Would you like to be given unrestricted authority to do whatever you like? To get away with this, you may need a permission slip, a get-out-of-jail-free card, or an official document that allows unfettered access to anything you desire.

That’s what “carte blanche” means. It translates literally from French as “blank paper,” but in legal or business proceedings, it’s “a blank document signed in advance by one party to an agreement and given to the other with permission to fill in the conditions.” And now the term “carte blanche” has broadened beyond documents to signify giving someone unrestricted authority.

“Carte blanche” (sometimes written as “chart blanche” or “charte blanche” in its earliest uses) dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. In one historical example, Thomas Wentworth, the First Earl of Strafford, referred to its application in negotiations where one party yielded broad latitude to another.

By the mid-18th century, it was customary for a man of wealth or importance to sign blank sheets of paper, so that a trusted subordinate could fill in the necessary order or business letter on his behalf — it was a way to outsource details of decision-making. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, this term was used in diplomatic treaties, military commissions, and social contracts, such as when affluent men extended financial benefits to their mistresses. Such trust!

The precursor to “carte blanche” was the medieval “blank charter” (charte blanche), such as those issued under Richard II in the 14th century (and recorded in Shakespeare’s Richard II).  The blank charters were presigned instruments allowing crown agents to insert conditions, grants, or obligations, as circumstances demanded, to enforce royal will. The blanks facilitated flexible governance but carried risks of abuse.

“Carte” is ultimately from the Greek khartēs (“layer of papyrus”), probably from Egyptian, via the Latin charta (“leaf of paper, a writing tablet”). That same root is the source of many English words, including “à la carte,” “card,” “cartel,” “cartography,” “carton,” “cartridge,” “chart,” “charter,” and “discard”; it’s also the basis of the Magna Carta (literally “Great Charter”).

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“Blanche” is from the Proto-Indo-European *bhel-, which means “to shine, flash, burn; appear white.” It’s the source of such words as “beluga,” “blanch,” “blanket,” “blaze,” “bleach,” “bleak,” “blemish,” “blend,” “blind,” “blond,” “blue,” “blush,” and even “black” (“thoroughly burned”).

If you’re ever given a signed blank check with no instructions, you may have carte blanche to do with it whatever you like — but beware the consequences from the account holder. 

“John Doe” and “Jane Doe” are common placeholder names in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Used when someone’s identity is unknown or protected, they regularly appear in real-life contexts as well as in TV courtroom dramas and true crime shows. But these simple-sounding names aren’t modern inventions — they go all the way back to the 14th century.

The name “John Doe” (along with “Richard Roe”) appeared in English legal parlance during the reign of Edward III, king of England from 1327 to 1377. Its origins are in a medieval British legal process called an action of ejectment, originally used to protect tenants from landlords. 

Under the common laws of the time, proving ownership of a property could be a long and complicated process. To avoid this, claimants used the action of ejectment procedure, creating hypothetical people to serve a particular purpose. It went something like this: To prove ownership of a property, the real-life claimant, in the guise of a landlord, invented an imaginary lease by a fictitious person, known as John Doe, and another person, Richard Roe, who had allegedly ejected (evicted) the lessee. To determine the rights of these two hypothetical people, the courts had to first establish who actually owned the property — which, for the real-life claimant, was the whole point of the exercise. Using “John Doe” and “Richard Roe” saved a lot of time and hassle by forcing the courts to more swiftly determine ownership of the property. 

“John Doe” or “Jane Doe” are handy tools for TV crime show writers, but they do create some confusion in the legal system. It’s hard to search for a specific case file when there are countless “Jane Does” from other cases. If there are multiple anonymous parties in a case, “Richard Roe” is still used, or alliterative names from the rest of the alphabet have been employed: for example, “Paul and Pauline Poe,” “Frances Foe,” and even “Xerxes Xoe,” according to an article in the legal journal for Duke Law School. To reduce confusion in modern courts, unique pseudonyms, initials, or other anonymizing replacements are preferred today.  

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No one is entirely sure why the names “John Doe” and “Richard Roe” were used in the 14th century. It’s possible they were the names of real people, used in one of the early actions of ejectment. Or they were simply invented. “John” and “Richard” were common first names at the time, while “Doe” and “Roe” were both associated with deer. We’ll likely never know exactly how or why these particular names were originally chosen, but we do know that they stuck. “John Doe” appears in legal texts across the following centuries, while its female equivalent, “Jane Doe,” has been in use since at least the early 1700s. (“Mary Major” is sometimes used for anonymous female parties in modern legal cases.) Their creators could hardly have imagined that today, hundreds of years later, the “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” monikers would be used in media, courts, and hospitals across the globe.  

The word “bus” can be used in a few ways: The noun can be a public transportation vehicle, and the verb can refer to how that vehicle moves people around the city, or it can apply to what happens at a restaurant. People get bused around the city on a bus. A busser works in a restaurant, busing tables. 

Both uses of “bus” — restaurant and vehicular — trace back to the Latin omnibus, translated literally as “for all.” Today, the English version of “omnibus” as an adjective means “of, relating to, or providing for many things at once.” In either Latin or English, it relates to restaurant bussers as they boast a versatile skillset that makes them the Swiss Army knife of any restaurant staff. Indeed, bussers are the lifeblood of many restaurants, helping to restock shelves, clear tables, run food, and support operations in whatever way they can. 

When modern bussers appeared in restaurants around the late 19th century, they were called “omnibus boys,” which described these male restaurant employees with many duties. That was quite a mouthful, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was shortened to “busboy” by 1904, and calling them “omnibus boys” became rarer over time. “Busboy” eventually made way for the gender-neutral “busser” by the 1970s, although “busboy” is still commonly used. 

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The reason we say “busing a table” has to do with the multitude of tasks assigned to the profession. Though it’s not common phrasing, you could say “busing the floors” or “busing the bar,” as they all relate to the duties of your average busser.

When we are told we have free rein to do something or to make decisions, we’re being given permission to act freely — to do, say, or feel what we want with no restrictions. The expression “free rein” has been in use for centuries and comes from a time when horses were the primary mode of transportation. Horsemanship-related metaphors were easily understood back then, but many phrases from the equestrian world remain even in the modern parlance, including “ride roughshod,” “champing at the bit,” and “red herring.”

“Free rein,” in its literal sense, refers to the equestrian act of holding a horse’s reins loosely. When a rider holds the reins tightly, they maintain strict control over a horse’s speed and course. Conversely, loosening the grip — giving the horse free rein — allows the mount to choose its own path without constant guidance or interference.

The metaphorical “free rein” has been in use for well over 300 years. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an early written appearance (in plural form but with the same meaning) comes from William Habington’s Historie of Edward IV from 1640: “He gave free reines to his injurious ambition.” It’s easy to see why the metaphor caught on, as it neatly depicts a specific type of interaction. For example, when a manager gives an employee free rein on a project, they’re implying that they’re stepping back and allowing the employee to make independent decisions. Or when brave parents decide to give their teenagers free rein, they’re loosening control and giving their children a greater degree of autonomy. 

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And if you thought it was “free reign” rather than “free rein,” don’t worry — you’re not alone. Lexicographers from Oxford University Press, using the 2 billion-word Oxford English Corpus, found that contemporary writers use the erroneous “free reign” as much as 46% of the time. The mistake is understandable, as both words sound the same. “Free reign” also seems somewhat logical, as a king or queen does normally have the ability to reign freely. It is, however, incorrect. When you give someone free rein, you’re loosening the straps of control, not handing them a crown — when used correctly, the phrase should evoke horses, not royalty.