Origins of Expressions

  As Vain as a Peacock  Watch this on YouTube here - Vain Video - YouTube Video Meaning: As vain as a peacock or As Proud as a Peacock means excessively proud of one's appearance, possessions, or accomplishments, to the point of arrogance or boastfulness. Origin: The peacock has been used as a symbol of vanity and showiness since ancient times around the world, and in England certainly from the Middle Ages. We first see it in writing in 1387 by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales in the third story told called The Reeve’s Tale it reads, “As any peacock he was proud” From then forward the expression has been used in English to express someone who shows vanity about their appearance and possessions. Example: Today we still see the phrase as vain as a peacock or as proud as a peacock being used to express someone that is self-absorbed and vain. An example sentence is: “She is as vain as a peacock, staring in the mirror all day.” Watch this on YouTube here - Vain V...

  To Do Something in Vain  Watch this on YouTube here - Vain Video - YouTube Video Meaning: To Do Something in Vain means Without success; futile, hopelessly “Well, I just did that in vain” Origin: The phrase has been used since the 1300s. There are examples of the phrase being used in the Bible. The original phrase was translated from the Latin “in vanum” meaning to no effect. In these cases, the word vanum or vain meant empty. When the word “in” is added to the front it means that something takes on an empty or negative purpose.   Example: Today we still use the phrase to do something in vain to express that the effort we just put into a task will not pay off, it was useless. An example sentence is: “All of my studying was in vain. The professor asked questions that weren’t even in the material.”  Watch this on YouTube here - Vain Video - YouTube Video

  Take One's Name in Vain  Watch this on YouTube here - Vain Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Take One's Name in Vain means to speak about someone when they are not present, usually in a poor manner. “Hey, I heard that! Don't take my name in vain!” Origin: This phrase has been around for a while, This idiom originated as a translation from the Latin version of the Bible, stating “to take God's name in vain,” and for a time was used only to denote blasphemy and profanity. We first see the phrase from the Ten Commandments that prohibits  Speaking God's name in vain. In the early 1700s, it began to be used more loosely as well. Example: Today we do not hear the saying to take one name in vain as much, but if we did, it would still have the same meaning, to say don’t talk bad about someone when they are not around, an example sentence is: “My new Desk is near Tom, and he keeps talking about me and taking my name in Vain.” Watch this on YouTube here - ...

  Leave in A Lurch   Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Leave in A Lurch means to be Abandoned in a difficult position without help.  Origin: The phrase originates from the French board game of  lourche  or  lurch , which was similar to backgammon and was last played in the 17th century unfortunately the rules have now been forgotten and lost over time. Players suffered a lurch if they were left in a hopeless position and too far behind to win the game. The card game of cribbage, or crib, also has a 'lurch' position which players may be left in if they don't progress halfway round the pegboard before the winner finishes. The first written history was in 1596 from Thomas Nashe in   Saffron Walden it read : "Whom he also procured to be equally bound with him for his new cousens apparence to the law, which he neuer did, but left both of them in the lurtch for him." Example: Today we use this saying to express that we have ...

  Fly the Coop  Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Fly the Coop means to leave, to depart, or to escape.  Origin: This phrase has not been around for long but it has some old roots. In Middle English around the 1200s, the word COOP first meant a wicker basket - and then as a cage or a pen for keeping poultry. In the late 18th century COOP, became criminal slang for prison or jail, and eventually any confining place, both literal and figuratively. So, to “FLY THE COOP”, first meant to escape from prison, with the visual likeness of a chicken escaping from a chicken coop. It later came to mean to depart hastily from any place, but especially from a place that started to feel confining or restrictive. The first written record was in 1909, in The Enchanted Profile by O. Henry it read: “On the third day, I FLEW THE COOP.” Example: Today we still use this saying to express that a place was left and left quickly due to feeling boring or r...

  High and Dry Watch this on YouTube here - Abandon Video - YouTube Video Meaning: High and Dry means that you have been stranded, left behind, you are without help.  “Wow, they left me high and dry” Origin: This term originally referred to ships and boats that were beached. The 'dry' implies that not only were they out of the water but had been for some time and could be expected to remain so. When this happened to the ships, the crew would abandon them and leave them on the beach, “high and dry.” The first written record was used in a 'Ship News' column in The [London] Times, in 1796 it read: "The Russian frigate Archipelago, yesterday got aground below the Nore at high water, which; when the tide had ebbed, left her nearly high and dry." Example: We still use high and dry for boats to express they have been beached and abandoned, but we have also used this phrase to express that we feel abandoned. An example sentence is. “My roommates left me high and dry...

