Karen Hill

Although cows are always milked twice a day, mornings and evenings, the very old homely saying “till the cows come home” refers to the time that cows, with udders painfully full, come to the home gates for the morning milking. The saying, used as long ago as 1600, seems at first to have always indicated … Read more

It is the English river that is referred to, not Connecticut’s. But the saying “to set the Thames on fire” has been used of other rivers and with the same thought, in Ireland of the Liffey, in the United States of the Hudson, and in Germany of the Rhine. The German saying, Er hat den … Read more

Aesop, back about boo B.C., is said to have told his master about a dog which went to sleep in a manger full of hay. According to the fable, the ox, for whom the manger had been filled, came up to it for his rations, whereupon the dog, roused from his slumbers, snapped at the … Read more

The literal sense of the expression “to hold water”, such as applied to a sound pitcher or bowl, gradually acquired in the early seventeenth century a figurative meaning, as if testing a pitcher for soundness by filling it with water, if unsound, the water would leak out. Thus, figuratively, an unsound argument or fallacious reasoning … Read more

We use this nowadays to mean in a state of worry or anxiety, but the literal meaning alludes to the “mourners’ bench,” or seat especially assigned to those of a congregation who, affected by the exhortations of a preacher, have become anxious over their future state and seek repentance. The literal phrase was in use … Read more

To behave in a cowardly manner; to act pusillanimously. The expression comes from the cockpit, the arena or ring where gamecocks are pitted against one another to see which can vanquish the other. Cockfighting is one of the oldest of sports; it is recorded among early Chinese accounts and was practiced in ancient India, Persia, … Read more

When we use the phrase “to rain cats and dogs” we don’t refer to a gentle shower, but to a terrific downpour. Perhaps, because such rain is usually accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning, the allusion was to a cat and dog fight. As far as the records show, this form of the slight exaggeration … Read more

When Jeffie grabs the smaller Johnny by the collar and the seat of the pants, raises him until he must walk on tiptoe and hustles him out of the room, Johnny is “walking Spanish.” Later in life, Johnny may “walk Spanish” by himself by just tip-toeing cautiously out of a place where he may decide … Read more

The purely American expression “to acknowledge the corn” means to admit the losing of an argument, especially in regard to a detail; to retract; to admit defeat. It is somewhat over a hundred years old, one account of its origin giving it the date of 1828. In this account, plausible, though unverified, a member of … Read more

Our present figurative use of the phrase “to break the ice” came, of course, from the maritime necessity of breaking up the ice upon rivers and channels for the navigation of ships and boats in winter. The early extended sense, indicating preparation of a pathway for others, did not arise until late in the sixteenth … Read more

“To go scot free” means to be exempt from payment, punishment, or penalty. Except in this expression, and in the somewhat rare “to pay one’s scot,” this meaning of “scot” is almost unknown in America. But it comes straight from Old English; it then meant, as now, a payment, or, especially, one’s share in the … Read more

The phrase “to sweat blood” means to perform such arduous toil or to be in such physical agony that the sweat in which one is bathed seems to be one’s blood draining away. The allusion is to the agony of Jesus on the Mount of Olives: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: … Read more

The current American equivalent of the expression “”to cony coals to Newcastle” is “to sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.” The idea is of doing something that is the height of superfluity. In explanation, Newcastle, or Newcastle upon Tyne, to use the official name of this ancient English city, lies in the center of the great … Read more

Perhaps because hot water is so easily obtainable these days, we think of the figurative hot water, meaning a trouble, a scrape, or a difficulty, as being a modern expression. No, indeed! People first got into trouble thousands of years ago, though English-speaking people didn’t refer to it as “hot water” until about the beginning … Read more

Until comparatively recent times the sin of heresy was, in many countries, punishable by death. In England, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, one found guilty of departing from the creed and tenets of the church might be condemned to death by burning. Thus, the earliest uses of this expression, back in the sixteenth century, … Read more

The term “wet blanket”, one might have supposed, is certainly an example of recent American slang, but it was used in Scotland more than a hundred years ago, and with exactly the meaning in which we use it today, one who puts a damper on anything, especially upon any jollity; one who emits gloom. The … Read more

A century ago, it would seem, the turkey was considered a pleasant bird, for when such expressions as “to talk turkey” or “to say turkey” were used, the allusion was to a pleasant conversation. A young man “talked turkey” to a good-looking girl, if he had the chance. Perhaps that was because a young man … Read more

Metaphorically speaking, we turn the tables upon another fellow when we put him in the predicament that we have been occupying, or into a similar one. There is no connection with “turning the other cheek.” The saying arose during the early 1600s, some three centuries ago, and seems to have been applied to some popular … Read more

The phrase “by hook or by crook” is so old that it has become a recognized part of the language. It appears in the writings of John Wyclif and of John Gower, both of whom were contemporaries of Chaucer. It meant then, as it does today, “in one way or another; by fair means or … Read more

A big shot is a person of importance. This slang use is quite recent, developed within the current century, but it is a lineal descendant of “a big gun,” dating from the middle of the last century, and which in turn sprang from the union of “a great gun the early nineteenth century.

