Idioms

Today I had this strange thing in the back of my head making me think: Where do all the wacky phrases we use nowadays come from? So I decided to look some up when I got home about 20 minutes ago. Read on for strange phrases, even stranger origins, and some nice sarcastic comments.

Phrase: "I have a beef with you"
Apparently the phrase "I have a beef with you" originated in the old west among sheep farmers who were competing for grazing land with cattle farmers. The sheep farmers used the term with each other to refer to a conflict, which was what they had with the cattle farmers, or "beef" farmers.
Thoughts: Now that's weird. We don't really fight about beef anymore or maybe we do... ("Gimme a Big Mac!")

Phrase: "Until the cows come home"
This one I like because there's a funny quote from Buffy that uses this phrase: 'I can beat up the demons until the cows come home... and then I can beat up the cows.' So this means that you can keep going for a long time because supposedly cows take a long time to come home. I wouldn't know from personal experience though because no matter how many people suggest it, I am not a cowgirl. The precise time and place of the coining of this phrase isn't known. It was definitely before 1829 though, and may well have been in Scotland. The phrase appeared in print in The Times in January that year, when the paper reported a suggestion of what the Duke of Wellington should do if he wanted to maintain a place as a minister in Peel's cabinet.
Thoughts: This phrase is cool. How could it not be cool if it's about cows?

Phrase: "It is as clear as a bell"
Back in the 1910's, many companies were trying to get into the manufacturing and selling one of the hottest items around, the phonograph. One of those companies was the Sonora Chime Company. This company started the Sonora Phonograph Company and used "Clear as a Bell" as their slogan, touting the fidelity of their machine's sound reproduction.
Thoughts: Now I want a clear bell; that would be pretty cool

Phrase: "That was a piece of cake(or pie)"
This phrase is of American origin. At least, the earliest citation of it that I can find is from the American poet and humorist Ogden Nash's Primrose Path, 1936: "Her picture's in the papers now, And life's a piece of cake."
Thoughts: That's a really old phrase so the piece of cake we're figuratively referring to here must be really old. Ew.

Phrase: "The big cheese"
In earlier times the cheese didn't have to be big - 'the cheese' alone was a synonym for quality. We now use cheesy to describe anything second-rate, artificial or even smelly. Going back to the 19th century the meaning was just the opposite. 'Cheese' or 'cheesy' is listed in John Camden Hotten's The Slang Dictionary, 1863 as: "Anything good, first-rate in quality, genuine, pleasant or advantageous". Early in the 20th century the cheese crossed the Atlantic to the USA, and there it got big. The first reference there to 'big cheese' meaning wealth or fame comes from 'O. Henry' (William Sydney Porter), in Unprofessional Servant, 1910: "Del had crawled from some Tenth Avenue basement like a lean rat and had bitten his way into the Big Cheese... He had danced his way into fame in sixteen minutes."
Thoughts: The meaning of cheese has changed a lot. It's kinda weird to try and think of something labeled "cheesy" as being good because being cheesy is usually a bad thing.

Phrase: "A load of codswallop"
I just wanted to put this here because I love the word 'codswallop'. Although I searched and it doesn't mean anything or could mean several things.
Thoughts: I really like that word

Phrase: "Beat about the bush"
The figurative meaning we have for this phrase has evolved from the earlier meaning, which was more literal. In bird hunting some participants roused the birds by beating the bushes while others caught them in nets. So, 'beating about the bush' was the preamble to the actual capture. Of course, grouse hunting and other forms of hunt still use beaters today.
Thoughts: So if I want to find a bird I should physically assault a bush? Sounds fun!

Phrase: "Hasta la vista!"
It was used in the popular song Looking for a New Love, which was taken from Jody Watley's first album and released as a single in 1987:
My love was true
Still you threw it all away
But now you’re like the rest
Unworthy of my best
Hasta la vista, baby
'Hasta la vista, baby' came to the wider attention of the English-speaking world via the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Thoughts: I wanted to know where this came from because I used to use this phrase a lot although I don't much anymore.

Phrase: "Bring home the bacon"
The origin of the phrase 'bring home the bacon' is sometimes suggested to be the story of the Dunmow Flitch. This tradition, which still continues every four years in Great Dunmow, Essex, is based on the story of a local couple who, in 1104, impressed the Prior of Little Dunmow with their marital devotion to the point that he awarded them bacon.
Thoughts: I feel like the Prior of Little Dunmow was a crazy man. "Wow you guys are devoted to each other! Here's some bacon!" Wack job.

Phrase: "My better half"
This term wasn't originally restricted to referring to one's spouse as we use it now, but to a dear friend. It was used that way by the Roman poet Horace and later by Statius. The allusion then was to a friend so dear that he/she was more than half of a person's being. That meaning persists, although these days, if the term is used seriously rather than sarcastically, it is generally considered to mean 'the superior half of a married couple'. That is, better in quality rather than in quantity. Sir Philip Sidney was the first to put into print the use of this phrase to mean spouse, in The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, 1580: "My deare, my better halfe (sayd hee) I find I must now leaue thee."
Thoughts: If there's a better half of you that isn't you does that mean you're only half? Just wondering. And yes, that's rhetorical. I don't want to know if you're sliced in half that would be tmi.

Phrase: "Wild goose chase"
This phrase is old and appears to be one of the many phrases introduced to the language by Shakespeare. The first recorded citation is from Romeo and Juliet, 1592:
Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.
Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.
Our current use of the phrase alludes to an undertaking which will probably prove to be fruitless - and it's hard to imagine anything more doomed to failure than an attempt to catch a wild goos by chasing after it. Our understanding of the term differs from that in use in Shakespeare's day. The earlier meaning related not to hunting but to horse racing. A 'wild goose chase' was a chase in which horses followed a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking wild geese flying in formation.
Thoughts: I wonder if horses had identity crisises back then. Person: "It's a wild goose chase!"; Horse: "Where the heck is the goose?!" Did people back then get their animals confused? As far as I know horse does not equal goose.

Well I think I'm done with sarcastic comments for the day. I know there are a lot more phrases, but I'll leave them to another post because this one is really long and I don't think people will actually read all this. So look forward to more of these (eventually) and I hope this was at least somewhat interesting. And if it wasn't, why did you read all the way to this sentence?!

My Other Blog

So just today I decided to make another blog. It's not one I made to replace this one, it's just one where I can post different things instead of my thoughts as I do here. So my new blog (I really need a name for it; right now it's titled "Around the Web") is where I will be posting interesting links and shorter posts because as you can see, the posts on this blog are usually pretty long and I ramble. In "Around the Web" you can look around to see if anything I've linked to looks interesting. I won't be writing much on that blog, mostly just taking a quote from the page I link to and then linking it, but I will still pay attention to it. I'll mostly be linking any type of entertainment news or just normal news that interests me. Most of the sites I get are from Twitter because I follow people that post interesting sites. Enough of my rambling right? If you have any ideas about a possible title for my other blog instead of the obvious flavorless title of "Around the Web" suggest it in the comments; I'm open to any suggestions. Link to blog is right below this; I hope you go check it out!
☛"Around the Web"☚