  Take it With a Grain of Salt Watch this on YouTube here - Salt Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Take it With a Grain of Salt means to accept something while maintaining a degree of about its truth.  Like when your friend is telling you a crazy story and you are finding it hard to believe,  “ahh, take it with a grain of salt” Origin: The idea with this phrase comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt, so why can’t a crazy story. There is a very early text about taking a concoction with salt from Pliny’s  Naturalis Historia, 77 C.E. translates into modern English it reads: “After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will b...

  Worth my Salt  Watch this on YouTube here - Salt Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Worth my Salt means you want to prove you can be effective and efficient; that you are deserving of your pay. Origin: The origin of this idiom is not very old even though salt being used as money has been around for a while. Our word  salary  derives from the Latin word  , Latin also has the word salt as sal . So using salt as money or another word for money has been around for a while.  So “worth my salt” is really saying “I am worth my Salary” The phrase “worth my Salt” however has not been around that long though. It does have an older sister phrase with a similar meaning from the 13 century “worth one’s weight in gold” but, that is another video. Worth my salt wasn’t first seen in writing till 1805 in The African Memoranda by Philip Beaver it read: "Hayles has been my most useful man, but of late not worth his salt." Example: Today we do not see this phrase used as much, ...

  Go Pound Salt  Watch this on YouTube here - Salt Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Go Pound Salt is a saying that means you are annoyed with someone and want them to go away. So you give them a task to go do so they leave.  “Ugg, go pound salt!” Origin: This phrase is not that old and started out a bit differently than what we use today. The saying started out in the late 1800s as go pound sand. This was primarily used in America. A fun article in The Saint Paul Globe in 1886 has a story that includes go pound sand, it reads. “I have always umpired baseball from the grandstand... Nothing affords me more pleasure now than to sit on a hard board in the grandstand and devote my time yelling, "Kill him!" "Cut his feet off." "Aw, go pound sand" and other rhetorical gems at the umpire.” The phrase then changed for a bit to go pound sand in your ears. We then start to see salt being used instead of sand. We see vulgar saying to pound salt in uncomfortable places, ...

  Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea  Watch this on YouTube here - Nautical Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea means that you are nStuck between two awful choices; having two poor alternatives. Origin: This expression is said to have existed orally since at least the 1600s. This expression doesn’t have to do with the devil of the Bible but with a seam around a ship’s hull near the water. This term was coined in 1867 in The Sailor's Word-Book: an alphabetical digest of nautical terms. It states: "Devil - the seam which margins the waterways on a ship's hull". To be 'between the devil and the deep sea' a sailor would need to be at the very edge of the deck, or even over the side, either way, a very dangerous position. When a sailor attempted to caulk this seam in heavy seas, he was in serious danger of falling overboard and drowning. Of course, if he didn’t caulk the seam, the ship could fill with water and sink. ...

  Plain Sailing  Watch this on YouTube here - Nautical Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Plain Sailing means to be an untroubled task or easy. it is a nautical term that means the sailing is easy and uncomplicated. Origin: This phrase started out many years ago when the majority of people thought the earth was flat, and not round. The term was used a “Plane Sailing,” to represent the ocean being flat, so a route from one place to another did not take in the curvature of the planet, instead, it was a flat plane ocean. Now we spell it “Plain” in the sense of ordinary and uncomplicated. This way of writing shows that a task will be easy or uncomplicated. The first written record of this phrase uses the term plain as in ordinary and was in 1683 by Adam Martindale in A Collection of Letters for Improvement of Husbandry & Trade. It read: “A token for ship boys, plain-sailing made more plain and short than usually, in three particular methods.” Example: Today we still use plain sail...

All hands-on deck   Watch this on YouTube here - Nautical Video - YouTube Video Meaning: All hands-on deck is a phrase that has been said to be in use since about the 1700s. It is a naval expression that has migrated into common use.  In this phrase, the word hands refer to the sailors on the ship and the deck is the upmost tier of a ship. Origin: A call for all members of a ship's crew to come to the deck, usually in a time of crisis. (A "hand" is a member of a ship's crew.) As time went on this changed too anyone and everyone available to help with a problem, or a call for those people to help. The first written history happened much later than the oral phrase. It was first written in J.G. Bissets, Sail Ho!, in 1958 “…but did his work by day and could sleep all night, unless he was turned out by the cry of ...

