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Idioms, Phrases, and Acronyms of the English Language

Scepticalscribe said:
Excellent.

My mother always loved that expression.

And then there is "reading the riot act" - which - in modern metaphorical use means the last warning from an authority figure (such as a parent, or teacher) before some sanction is imposed. "You lot, I'm about to read you the riot act.."

Historically, of course, it meant something similar; a crowd may have gathered to protest an especially egregious act on the part of the authorities, and, once the forces of law and order (the use of this Act predated the existence of the police, so something along the lines of dragoons would have been used) had made an appearance, before they charged, or were allowed to charge, a figure clad in the robes of authority (such as a magistrate) would literally announce to the crowd that he was about to "read the Riot Act" which - in essence - instructed them to disperse before they were charged and gave legal force to the act of charging by the mounted soldiery.
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You are very well read, well traveled, and well spoken, my friend.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
Ah, I had never given thought to where "gone doolally" came from; absolutely fascinating.

Another I have always liked is "throw down the gauntlet".

In modern (and ancient) usage, it means issue a challenge (of a compelling sort, the sort one is compelled to respond to). These days, it is a metaphor for declaring or issuing a challenge, but, historically, it was an actual challenge to combat which a medieval knight, or someone who wore a gauntlet (in essence, an armed glove), issued by throwing the gauntlet to the ground in front of the person who was to be challenged.
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Added:
  • Gauntlet- Thow down the Guantlet: (Scepticalscribe #18) lhttps://www.history.com/news/what-does-it-mean-to-throw-down-the-gauntlet. Today the phrase “throw down the gauntlet” means to challenge or confront someone, but in its earliest use it wasn’t meant as a metaphor, but was a physical action intended to issue a formal challenge to a duel. The word itself comes from the French word “gantelet,” and referred to the heavy, armored gloves worn by medieval knights. In an age when chivalry and personal honor were paramount, throwing a gauntlet at the feet of an enemy or opponent was considered a grave insult that could only be answered with personal combat, and the offended party was expected to “take up the gauntlet” to acknowledge and accept the challenge.
  • Gauntlet- Run the Gauntlet: A similar-sounding phrase, “to run the gauntlet,” has a completely different origin, deriving from the Swedish word “gatlopp” and Old English “gantlope,” meaning lane course or passageway. This gauntlet referred to a military punishment in which a prisoner was forced to run or walk between two columns of troops as they struck him with clubs, heavy ropes, whips or leather straps.
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Scepticalscribe said:
@Huntn, you have a background in the services. This means that you should know 'snafu' which dates from WW2.
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Very much so. :)

Added:
I also know Bohica!, from the US Navy, but don’t know how widespread that is. :)
Bend over, here it comes again, a term with an obvious sexual reference, which men seem to like (the reference :p) but having to do with facing some kind of adversity, situational or put on the individual by authority, such as Bohica, we are being deployed again!
 
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Huntn said:
Added:
  • Gauntlet- Thow down the Guantlet: (Scepticalscribe #18) lhttps://www.history.com/news/what-does-it-mean-to-throw-down-the-gauntlet. Today the phrase “throw down the gauntlet” means to challenge or confront someone, but in its earliest use it wasn’t meant as a metaphor, but was a physical action intended to issue a formal challenge to a duel. The word itself comes from the French word “gantelet,” and referred to the heavy, armored gloves worn by medieval knights. In an age when chivalry and personal honor were paramount, throwing a gauntlet at the feet of an enemy or opponent was considered a grave insult that could only be answered with personal combat, and the offended party was expected to “take up the gauntlet” to acknowledge and accept the challenge.
  • Gauntlet- Run the Gauntlet: A similar-sounding phrase, “to run the gauntlet,” has a completely different origin, deriving from the Swedish word “gatlopp” and Old English “gantlope,” meaning lane course or passageway. This gauntlet referred to a military punishment in which a prisoner was forced to run or walk between two columns of troops as they struck him with clubs, heavy ropes, whips or leather straps.
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Very much so. :)

Added:
I also know Bohica!, from the US Navy, but don’t know how widespread that is. :)
Bend over, here it comes again, a term with an obvious sexual reference, which men seem to like (the reference :p) but having to do with facing some kind of adversity, situational or put on the individual by authority, such as Bohica, we are being deployed again!
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I've seen the word 'snafu' used in asides scrawled or noted in margins in government memos; and, in my part of the world, the situation is not 'fouled' up, the other meaning is inferred and understood from the use of the expression.

Sometimes, words - or expressions - make an appearance, a dramatic appearance precisely because they define something that hadn't been identified and described so succinctly prior to that, but - after a decade or so, one notices that the new word - which had captured a 'zeitgeist' so clearly - may have fallen out of use.

