#4: Cutty Sark

"Cutty Sark" sounds kind of manly. Currently it's a brand of whisky, and before that it was the name of a legendary sailing ship.

And yet, originally, it referred to ladies' underwear.

Here's the story: "Cutty sark" comes from the now outdated words cutty ("short") and sark ("shirt"). The term first appeared in an 18th century Scottish poem where it described a skimpy nightgown worn by a seductive but dangerous witch.

The erotic power of that image somehow inspired the ship's name, which in turn inspired the whisky ... and an almost-forgotten piece of lingerie remains hidden beneath both.