How can an entire idea fit “in a nutshell,” and why is someone who has caused trouble said to be “in the doghouse”? Familiar expressions often survive long after the customs and stories that produced them have disappeared.
Andrew Thompson, author of Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red, explores another group of linguistic mini-mysteries. His explanations connect ordinary phrases with literature, domestic life, trades, folklore, and changing popular usage.
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Speaker 1: This is Lei Habib, and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your story. Send them to us and our American Stories dot com. There’s some of our favorite And up next we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings. Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slice from his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these mini Mysteries of the English Language. In a nutshell means concisely, or in a few words, he might say to someone, just tell me in a nutshell. And it’s said to originate from the ancient story described in seventeen a d. By the Romans Kulopliny the Elder. The story goes that the philosophers Row witnessed a copy of Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, written onto a piece of parchment and enclosed into the shell of a walnut. Obviously, this is impossible, but it is believed that important documents were folded and inserted into walnut shells and bound so that they were waterproof and could be taken long distances without damaging them. Shakespeare referred to the expression in his sixteen o three play Hamlet, and that immortalized the expression in a shambles means a state of complete disorder or ruin, and it derives from the open air meat sellers of medieval times. The word shambles derives from the Old English word meaning footstool, which came from the Latin word meaning small bench. Most towns at that time in England had streets designated to a single type of vendor. There were streets for grocers, streets were bread sellers butchers who all offered their wares from street side workbenches. These streets were known as shambles, but it was the butcher’s that became particularly associated with the term, as they were supplied directly by the slaughter houses. The meat shambles were renowned for being a complete mess of blood and offcuts. By the fourteen hundreds, the word shambles had become synonymous with general mess and disorder, and the town of York in England to this day has a street called shambles. In cold blood means deliberately and without emotion. Is often related to murders, for example, he murdered the man in cold blood. It’s an expression the dates from the early eighteenth century, and began with the belief that a person’s blood heated up when an act of great emotion or passion was committed. This was based on the reddening of the face and the feeling of heat that a person experienced. It was thought that when one could carry out a violent crime without excitement or emotional involvement, the person was acting in cold blood. The term was first used in the English publication The Spectator in seventeen eleven. To say something is in the bag means a successful outcome is absolutely certain, and while there are different theories on the origins of the phrase, including those relating to baseball and hunting, the early days of the British Parliament as the likely birthplace. On the back of the Speakish chair in Parliament hung a velvet bag, and all successful petitions that were brought before the House of Commons would be placed in that bag. Because it was known that all such petitions had been successful, they became known as in the bag. If you say to someone I’m in the dog house, it usually means you’re disgraced and out of favor, usually said by a husband to a wife, and in the doghouse as a phrase that has literary origins. It derives from J. M. Barry’s nineteen o four book Peter Pan. Mister Darling, the children’s father in the book, is particularly unpleasant to Nana, the family dog. His children then fly off with Peter Pan, and as a self imposed punished and for his behavior, he goes out to live in the doghouse until the children returned from Neverland. Peter Pam was obviously a very popular book, and as a result, the expression quickly came into widespread usage. If you say in the doldrums or you’re feeling in the doldrums, it means to feel unmotivated or depressed, and it relates to a region by that name, which is located slightly north of the equator between two belts of wind Sailors use the term because winds they’re met and neutralized each other, which resulted in ships becoming stranded and sitting around idly, virtually unable to sail. Many assume that the expression comes from the name of the region, but it’s actually that the region came to be named because of its nature. Doldrum comes from the Old English word doll, meaning dull, and that led on to the word Doldrum, and the phrase was then used in the figurative sense by the early nineteenth century. In the groove is an expression which means is to function perfectly or with little effort, and it stems from the early vinyl record days. Records are made with a number of grooves cut into the material where the music is recorded. The record is played by a stylus or needle, which must sit neatly in the groove to ensure good sound quality. If a stylus is worn, making its tip too wide, it will not sit in the groove and the sound will become distorted. Equally, if the record is scratched, the stylus may slip out of the groove and the record won’t play. The phrase took on its idiomatic qualities with the arrival of jazz in the nineteen twenties. The free spirited nature of jazz bands and the way they played with each other led people to describe them as in the groove. In the limelight means at the center of attention. You may say, John loves being in the limelight. And this is one of the very first phrases I ever learned. It has its origins in the theater, when calcium oxide, more commonly known as lime, is heated, it produces a tense white light, and this process was first used to effect by a man named Thomas Drummond in the eighteen twenties. He was a Scottish army engineer who used heated lime as an aid in mapmaking. Because of the bright light was visible at a distance. The technique was then adopted in theaters to illuminate the stage, and was first used in Covent Garden in London in eighteen thirty seven. The actors who were the center of attention on the stage were said to be standing in the limelight. And that saying now applies to anyone who’s the focus of attention. If you say something is in the offing, you mean it as likely to happen sooner as imminent. And it’s a nautical expression originating in the early sixteen hundreds that came into widespread usage by the late seventeen hundreds. The offing is that part of the sea that is visible from or off the shore, the area between the shore and the horizon. In other words, a ship that was in the offing was within sight. And a special thanks to Greg Hengler for the production on the piece, and a special thanks to Andrew Thompson, heir of the Dog to paint the town. Read the curious origins of everyday sayings and fun phrases. Go to Amazon dot com or any of the usual suspects the story of the English language, or at least it’s curious sayings and phrases here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we’re asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American Stories dot com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That’s Our American Stories dot com.
