Language

The sense is always that of sharing, perhaps to a lesser degree, the faults or iniquities of another, of being defiled to some extent in the defilement of another. The record of usage goes back only to the late eighteenth century, though we may find its origin six centuries earlier. Early American usage, largely vanished … Read more

The use of the expression “by the skin of one’s teeth” is always in respect to some calamity that has been avoided by so narrow a margin as to be measurable by the lining of a tooth. But originally, as found in Job xix, an, the preposition “with” was used, not “by”, “And I am … Read more

To be uncommonly and rashly brave; literally, to be so courageous as to dare to seize a lion by the beard. The saying is most familiar to us perhaps, from the lines in Scott’s Marmion: And dar’st thou then To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall? And hop’st thou thence … Read more

To be secretly amused, whether in derision or just to avoid offense through open laughter, is to laugh in one’s sleeve. The saying dates from the first half of the sixteenth century when, as one would suppose, the sleeves of a gentleman’s costume were distinctly oversize, large enough to conceal one’s whole head, let alone … Read more

The use of the figure of speech “to pull in one’s horns” with the meaning, “to retract, or to check oneself,” has been traced back to the fourteenth century. The allusion is to the snail which, when its hornlike tentacles touch something strange, possibly perilous, immediately retracts one or both of them.

In the United States we know a “lame duck” as a congressman who, having run for re-election in November and having been defeated at the polls, still has several months of his term to serve before he bows out more or less gracefully to his successful rival. But why “lame” and why “duck”? We must … Read more

Salaries are to he paid! The expression is now heard in any line of business: “Friday’s the day the ghost walks.” “The ghost walks on the fifteenth of each month.” The “ghost” is the paymaster, nowadays, or the cashier or whoever may be the distributor of salary or wage. But the expression arose in the … Read more

The saying “a man of my kidney” is not now in frequent use; we are much more likely to say, “a man after my own heart,” which carries the same meaning. But we find it used by Shakespeare and other writers of bygone years. The explanation takes us back to the philosophy of the Middle … Read more

Like many other of our common sayings, the expression “to get down to brass tacks” appears to have alluded originally to some specific operation, something that would call for the removal of successive layers until the brass tacks which held the structure together were exposed to view. For, as we in America use the expression, … Read more

Other languages have similar expressions, all dealing with the folly of buying something that one has not seen. In England, from time immemorial, it has been a pig, a young or suckling pig in a bag, for in ancient days the term “pig” was used only of very young swine, three or four months old, … Read more

The expression “cut out of whole cloth” means wholly false; without foundation of truth. Back in the fifteenth century, “whole cloth” was used synonymously with “broad cloth,” that is, cloth that ran the full width of the loom. The term dropped into disuse along in the eighteenth century, except in the figurative sense. In early … Read more

The incident, in time of war, was not unusual; it was not particularly hazardous; but as dramatized by Elbert Hubbard in the March, 1900, issue of his famous magazine, The Philistine, it fired the imagination as keenly as if it had been an adventure of a knight of King Arthur’s court. The United States, in … Read more

When a lady fair, an American one, rejects her suitor, she gives him the mitten; he gets it. This has been in American usage for at least a hundred years. The Knickerbocker, a New York periodical, back in July of 1847 wondered how the expression had originated, but it seems clear that the intent of … Read more

Despite the contention that the term “Brain Trust” was used as a title to a newspaper article in 1903, the name attained no popularity until 1933. In the previous summer, after his nomination for the presidency by the Democratic party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt surrounded himself with a group of advisers to aid in mapping out … Read more

The phrase “neither hide nor hair” sounds like such a typically western American expression that it is surprising to find that, though American, it is merely the reverse of one so old that it might have been known to Chaucer. The ancient saying was “in hide and hair,” and the meaning was “wholly, entirely.” The … Read more

This expression intrigued me as a youngster; it turned up in all the yarns about the Spanish Main, but was so obscure. Eight what? Actually, there was nothing mysterious about it, the term was merely the plural of the Spanish dollar which, having the value of eight reals, was stamped with a large figure 8. … Read more

The expression “chip of the old block” means one who has the characteristics of a parent, usually a son with those of his father. The expression goes back to the early seventeenth century and, if some of the early sermons of Bishop Robert Sanderson quote it correctly, the original form showed less disrespect to dad. … Read more

