thank you.