Comments on: The Science Behind Some Popular Phrases

By: Andrewmc

Andrewmc — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:07:18 +0000

“Saved by the bell” is from boxing, not the mythical graveyard thing.

By: Shorty

Shorty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:36:30 +0000

Thank You! Many of the old sayings I have heard from my childhood. They were said by my elders. Now it is nice to know the meaning behind them

By: Eldonsmith

Eldonsmith — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:09:43 +0000

Hi chaps (and ladies)
A couple of observations on the above comments. I’m English

re cats & dogs
There are no skunks in Britain so 17th C gents wouldn’t keep them as pets

re bees knees
I was always told it was an extrapolation of business. Here, when something is ‘the business’ it is perfect for the job or task.

re dead ringer
a ringer is an imposter. A very old saying but used quite a lot in my youth at greyhound racing where one dog would run trials, get a handicap for a race, then a similar looking dog would be run in it’s place. Similar = ringer, dead ringer = almost exactly the same.

So can anyone explain why in the English language, we misuse the words near and nearly??

I nearly won the lottery (I didn’t win)
2 aircraft were in a near miss (they missed)
Obama nearly lost (he won)
He nearly scored from that penalty (he didn’t score)
Yellowstone hyper multi mega super volcano nearly didn’t go off in 2009 (etc)

HNYr from UK

By: triki1

triki1 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:56:41 +0000

I believe the phrase that is linked to the string tied to a person’s finger to insure they are dead is “Dead Ringer”

By: darlene miller

darlene miller — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:57:22 +0000

My mother was fond of saying ” You can”t make a silk purse from a pigs ear”, I guess its the same as ” putting lipstick on a pig”

By: Some guy

Some guy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:45:11 +0000

I always thought getting “the business” was a bad thing.

By: floatingk

floatingk — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:20:24 +0000

@ashley, I cant say Ive ever seen a tall thatched roof house, and seeing my dogs chase mice and birds, I can totally imagine them up on the roof, especially with all the neighbors crap piled high in the back….

By: liphttam1

liphttam1 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:57:58 +0000

I looked theese up but never found them. Here they are! This is like a dream come true!

By: Ali S.

Ali S. — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:48:54 +0000

Fascinating stuff! I knew a few of them but not to such a detailed extent now. Knowledge is power!

By: erin

erin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:37:45 +0000

“dead ringer” is the saying that comes from that people buried with a string attached to a bell thing. as in someone who looks the same as someone else.

By: Pol x

Pol x — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:25:43 +0000

re The Bees Knees.

I was told way back when that the phrase was just a joking pronunciation “The Business”.

In the UK the phrase “That’s the business” is interchangeable with “That’s the Bees Knees”.

By: TwoDragons

TwoDragons — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:51:35 +0000

Behemoth: Bees use the pollen they collect. They mix it with wax and trace amounts of honey to produce something called “bee bread”, which is essentially a high-energy food for the workers and larvae.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_bread

–TwoDragons

By: Ashley

Ashley — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:23:34 +0000

@floatingk
I know that the thatched roof explanation is common, but come on, can you even picture a dog getting up in a roof?? They don’t climb like cats do.

By: Corinne

Corinne — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:22:10 +0000

The Mad Hatter, even though it sounds odd, wasn’t basted on a case of mercurialism. He was based on an eccentric furniture salesmen. I was just reading about mercurialism earlier.

What about “pie in the sky”?

I had a teacher who used that one all of the time.

By: Miramon

Miramon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:40:57 +0000

Yeah, re cats and dogs, that seems wrong, among several others which are dubious.

Polecat != house cat.
Polecat == skunk or weasel.

Even 17th century Englishmen wouldn’t keep skunks as pets. There might be weasels kept for ratting in some places, I suppose, but not pets in any event.

By: Scooter

Scooter — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:47:39 +0000

FloatingK, if you find an instance of that phrase in literature pre 1950′s the gold rush explanation would win out. Since the gold rush happened before the invention of acid i’d say it’s more likely that people in the 60′s adopted that phrase.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:32:08 +0000

” The first appearance of “blue moon” is in a work entitled Rede Me and Be Not Wroth (1528): “Yf they say the mone is blewe/We must believe that it is true.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “if the moon is blue” is equivalent to saying “if the moon were made of green cheese.” In other words, it’s meant to indicate a patent absurdity.