  Fingers Crossed   Watch this on YouTube here - Luck Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Fingers Crossed is a phrase one uses to express the hope that something comes to pass, or that someone is blessed with good luck.  Physically crossing your fingers and placing them behind your back is a sign of lying, this is not to be confused with the act of saying “fingers crossed”  Origin: This phrase fingers crossed has a long connection with Christianity where It was used back in 1600s in the Courts of Mosaic law also known as law of Moses where judges would render verdicts with the phrase "May God have mercy upon your soul" this was to reaffirm God's supreme authority over the law. Most judges felt that while they could pass a sentence of death upon a person, they personally did not have the authority to destroy souls and that only God had the authority to do that. As a result, some judges would cross their fingers whenever they said the phrase as a result of concern for the...

  Knock Them Dead  Watch this on YouTube here - Luck Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Knock Them Dead is a phrase used as a way to impress people, like if you are going to a job interview, or you are going live for a stand-up show, or other events where you are trying to impress people, you would use the phrase knock them dead. “Knock’em Dead, kid” Origin: The phrase came into use in the 1890s in American vaudeville. Vaudeville is a type of live variety entertainment that featured a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque, comedy, and song and dance and was popular until the introduction of the motion picture.  Originally, the term knock them dead or knock ’em dead was used to wish a performer luck specifically a comedian. It seems that the relationship between a performer and his audience is often seen as combative, hence the use of terms such as knock them dead or knock ’em dead, slay them, or kill them, all referring to the audience. It quickly swapped to mean Impres...

Break A Leg    Watch this on YouTube here - Luck Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Break A Leg is an encouragement to actors before they go on stage or in front of an audience as a way of saying good luck.  “Ooh, break a leg out there.” Origin: Theatre actors are well known for their belief in superstitions, one of them is, - do not to utter the words 'good luck' to an actor. - Instead, by wishing someone bad luck, it is supposed to be that the opposite will occur. The term 'break a leg' appears to come from that belief. Before break a leg became a theatrical way of wishing someone good luck is was used to mean - make a strenuous effort- with many old records. Like “break a leg trying” The earliest record of Break a leg in a theatrical way was in 1948 from a US newspaper The Charleston Gazette, in the 'Ask The Gazette' column, the question asked was: Q. What are some of the well-known superstitions of the theatre? A. Superstitions of the stage are numerous, and man...

  Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd Watch this on YouTube here - Numbers Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd Means that two people want to be alone together and the presence of a third person stops that from happening.  “Umm, threes a crowd.” Origin: Twos company, threes a crowd is a short, common saying that give advice or share a universal truth or imparts  wisdom. Usually, when a couple invokes the proverb two’s company, three’s a crowd, they are romantically involved. Sometimes it is used to between friends, but that means that you do not enjoy the company of a third person, ouch! The origin of the phrase two’s company, three’s a crowd is traced to a proverb quoted in John Ray’s 1678 collection of English Proverbs:  “Two’s company but three’s a crowd.” The phrase turned up in America in 1856 in the North American Review and it read: “Two is company, three is a crowd,” is almost as true of travel, as it is ...

  Two Left Feet Watch this on YouTube here - Numbers Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Two Left Feet means that you are clumsy or awkward. Especially with your feet, you might find yourself tripping or stumbling a lot. Quite often you hear I have two left feet when it comes to dancing, usually focused on a man who could not dance.  “When it comes to dancing, I have two left feet.” Origin: This phrase focuses on the left side. The left side comes with a sense of being non-dominant causing awkwardness and a long time ago even being the evil side, there has been a long history of showing prejudice around the left side. -because really if you think about it, if you had two feet that were the same, whether they were left or right, you would be quite awkward. Before two left feet came into the picture there was a phrase two left hands, that saying has been around since the early 1700s used to describe a high society person, usually a woman who seemed awkward. Two left feet came i...

  One-Horse Town   Watch this on YouTube here - Numbers Video - YouTube Video Meaning:  One-Horse Town means that the place you are talking about is small and insignificant. "Well, that's a one-horse town." Origin: This phrase started out a bit different and has changed over time. In the 1700’s through the end of the 1800s it was just said as “One-Horse,” it was used to explain tasks that could be completed by one horse. Charles Dickens wrote in his magazine All the Year Round in 1871 that “'One horse' is an agricultural phrase, applied to anything small or insignificant, or to any inconsiderable or contemptible person: as a 'one-horse town,' a 'one- horse bank,' a 'one-horse hotel,' a 'one-horse lawyer', [etc.]” As time went on the phrase “One-horse Town” stuck and was the one that was used all the time. One of the earliest records of this phrase was in 1857 in Graham’s Illustrated Magazine in a poem ‘The One-Horse Town’, written b...