Idioms, Phrases, and Acronyms of the English Language

[Huntn]

I not heard the paint reference either but a few days ago a friend I not seen for a long time described another friend as "he as sharp as a bowling ball is that lad"

My friend who made comment is a 65 year old yorkshire man.

My understanding is that the phase comparison when compared to paint in the mid 1800s was a complement, at least when Stevenson used it and based on context, but obviously not the bowling ball. The thing is that paint also sounds like a insult to me as I don’t consider paint smart or sharp witted.

 

[Ruggy]

England being an island nation, there are literally hundreds of expressions that have entered the language from the navy. Here are a few of the lesser known ones.

To cut someone down to size: The width of a hammock was determined by a stick cut to the width of the shoulders. If someone made the stick too wide they were ‘a cut above themself’ and hence their crew mates would ‘cut them down to size’.

Sling your hook: to be told to pack up your hammock and leave.

Show a leg: on leaving port the cry would go out ‘show a leg’ and everyone sleeping had to stick a leg out of bed. Someone was tasked to go round the officer’s quaters. If it was a woman’s leg they would haul them out and kick them off the ship. Nowadays used to mean the same as ‘look lively’ or wake up and get on with it.

To make a rod for your own back: a punishment where you had to make the scourge that would be used to punish you.

Not enough room to swing a cat: this is disputed but it’s likely from the slave ships where the slaves were packed in so tightly there wasn’t enough room to swing the ‘cat ‘o’ nine tails’ and keep order. Nowadays used just to mean a very small space.

Son of a gun: from the time of ‘The Blocade’ when prostitutes remained on ship. If one got pregnant they traditionally gave birth on a section screened off on the gun deck. As the father of the child was unknown the certificate would read ‘Son of the gundeck’ later shortened to ‘Son of a gun'.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea: a plank running round the ship which was wet and slippery and thus treacheous and known as ‘the devil’. So to get round the outside of the ship you to hang onto the railn and had the slippery deck on one side and the sea on the other. Meaning to be between a rock and a hard place.

Splice the mainbrace: sounds like it should be an order to do something technical but it’s not. It’s an order to issue the rum ration (known as grog and hence drinking too much made you groggy). Nowadays used to mean get the drinks out.

Spoil the ship for a happenyworth of tar is axiomatic and is similar to ‘skin a flea for a farthing and spoil a penny knife’.

 

[LizKat]

A belated thanks for the below comment when we were talking about "slow as molasses in January"...

Maybe molasses is thixotropic. 58 feet seems like plenty o headroom to get a nice flow started, and after that, the thixies and the tropies would keep it going.

I liked the link you supplied. Seriously with ketchup I had no clue that the problem,,, "the problem"...

"THE PROBLEM WITH KETCHUP" is its thixotropy.

[ but lol "thixies and tropies"... there should be a cartoon somewhere in geekland ]
​

And apparently the problem could also still be the shape of the more traditional ketchup bottle though...

http://www.rheothing.com/2012/11/is-ketchup-really-thixotropic.html​

Anyway it's hard not to lose at least one battle with a ketchup bottle in a lifetime.

Thank you again for that link. Thixotropy is fascinating. As a property of some clay soils it sure does have a deadly potential for landslides that one might not suspect until it's too late. I guess I'd rather think it only matters with ketchup. Around here the bedrock seems 14" down half the time, so...

Back to my studio. Problem there is whether a project is flowing too slowly from there into Christmas territory.

 

[rhett7660]

There are several claims to the origin of that one but I think the correct version was an instruction to earlyblock type setters as they are easy to confuse, especailly when you look at them back to front.

Interesting... That would be something new to learn.

 

[Huntn]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, so sorry if I'm repeating.

"Buy the farm." WW1 I believe - he bought the farm. If you go over the top you'll buy the farm. My understanding soldiers were always going to buy a farm when they returned home. But more died than returned home, so buying the farm is a euphemism for dying. See: kick the bucket.

"Gone for a toss." Indian colloquialism, doesn't mean what you may assume it does From cricket.

BOGU - I've heard used at Microsoft. bend over, grease up. Same as Bohica.

Thanks for posting. I had no clue, but this is what I found:

To die, espescially in combat; most likely from the idea that a dead soldier's death benifit would serve to pay off his family'smorgtage. Often shortened to "bought it."
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=buy the farm

 

[LizKat]

Haven't come across "as smart as paint" used in speech or writing.

