Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by fccs »

Thanks for the cigar - that puts me at 5/10.
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

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I got a cigar! I got a cigar! ..... 6/10 today. (I hate cigars but I will take this one)

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by kevona »

4/10 now. I love the saying close but no cigar and use it regularly. Had to explain it to my son a few months back. And he uses the phrase too now. And no neither of us smoke ( he is only 11) mind.

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

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kevona wrote:4/10 now. I love the saying close but no cigar and use it regularly. Had to explain it to my son a few months back. And he uses the phrase too now. And no neither of us smoke ( he is only 11) mind.

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I always say, "Close but no banana." :-)
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by Serinde »

Aye, well, there's always one in every crowd. :lol: :lol:
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO - Day 7

Post by Linda Rose »

Greetings! Its good to see you having fun with the phrases. Let's see what you think about today's picks:

1 - A dish fit for the gods -This refers to food that is of an exemplary quality; it literally means food so good that it is good enough to be served to a god (reference o be given later)

The phrase originates in the Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar in the year 1601. Brutus when killing Caesar, tells his men to be gentle. His speech contains that although they are killing Caesar, and that he would obviously bleed, the men should not tear him apart limb from limb. Brutus asked Caesar to be carved in a manner that he would be a dish fit for the Gods!

Brutus:
Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
. . . And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds;
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
And after seem to chide 'em.
Julius Caesar Act 2, scene 1, 166, 171–177


18 - Go the whole nine yards - a colloquial American phrase meaning "everything, the whole lot" or, when used as an adjective, "all the way" (Wikipedia)

Of all the feedback that The ****** ****** site gets this is the phrase that is asked about the most often. At the outset it should be said that no one is sure of the origin, although many have a fervent belief that they are. These convictions are unfailingly based on no more evidence than 'someone told me.

The earliest known example of the phrase in print that I know of is from an Indiana newspaper The Mitchell Commercial, 2nd May 1907:

This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards.

It appeared again in the same paper the following year, on 4th June 1908:

...Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads, He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.

The meaning of 'the whole nine yards' in the above citations is clear, that is, as we use it now, 'the whole thing/the full story'. Oddly, and even though it was well enough known in Indiana in 1907 to have appeared several times in newspapers without the authors feeling the need to explain it, the expression seems to have disappeared from view for another 50 years or so. (source to come at end of game)

But then there's this:

Does the phrase derive from the length of ammunition belts in World War II aircraft? The contents of a standard concrete mixer? The amount of beer a British naval recruit was obligated to drink? Yardage in football? The length of fabric in a Scottish kilt (or sari, or kimono, or burial shroud)? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/books ... rigin.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by rcperryls »

:( Been on a roll until today. :) for what fun this Bingo is!

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by Serinde »

Another smoke-free day here, too. :lol:
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by kevona »

5/10 so interesting.
Thanks

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by Tyledres »

WHOA! I kinda forgot about Bingo. Managed to collect 5 numbers though. I think it''s fasinating that the one phrase comes from Shakespeare. It's impressive how much influence one person has had on the English language. But he also knew how to put together a really good phrasse.
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by fccs »

Serinde wrote:Aye, well, there's always one in every crowd. :lol: :lol:
So I've been told...many times. :-)
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by fccs »

One more for me today! These are really interesting - thanks, Linda.
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO - Day 8

Post by Linda Rose »

Two very familiar phrases today. Enjoy!

22 – Pass the buck - the act of attributing to another person or group one's own responsibility. It is often used to refer to a strategy in power politics whereby a state tries to get another state to deter or possibly fight an aggressor state while it remains on the sidelines. (Wikipedia)

"Passing the buck" originated from a ritual practiced during card games. Card players used to place a marker, called a "buck," in front of the person who was the dealer. That marker was passed to the next player along with the responsibility of dealing. Eventually "passing the buck" became synonymous with passing on responsibility. http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/origin ... -buck.html" target="_blank" target="_blank


23 – Saved by the bell – Cliché; saved by the timely intervention of someone or something. (thefreedictionary.com)
The expression is boxing slang and it came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the respite signaled by the bell that marks the end of a round. The earliest reference to this that I can find is in the Massachusetts newspaper The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, February 1893:

"Martin Flaherty defeated Bobby Burns in 32 rounds by a complete knockout. Half a dozen times Flaherty was saved by the bell in the earlier rounds." (source to be revealed at end of game)
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

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:D Saved by the bell!! 6/10 as of today!

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by Serinde »

Same here. 8)
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO - Day 9

Post by Linda Rose »

Happy throw back Thursday! Today we have some words of excellent advice as well as a phrase whose beginnings date back to the 1660's but I think are still used today. Enjoy! Hope you are adding to your scores with at least one of the phrases.

