Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Origin of Words and Phrases: Common Idioms

Starting point is 00:00:00 Let me cut right to the chase. This episode is going to be a deep dive into the origin of some common idioms. I don't want to dance around the subject or have to walk on eggshells, so I'm going to use this introduction to break the ice. Whether you're feeling under the weather or ready to burn the midnight oil, I think that you'll learn something. I'll spill the beans on the meanings and origins of these idioms so you can sound smart as a whip.

Starting point is 00:00:23 Learn more about the origins and meanings of common idioms so you don't go barking up the wrong tree. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.

Starting point is 00:01:07 An idiom is defined in the dictionary as, quote, an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself, either in having a meaning that can't be derived from the conjoined meaning of its elements, or in its grammatically atypical use of words. If you're a native speaker of a language, idioms come naturally. If you speak a language that isn't native, even if you're fluent in it, idioms can be one of the most difficult things to understand. When I was traveling, I found myself using idioms without thinking all the time, and often realized that I was confusing the person that I was talking to if they spoke English as a second language. Moreover, idioms aren't necessarily even unique to a single language.

Starting point is 00:01:53 There can be regional idioms that are only used in some places and might not be understood in other areas, even if they do speak the same language. So in this episode, I want to go through some of the common idioms in English and explain their origin and meanings. And a good rule of thumb of where to start is with the most misunderstood and interesting one, which would be the rule of thumb. The reason I'm starting with this one is because there's a good chance that you may have heard about the origin of this idiom, and there's a good chance that what you heard is wrong. The common belief today is that the phrase rule of thumb comes from a medieval law that says a man could beat his wife with a stick just so long as it was no thicker than his thumb.

Starting point is 00:02:37 However, this is an idiom urban legend. Several outlets have extensively researched the rumor, but no one has ever found any truth in it. The earliest reference to rule of thumb referring to domestic abuse only goes back to the 1970s. The first known reference to the phrase rule of thumb appeared in the 17th century. The meaning of the term at that time is exactly the same as it is today. It simply refers to an approximate way of due. doing something. And that's because the width of a human thumb is approximately one inch. The first appearance and writing of the phrase came from a Scottish preacher named

Starting point is 00:03:17 James Durham in the mid-17th century during a sermon he wrote. He said, quote, many professed Christians are like to foolish builders who build by guess and by rule of thumb and not by square and rule, end quote. So where did the modern origin story for this idiom come from? It came from a rumor about a British judge in the late 18th century named Sir Francis Bueller. He allegedly said in a legal ruling, quote, a husband could thrash his wife with impunity, provided that he used a stick no bigger than his thumb. End quote. In 1782, he was mocked in the press regarding the statement and was called Judge Thumb. It isn't even known if he actually said it, although it was once argued as precedent in a court case and it was rejected.

Starting point is 00:04:06 While this does have to do with thumbs, the problem is the phrase rule of thumb predated Sir Francis Bueller by about two centuries. While the origin of rule of thumb is very straightforward, others are not very obvious at all. One non-obvious idiom is to steal one's thunder. To steal someone's thunder means to take attention, or praise away from someone by using their ideas or accomplishments to one's own advantage. Now, you obviously can't steal actual thunder.

Starting point is 00:04:40 So where did the phrase originate? The origin of the phrase comes from an English theater in the early 18th century. When performing stage productions, there were several methods that were used to simulate the sound of thunder. Usually these involved metal bowls with lead balls or shaking sheets of thin metal, a technique that is still used today. This particular idiom originated with a playwright by the name of John Dennis in 1709. He supposedly created a new and better technique for simulating the Sound of Thunder for a performance of a play that he wrote called Appius and Virginia.

Starting point is 00:05:17 The actual technique he created has been lost to history, but what we do know is that Appius and Virginia was unsuccessful and quickly closed. Soon afterwards, Macbeth was performed at the same time. same theater, and Dennis' method was used to produce the off-stage thunder. Dennis was in the audience for one of the Macbeth performances and was furious when he heard his thunder technique being used. He supposedly stood up and shouted in the middle of the play. There is some doubt as to what he said. One version has him saying, quote, Damn them, they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder.

