Oct
13
2017

My own shirttail relative: the late Mayor Anton J. Cermak (third from the left).
The idiom shirttail relative, rarely heard nowadays, refers to someone who is distantly related and often forgotten. Continue reading
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Oct
6
2017
Chops. Excepting for religious prohibitions, nearly every human omnivore loves that meat-and-potato staple of comfort food kitchens, the humble pork chop. Veal chops are even better, and lamb chops are sublime.
But lately this writer has been hearing and seeing the word in a way that has little to do with food and everything to do with flat-out expertise. Continue reading
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Jul
8
2017
When a reader recently requested I look into the origin of clams as a slang synonym for “dollar,” this writer thought sure, easy peasy, lemon squeezy. But it turns out there is very little on the web concerning usage of a bivalve to refer to a single greenback (or buck, smacker, simoleon, or ducat, for that matter), with the main origin theories hardly convincing and references thin. Continue reading
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Jun
27
2017
To many, the figure of speech to buy the farm sounds like a day-dreamy but worthy aspiration from a more gentle, rural America, a time of cows in pasture mooing lazily and sun-drenched fields of crops waving gently.
Actually, though, the expression is extremely grim rather than bucolic. Plain and simple, it’s used to indicate someone is dead. Continue reading
2 comments | tags: Bob Carleton, bought the farm, Good Morning, Ja-Da, Mr. Zip-Zip-Zip!, to buy the farm, What Price Glory, “Ukulele” Mike Lynch | posted in More Idioms!
Aug
11
2016
The idiom peachy keen was originally used to signify that something, someone, some situation, or event were superlative in the coolest, funniest way.
As a grade-schooler in the late 1950s, I remember being delighted by this idiom, sometimes adding jelly bean at the end as an intensifier (Peachy keen, jelly bean!). Continue reading
1 comment | tags: Bill Haley & His Comets, DJ Jim Hawthorne, Grease, idiom, peachy keen, Rizzo, Route 66, Shake Rattle and Roll, sock hop | posted in More Idioms!
May
17
2016
The three idiomatic expressions above – one Native American in origin, one Chinese-American, and one associated with the practices of American politics – have absolutely nothing to do with the story of George Washington, his little hatchet, a cherry tree, and not telling lies. Or, for that matter, of the tale of Carrie A. Nation’s hatchet-swinging, tavern-busting antics. Continue reading
2 comments | tags: Bury the Hatchet, Carrie A. Nation, Glenmore Distilleries, Grant Wood, Hatchet Job, Hatchet Man, Idioms, Justice Samuel Sewall, Michael Moore, Mock Duck, Parson Weems’ Fable, Sai Wing Mock, Up in the Air | posted in More Idioms!
May
8
2016
This is an idiom that is used a lot by newscasters and commentators in the course of politics, especially during bouts of great national upheaval and times of potential danger. Like now.
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary provides a succinct definition, saying that a loose cannon is “… a dangerously uncontrollable person or thing,” which nails it, all right. Continue reading
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Mar
31
2016
Billy: Wow, that was close. Just when I thought the cops would see us, they got distracted by the sound of the bell on Margo’s cat’s collar.
Tom: Yeah, we were saved by the bell. Literally.
The idiom saved by the bell expresses the idea that someone or something is rescued from a dire outcome by a timely occurrence, generally speaking, at the last possible moment, i.e., in the nick of time. A close shave. Continue reading
no comments | tags: Antoine Joseph Wiertz, boxing ring bell, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Vester, idiom, Improved Burial Case, Inhumation précipitée, Joe Palooka, Marquess of Queensberry rules, safety coffins, saved by the bell, taphephobia, The Bells, The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, The Phrase Finder, The Premature Burial | posted in More Idioms!
Dec
15
2015
I remember plenty of family picnics in the 1950s. After the eating was over the adult male relatives would gather round the picnic table, break out frosty bottles of Schlitz beer, light up cigars, and commence to play penny ante poker.
But seriously, how many people smoke cigars today? Nevertheless, “Close, but no cigar!” is an idiom that still has currency today and is as instantly understood in the way as it has been for more than a century. Continue reading
5 comments | tags: Annie Oakley, Annie Oakleys, Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, Close but no cigar, Havana’s Best cigars, Idioms, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Schlitz beer, Toby Walker, W.C. Fields | posted in More Idioms!
Oct
30
2015
How would somebody describe a “wet blanket?” Usually it is a person, although sometimes it can be a thing (such as a philosophy, organization, or an entire community or environment) that can always be counted on to spoil the fun or dampen the enjoyment of others.
In other words, a party-pooper, a spoilsport, a killjoy, a “Debbie Downer,” or a real “pill” (an expression my wife picked up in the course of her East Coast childhood).
Continue reading
no comments | tags: Edgar Allan Poe, EduEduOnline Szkoła JezykowaJezykowa, Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, idiom, Joe Btfsplk, Lil’ Abner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Online Etymology Dictionary, Private Sad Sack, Washington Irving, Wet Blanket, Yank magazine | posted in More Idioms!