Though its reputation has been questioned in recent years, the beaver has been long noted for persistent industry. This reputation gave us the simile, “to work like a beaver,” some two hundred years ago. And, of course, industrious persons have long been likened to the beaver, “So and so is a veritable beaver.” We English-speaking … Read more

Though the expression “sold down the river” is now used with wryful humor, as of a baseball player whose contract is sold to a team of lower rating or of an employee who is transferred to a more humble position than he formerly held, there was a time when it was literal and tragic, when … Read more

The phrase “to pull the wool over one’s eyes” is a very roundabout way of saying to hoodwink, to delude. The expression is said to have originated in the United States, probably because the earliest use of the expression in print that has yet been found is American. But this was in a newspaper, so … Read more

When such a respectable family publication as The Saturday Evening Post gives its sanction to the homely American expression “to be caught with one’s pants down”, notice of its origin may properly be taken. Despite the fact that the appearance of the phrase in the Post is its first in print (1946), so far as … Read more

This is he who “rules the roost,” who permits no doubt of his supremacy. The figurative use is so common, especially as applied to a young dandy strutting along the sidewalk, that we are not likely to wonder why a rooster would be upon a promenade nor how long its cockiness would last if it … Read more

The cocked hat, especially that of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was permanently out of shape, with the brim turned up along three sides, giving the hat the outline of a triangle. The style was generally affected by officers of both the American and British armies during the Revolutionary War. Undoubtedly the hat was … Read more

Aside from the literal sense, this modern expression “the dog house” is used to mean that a person is undergoing punishment of some sort. It is usually used to denote the treatment, mental or physical, meted out to a man by his spouse for some misdemeanor. Probably the original allusion was to a “gay dog,” … Read more

One would suppose that this warning would be as old as the first hat, but its actual history appears to have been no earlier than the closing years of the nineteenth century. What is kept under the hat, of course, is retained within the head; that is, it remains a secret.

Exploring the phrase ‘up the spout,’ this article unveils not just its meaning and origin but also delves into the fascinating evolution of slang, shedding light on how language transforms and reflects cultural shifts over time.” When we say that something is or has gone “up the spout,” we mean, usually, that plans have gone … Read more

The modern extension of this slang appellation means any person in authority, especially one who has an overbearing manner. Originally the phrase “brass hat” was British army slang; one of the earliest instances of its literary use was by Kipling, in Many Inventions, in 1893, in the story, “In the Rukh.” Soldiers used it to … Read more

We keep one’s fingers crossed, either actually or mentally, when wishing the success of something or hoping that nothing unpleasant will happen or anything will interfere with one’s plans. The expression appears to be wholly American and, probably, of Negro origin. Probably it arose from the superstition that making the sign of the cross would … Read more

Speculation has been rife for centuries over the origin of the common saying “to rob Peter to pay Paul”; every avenue has apparently been explored, but the original allusion is still a mystery. In English it dates back at least to the fourteenth century; the French have a similar saying at least as old, and … Read more

In America we’d say, “in a hell of a hurry,” with the same meaning; but this is a British expression, apparently originating in the British army in India. Possibly Kipling coined it, for he was the first to record it, though he may have been actually quoting army speech. His first usage is in The … Read more

The phrase “a month of Sundays” has become just a glib expression for a long time. But when coined, a hundred years ago, first as “a week of Sundays,” then, in amplification, as “a month of Sundays”, it meant an interminable length of time, especially to a young person, and possibly, if the truth were … Read more

The expression “to hold a candle to someone” is usually in the negative, so-and-so can’t, or isn’t fit to or isn’t able to hold a candle to such and such, and we mean that the party of the first part fares poorly by comparison with the party of the second part. The development of the … Read more

The phrase “manna from heaven” means a windfall; something providential. That is the current figurative use of the expression; but, as any biblical student knows, the real manna from heaven was that spoken of in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, “a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground,” which provided … Read more

Ghosts, as everyone knows, are invisible, unseen. So it is with the ghost writer; he is the unseen anonymous person who actually writes for hire or love the articles or the speeches that a prominent person gets the credit for having written. Until a decade or so ago such persons, from about 1850, were just … Read more

Red herring is nothing more than herring that has been cured by smoke, a process that changes the color of the flesh to a reddish hue. The herring is intended to be eaten after such curing, but dog trainers learned long ago that red herring had a peculiarly persistent odor and was very useful, if … Read more