To be kept waiting, as when you have a train to catch, but must see a prospective customer who keeps you nervously fuming in his outer office. The figurative meaning dates back to the early seventeenth century, and the phrase, though the evidence is scant, was apparently preceded by the more literal, “to cool one’s … Read more

Away back in the fourteenth century John Wyclif records that in a royal pageant persons of high rank were mounted on “high” horses, meaning that they rode the so-called “great horses,” or heavy chargers used in battle or tournament. Hence, the use of such a horse was presumptive evidence that its rider was, or considered … Read more

Even among the ancients the container often signified the thing contained; the Romans used olla, pot, many times instead of the meat within the pot, and so did our own forbears. Hence, when they said that they must keep the pot boiling, they meant that they must have something within the pot, which, when removed, … Read more

Anciently, a blush was a glimpse, a momentary view. This was the sense that we find in the late fourteenth-century poem, “Joseph of Arithmathie”: “Aftur the furste blusch we ne michte him biholden (After the first glimpse we could not behold him).” This sense dropped out of use during the sixteenth century, however, except in … Read more

The French is, etre assis entre deux chaises, literally, to be seated between two seats, and the meaning, as in English, is to fail through lack of decision. It cannot be determined, but the French is probably the older saying, the English no more than a translation. The earliest English record is in John Gower’s … Read more

If you have inadvertently insulted your employer’s best customer you must eventually “take the bull by the horns”, screw your courage to the sticking point, and tell the boss what happened; for we use the expression to mean, to face an unpleasant, difficult, or dangerous situation with such courage as one can muster and with … Read more

The expression “to feather one’s nest” means to provide for one’s comfort; especially, for comfort in later life by massing wealth. The import is to the practice of many birds which, after building their nests, pluck down from their breasts to provide a soft lining that will be comfortable during the long hours of setting … Read more

Success is so certain that applause only is lacking. Though the earliest appearance of the saying in print appears to be in the works of the Welsh writer on sports, Charles James Apperley, in 1842, to my notion the expression has the earmarks of American origin. I would infer that the real origin might have … Read more

Probably back beyond the days of Jacob, who gave his favorite son, Joseph, a coat of many colors”, it was known that if the wool were dyed before it was made up into yarn, or while it was still raw wool, the color would be more firmly fixed. The figurative sense, to have one’s habits … Read more

Anciently, the bowman who went forth to battle was ill prepared unless he carried two or more bowstrings. Otherwise he would be utterly useless if the one on his bow were to snap. Thus, probably long before Cardinal Wolsey recorded it in 1524, the expression “to have two strings to one’s bow” had acquired the … Read more

The phase “Hobson’s Choice” means the choice of taking what is offered or having nothing at all. Thomas Hobson, who died in 1630 at the ripe age of eighty-five or eighty-six, was a carrier, with his stables in Cambridge and his route running to London, sixty miles away. He was popular among the students of … Read more

The expression “to go woolgathering” means to be engaged in trivial employment; to indulge in aimless reverie. Though this expression has long had such figurative meanings, its origin was literal. People did actually wander in a seemingly aimless manner over the countryside gathering the fragments of wool left by passing sheep on bushes or fences … Read more

The phrase “root hog or die” means to get down to hard work or suffer the consequences, to shift for oneself. The earliest literary use so far reported goes back only to 1834, to Davy Crockett’s autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, written just two years before his death at the Alamo. … Read more

For the past two hundred years we have been using the phrase “spick and span” to mean very trim and smart, thoroughly neat and orderly, having the appearance of newness, but for the two hundred years preceding that, or from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century, the phrase … Read more

“Hell-bent,” an American term, means so determined as to be regardless of the consequences, even hell itself. An article in Knickerbocker Magazine in an issue of 1835 describes a band of Indians as “hell-bent on carnage.” The present “all out” is a mild substitute for the same thing. But “hell-bent for election” means speed, speed … Read more

The expression “to put the kibosh on” means to put an end to; to stop; to dispose of. One thinks of this as being modem slang, in use only a few years, but readers of Dickens, if they remember Sketches by Boz, may recall the sketch, “Seven Dials.” This is a description of a squalid … Read more

