 The verb rub is a bit of an etymological mystery. We’re not sure where it came from, & all three identified potential source words (from East Frisian, Low German, & Norwegian) have unidentified sources. On top of all that, rub is an important element in some spiffy idioms: to rub elbows to rub shoulders to rub noses to rub up against to rub someone or something down to rub someone the wrong way to rub someone’s fur the wrong way to rub something in to rub something off to rub someone’s nose in something to rub salt into a wound to rub one’s nose in the dirt to rub off on something/someone therein lies the rub / there’s the rub give someone the rub to not have two pennies/nickels/brain cells to rub together This week, may nobody rub you the wrong way. Thanks to this week’s sources: The Free Dictionary, Etymonline, NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary, & Vecteezy.
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 I hope you enjoy these thirteen idioms — twelve of the thirteen are new to me.
To throw one’s bonnet over the windmill — to act in a reckless manner To know chalk from cheese -- to be able to discern the difference between things that may appear similar As fine as frog’s hair — truly fine To take the gilt off the gingerbread — to spoil something that’s otherwise enjoyable In the ketchup — to be operating ‘in the red’ — to be losing money To think one’s cap is a helmet — to overestimate one’s ability or importance Pine overcoat — coffin To have the cockroach — to 'have the blues’ or suffer from depression Hiccius doccius — hocus pocus To cop a mouse — to get a black eye For the nonce — temporarily To slide in on a shrimp sandwich — to have things easy or 'be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth' To wear a cat on one’s head — to pretend innocence I’d love to hear from those of you who’ve heard any of these before — comment away! Big thanks to this week’s sources: 7ESL, Mental Floss, Ultimate Lexicon, Red Fox Education, & Survey Monkey.  Why not celebrate the season with a look at ghost — its sources & its idioms.
Ghost appeared in Old English from Proto-West-Germanic, & originally meant breath, good spirit, bad spirit, angel, demon, or human being. Talk about a word that covered all the bases. And etymologists are pretty sure an even earlier root was *gheis-, which had to do with excitement, amazement, or fear. Ghost’s etymological cousins include aghast, ghastly, poltergiest, & zeitgeist. Ghost shows up in a number of idioms: ghost of a chance ghost story ghost image ghost town ghost writer ghost in the machine to look like one has seen a ghost to ghost someone ghost of a smile ghost of a doubt ghost of an idea white as a ghost pale as a ghost ghost at the feast ghost dance holy ghost give up the ghost May any ghosts you encounter this season be carrying plastic, candy-holding pumpkins. Thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, the OED, Idioms Academy, Etymonline, Phrases.com, Collins Dictionary, & FreePik.  Idioms are fabulous things. This week, I’m celebrating idioms that include the word eat. If you could use a laugh, try reading the list aloud. Lists of idioms are inherently laughworthy. I hope you eat them up. Eat humble pie Eat away at something Eat high on the hog Eat out of someone’s hands Eat something away Eat something up Eat like a bird Eat like a horse Eat one’s hat Eat the cost Eat crow Eat dirt Have one’s cake & eat it too Eat & run Eat one’s heart out Eat one’s words Eat someone alive What’s eating you? I hope this list gives you as much joy as it gives me. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Go English, Mr. Greg English, NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary, & Fly Club.  Every year I volunteer at my local Society for Children's Book Writers & Illustrators' Writers" Day (that's a mouthful, eh?). This year's Writers' Day happens this weekend. The theme is "Connecting the Creative Dots," so it occurred to me to look into the word dot.
Over the years, the noun dot has meant a speck, a small, round spot, a decimal point, a short click in Morse Code, an abbreviation for the name Dorothy or the Department of Transportation, a multiplication sign, & a precise point in time. The verb dot has meant to mark with a dot, & to mark with scattered dots, Originally, dot meant the head of a boil. Thankfully, we won't be dealing with boils at Writers' Day, but it's very likely at least one participant will be festooned with polkadots, decimal points will play a role (as books will be bought & sold), a Dorothy or Dot may be in attendance, some of us will arrive on the dot, and since writers & illustrators are involved, a goodly percentage of us might be referred to as dotty. And because writers & illustrators come in a variety of ages, there may be a few who could be considered dottering. Ah, the dot. Big thanks to this week's sourced: etymon line.com merriamwebster.com, CollinsDictionary.com,  For years I've been trying to break a habit learned from my dad -- the habit of swearing colorfully at inanimate objects like stepstools, hammers, pliers, and such. In honor of my dad's propensity for turning the air blue, we’ll take a look at the word blue.