Speaker 1: This is Lei Habib, and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your story. Send them to us and our American Stories dot com. There’s some of our favorite And up next we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings. Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slice from his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these mini Mysteries of the English Language. In a nutshell means concisely, or in a few words, he might say to someone, just tell me in a nutshell. And it’s said to originate from the ancient story described in seventeen a d. By the Romans Kulopliny the Elder. The story goes that the philosophers Row witnessed a copy of Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, written onto a piece of parchment and enclosed into the shell of a walnut. Obviously, this is impossible, but it is believed that important documents were folded and inserted into walnut shells and bound so that they were waterproof and could be taken long distances without damaging them. Shakespeare referred to the expression in his sixteen o three play Hamlet, and that immortalized the expression in a shambles means a state of complete disorder or ruin, and it derives from the open air meat sellers of medieval times. The word shambles derives from the Old English word meaning footstool, which came from the Latin word meaning small bench. Most towns at that time in England had streets designated to a single type of vendor. There were streets for grocers, streets were bread sellers butchers who all offered their wares from street side workbenches. These streets were known as shambles, but it was the butcher’s that became particularly associated with the term, as they were supplied directly by the slaughter houses. The meat shambles were renowned for being a complete mess of blood and offcuts. By the fourteen hundreds, the word shambles had become synonymous with general mess and disorder, and the town of York in England to this day has a street called shambles. In cold blood means deliberately and without emotion. Is often related to murders, for example, he murdered the man in cold blood. It’s an expression the dates from the early eighteenth century, and began with the belief that a person’s blood heated up when an act of great emotion or passion was committed. This was based on the reddening of the face and the feeling of heat that a person experienced. It was thought that when one could carry out a violent crime without excitement or emotional involvement, the person was acting in cold blood. The term was first used in the English publication The Spectator in seventeen eleven. To say something is in the bag means a successful outcome is absolutely certain, and while there are different theories on the origins of the phrase, including those relating to baseball and hunting, the early days of the British Parliament as the likely birthplace. On the back of the Speakish chair in Parliament hung a velvet bag, and all successful petitions that were brought before the House of Commons would be placed in that bag. Because it was known that all such petitions had been successful, they became known as in the bag. If you say to someone I’m in the dog house, it usually means you’re disgraced and out of favor, usually said by a husband to a wife, and in the doghouse as a phrase that has literary origins. It derives from J. M. Barry’s nineteen o four book Peter Pan. Mister Darling, the children’s father in the book, is particularly unpleasant to Nana, the family dog. His children then fly off with Peter Pan, and as a self imposed punished and for his behavior, he goes out to live in the doghouse until the children returned from Neverland. Peter Pam was obviously a very popular book, and as a result, the expression quickly came into widespread usage. If you say in the doldrums or you’re feeling in the doldrums, it means to feel unmotivated or depressed, and it relates to a region by that name, which is located slightly north of the equator between two belts of wind Sailors use the term because winds they’re met and neutralized each other, which resulted in ships becoming stranded and sitting around idly, virtually unable to sail. Many assume that the expression comes from the name of the region, but it’s actually that the region came to be named because of its nature. Doldrum comes from the Old English word doll, meaning dull, and that led on to the word Doldrum, and the phrase was then used in the figurative sense by the early nineteenth century. In the groove is an expression which means is to function perfectly or with little effort, and it stems from the early vinyl record days. Records are made with a number of grooves cut into the material where the music is recorded. The record is played by a stylus or needle, which must sit neatly in the groove to ensure good sound quality. If a stylus is worn, making its tip too wide, it will not sit in the groove and the sound will become distorted. Equally, if the record is scratched, the stylus may slip out of the groove and the record won’t play. The phrase took on its idiomatic qualities with the arrival of jazz in the nineteen twenties. The free spirited nature of jazz bands and the way they played with each other led people to describe them as in the groove. In the limelight means at the center of attention. You may say, John loves being in the limelight. And this is one of the very first phrases I ever learned. It has its origins in the theater, when calcium oxide, more commonly known as lime, is heated, it produces a tense white light, and this process was first used to effect by a man named Thomas Drummond in the eighteen twenties. He was a Scottish army engineer who used heated lime as an aid in mapmaking. Because of the bright light was visible at a distance. The technique was then adopted in theaters to illuminate the stage, and was first used in Covent Garden in London in eighteen thirty seven. The actors who were the center of attention on the stage were said to be standing in the limelight. And that saying now applies to anyone who’s the focus of attention. If you say something is in the offing, you mean it as likely to happen sooner as imminent. And it’s a nautical expression originating in the early sixteen hundreds that came into widespread usage by the late seventeen hundreds. The offing is that part of the sea that is visible from or off the shore, the area between the shore and the horizon. In other words, a ship that was in the offing was within sight. And a special thanks to Greg Hengler for the production on the piece, and a special thanks to Andrew Thompson, heir of the Dog to paint the town. Read the curious origins of everyday sayings and fun phrases. Go to Amazon dot com or any of the usual suspects the story of the English language, or at least it’s curious sayings and phrases here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we’re asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to Our American Stories dot com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That’s Our American Stories dot com.
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