The French have a phrase, coq-a-lane, literally, cock to the donkey, which they use in exactly the same sense as we use cock-and-bull; concocted and incredible; fantastic. A cock and bull story is one that stretches the imaginations somewhat beyond the limits of credulity. Many learned attempts have been made, both in French and English … Read more

The expression “not dry behind the ears” means as innocent and unsophisticated as a babe. A saying that came directly from the farm, where many others have also arisen, for it alludes to a newly born animal, as a colt or a calf, on which the last spot to become dry after birth is the … Read more

With success assured; all over but the shouting. The saying “in the bag” is new; that is, it has become generally known throughout America, where it originated, since about 1920. In card games or the like, the person doing the playing may use it when he wishes to free his partner’s mind from anxiety. An … Read more

We use the expression “to beat the tar out of” with the meaning, to beat, whip, or belabor without mercy. Though credited to the United States and with no earlier record of use than the twentieth century, we think it likely that the expression may have been carried to this country by some Scottish or … Read more

Wherever this is used the speaker means that he would be wholly unable to recognize the person of whom he speaks, probably a person once known but now forgotten. The source and antiquity arc wholly unknown, but it may be that we owe it to the ancient argument over Adam’s possession of a navel. Artists, … Read more

Maundy Thursday is the day before Good Friday, the Thursday next before Easter. To most persons not of the Roman Catholic or Episcopalian faiths the designation of this day is incomprehensible, for the term “maundy” now appears in no other connection. It originated from the thirteenth chapter of John, in which the Last Supper and … Read more

We are apt to look upon this as recent, forgetting that it was used by Dickens (Old Curiosity Shop) more than a hundred years ago with just the present meaning, to get along with or to like a thing or person. And it was not original with Dickens, for it was used more than thirty … Read more

The phrase “one horse town” is American; we use the expression disparagingly to designate a town of such limited resources, so sleepy and dole-so, that one horse might be able to do all its necessary transportation. The usage first reported (1855) credits the expression to New Orleans, but as it was reported a few years … Read more

Nowadays, a kangaroo court is rarely heard of except in jails or similar institutions where a mock court, independent of regular legal procedure, is set up by the inmates to try a fellow prisoner for some alleged offense. Sometimes such courts are set up merely for amusement, as diversions against the tedium of imprisonment, and … Read more

The expression “red letter day” may be traced back to the fifteenth century, though in that period the allusion was to a holy day of some sort, such as one memorializing a saint or a church festival. The name came from the custom of using red or purple colors for marking those days upon the … Read more

An American doesn’t need to be told that the meaning of the expression “to get cold feet” is to lose one’s nerve, to become craven. The slang expression originated during my youth, probably in the early 1800’s, but, as has been the case from the earliest times, no one took the trouble to give it … Read more

Water, in the sense of luster or brilliancy as applied to diamonds or pearls, is presumably a meaning that was borrowed, in translation, from Arabic gem traders, for the same expression is found in other European languages. Three centuries ago, diamonds were graded as first water, second water, or third water, those of the first … Read more

We use the term “small fry” humorously when speaking of young children. Our ancestors for the past four hundred years have done the same, so the humor is somewhat antique. But the joke is on us, because even in the remote day when we borrowed “fry” from the Norse, it meant the children of a … Read more

To put the cart before the horse means to get the order of things reversed, as to give the answer to a riddle while attempting to give the riddle. This common occurrence must also have been common among the ancient Greeks and Romans, for they also had sayings that agree with ours. The Greeks said, … Read more

Nowadays, in schoolboy lingo, black Monday is the day after Easter, the day when school is resumed after the Easter holidays. But, although school children may not know it, the day after Easter has been called “black Monday” in England for many centuries as the anniversary of several different tragedies or ominous events. The first … Read more

The phrase “to know beans” is usually in the negative; one who doesn’t know beans is appallingly ignorant or is wholly unacquainted with the subject under discussion. It is likely that the expression arose from some story that went the rounds in America early in the nineteenth century, but, if so, the story has been … Read more

It would be interesting if, through family records, I could bring an unsuspected source into view which would explain why the expression “in a blue funk” means “in a state of dire panic,” or from another record determine why a stooge for an auctioneer, one who makes fictitious bids to stimulate higher bids, is called … Read more

Though Shakespeare was the first to use the saying “to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve”, thus indicating an ostentatious display of one’s limitless devotion, he was merely adapting another phrase current in his day and which he himself used in an earlier play. It was lago, in Othello, who wore his heart on his … Read more