Scott C. Perry Jr. (known in the family as Puz) happened to have blue eyes, though I doubt anyone who would’ve called him a blue-eyed boy. He headed to work at MGM Studios straight out of high school as a blue-collar worker. Though he wasn't inclined to get the blues, he could certainly appreciate someone playing the blues. He would not have been fond of blue laws, & did not frequent restaurants featuring cordon bleu chefs. But he could curse a blue streak like nobody's business. Etymologists are somewhat uncertain regarding the association of the word blue with profanity. The first instances of phrases like turn the air blue or cuss/curse a blue streak occurred in the 1840s. This may be associated with the Scottish phrase thread o’ blue, which referred to music or literature that included a “smutty touch,” however some linguists see this as a shaky connection. Blue collar is a reference to the traditionally blue work clothes of those engaged in manual labor. Cordon bleu translates to blue ribbon & refers to the highest level of chefs, those who might win a blue first place ribbon. The term blue-eyed-boy refers to the employee preferred by the boss; synonymous with the term fair-haired-boy; both appear to reflect long-lived European prejudices.Once in a blue moon is a term first documented in 1821 that reflects that rare occasion when we see two full moons in one month. Since 1741, we've used the term the blues to refer to depression or low spirits. From that usage was born the musical term, the blues, defined by musicologists as a minor interval where a major would be expected. Though Puz was a musical dude, he would've asserted, that the blues don't require a definition -- we can feel the blues in the music. Into the wild blue yonder is a term referring to the excitement or isolation of traveling to the unknown. It’s not quite synonymous with Jackie Gleason’s classic line, “To the moon, Alice, to the moon,” but I’m forced to mention this line due to Puz’s affinity for Jackie Gleason's show The Honeymooners & Puz’s own unplanned travel to the unknown some sixteen years ago. Blogophiles, please leave a comment suggesting a person in your life & what one word you might propose as a tribute to him/her. My thanks go out to this week’s sources The OED, The Free Dictionary & Etymonline.  Every idiom has a story. Here are a few I find entertaining.
In the 1800s, English speakers in America borrowed a Cree word for marmota monax (also known as the groundhog). They squeezed it into sounds that made some sort of sense in English, & ended up with woodchuck. These rodents were powerfully effective diggers, and regularly dug up the dirt roads, yielding chuckholes. Today, though rodents aren’t responsible, we still call the cavities in asphalt & cement roads, chuckholes. Some early puritans held the belief that a human was made of two halves: the body, & the spirit. Given puritanical thinking regarding the body, it should be no surprise that the spirit was considered the better half. When Sir Phillip Sydney wrote The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, he applied this concept to marriage. Ever since, any married individual has a better half. The word bootlicker was born in the US of A’s youth. When hunters returned from a successful hunt (which often involved dressing and skinning), they weren’t very good at cleaning up their footwear, and stray dogs would follow them to lick their boots. The story goes that the trained hunting dogs would never stoop so low (hmmm), so bootlicker refers to the fawning behavior of curs. The most plausible of the many possible origins for getting one’s ducks in a row has to do with bowling. When bowling first made its way to America, a narrower-then-usual pin was used, which resembled a duck looking upward, & was called a duckpin. In those early years, machinery didn’t set up the pins for the next bowler, so someone had to run down the lane to put the ducks in rows. Voila. In China, a task that requires synchronized multiple hands can be accompanied by the phrase (said in unison), gung ho, which translates to work together. And it’s no surprise that when a bunch of people work together, amazing things can be accomplished. English-speaking observers impressed by such feats as the Great Wall, figured it took a bunch of enthusiasm to manage such a project. Ever since, gung ho! has meant very enthusiastic (in English, anyway). There are a couple possible origins for put up your dukes, & duke it out. Some etymologists link this to the British cockney tradition of labeling one thing by the name of something else that rhymes. Apparently, before 1700, fingers were referred to as forks. Cockney speakers combined this information with the royal title the Duke of York. Since fingers were already called forks, obviously, hands must be dukes! Makes perfect sense, right? Story #2 involves a specific Duke of York — Frederick Augustus, who was “widely admired” as a bare-knuckle fighter. So, fo course, why not call fists dukes? I’d love to know which of these origin stories you find most intriguing, unlikely, or most satisfying. My thanks go out to this week’s sources, Webb Garrison’s Why You Say It, Etymonline.com, , Phrases.org, Collins Dictionary, & the OED.  