But you know how things go. Over time the meaning of “once in a blue moon” got watered down. First the expression went from meaning “never” to “once in a long while.” Maybe it was that forest fire in 1950.

Today things are even worse. There is a popular conviction, which the media have done much to reinforce, that a blue moon is a second full moon occurring within a calendar month. This occurs every two or three years. So now “once in a blue moon” means “not all that often, but more often than the Olympics.” The most recent blue moons occurred in January 1999 and again just two months later in March–a highly unusual circumstance that garnered a lot of attention from the press. ”

From Cecil Adams, master of trivia at straightdope.com

By: Gauldar

Gauldar — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:18:22 +0000

I thought that mercury was used by Hatters in the cleaning process of hats, not the production.

By: Burton

Burton — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:46:43 +0000

‘The bee’s knees’ just a corruption of ‘the business’, i.e. ‘good’.

And as others have pointed out, honey is not made from pollen.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:33:28 +0000

Good list. If you understand where different parts of a language came from, it opens up insights about your own culture that you might not have realized.

By: Terry

Terry — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:29:27 +0000

I believe the “Dog Days of Summer” come from the fact that rabies is for more prevalent in the late summer. At least according to the book, “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

By: Beeeeeeee

Beeeeeeee — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:23:28 +0000

Just A Jiffy = A “jiffy” is actually a term for 1/100th of a second…

By: Hat

Hat — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:05:46 +0000

I know others have already commented on this and I know you got the info from Uncle John, but “saved by the bell” IS a boxing term, first appearing in the latter half of the 19th century. You can find further information at
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/saved-by-the-bell.html
and at
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp
among others.

By: vero4902

vero4902 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:47:21 +0000

I agree with what others have said – I’ve heard different origins for some of these phrases. A fun list though

By: floatingk

floatingk — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:33:39 +0000

I dont agree with many of these.
-Mad Hatters used lead forms for their hats
-Raining cats and dogs was when they fell through thatch roofs during storms
-Saved by the Bell is a boxing term
-Acid Test was the experimental use of hallucinogens, surviving meant your brain was still intact…

By: Rocky Rook

Rocky Rook — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:33:37 +0000

I’m suprised “lipstick on a pig” didn’t show up. I heard that one for the first time in 2003 when a co-worker was describing a nearby city. Then when Barack “the Rock” Obama used it, it seemed the phrase became much more popular.

By: Paulina

Paulina — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:23:37 +0000

very good post, though i found the ‘raining cats and dogs’ a little disturbing!

By: Behemoth

Behemoth — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:18:19 +0000

I was under the impression that pollen transmission was an accidental byproduct of nectar collection…

By: Grodoro

Grodoro — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:37:22 +0000

As far as the Limelight goes, it is still used in some theaters, even today. They are a real pain to operate, though.

By: TwoDragons

TwoDragons — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:39:27 +0000

Looks like Behemoth beat me to it, Bees use pollen for food, not to make honey. Nectar is for honey.

Other than that, it’s an interesting post!

–TwoDragons (who is still pregnant…)

By: Bobby_078

Bobby_078 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:33:04 +0000

I always thought that “saved by the bell” came from boxing. If someone was really taking a beating and the bell rang ending the round, then they were “saved by the bell.”

Boxing is “The Sweet Science” so I guess this may be some more science behind the phrase.

By: Larfin Jackarse

Larfin Jackarse — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:22:35 +0000

>American vernacular phraseologistic-ology.
I always thought they were from England (via Latin, French, Norse or German etc). Oh well.

By: Behemoth

Behemoth — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:16:33 +0000

Bees make honey out of nectar, not pollen.

By: raina_c

raina_c — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:04:25 +0000

Thank you…very interesting. Never knew bees had knees…that’s adorable.

By: Edward

Edward — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:37:02 +0000

“Saved by the Bell” is a boxing term. It means that one of the boxers would have lost if the round had not ended.

By: Evilbeagle

Evilbeagle — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:36:34 +0000

These are great! I always like to see where things come from.

By: zav

zav — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:14:11 +0000

I love “pot calling the kettle black” and “don’t cry over spilled milk”. Sometimes you have to channel your grandfather to make sense of these little bits of American vernacular phraseologistic-ology.