“To cut didos” is something that a Britisher doesn’t do. He cuts a caper or otherwise cavorts around. There is nothing to show that George Washington cut any didos, though it is likely that others were doing so during the latter part of his life, for probably the expression was coined about that time. It … Read more

Bartlett, back in 1859, thought that the American phrase “to run into the ground” probably came from hunting, “to express the earthing of a fox or other game.” But because the sense has always been to overdo (a matter), to carry (something) to extremes, Bartlett’s explanation fails to satisfy. In our opinion, the phrase was … Read more

When something has been promised and the promise accepted in good faith, but never fulfilled, he who made the promise has “played fast and loose” with the person to whom it was made; that is, he was not trustworthy. The expression was the name of a game known and played as far back as the … Read more

The phrase “to heap coals of fire on one’s head” means to return good for evil, and thus make the recipient uncomfortable. The passage most often quoted is from the Old Testament, Proverbs xxv, 21, : “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to … Read more

Denoting the acme of speed, than which nothing could be faster. The expression “faster than greased lightning” appears to be one of the instances of American hyperbole about which British visitors to our shores, a century ago, were always complaining, or secretly envying. Our ancestors, in the days of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, were not … Read more

Originally, the imaginary place known as “the jumping off place” was the edge of the earth, the ultima Thule. From there, one could proceed no farther, other than to leap straight into hell. At least, such appears to have been the thought of our American pioneering forebears in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century … Read more

A bad egg figuratively is like a bad egg literally, a person, or an egg, that externally appears to be wholesome and sound but, upon closer acquaintance, is found to be thoroughly rotten. By some strange chance this slang usage did not develop until about the middle of the past century, though even Shakespeare called … Read more

The form commonly used is “not to know one from Adam’s off ox,” meaning to have not the slighest information about the person indicated. The saying in any form, however, is another of the numerous ones commonly heard but of which no printed record has been found. But in 1848 the author of a book … Read more

Back in the early sixteenth century when the saying “the fat is in the fire” first came into use the meaning of it was that the project, whatever it might have been, had become wholly ruined. The thought was, we suppose, that meat being broiled upon a spit is ruined by the resulting flame if … Read more

The phrase “caviar to the general” means something that is an acquired taste; something too racy or too unfamiliar to be acceptable to the general public. The expression is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act II, scene 2, in which Hamlet, speaking of a play, says, “.. . it was never acted . . . the Play … Read more

A blow for a blow; an ill deed for an ill deed. The phrase “tit for tat”, which expresses a moderate retaliation, goes back only about four centuries in its present form, but before that it was “a tip for a tap,” which goes back certainly a hundred years earlier and probably much more than … Read more

When we hear someone say he had such and such a piece of information “straight from the horse’s mouth,” we know that he means that he received it from the highest authority, from the one person whose testimony is beyond question. The expression comes from horse racing and has to do with the age of … Read more

No evidence has been found, either in proof or denial, yet the fact that the earliest record of the phrase “to be neither fish nor flesh” coincided almost exactly with the break between Henry VIII and the Pope, a break that could not have occurred unless preceded by a long period of disaffection, makes us … Read more

Legend has it that the expression “a gone coon”, which is applied to a person or thing in a hopeless situation, originated in the Revolutionary War. An American spy, it is said, seeking information on the number of British forces that were to be attacked, dressed himself in raccoon furs and, by night, stealthily climbed … Read more

Cotgrave, in his Dictionaire of the French and English Tongues, published in 1611, shows us that we are still using, by translation, an expression known to the French more than three centuries ago. The same saying in Dutch is used in the Netherlands and can be traced there back to the Middle Dutch. The phrase … Read more

Back in Shakespeare’s time this was a game played on horseback, with two or more players. It began, apparently, with a race to see which player could take the lead; then, willy-nilly, the losers followed him at set intervals wherever he might choose to lead. The name came from the resemblance to wild geese in … Read more

Four centuries ago the saying “between cup and lip” was “between cup and mouth,” at least it is so recorded in Prouerbes or Adagies, by Richard Taverner, published in 1539: “Manye thynges fall betweene ye cuppe and the mouth.” The saying itself, however, is much older than that, for Taverner was merely translating into English … Read more

The saying “to put one through a course of sprouts” means to give one a thorough and disciplined course of training, or, by extension, to give one a grueling examination. What the source may have been cannot now be determined, though the Americanism is not much more than a hundred years old. The “sprouts” could … Read more

