I don't know if this will put you off your cup of tea but this really is what lexicographers and etymologists speculate about in their working hours.

Modern historians and archeologists often turn to etymologists for assistance and occasionally get some advice from them, but in principle, it is word historians who need help.

Unfortunately, we run into a difficulty here that is not uncommonly faced by etymologists, namely, that no one is precisely sure why this piece of humorous verse was so named.