different [LME] The word different came ultimately from a form of Latin differre, which meant both ‘defer’ and ‘differ’ in Latin, and is also the source of these two words in English. The modern proverb different strokes for different folks is of US origin. It came to prominence in newspaper reports of comments made by Muhammad Ali about his knockout punches in fights with Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, and Karl Mildenberger during the 1960s. In the saying strokes means ‘comforting gestures of approval or congratulation’, but Ali was making a pun on the word’s other meaning, ‘blows’.