Two that come to mind are 'wet' and 'yuppie'.

Yuppie was an acronym - it meany 'young-upwardly-mobile-person' - and it described the brash and confident young things who made a fortune in the stock markets in the 1980s when the markets were deregulated, elbowing out the older stuffy mannered antiques who had run things cosily for an absolute age.

It stuck because the type of person it described existed, - very obviously and loudly - but, since the crash of 2008, it has been used a lot less frequently.

Likewise, 'wet' is a standard word which describes your state when an encounter with a shower of rain or a bucket of water may have left you dripping. However, it acquired a precise political meaning in the 1980s because of Mrs Thatcher's habit of writing the word 'wet' in the margins of government papers which she thought weak, feeble and improperly thought through. For her, it was an insult denoting a silly or feeble or insufficiently robust notion or stance.

A whole political vocabulary to describe the respective perspectives of the Conservative (Tory) party grew from the use of that one word; people - her political opponents within the party - would be described as 'wet', or 'dripping wet', or 'absolutely sodden', or 'completely saturated' - whereas her supporters would be described in terms which highlighted their state of aridity, such as "dry", "bone dry", "completely arid."

Now, while at one stage in the 80s and 90s one could hardly read a piece - even an intelligent, thoughtful, well-informed political (or economic) opinion piece - without encountering these expressions, these days, they are little used.

So, while terms can trust into favour and fashion, they can also fade back into obscurity as what they were used to describe no longer features all that much in the wider political or economic landscape.
 
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Huntn said:
Added:
  • Gauntlet- Thow down the Guantlet: (Scepticalscribe #18) lhttps://www.history.com/news/what-does-it-mean-to-throw-down-the-gauntlet. Today the phrase “throw down the gauntlet” means to challenge or confront someone, but in its earliest use it wasn’t meant as a metaphor, but was a physical action intended to issue a formal challenge to a duel. The word itself comes from the French word “gantelet,” and referred to the heavy, armored gloves worn by medieval knights. In an age when chivalry and personal honor were paramount, throwing a gauntlet at the feet of an enemy or opponent was considered a grave insult that could only be answered with personal combat, and the offended party was expected to “take up the gauntlet” to acknowledge and accept the challenge.
  • Gauntlet- Run the Gauntlet: A similar-sounding phrase, “to run the gauntlet,” has a completely different origin, deriving from the Swedish word “gatlopp” and Old English “gantlope,” meaning lane course or passageway. This gauntlet referred to a military punishment in which a prisoner was forced to run or walk between two columns of troops as they struck him with clubs, heavy ropes, whips or leather straps.
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Very much so. :)

Added:
I also know Bohica!, from the US Navy, but don’t know how widespread that is. :)
Bend over, here it comes again, a term with an obvious sexual reference, which men seem to like (the reference :p) but having to do with facing some kind of adversity, situational or put on the individual by authority, such as Bohica, we are being deployed again!
Click to expand...

At that link (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_slang_terms) rediscovered FUBAR, Added to list! Fouled up beyond all recognition.
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Scepticalscribe said:
Another idiom with a bit of history is "wigs on the green" (a saying my mother loved to use, and was she was fascinated by its possible background).

In modern use, it means a sharp disagreement or fight. 'Oh, there'll be wigs on the green after that."

Historically, it also meant the same thing, but physically, rather than metaphorically; the term itself dates from the 18th century, when gentlemen wore periwigs, or wigs, and - if involved in a physical fight, or fisticuffs, - their wigs might just go flying onto the grass, or village green.
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Added to list!
 
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"Six ways from Sunday"

(From Urban Dictionary)
Use this phrase to describe something you did or would like to do a good amount of times. This phrase says "six ways" which represent the six days after Sunday in a week (Monday - Saturday). It can have a positive or negative cannotation depending on the manner in which you use it.

Till I figured out the meaning, I just found it weird. Now having figured it out, I like the dramatic effect and emphasis it has when used in a sentence.

"That auto shop f****d me six ways from Sunday."
"I'd make love to her six ways from Sunday."
 
“Your mother’s a whore”

Origin: friends of children of prostitutes mocking them for their mother’s career.

Meaning: to denigrate one’s friend, jokingly, or when angered in traffic.
 
Future-Proof said:
“Your mother’s a whore”

Origin: friends of children of prostitutes mocking them for their mother’s career.

Meaning: to denigrate one’s friend, jokingly, or when angered in traffic.
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Some of the Slavic languages have a version of this ("son of a whore") as do some of the central Asian languages.

Mind you, I have long found it fascinating that while women are denigrated and insulted (culturally, linguistically) for selling their bodies (never mind that the market for such transactions never seems to suffer saturation), men who sell their souls do not attract anything like the same degree of cultural ire, contempt or opprobrium as expressed severely or otherwise in language.
 
