“Back to Square One” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 3)

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. There are some of our favorites up next: the story of intriguing, bizarre, and even curious phrases that we use each and every day in the English language. Here’s Andrew Thompson.

‘Back to square one’ is an expression that I’ve always found interesting. When someone says, ‘You know, we’re back to square one in this project,’ where you’ve got to start back at the beginning. It began in the 1930s in Britain, in soccer matches that were broadcast on the radio. The Radio Times was a famous magazine there, and they published a numbered grid system which divided the soccer field into eight rectangles. And this allowed commentators to describe to listeners exactly where the ball was at any time. In reference to this grid system, ‘Square One’ was the goalkeeper, so whenever the ball was passed back to him, the play was going to resume again, and it was referred to as being ‘back to square one’.

‘Back to the drawing board’ is similar to ‘back to square one,’ although it began in America in 1941 in The New Yorker magazine. ‘Back to the drawing board’ obviously means we need to start again. A drawing board is an architect’s or drafter’s table that they used to prepare designs on. But in The New Yorker magazine in 1941, during World War II, an artist called Peter Arno drew a picture of military personnel running towards a plane that had just crashed. And there’s a man in a suit holding a set of plans under his arm, walking away from the crash, and the caption reads, ‘Well, back to the old drawing board.’ And the expression became widespread straight after that.

‘Baker’s dozen’ is an expression that means thirteen as opposed to twelve, and it’s got an interesting origin. It dates all the way back to the thirteenth century in England, when King Henry III introduced a law that regulated the price of bread based on the price of wheat. This was to stop bakers from selling underweight loads of bread, which they were said to do at the time. The punishment for breach of the law was pretty harsh. And the baker could be fined, flogged, or put in the stocks. So, as a safety measure to avoid these penalties, bakers would often give an extra loaf of bread for every dozen. The thirteenth loaf was known as the ‘vantage loaf,’ and it protected them from prosecution in case they accidentally missed out a loaf. So, the thirteen loaves became known as the ‘Baker’s dozen’.

‘Bandied about’ means to make frequent or casual use of a name or idea, and it originates from the sixteenth-century French game called ‘bander’. ‘Bander’ was a ‘four under the tennis’ and involved hitting a ball to and fro between opponents. The Irish then invented a new team sport similar to modern-day hockey, where the ball was hit using a ‘bode stick.’ And it too was called ‘banda,’ named after the French game. And, in fact, because of that ‘bode stick’ that was used in the Irish game, the term ‘bandy leg’ developed to refer to someone with ‘boed legs.’ Shakespeare immortalized the term ‘bandy’ to mean ‘to and fro’ in his 1606 play, King Lear. ‘To bank on someone’ is an expression which means to completely trust or rely on someone, and it began in medieval Venice before the day of modern banks.

At that time, Venice was the hub of world trade, and men set up benches in the main plazas to trade various world currencies that appeared in the city from merchants and travelers. These men acted like banks, and the Italian word for bench also happens to be ‘banco.’ The traders would exchange currencies with these men, borrow from them, even leave money with them while they’re away. And these men had high scruples and were known to be universally trusted. They were regarded as men who could be ‘banked on,’ and that’s where the expression comes from.

‘A baptism of fire’ means an intense introduction to something. This began in the sixteenth century with Protestant Christian martyrs. They were burned at the state by Catholics, who believed that the practice gave the martyrs a form of baptism before they were judged by God. Napoleon was the first to use the expression, and he used in French, which I won’t attempt, but it meant ‘a baptism of iron.’ But the phrases now used to apply to military situations and a soldier’s first experience of war. ‘To barge in’ is a common expression which means to rudely interrupt or intrude on something.

It began in England in the early days of transportation, before railways existed. The major towns were connected by a network of waterways that allowed the movement of goods. These waterways were not very deep, and the boats used on them were flat-bottom barges. The barges were cumbersome and very hard to steer, making collisions common. So, vessels were often referred to as ‘barging in.’ The expression became colloquially used by the early 1900s. If someone calls you ‘barking mad,’ means they think you’re crazy. And a lot of people think this is related to a crazy dog barking. Whilst its origins are disputed, the likely origins actually lie in the East London town of Barking. In medieval times, Barking was home to a lunatic asylum which was notorious for its deranged inhabitants. It wasn’t long before the expression ‘barking mad’ was used for out England to refer to someone who was crazy.

‘Barking up the wrong tree’ is an expression that means pursuing the wrong course of action. This began in hunting in America in the nineteenth century. Men would go raccoon hunting at night. The raccoon being a nocturnal animal, and dogs would be used to track them. And, in the panic to escape, the raccoons were off and run up trees. This dog would pick up the scent and stand at the base of the tree, barking to alert the hunter as to the raccoon’s whereabouts. But the raccoon, being a cunning animal, would often trick the dog and escape. And it wasn’t until the hunter had climbed the branches that he realized his dog was ‘barking up the wrong tree,’ and the raccoon was no longer there.

‘A basket case’ is used to refer to someone that is completely hopeless or in useless condition, and it began as an expression in the American military from World War I. It referred to soldiers who had lost both arms and legs and had to be carried in a basket. And, in fact, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army cemented the term when he used it in a bulletin in 1919 to refer to people as ‘basket cases.’ It later became used to refer to people who’d suffered mental incapacities. A person who’s known as ‘an artful dodger’ is someone who gets away with things. And this comes from a literary reference which is from Charles Dickens’s novel Oliver Twist from the early 1800s. And, in that, one of the characters is a man named Jack Dawkins who’s a cunning pickpocket. But, as part of the story, Dickens names Dawkins ‘the artful dodger,’ and the expression came to mean anyone that gets away with things.

‘To batten down the hatches’ is a nautical expression which means to prepare for trouble or hard times. In the 1800s, most sailing ships had cargo holds that opened to the deck via hatches that were sometimes called hatchways. These was normally left open or simply covered with a grate that allowed for ventilation. But, in bad seas or bad weather, the ship’s captain would tell people to ‘batten down the hatches’ to protect the cargo. At that time, they would cover the hatches with canvas, tar, pawlands, or strips of wood to stop them from blowing off.

‘The battle royal’ is an intent fight or a fight to the end, and it’s an expression that originates from the blood sport of cockfighting from the twelfth century. It was a very popular in. And the royal cocks were the strongest and best fighting birds. And Henry VIII even had a cockpit built at Whitehall Palace. These birds would fight in various rounds until they got down to the two in the final. And that last round was known as ‘the Battle Royal,’ which was fought until there was one victor, which was often the royal bird who was the best.

Bread. And a great job by Greg Hangler for producing this piece, and a special thanks to Andrew Thompson, who you’ve been listening to. And, by the way, again the book is Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases. And you can go to Amazon.com or all the usual suspects to pick up the book again: Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red. And who would have known that sports and ancient history and Shakespeare and Dickens would be the source of so many of the phrases that will use in common language each and every day? The stories of bizarre phrases and ordinary ones. Here on Our American Stories.