Both in England and America when one permits a swing to come to rest one “lets the old cat die,” yet no one knows positively why this saying is used. It seems to be so old that the original allusion is lost. In our opinion, however, it comes from the same source as the other … Read more

“Troubled waters” is itself an idiomatic phrase, used since the sixteenth century to mean mental perturbation or disquiet. And at about the same period our ancestors fished in the same kind of water; that is, they took advantage of another’s mental perturbation to gain something desirable for themselves. The earliest instance of use thus far … Read more

Because the wolf, from remote antiquity, has been noted for its ravenous appetite, seemingly never able to get enough to eat, it has always stood as a symbol for hunger, for want and necessity, in English as well as in other languages. The figurative intent was so well understood as far back as 1457 that … Read more

The expression “room to swing a cat” means space in which to move around freely. This is generally used in the negative, “no room to swing a cat,” meaning cramped quarters. It was a common saying, according to the records, as long ago as the middle of the seventeenth century, and the origin is not … Read more

Cats have been getting their back up, when angry, as long as there has been a feline family. But, from the written evidence, it has been only some two centuries that human beings have figuratively been arching their backs when aroused into anger.

At first, the phrase “hand over fist” was a nautical expression with a very lateral meaning , advancing the hands alternately, as in climbing a rope, hoisting a sail, or the like. Then, still nautical, it acquired a figurative sense, advancing continuously, as if by pulling something toward one by a rope. Thus, in overtaking … Read more

Nowadays the expression “to paint the town red” has no greater significance than to go on a spree, usually in company with others of like mind. As far as the records go, the term is less than a hundred years old, but as is so often the case, usage probably antedates the printed record by … Read more

The phrase “to sleep like a top” means to sleep so soundly as to be utterly quiescent. Efforts have been made to derive the “top” in this saying from the French taupe, mole, and thus imply that one sleeps as quietly as a mole; but this solution does not hold, for the French idiom is … Read more

The expression “to have an ax to grind” means to flatter a person or to be obsequious when seeking a favor from him. It is from a story entitled, “Who’ll turn the grindstone?” first published in the Wilkesbarre Gleaner in 1811, often credited to Benjamin Franklin, but actually written by Charles Miner. It purports to … Read more

We use the phrase “to see which way the cat jumps” in a figurative sense as meaning to notice how events are shaping, so as to be able to act accordingly. It is the general assumption that the saying came from the game of tipcat, which boys have been playing since the sixteenth century at … Read more

The expression “to play ducks and drakes” means to squander foolishly or carelessly. The allusion is to the ancient pastime of skipping stones over the water, in some places called “playing ducks and drakes” because the stones, skimming over the surface, arc supposed to resemble water fowl rising from a pond. Many stones, thrown even … Read more

To a Nantucketer, the phrase “greasy luck” is just a way of saying “good luck!” It is a hang-over from the days of whaling, and meant that the well-wisher hoped that the whaleman would quickly fill his ship with oil.

The host or hostess, if properly conforming with the precepts of Emily Post, “keeps the ball rolling” at a dinner party or other occasion by maintaining conversation or relating some anecdote or by providing other entertainment that will keep the interest of the guests from flagging. The saying is of British origin, dating back to … Read more

Nowadays the phrase “hue and cry” just means a great to do over some matter, especially one accompanied by clamor. But originally, and at least until the early part of the nineteenth century, it was the outcry raised by one who had been robbed, or by the constable or other officer of the law, calling … Read more

It was known to both Pliny and Plutarch, in the first century A.D., that oil poured upon a stormy sea would quiet the waves. Five centuries later, according to the Venerable Bede, Bishop Aidan, an Irish monk of Iona, also knew this “miracle,” for after foretelling that a storm would arise, he gave e seamen … Read more

Nowadays we usually think of the knuckles as the joints of the fingers, but there was a time when the knuckle meant the knee or the elbow, especially the rounded part of the bone when the joint is bent. This sense survives chiefly in allusion to a joint of meat and in certain phrases. Thus, … Read more

A tailor, making such a coat, would pay no attention to the pattern in the cloth nor to warp or woof; he would make it out of whatever material there was at hand, taking advantage of every scrap, regardless of the appearance of the ultimate garment. It is likely that tailors, and mothers, have been … Read more

When you enrich someone with money in the hope or expectation of having a favor from him in return, you “grease his palm.” The present expression has been in vogue since the beginning of the eighteenth century, changed since the early sixteenth century only in the substitution of “palm” for “hand.” Our present form, however, … Read more