14 - Don't count your chickens before they hatch – Proverb; You should not count on something before it happens; you should not rely on the results of your plans before they are realized; you should not expect all of your hopes to be fulfilled. (Wictionary)

A hen (female chicken) lays eggs from which young chickens (chicks) “hatch” or emerge. However, not all eggs successfully produce a chicken, so you shouldn’t count the eggs and assume that each one will produce a chick – you should wait to count the actual chickens until they have hatched.

This phrase may have its origins with Aesop, the Greek fable writer who lived around 620 to 560 BC. In his fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail”, a milkmaid carries a pail (bucket) of milk on her head and daydreams about selling the milk, buying chickens with the money and then becoming so rich from selling the eggs that she becomes independent. She will then have enough money to shake her head to say no to all the young men trying to win her love. However, in the fable she is so immersed in this daydream that she shakes her head and accidentally drops the milk, therefore destroying the possibility of her dream by imagining it too soon. There is a line from the fable which reads “Ah, my child,” said the mother, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched” (https://www.bloomsbury-international.co ... hatch.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank)

16 - Eat humble pie - in common usage, to apologize and face humiliation for a serious error. (Wikipedia)

In the USA, since the mid 19th century, anyone who had occasion to 'eat his words' by humiliatingly recanting something would be said to 'eat crow' (previously 'eat boiled crow'). In the UK we 'eat humble pie'. The unpalatability of crow, boiled or otherwise, seems clear, but what about humble pie?

In the 14th century, the numbles (or noumbles, nomblys, noubles) was the name given to the heart, liver, entrails etc. of animals, especially of deer - what we now call offal or lights. By the 15th century this had migrated to umbles, although the words co-existed for some time. There are many references to both words in Old English and Middle English texts from 1330 onward. Umbles were used as an ingredient in pies, although the first record of 'umble pie' in print is as late as the 17th century. Samuel Pepys makes many references to such pies in his diary; for example, on 5th July 1662:
"I having some venison given me a day or two ago, and so I had a shoulder roasted, another baked, and the umbles baked in a pie, and all very well done."

and on 8th July 1663:
"Mrs Turner came in and did bring us an Umble-pie hot out of her oven, extraordinarily good."

It is possible that it was the pies that caused the move from numbles to umbles. 'A numble pie' could easily have become 'an umble pie', in the same way that 'a napron' became 'an apron' and 'an ewt' became 'a newt'. This changing of the boundaries between words is called metanalysis and is commonplace in English. (sorry, no source until end of game) But if you enjoy culinary history, you might enjoy this link:
http://www.culinarylore.com/food-histor ... humble-pie" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Also - The adjective humble, meaning 'of lowly rank' or 'having a low estimate of oneself' derived separately from umbles, which derives from Latin and Old French words for loins. (Incidentally, if you feel like girding your loins and aren't sure exactly where they are, the OED coyly describes them as 'the parts of the body that should covered with clothing'). The similarity of the sound of the words, and the fact that umble pie was often eaten by those of humble situation could easily have been the reason for 'eat humble pie' to have come to have its current idiomatic meaning.
Last edited by Linda Rose on Thu Feb 02, 2017 4:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by rcperryls »

One more. I'm up to 8/10!

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

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I'm at 7/10 and learning a lot.
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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO

Post by kevona »

:roll: still on 5/10. But interesting none the less

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Re: Idioms And Their Origins BINGO - Day 10

Post by Linda Rose »

Greetings! Well I am away for a few days and will have to switch to my tablet tomorrow and Sunday - something I am not thrilled about as it does not perform as well on this site. So, if it gets a little sloppy or is missing some functions or formatting, please be gracious and forgive me. As well, come tomorrow I will try to Post at a time that is a little more fair given the different time zones. Looks like their could be a winner at almost any time now. Please check your scores. I think some have miscalculated.

Enjoy these 2 for today.


13- Dead as a door nail - one of the many idiomatic similes used for emphasis (to intensify the adjective). Thus, it simply means dead, very dead, quite dead, certainly dead, etc. It can be used figuratively or literally in any context.

In carpentry, when a nail is said to be “dead”, it means that it is so well hammered into the door that it cannot be taken out to be reused. Doornails in particular were famous for being securely hammered into doors and “clinched”, a process which involved any protruding bit of the nail being hammered flat over the side of the door so that they were well and truly in place. This was done to strengthen the door. This theory suggests that “dead as a doornail” refers to these clinched nails which found their final resting place in doors. A good read on the phrase can be found at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php ... -doornail/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

7 - Blood is thicker than water - In modern society, the proverb "blood is thicker than water" is used to imply that family relationships are always more important than friends.

This phrase is believed to have derived from the old proverb ‘the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb’, which has quite the opposite meaning. Rather than "blood" shared by family, the original interpretation of the term was literal blood. In other words, the blood that is shed by soldiers on the battlefield makes for stronger bonds than those of the family you happened by chance to be born into. It was also used in reference to "blood covenants" that people used to make, which involved cutting each other and mixing their blood together.
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