Dogs make it into English idioms all the time, as dogs make their way into our hearts. As you consider this photo of The Noodle, looking contrite, consider the following: dog & pony show shaggy dog story as sick as a dog like a dog with a bone call off the dogs dirty dog dog eats dog dog-tired dog-eared every dog has its day raining cats & dogs go to see a man about a dog hot diggety-dog! a dog’s life let sleeping dogs lie meaner than a junkyard dog put on the dog tail wagging the dog hair of the dog that bit you life in the old dog yet you can’t teach an old dog new tricks in the dog house I had a bit of a milquetoast upbringing & had always heard one of the above terms, yet really hadn’t constructed much meaning for it. Then, in my twenties I had a character of a roommate named Mick. He kept me laughing with his Irish accent, colorful terms & his drinking ways. Nearly every Saturday morning I’d get up to see Mick sitting on our lumpy, brown floral sofa, his eyes at halfmast & a beer in his hand. “Hair o’ the dog what bit ya,” he’d say, wincing between swigs. Followers, please add something in the comments section: 1. What dog idioms did I leave out? 2. Tell your tale about one of the idioms above. My thanks go out to this week’s sources The OED, Etymonline, The Free Dictionary, & Cesar’s Way  There are heaps of ways we refer to something being speedy or needing to be speedier. Here are a few:
-quick as a bunny -in three shakes of a lamb's tail (only two shakes in the UK) -quick as a wink -in the blink of an eye -in a flash -quick as lightning -get the lead out Here are some for which I could find source information: -fast track (1934 from horse racing) -pronto (1850) from Spanish &/or Italian from a word meaning prompt -breakneck (1560s) moving so fast one is likely to break one’ s neck -giddy up (1909) a mispronunciation of get up, also spelled gee-hup, gee-up & giddap. -flat-out — most likely from horse-racing when horse & jockey flatten out to decrease wind resistance -posthaste (1530s) with great speed - a request written on the envelopes of letters -lickety-split (1852) most likely based on lick - a speedy sprint while racing - also lickety-cut, lickety-click, & licketie — probably related to quick as a lick -faster than you can say "Jack Robinson" has numerous proposed sources, none of them confirmed, but all intriguing: -Jack Robinson was US Secretary of the Treasury in the late 1700s & was able to get things done speedily in Congress -another Jack Robinson was constable of the Tower of London, responsible for quickly successive beheadings -another Jack Robinson was an English gentleman well-known for speedy changes of opinion Have you got a favorite idiom regarding speediness, or did any of these sources surprise you? If so, please let me know in the comments section. Thanks to this week’s sources, Etymonline.com, the OED, Merriam-Webster, Answers.com, ,& Wordnik.com. Image from Grumpy Goat Tattoo..  Here’s a brief collection of English idioms based on foods.
You don’t know beans! This idiom seems to have shown up in the 1850s. Linguists pose two differing arguments for its source. One school suggests that because beans are both small & a basic food source, to not know beans is to not understand the simple basics of life. The second school cites a rural American riddle: How many blue beans does it take to make seven white beans? The answer is, (for those of you who don’t know beans) seven. To make blue beans white you simply peel off the skin. Apparently this was seen as common knowledge. Anyone who couldn’t answer the riddle didn’t know beans. Hard-boiled This is a tricky one because though it appears to a food-based-idiom, it isn’t. It comes from the steamy kitchens of the American frontier. Those who did the laundry typically used lye soap (which wasn’t as effective as it might have been). When the clothes got too dingy, launderers of the day boiled them for an extended time with starch. Pieces of clothing that had received this treatment tended to be uncomfortably stiff, & were referred to as hard-boiled. At some point the term morphed to describe a person who was likely wearing over-starched clothing & shared that clothing’s characteristics of being unyielding and emotionless. Fishing for information This idiom was introduced by none other than Geoffrey Chaucer in Canterbury Tales. Historians tell us Chaucer was quite the fisherman (in the literal sense). The intimate nature of Canterbury Tales shows us he was apparently also gifted at fishing for information. Cheesecake In 1934, Time magazine appears to have coined this idiom, & defined it to mean, “leg-pictures of sporty females.” Like many idioms, this one reflects its times. The “sporty females” photographed in Time magazine all had skin the color of cheesecake. Modern cheesecake shots do not discriminate in terms of skin color & generally involve exposure of more than the legs. Ham If it takes a little digging to see racist attitudes or flat-out racism reflected in the birth of the idiom cheesecake, seeing racism in the origins of the idiom ham takes no digging at all. The minstrel shows of the 1800s that often featured white actors in “black face” are responsible. Often, the makeup was removed by use of ham fat. It seems the use of ham fat in concert with the horrible acting based on racist stereotypes gave birth to the idiom. Nothing like a food-based idiom, eh? I’m hoping you’ll have something to say about it all in the comments section. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, Wordnik, Merriam-Webster,Dictionary.com, & Webb Garrison’s Why You Say It (1992 - Thomas Nelson) |
I write for teens & tweens, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.
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