Starting point is 00:05:56 In another version, he says, quote, that is my thunders. thunder by God, the villains will play my thunder, but not my play. What he said in the crowd was passed along and became part of the English language. If you try or say something that isn't quite right, but it's kind of close, people will often respond, close, but no cigar. What do cigars have to do with accuracy? The first recorded instance of the term came from the 1935 movie Annie Oakley. The origin of the term dates back to early 20th century America when carnivals and fairs were more oriented towards adults. Instead of stuffed animals, one of the common prizes was cigars. And there are references

Starting point is 00:06:39 to cigars being used as prizes as early as 1902. According to some sources, the game in question where the idiom came from was called high ball or high striker. And this is that game where you take a mallet to hit a lever, which causes a ball to go up a pole. And if you hit it hard enough, it'll go all the way up to the top and ring a bell. However, most people never hit the bell and didn't win the prize. And the carnival worker would then shout, close, but no cigar. If you were lucky enough to ring the bell and win a cigar and you tried smoking it, you might find yourself under the weather.

Starting point is 00:07:18 Under the weather means feeling ill, but why do we put it like that? Technically, isn't everyone underneath the weather all the time? The idiom actually comes from sailors. Under the weather is actually a truncated version of what the sailors would say, which is, under the weather bow. The weather bow of a ship was the side of the ship that was getting the brunt of a storm. If someone felt seasick, they would be sent below deck, where they would literally be under the weather bow.

Starting point is 00:07:50 As sailors went to shore, they kept using their nautical euphemisms, and eventually, under the weather bow, an expression for describing someone seasick just became under the weather to describe anyone who was ill. If you're sharing the origin of some of these idioms with someone who takes offense easily, you might have to walk on eggshells around them. To walk on eggshells means to worry about offending or upsetting someone. The origin of this idiom isn't as clear cut as the others I've covered in this episode.

Starting point is 00:08:23 The idea of walking gingerly on something goes back very careful. far. There are countless examples going back almost as far as the development of English of people referencing walking on things. There were references to walking on gunpowder, walking among snakes and snares, walking on pillows, and of course, walking on thin ice. Each of those references was actually talking about avoiding traps. It would be the equivalent of saying someone stepped on a landmine. However, that is a very different meaning than trying to avoid upsetting someone. At least as far back as the 16th century, there have been references to walking on eggs. This simply referred to walking carefully. Again, it isn't known where this came from, but it may have been a

Starting point is 00:09:08 reference to avoid walking on a bird's nest in a field. At some point in the 19th century, the phrase morphed into walking on eggshells. The origin of this is unclear. Some theories hold it comes from farmers who would enter a chicken coop and would avoid stepping on eggshells. However, has nothing to do with the modern meaning of the phrase, and that would actually be about not walking on eggshells. The first written reference to walking on eggshells comes from a novel, The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, written in 1860. It says, quote, with that woman for my enemy, I walk in your English phrase, upon eggshells. The Welsh poet Ernest Rhee wrote in his 1913 book lyric poetry, quote, to speak of these things is to walk on eggshells.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And this was the first reference to walking on eggshells, which refers to speech, not actual walking. Most of the Oxford English Dictionary references to the modern usage of walking on eggshells were all published after 1960, indicating that the modern usage is a rather new one and not very old at all. If someone doesn't walk on eggshells around you, then perhaps you might want to give them the cold shoulder. Giving someone the cold shoulder means that you're ignoring or disregarding them. Most of us do not have hot and cold shoulders. So where does this come from?

Starting point is 00:10:36 As far as we can tell, the term cold shoulder is actually the result of a mistranslation from the Bible. The first person to use the term was the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott. In 1816, he was translating a passage from the Bible, in particular, the Book of Neumel Maya chapter 9 verse 29 which says quote stubbornly they turn their backs to you. The problem stems from the fact that the Greek and Latin versions of the Bible use a term that can mean both back and shoulder. In 1824, Scott used the phrase again in another one of his books, St. Ronan's Well, where he says, quote, I must tip him the cold shoulder or he will be pestering me eternally. The phrase began appearing more regularly in newspapers and other publications.

Starting point is 00:11:25 According to Google word frequency searches, the phrase cold shoulder peaked in popularity in print in 1906. I'll conclude with one final idiom. If some of you were upset by this episode, then we should probably try to bury the hatchet. The phrase bury the hatchet means to make peace with someone or to put your differences aside. The phrase bury the hatchet has an extremely literal origin. Many Native American tribes would literally bury a hatchet as a symbol to the tribe they were making peace with. This tradition was first recorded by Puritan settlers in Massachusetts.

Starting point is 00:12:03 However, there have been dozens and dozens of recorded instances of literal hatchet burials between native peoples or between Europeans and native tribes, mostly along the eastern part of North America. So the idiom is just a metaphorical expression of something that literally happened. There are many, many more idioms in the English language beyond those I covered in this episode. And for those of you who want more origin stories of popular idioms, well, you're just going to have to hold your horses. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon,

Starting point is 00:12:47 including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group

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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Origin of Words and Phrases: Common Idioms

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