The expression “to say uncle” means: To eat crow; throw in the towel or the sponge; cry quits; yield; submit.
When I was a boy, one “hollered ‘cavy'” when he was licked, but we would have been the most astonished boys in the world had anyone told us we were talking Latin.
That is, “cavy,” as I learned much later, is a corrupted contraction of peccavi, meaning, I have sinned, or, I am at fault, and this acknowledgment of guilt or fault was English usage from the sixteenth century onward.
How it came into southern Ohio, we don’t know.
And our present American expression, though arising only in this century, may also have had Latin birth.
At least, when the Roman lad was in trouble, he cried, Patrue mi patruissime, “Uncle, my best of uncles!”
Related Posts
-
Why is Someone Forced to Say “Uncle” In Submission When Defeated and Where Did it Originate?
Being forced to say "uncle" after losing a fight is a man thing and dates back to the late nineteenth century in the United States. In today's terms picture a chauvinistic Republican defeating…
-
Where does the expression “like a Dutch uncle” come from and What does it mean?
In England, especially during the seventeenth century, the mannerisms and characteristics of the people of Holland were held in scorn. Thus Dutch courage came to mean cowardice; Dutch comfort or Dutch consolation meant…
-
Where does the expression “talking to one like a Dutch uncle” come from and What does it mean?
We have previously expressed the opinion that the concept of a severe reprimand from an uncle of Dutch ancestry appeared to be American. Though we have nothing to offer to contradict that opinion,…
-
Where Did the Expression “I’ll Be a Monkey’s Uncle” Come From and What Does the Phrase Mean?
During the famous Scopes trial in 1925, a Tennessee schoolteacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of breaking that state's law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution rather than the Biblical origins of mankind.…
-
What Does the Phrase “Bob’s Your Uncle” Mean and Where Did the Expression Come From?
"Bob's your uncle" is a common British phrase and now means that you've accomplished something without much effort. It originated in 1887 when Prime Minister Robert Cecil appointed his nephew, Arthur Balfour, chief…
-
When and why did the Phrase “I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle” become Popular and what does it mean?
The phrase "I'll be a monkey's uncle!" was a socially acceptable substitution for the shockingly blasphemous phrase "I'll be damned!" It became popular around 1925 during the famous Scopes "Monkey Trial," in which…
