A: According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary the “king’s shilling” is “a shilling whose acceptance by a recruit from a recruiting officer constituted until 1879 a binding enlistment in the British army.” References to this payment date back at least to 1707. “He did take a shilling, but not with any intent of listing,” wrote one 18th-century essayist, and in 1852, the novelist William Thackeray told of “a fellow (who) was jilted by his mistress, and took the shilling in despair.” The designation “king’s shilling” (or sometimes “Queen’s shilling”) is not recorded until the late 19th century. In the years since, it has continued to be a familiar phrase in British English, and it pops up in American English on occasion as well.

The meaning of the quotation is clear: Once you accept payment for a service, you must be prepared to provide that service or suffer the consequences.

Q Where did we get the phrase “Stockholm syndrome”? – K.V., Fond du Lac, Wis.

A: The term “Stockholm syndrome” does not describe any actual physical condition. Instead it is used to describe an odd pattern of psychological behavior exibited by a person who has been kidnapped, in which the person develops an irrational emotional bond with his or her captor. The phrase derives from a real-life incident that occurred in the Swedish capital.

On Aug. 23, 1973, four employees of the Sveriges Kreditbank were taken hostage during a robbery by a prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson. Olsson and his former cellmate held the hostages in the bank’s vault for 131 hours. Details of what exactly took place over the course of those six days are cloudy, but before the conclusion of the standoff, the hostages actually attempted to block the efforts of the police to liberate them, and they later refused to testify against their captors. After their conviction, the victims visited the criminals in jail, and there were even reports that one of the victims later became engaged to one of the kidnappers.

A psychologist named Nils Bejerot, who had assisted police during the robbery, coined the term “Stockholm syndrome” to describe the behavior of the hostages. Psychologists elsewhere picked up on the term to refer to similar subsequent cases.

Q I came across the phrase “amid the alien corn” in an article that had nothing to do with corn whatsoever. Is this an allusion to some story I’m not familiar with? – C.S., Covington, La.

A: “Amid the alien corn,” which basically describes someone who is alone in a foreign land or alien surroundings, is from John Keats’ famous poem “Ode to a Nightingale,” which in turn refers to the biblical story of Ruth. After her husband died, Ruth loyally followed her mother-in-law Naomi, speaking to her in some of the loveliest language ever written (“Whither thou goest, I will go,” Ruth 1:16). She went to Bethlehem with Naomi and became a gleaner in the fields.

Keats meditates on the beautiful song of the nightingale, writing: “Perhaps the self-same song that found a path/ Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,/ She stood in tears amid the alien corn …”

This same poem is the source of other familiar phrases, including “tender is the night,” and “for many a time I have been in love with easeful Death.”

This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Readers may send questions to Merriam-Webster’s Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA. 01102.

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