But, I have come across "as sharp as a tack" (to describe someone who is bright or clever).

I've heard that "smart as paint" expression...

Back in the 40s, early 50s it was much more common than now to use "smart" in the sense of "fashionable" or "done up" when speaking of how someone looked when dressed for a special event. One might also have talked then of reupholstering a couch or repainting a room as "smartening it up".

So saying someone was "smart as paint" would imply the person would be a quick study, or able to be "up to date" in short order.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I've heard that "smart as paint" expression...

Back in the 40s, early 50s it was much more common than now to use "smart" in the sense of "fashionable" or "done up" when speaking of how someone looked when dressed for a special event. One might also have talked then of reupholstering a couch or repainting a room as "smartening it up".

So saying someone was "smart as paint" would imply the person would be a quick study, or able to be "up to date" in short order.

Well, in my part of the world that would have been expressed as "he was smartly turned out" (in the sense of someone who was fashionable and well-dressed).

 

[Huntn]

“Not Cutting it”- Unable to fulfill or complete a task or roll.

 

[Huntn]

Going to Hell in a hand basket
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html
What's the meaning of the phrase 'Going to hell in a handbasket'?
To be 'going to hell in a handbasket' is to be rapidly deteriorating - on course for disaster.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Going to hell in a handbasket'?
It isn't at all obvious why 'handbasket' was chosen as the preferred vehicle to convey people to hell. One theory on the origin of the phrase is that derives from the use of handbaskets in the guillotining method of capital punishment. If Hollywood films are to be believed, the decapitated heads were caught in baskets - the casualty presumably going straight to hell, without passing Go.

The first version of 'in a handbasket' in print does in fact relate to an imaginary decapitated head. In Samuel Sewall's Diary, 1714, we find:

"A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it

 

[Huntn]

I had no idea where this came from until I read this. Referencing a person: A Piece of Work
Unaware of one's foolishness. Originates from "What a Piece of Work is Man" monologue from Hamlet. More precisely an ironic reflection of how little most men achieve despite being endowed with relatively enormous powers to act and reason. Generally used as a sarcastic "compliment."
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piece of work

 

[Huntn]

When Push Comes to Shove- is an American idiom that describes that critical time when a decision must be made, when a commitment must be made, when action must be taken to back up words. The phrase when push comes to shove carries the connotation of escalation, a push being milder than a shove. There is some discussion as to where the phrase when push comes to shovehas come from, currently it is believed to have originated in black American English during the late 1800s. There is little doubt that when push comes to shove was used in spoken English long before it was popularized in written English, starting some time in the 1950s. A related phrase is if push comes to shove. https://grammarist.com/idiom/when-push-comes-to-shove/

 

[Huntn]

Added to post 1:
In Spades- a phrase that means in abundance, which relates to “spade fulls” as in a garden spade, and it is also cupoukd related to a suite in cards. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-spades.html

 

[Gutwrench]

Three banal expressions with the last two often misused. All need struck from lazy pretentious writers’ vocabulary.

Colloquialisms are tolerable when not inappropriate and if kept to a minimum, but writers (MR reporters particularly) should stick to communicating information rather than slipping in hipster phrases. It’s time to stop the use of sloppy English. It’s a beautiful language; enough with careless slipshod writing.

Hands On - As in “we went hands on”. What’s wrong with tested?

Form Factor - just use “size” when you mean size.

Price Point - just use “price” when talking about a product’s purchase price.

 

[millerj123]

Yesterday ran into one that drives me batty: “the proof is in the pudding” which makes no actual sense. The original “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” makes sense.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Three banal expressions with the last two often misused. All need struck from lazy pretentious writers’ vocabulary.

Colloquialisms are tolerable when not inappropriate and if kept to a minimum, but writers (MR reporters particularly) should stick to communicating information rather than slipping in hipster phrases. It’s time to stop the use of sloppy English. It’s a beautiful language; enough with careless slipshod writing.

Hands On - As in “we went hands on”. What’s wrong with tested?

Form Factor - just use “size” when you mean size.

Price Point - just use “price” when talking about a product’s purchase price.

Agree completely.