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'Wet' in Thatcherized English predates her usage, IIRC. It's one of those periodical insults. Nowadays it tends to have sexual overtones rather than calling someone feeble or child-minded.
 
Zenithal said:
'Wet' in Thatcherized English predates her usage, IIRC. It's one of those periodical insults. Nowadays it tends to have sexual overtones rather than calling someone feeble or child-minded.
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But it only became a core part of the political vocabulary of the country thanks to her frequent use of the expression in acidic asides scrawled in the margins of Government memos.
 
  • "Bless your heart!" - In Texas - “I am going to act as though I feel sorry for you to be polite". Generally, someone says this when they don't really feel sorry for said person
  • "y'all" - Contraction used widely in the American south for "You all". Can be singular or plural, but usually plural
  • "all y'all" - All encompassing contraction from American South
  • "Rule of Thumb" - A general guideline when a strict rule isn't present. Derivation (despite some claims to the contrary) is unknown
  • "The whole nine yards" - Referring to everything
  • "Put out to pasture" - Generally refers to forcing someone to retire due to old age
  • "Since Moses wore short pants" - Implying something has been some way for a very long time
  • "Waiting like patience on a monument" - Used when someone is extremely impatient or frustrated with waiting
  • "Irregardless" - a malaprop of "irrespective" or "regardless"
  • "Get a taste of their own medicine" - Get treated the way you've been treating others (negative)
  • "A perfect storm" - the absolute worst situation
  • "Wild goose chase" - a pointless endeavor
  • "That ship has sailed" - it's too late
 
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Pee in your Cheerios.
We know what it means. But for the life of me, I can't find its origin. Mr Google has been no help. All I know is that it has to be Cheerios, not any other cereal. Why? Because of the cheer in Cheerios.
 
Possibly my favorite expression, whenever it pops up I can’t help but smile...

Happy as a clam
Very happy. An abbreviation of the expression “happy as a clam at high tide”. Clams of course would be happy if they could be happy at high tide as they’d be covered with water.

I recently looked up that expression after years of wondering where on earth it came from. It’s funny that this thread has popped up because very recently every time I hear some expression or idiom I now look it up.
 
As someone whose first language isn't English I find this thread fascinating and educational to read. Thanks to all who have contributed!

One, the origin of which I just learned a few days ago is the verb "[to be] jonesing for [something]", often used when referring to drugs, but can be used to refer to pretty much any craving. I'd heard it a million times, but just recently learned that it refers to a certain "Great Jones Street" in Manhattan, apparently at some point in time known for drug related activities.
 
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Likewise, Mefisto. Spotted only a few I've never come across in my life. I generally shy away from idioms and country specific phrases because of the reactions people tend to have.
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I7guy said:
amazing
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There's prune bits in stores with that name. I kid you not.
 
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Mefisto said:
As someone whose first language isn't English I find this thread fascinating and educational to read. Thanks to all who have contributed!

One, the origin of which I just learned a few days ago is the verb "[to be] jonesing for [something]", often used when referring to drugs, but can be used to refer to pretty much any craving. I'd heard it a million times, but just recently learned that it refers to a certain "Great Jones Street" in Manhattan, apparently at some point in time known for drug related activities.
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Interesting! I’m familiar with the term, but did not know the origin. :)
 
I7guy said:
  • "It's sick" or "this is sick"
As in this is great or amazing. (Amazing is overused imho) :p
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What I don't like about this term is it’s universality, it can have both positive or negative connotations and you are required to interprete the context in which it is said. :)

As mentioned in another thread I hate the cliche, “no problem” when it’s used inappropriately, where “my pleasure” or something positive should be said, instead of “you have inconvienenced me, but that’s ok” or neutrally the equivalent of just “ok”.
 
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elf69 said:
I'm guilty of the "no problem" as above.
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Where it really comes to play is in the service industry, is when someone is doing their job, you order a meal, and they say... "no problem". So what, it's not a problem to order something off your menu? Glad you confirmed that. A much better response is something positive, like "my pleasure","right away", or "yes sir or miss". :p

In personal relationships I'm less critical of it, but the people I know use it as intended, when someone inconveniences you, or asks a favor, something where you have been asked for something, and you don't mind. Depending on how you feel about that, it could be an appropriate response, but still remains a neutral response at best. :)
 
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"Make one's blood boil" (To cause a person to feel angry or very annoyed)

I have been using this idiom/expression since I was a kid.

Seeing the beautiful English language be bastardized by terms relating to Facebook, Twitter, and the like, makes my blood boil.

Seeing human beings become robotic like the technology they use, makes my blood boil.

Seeing everyone sitting at a dinner table only to text on their cell phones, makes my blood boil.
 
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