The expression “to bring down the house” means to call forth such wild applause, as at a theater, that the very walls seem to tremble and be about to fall. Possibly this could be done actually, for, we are told, a regiment marching in cadence across a bridge could cause its destruction. We have not … Read more

Some suppose that the tick to which the simile “full as a tick” alludes is the bed-tick, the old-fashioned flat, rectangular bag of cloth which was stuffed with feathers, straw, or the like to form a bed. It had to be full, of course, or one might find one’s poor bones resting on the floor. … Read more

That which is said to he “in apple pie order” has a perfection of orderliness, but no one has been able to figure out the reason for this with certainty. The expression is of British origin, and has been used since early in the nineteenth century at least. Some have tried to figure that it … Read more

Though it is only within the past fifty years, apparently, that we in America have used the phrase “an itching foot” to mean a craving to travel, we have ancient precedent for such a figurative expression. Away back in the thirteenth century a writer used “an itching ear” to mean a craving to hear gossip, … Read more

In wood, the fibers are arranged in parallel lines which run lengthwise along the line of growth of the original tree, and this we call the grain of the wood. The wood may be easily split, sawed, or planed along those parallel lines, or, as we say, “with the grain.” We use “against the grain” … Read more

The term “blind tiger” is the name for a place where liquor is illegally sold. and is scarcely more than sixty years old, though the reason for the appellation can now only be surmised. We think it likely that the “blind tiger” began its career in the back room of a faro establishment, for this … Read more

The expression “a horse of another color” means something of a different nature from that under consideration. Just how long it has been that this phrase has had such a meaning is anyone’s guess. It was known by Shakespeare, though he used it as “a horse of the same color” when describing the plot hatched … Read more

A youngster, or an adult for that matter, who struts around trying to impress others with his importance, is said to be “too big for his breeches.” Just as with the independent hog on his chunk of ice, this expression gives us another instance of an absurdly recent first appearance in print of an obviously … Read more

Winston Churchill had just been appointed prime minister. The war against Germany had been going badly; an attempt to overcome the German invasion of Norway had met with severe losses, and British morale was at low ebb in the spring of 1940. The populace and Parliament hoped for miracles, but Churchill wanted them to know … Read more

Originally, the expression “to hold one’s horses” had nothing but its literal meaning, to keep one’s team of horses from getting excited. In the United States somewhat more than a hundred years ago, however, the expression began to be applied to people, always as a mild adjuration. And because of an assumed rustic source, the … Read more

According to legend, the people of Troy, especially those who accompanied Paris in his abduction of Helen, were endowed with prodigious strength, endurance, energy, and capacity. English acceptance of the legend dates back to the Benedictine chronicler of the fourteenth century, Ranulf Higden. But it was not until the nineteenth century that English and American … Read more

Among the instruments of torture used, especially in Scotland, in the late seventeenth century was the screw or thumbscrew. It was a clamp or vise applied to one or both thumbs of the victim which could be tightened under the slow and inexorable pressure of a screw. The device was used for extorting confession from … Read more

The word buff, as we use it most frequently today, is a color, a light yellow. But it is also the name given to a soft, undyed and unglazed leather, especially a leather made from a buffalo hide, for it was from this leather that the color got its name. Someone, about three hundred years … Read more

Customarily, the expression “a hair of the dog that bit you” applies to a drink taken as a pick me up on the morning after a spree, to a drink taken for relief from an excess of drinks. Heywood, in 1546, thus recorded it in his “Dialogue conteynyng prouerbes and epigrammes”: “I pray the leat … Read more

This we do when we take something formless or not fully in readiness to meet the critical eyes of the world and put it into form or make it ready. The saying comes from the ancient belief that, to quote from the unknown translator (about 1400) of de Guilleville’s “The pylgremage of the sowle”, “Beres … Read more

This is the American expression, and, according to the record, we and our grandsires before us and their sires or grandsires also used it when expressing mastership or authority. The original analogy was, undoubtedly, the rooster, who is cock of the walk in the hen yard. It is very likely, however, that the American saying … Read more

So far as we know, batfowling was never an American sport. Perhaps game has always been too plentiful. But we have to go way back to this ancient practice in the fifteenth century for the origin of this expression. Batfowling was nothing more than the hunting of birds at night, the hunter armed with a … Read more