Origins of Expressions

  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...

  Hard Nut to Crack Watch this on YouTube here - Nuts Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Hard Nut to Crack means A person, thing, situation, or problem that is particularly difficult to understand, solve, or deal with.  “That’s a hard nut to crack.” Origin: This expression alludes to hard-shelled nuts like walnuts. Without the help of some outside force like a tool or umm, your foot, the nuts shell can be hard to break with your bare hand. So, we can use this struggle to express other situations that seem tough also. A hard nut to crack was first used by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to his brother about a few colonists in the US who were trying to attain a French Fortress somewhere in Canada in 1745. It reads: “Fortified towns are hard nuts to crack, and your teeth have not been accustomed to it.” Example: Today we still use a hard nut to...

  Hit The Hay  Watch this on YouTube here - Hay Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Hit The Hay means you are going to bed, to get some rest.  “I’m gonna hit the hay” Origin: The term “hay” was used in the USA to mean bed since the early 20th century. It is wordplay from when mattresses were filled with hay, or beds were lined with straw. The word hit is from when you fall into bed your head Hits the mattress, which used to be filled with hay, and just like that, the term hit the hay was born. The first written record seemed to happen from the sports scene in 1903, The Oakland Tribune wrote: "'Sam' Berger, the Olympic heavyweight ... was sleepy and he announced that 'he was going to hit the hay.'" This saying started out in different forms before 1903. Some of the other ways you might hear about going to bed and hay is: crawl into the hay; or hit the sack Example: Today we still use this saying as a fun way to say we are tired and are going to bed. An examp...

  Home Away From Home  Watch this on YouTube here - Home Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Home Away From Home means that there is a place that is not your home, but you feel just as comfortable there as you do in your own home. You might experience this when you visit friends or family, especially if they have been in your life for a while;  "ahh, it’s like a home away from home." Origin: The phrase has been around since the 1860s; it was first used as Home from Home for a hotel that was trying to showcase and market their characteristic of comfort. Later in the 1800s, the slogan changed to what we know of today as a home away from home; it started to be used beyond the hotel industry and into boarding houses like boarding schools, workhouses, and orphanages. As time went on, the phrase Home away from home was used as a joke and used to talk about a place that were frequented a lot, like a local bar. When someone became a regular, and the staff knew them by name, they becam...

  Head Over Heels      Watch this on YouTube here - Falling In Love Video - YouTube Video Meaning:       Head Over Heels is used to express feelings of excitement or passionate love, in a literal sense to want to jump for joy or turn cartwheels to show how excited you are, to get your heels over your head. Origin:      The phrase head over heels had a few meanings before it was what we know today, it was used in the 14 th  century as “heels over head,” to explain a cartwheel or somersault, it then changed to head over heels and it was used to explain someone being pushed around, you know what would happen during a fight. In 1771 the book by Herbert Lawrence the Contemplative Man had an example that read, "He gave [him] such a violent involuntary kick in the Face, as drove him Head over Heels."      The first written record of head over heels in the modern sense where love was involved was in an American newspaper...

  Having a Crush  Watch this on YouTube here - Falling In Love Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Having a Crush means that you feel infatuated with another person. You have a love for them romantically, but you are not in a relationship with them. Quite often it is a secret you are keeping; you do not tell the other person that you have feelings for them, it can be a one-sided emotion. “I think he has a crush on you.”  Origin: The word crush comes from the 1800s in England, it was used as a word that referred to social gatherings or dances. The term "crushing on someone" evolved into a phrase meaning a romantic entanglement at a crowded social gathering. These gatherings were the most popular way to hook up at that time. I mean if hook up meant talking to someone in a hot room full of people. It first appeared in 1884 in The Journal of Isabella Maud Rittenhouse it read: “Wintie is weeping because her crush is gone.”  Example: The saying to have a crush is still used...

    Head in the Clouds Watch this on YouTube here - Clouds Video - YouTube Video Meaning:  Head in the Clouds means to daydream and be unaware of what is going on, to be absent-minded. It can also be used for someone who thinks illogically or in an abstract way. Example: “They got their head in the clouds today.” “My brother has his head in the clouds if he thinks he is going to become an engineer because he is terrible at math.” Origin: This phrase is said to be started in the 1600s orally with no written history, the first written history for the phrase head in the clouds where it was used as an idiom was in a passage by Anna Bartlett Warner, in 1854 from The Glen Luna Family it read “-with his head in the clouds as you say–go stumbling along over the obstacles which had accumulated through his abstraction, and hardly know what they were or how they came.” Today we still use this idiom to express someone that daydreams and their mind seems very far away. They h...