“Long Shot & Loose Cannon” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 13)

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Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib with Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories. Send them to Our American Stories. They’re some of our favorites. Up next, we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday scenes. Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slaves from his Ultimate Guide to understanding these mini-mysteries of the language we all speak.

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Speaker 2: A long shot is an attempt that has little chance of success, and it owes its origins to naval warfare. In the 1800s, battleships carried cannons as their major weapons, and though very effective when they hit their targets, the cannons were inaccurate and cannonballs could only travel relatively short distances. For this reason, most battles took place in fairly close quarters. Any shot that was fired at a ship outside of the normal range was considered a long shot and unlikely to succeed. If you call someone a loose cannon, you mean they’re unpredictable or out of control, and it’s yet another sailing-related phrase. From as early as the 1600s, cannons were mounted onto the decks of sailing ships and were used as the primary weapon in battles. As they were very heavy, it was essential for the cannons to be firmly secured. This was often done by mounting the cannons on rollers and fastening them down with ropes, but in times of rough seas or as the result of a violent recall caused by firing the cannons, sometimes a cannon would break free of its restraints. The loose cannons would roll dangerously around the deck, causing damage to the ship and injury to the sailors. The saying, ‘as mad as a hatter,’ which means crazy or completely mad, is the first phrase that I wrote when I did this book, and it stems from the 18th-century practice of using mercury nitrate in the making of felt hats. Mercury nitrate is a highly toxic chemical. An exposure to it often affects the nervous system, causing the person to tremble and jitter. This led many to believe that hatters were crazy, so the expression mad as a hat had developed, and in fact, mercury poisoning today is still known as Mad Hatter disease. While not being the origin of the phrase, it was popularized by the eccentric Mad Hatter character in Lewis Carroll’s 1865 work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. To make a beeline for something means to go directly towards it using the fastest route, and this originates from the animal kingdom, and as the phrase suggests, the bee. Once a bee discovers a nectar source, it will return to the hive, where it performs a peculiar figure-of-eight dance to communicate the location of the sauce to the other bees. After watching this dance, which includes zigzags using its rear, facing the bees, the other bees will then make their way directly to the food sauce in a straight line. Experts believe the bees use the sun to navigate, and the dance performed by the forager bee indicates the angle relative to the sun that the bee should follow, as well as the distance they should go to ensure they fly in a beeline. To make ends. Meat means to live just within your means on a low salary, and it has origins in the world of curntancy. From the 17th century, ‘Meat’ was an accounting term meaning match or balance. A bookkeeper’s ledger contained two columns: one for expenditure and one for income. The ends were the bottom figures of these two columns, so to make ends meat was to match the expenditure and income figures so that the books were balanced. The expression, ‘makes your hair stand on end,’ means something has frightened you, and it’s sometimes done as goosebumps, because the skin contracts and makes a person’s hair stand upright. The expression actually has biblical origins and derives from the Book of Job in the Old Testament, where there is a passage that reads, ‘a spirit glide and passed my face, and the hair and my body stood on end.’ The phrase became widespread in 1603 with Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. To mind your p’s and q’s means to be on your best behavior, and it’s an expression with many possible origins that are often disputed. The most compelling of these is its association with drinking. It stems from the English taverns of the 17th century, when publicans would chalk up when people were drinking either a pint or a court on a tally slate at the end of the night. The patron would pay for the number and type of drinks on the slate. Because a court was larger and much more costly measure than a pint, patrons would advise the bartender to mind his p’s and cues to ensure the correct drinks were being chalked up so they weren’t being overcharged. A Molotov cocktail is a handheld firebomb, and that expression began during World War II. The phrase was actually invented by the Finish, who were referring to the Soviet foreign minister at the time, whose last name was Molotov. He was responsible for partitioning of Finland under a packwa Nazi Germany, and many believed he was also responsible for the subsequent invasion of Finland in 1939. There was much propaganda associated with the invasion, including the ludicrous claim by Molotov that the bombing missions were actually humanitarian food deliveries for the starving Fins. In response to this, the Finns referred to the Soviet cluster bombs as ‘Molotov bread baskets,’ and when they developed a handheld petrol bomb to throw of the Soviet tanks, they called them ‘Molotov cocktails’ as a drink to go with the food. ‘Money for old rope’ means a quick and easy way to earn money, and that expression has nautical origins. In the 17th and 18th centuries, when sailing ships returned to port, the sailors would assess all the rigging to ensure it was still seaworthy. Any rigging that had been damaged during the voyage would be removed, and while unsuited for sales, some for would still be in pretty good condition and able to be sold on shore. The more senior members of the crew were given authority by the captain to claim the discarded rope, and they were able to profit from its sale, literally making money for old rope. ‘More bang for your buck’ means better value for money, and it originated with the U.S. National Security policy in the 1950s under the administration of President Eisenhower, known as the New Look. The policy increased the military stocks of comparatively inexpensive nuclear weapons in order to reduce the number of army personnel and costs. In 1954, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Charles iw And Wilson, coined the phrase ‘more bang for your buck’ when he used it to refer to the policy of using nuclear weapons instead of a large army to suppress the threat that the Soviet Union posed to democracy. It is actually thought that the expression was an adaptation of Pepsi’s advertising slogan, ‘more bounced to the ounce,’ which was introduced in 1950. ‘Mumbo jumbo’ means nonsense or meaningless speech or writing, and it’s an expression that began with the early explorers of Africa in the 18th century. Francis Moore was one of the first Englishmen to travel into the interior of the continent, and in 1738, he wrote a book called Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa. In the book, he describes how he met men of one tribe, the Mundingoes, and they employed a legendary spirit to keep obedience in their women. In his book, he wrote that the women are kept in the greatest subjection, and then he went on to explain how this happened. He said, ‘For this purpose, the Mundingoes have a kind of image eight or nine feet high, made of the bark of trees, dressed in a long coat and crowned with a wisp of straw. This is called Mumbo Jumbo, and whenever the men have any dispute with the women, this is sent for to determine the contest, which is almost always done in favor of the men.’ It was this passage that brought the term ‘Mumbo Jumbo’ to the masses, and by the mid-1800s, the phrase had come to mean any meaningless rantings. To know your colours to the mast means to display one’s beliefs defiantly, and it derives from naval warfare. In the early 18th century, a ship’s captain would enter battle with his flag or colours flying proudly from the main mast, but if he wished to surrender, he would lower his colours to announce his position to the enemy. Sailors are also able to lower the flag in times of troubles, so if a captain was determined not to surrender, he would literally nail the flag to the mast so that none of the sailors could lower it and offer a sign of defeat.

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Speaker 1: And a special thanks to Greg Hengler. What a delightful segment! I mean, we’re just learning and laughing right here in the studio as we listened to this. Because my goodness, who knew about ‘loose Cannon’s man as a hadd’ that just killed me! And my goodness, they used mercury natrate while making hats. We’ve come a long way, folks. The workplace is a lot safer than it used to do. No matter what you’re doing for a living, mercury natrate! You can’t make it up! ‘Make ends meet,’ ‘Mulotov cocktail.’ I think the favorite here in this studio—uproar of laughter coming out at the derivation of that great phrase. And so many people in this country, populated by so many different ethnicities, and these words coming from so many sources: from Greek sources to English sources, to German and Finnish sources. The list goes on and on. What a delight! And by the way, a special thanks to Andrew Thompson. His book, Hair of the Dog To Paint the Town Read The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases, is available on Amazon.com and The Usual Suspects: The Story of Our Language. A great story, a fun story, here on Our American Stories.