Strange Sayings Phrases and Their Origins
We say an awful lot of things in phrase form today which we take for granted will be understood. Generally many of the phrases and sayings used are understood. Some, of course, are regional but many are universal but how did they originate ?
Some popular sayings and their supposed origins. I say supposed as it can be conjecture and some seem to have more than one possible source proffered
Dead Ringer
-
Something or someone which looks exactly alike
Comes from substituting race horses in order to fix the odds or fool punters. Ringer being the substitute and exact look-a-like
A Flash in the Pan
-
A short lived shallow spectacle.
A flintlock gun term, sometimes the powder would flare up in the pan creating a bright flash but not igniting the powder to fire the ball - hence short-lived showy but no real action
Three Sheets to the Wind
-
To reel about drunkenly.
This is a nautical term which a surprising number are. Presumably the British language was spread by sailors and our country has a rich maritime history.
Anyway, three masted ships with all three sales up are very difficult to steer and reel about like a drunken man. From around the 1700s as so many more were
Dressed to the Nines
-
Particularly smartly dressed
1: From tailoring parlance, the best suits would be made from the finest cloth and using the whole piece of cloth which came in lengths of 9 yards
2: Theatre tickets, once upon a time the best tickets cost 9 pence. So if you sat there you would dress accordingly
Keep Your Shirt On
-
Don’t get overly excited.
A precursor to a fight used to be the removing of shirts to avoid damaging them as, at the time, they were expensive items.
Paint the Town Red
-
A wild night out.
When Roman soldiers conquered a town or city they rejoiced and partied much harder than the youth of today. Amongst other activities they would paint the house walls with the blood of their enemies
Read between the lines
-
The implication or underlying meaning of something
Secret messages used to be concealed between the lines of books or letters. Using things like lemon juice which worked as invisible ink
Let’s have some more example. Post your own whether you know the meaning or not.
The more obscure the better - we can even try and track down the meaning of some !
Femme Fatale said,
July 19, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Rod,
I am pleased you have brought this subject up.
Talking to a friend today about things of good value and he finished the conversation with:
It’s Cheap at Half the Price,
with which I agreed, then after thinking about it for a while I could not make sense of this saying.
I have used this many times, but I do not fully understand it. Can you help?
A few of others:
No use crying over spilt milk,
Shutting the gate after the horse has bolted and
The grass is always greener on the other side.
I will think of some more for you.
FF
xx
Rod said,
July 20, 2007 @ 8:36 am
FF,
It’s Cheap at Half the Price
This has never made sense to me in the context in which it’s used.
Nor did it to Kingsley Amis it seems who wrote into a newspaper claiming it actually meant something was expensive rather than cheap.
A dictionary of phrases explains the contrary version thus
As to crying over spilt milk, I much prefer Tony Soprano’s words of wisdom in his idiom of much the same meaning:
You Can’t Put the S**t Back in the Donkey classic !
Best
RC
A Retired Bookdealer said,
July 20, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Pigs Might Fly.
Interestingly I believe most of the sayings I use date back to the Anglo Saxons !.
Femme Fatale said,
July 20, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
Rod,
Thank you so much for that.
This now means that I will sleep soundly tonight, I have spent many a sleepless night pondering
FF
xx
Rod said,
July 20, 2007 @ 6:36 pm
FF
we aim to please - you may now sleep the sleep of the righteous, as I once did !
erik santana said,
February 13, 2008 @ 4:55 am
somebody once said,”never pet a burning dog”, then i was like “what? that seems like a very obvious thing to not do.” then they said it was an old saying. i never heard this one before. where would this have possibly come from and where was there ever an over abundance of burning dogs that created this situation?
Rod said,
February 13, 2008 @ 8:02 am
Hi Erik
thanks for the comment and welcome to the site.
It’s a new one on me !
Regards
Rod
Tammy said,
July 1, 2008 @ 12:39 am
Accually the term dead ringer comes from a time when a metal alloy would cause a person to be comatozed and pesumably dead, After exuuming a few bodys they realized the scrat marks on the inside of the coffins . so to ratify the problem they would bury the dead with a string comming from the coffin to the out side grave attached to a bell so if the person was alive they would ring the bell it is also where the term saved by the bell comes from,