In the days when she still had her mind, memory, and proverbial marbles, a particular dislike of my mother's was whenever some twit on the radio or TV (usually a politician or journalist) would come out with "at this point in time".

"What's wrong with "Now""? my mother would snarl by way of reply at the offending TV or radio.

Yesterday ran into one that drives me batty: “the proof is in the pudding” which makes no actual sense. The original “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” makes sense.

The abbreviated version that I have come across is "the proof of the pudding" (with the second part - "is in the eating" unspoken, but inferred, and, in former times, automatically understood).

 

[Gutwrench]

In the days when she still had her mind, memory, and proverbial marbles, a particular dislike of my mother's was whenever some twit on the radio or TV (usually a politician or journalist) would come out with "at this point in time".

"What's wrong with "Now""? my mother would snarl by way of reply at the offending TV or radio.

At the end of the day I agree with mom and you!

And don’t get me started on split infinitives, but I dangle participles and prepositions from time to time. Lol.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

At the end of the day I agree with mom and you!

And don’t get me started on split infinitives, but I dangle participles and prepositions from time to time. Lol.

She thought that using this expression ("at this point in time" instead of the more sensible and precise "now") was the sign of a lazy, complacent mind, full of its own self-importance.

And - while I don't disagree with her - the expression used to drive her crazy - these days, I cannot hear it without smiling, and thinking of her.

 

[Gutwrench]

She thought using this expression ("at this point in time" instead of the more sensible and precise "now") the sign of a lazy, complacent mind, full of its own self-importance.

And - while I don't disagree with her - the expression used to drive her crazy - these days, I cannot hear it without smiling, and thinking of her.

And I can’t help but smile when you write about her. My mother was ‘a piece of work’ too. Bless them both.

 

[Ruggy]

Pretty sure they were, after I heard it I looked it up to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. Apparently it’s a British slang. Perhaps it’s only used in certain parts?

As a Brit I can tell you, it's an old British expression for sure. I've heard older relatives use it.
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“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.

Which is originally what 'son of a gun' would mean that you Americans like to use.
It comes from when one of the 'followers' gave brith- traditionally on the gun deck and the father being unknown (the time of the Blockade)

My understanding is that the phase comparison when compared to paint in the mid 1800s was a complement, at least when Stevenson used it and based on context, but obviously not the bowling ball. The thing is that paint also sounds like a insult to me as I don’t consider paint smart or sharp witted.

Smart of sharp is often used in the context of clothes to suggest someone is well dressed-I think everyone has heard it used that way- so sharp or smart as paint refers to looking smart or sharp not intelligence.

 

[Ruggy]

The best thing since sliced bread.

Now we have lots of useful inventions before and after sliced bread. I'd even venture to say it's not that incredibly useful. I mean give a guy a knife and he can usually manage to slice it!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliced_bread

I didn't spot it there but it was the advertising slogan they used to market it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And I can’t help but smile when you write about her. My mother was ‘a piece of work’ too. Bless them both.

Bless them both, agreed.

As a child, if you turned up for breakfast in filthy form, or nursing a grumpy mood, she would fix you with a beaming smile, and ask - and you could hear the smothered laughter in her voice - "tell me, dear, did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?" You would just have to laugh with her.

 

[AustinIllini]

"in a minute" - relatively recent slang meaning "in a long time"

"Firing on all cylinders" - used to describe a team performing well or as expected

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed" - usually implies someone is now in a bad mood

 

[chown33]

Yesterday ran into one that drives me batty: “the proof is in the pudding” which makes no actual sense. The original “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” makes sense.

I did have a nice bittersweet chocolate pudding once with Kahlua poured over the top. It was pretty good, but technically the proof was on the pudding, not in it.

 

[Gutwrench]

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed" - usually implies someone is now in a bad mood

Or in my step daughter’s case, waking up on the wrong side of noon
[doublepost=1566084314][/doublepost]Urge to kill when someone in the meeting says:

• “Let’s take a step back.”
• “But does it scale?”

That’s when I step up to the white board and start drawing Venn diagrams.

 

[0388631]

I feel as if Office Space matches your uniqueness, Guttifer.
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"in a minute" - relatively recent slang meaning "in a long time"

I think this is originally a southern thing. I saw it pop up maybe 2-3 years ago and peaking then. I'd never heard of it and I hear it from time to time.