I try to make sense of things. I truly do.
Especially when those things are coming out of my mouth. I make it a point to understand exactly what it is I’m saying.
And. Not to be picky about these things, but in recent years, there has been an upward trend of people who have no idea what they are talking about. Many of them are politicians, radio talk hosts, and their hordes of lemmings.
Anyway. When I say something, I wish to comprehend its meaning fully. But sometimes there is a glitch in that. It comes in those darn phrases from the past. A lot of these confusing idioms are relics of history. And they have become so ingrained in the everyday vernacular that we don’t even consider what a “rule of thumb” refers to beating your wife. Or perhaps that, in other cases, we might be relating our happiness to a mollusk.
Many English speakers use these sayings without knowing where they come from or what they truly mean, myself included.
Yet. Behind each saying’s etymology lies a mystery. And some of those mysteries are still unsolved. With that, historians have contentiously debated these origins. In some cases, these phrases have countless plausible (or absurd) theories. Either way, here are some of these phrases explained. For your viewing pleasure and savvy conversations in the future.
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Close But No Cigar
Meaning: Said to someone who falls slightly short of a successful or winning outcome.
Historical Context: The phrase likely originates from the 1920s. This was a time when cigars were handed out as prizes at fairs and carnivals. In those good old days, these games were actually meant for adults rather than kids. Hence, the patently adult prize of a cigar. But those carnival games can be difficult to win. Sometimes impossible. Even back then. So after you lost. Again. The man in the straw hat would egg you on to try again, when he’d say, “close, but no cigar.”
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A Laundry List
Meaning: A typically long list of items.
Historical Context: Those inventors, I’ll tell you. Back in the 1800s, more than 2,000 patents were filed for washing machines in the United States. Those new machines were in every store. But they were expensive. So. A new business popped up in turn during the 1860s: Commercial laundry services for those who didn’t want to buy the pricey new machines but still hated doing their laundry the old-fashioned way by hand and a scrubbing board. To make sure that no customers lost a stray sock or shirt, users of the service had to list out the items they were sending to be washed. Ta-da. The laundry list was born. As it turned out, listing all the clothes probably took longer than doing the laundry. So the process was improved by giving customers a nifty itemized list of clothing articles where they could fill in a tally of their laundry.
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Three Sheets To The Wind
Meaning: Extremely inebriated.
Historical Context: “Three sheets to the wind” comes from sailing lingo. You may think it originates with drunken sailors. But that was not the case. Now, I’m not a sailor, but I’m told the “sheets” are actually ropes that hold the lower corners of the sails on a ship in place. So, if you have made the big mistake of having three sheets loose and flailing around wildly in the wind? Well, those sails and the boat will also flail about. And this, of course, is much like someone who’s had way too many drinks at the bar. As such, starting in the early 1800s, sailors would refer to someone as being three sheets to the wind if they were drunk and flailing.
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Across the board. Dead in the water. Here’s mud in your eye. Or. Son of a gun.
These phrases are everywhere. And they all started somehow.
I hope I always mean what I say and say what I mean.
And those are words you can count on.
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“It’s strange how a word, a phrase, a sentence, can feel like a blow to the head.”
― Veronica Roth, Allegiant
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“Nothing is ever certain.”
― Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
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“Some things are better said in phrases.”
― Adrienne Posey
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Those things we say without really knowing
