July 24, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Thompson shares another slice of his guide to understanding the baffling mini-mysteries of the English language. The book is Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions and Fun Phrases.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for our recurring series with Arthur Andrew Thompson. His
book is Hair of the Dog, to Paint the Town
Red the curious origins of everyday scenes and fun phrases.
He continues here to share another slaves from his ultimate
(00:31):
guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the English language.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
A dark horse is a competitor that is unknown or
wins unexpectedly, and that expression originated with the writer Benjamin Disraeli,
who was also a nineteenth century British politician who became
Prime Minister twice. In his eighteen thirty one novel The
Young Duke, he describes a horse race where two favorites
are beaten by a rank outsider, which has described as
(01:00):
a dark horse which had never been thought of, rushed
past the grandstand in sweeping triumph. It was common in
the racing industry at the time for owners to conceal
their fastest horses until the day of the race, and
because of Disraeli's book, they became known as dark horses.
A dead end is an expression which means an impass
(01:21):
or allowing no progress, and whilst many may think it
relates to the dead end of an alley, it actually
relates to the English game of lawn bowls, which has
been played for centuries. In bowling, an end is one
stage of a game where all players have bowled towards
the jack, which is the small white target ball. If
the jack is driven out of the playing area by
(01:42):
one of the player's balls, the end cannot be continued
and must be replayed. It is considered a dead end.
If someone calls you a dead ringer, it means that
you very closely resemble another person. And while the origins
of that expression are very disputed, some site hall horse raising,
it actually has a perverse beginning in the combas of
(02:04):
medieval Britain. Now Combs at the time were not fully
understood by the medical profession, and anyone not showing signs
of life was presumed to be dead. But on some occasions,
when bodies were later exhumed, evidence was found suggesting that
the person had been buried alive. The fingernails were worn
down and there were scratches on the roof of the coffin.
To combat this, people started putting a rod into the
(02:26):
ground with a bell at the top and a string
around the dead person's wrist. That way, if a person
came back to life, so to speak, they could ring
the bell and attract attention to themselves. This actually did
occur from time to time, and if the person was
later seen in public and anyone suggested a likeness to
the person they used to know, it was said that
(02:48):
they were a dead ringer. The die is cast means
that something is past the point of no return, and
it's an expression that originated in ancient Greece and Rome
in around three hundred BC. But the expression was actually
made famous by Julius Caesar and forty nine BC when
he said let the die be cast as he led
(03:10):
his army across the Rubicon River into Rome, which committed
them to a civil war. And in fact that's where
the expression passed the Rubicon has come from, meaning you've
passed the point of no return. A die hard supporter
is one who stubbornly resists change despite a hopeless cause,
or supports a team no matter what, and that phrase
(03:33):
has military origins and comes from a battle during the
Peninsular War in eighteen eleven. During that battle, the commanding
officer of the fifty seventh West Middlesex regiment of foot
William Ingliss was badly wounded and lay injured on the battlefield.
The English were vastly outnumbered by the French at the
time and were under attack. Despite this, English refused all
(03:56):
attempts to carry him to safety and instead shouted at
his men when die Hard fifty seventh die Hard. The
English ended up winning the battle, and from then on
that regiment was the die Hards. The phrase diehard supporter
then crossed into politics in the early nineteen hundreds to
describe anyone who stood staunchly by a cause or a colleague.
(04:19):
A dog day afternoon is a very hot afternoon that
makes a person lazy, and it owes its origins to
ancient Roman astronomy. The Romans called the days between July
three and August eleven the dog days, and this is
when Sirius the dog star rises and sets in line
with the sun. In the northern hemisphere. These were usually
(04:40):
the hottest days of the year, and the Romans believed
that this was caused by the combined heat of the
dog star and the sun. If someone says, don't look
a gift horse in the mouth, what their meaning is
not to be critical or ungrateful for a gift, and
that expression derives from race horses and horses generally owing
a horse. There are very few ways of assessing a
(05:02):
horse's age, and it's a risk to buy a race
horse that's passed its prime or a work horse that's old.
The most reliable way of determining a horse's age is
from its teeth, as a horse age, as its teeth
wear down and they also protrude forward and its gums recede.
If a horse is given to you, it was thought
to be rude to look that gift horse in the mouth,
(05:23):
because this suggested you're assessing its value, and in fact
this is where the expression straight from the horse's mouth
to describe firsthand information comes from, as well as does
the saying long in the tooth to mean that someone
is old down to the wire means until the last
possible moment, and its expression has its origins with horse
(05:43):
racing before camera technology existed. To determine the winner of
a close run race, a string was stretched across the
finish line to assist the judges to see who crossed first.
The string was called a wire, and however broke at
first was the winner an evenly run race was said
to go down to the wire. This was also used
in foot races, and the expression was used figuratively by
(06:07):
the early nineteen hundreds. The expression your ears are burning
means that someone is talking about you somewhere, and this
idiom originated with ancient Rome. The Romans were very superstitious
and believed that different feelings in the body were signs
of current or future events. It was said that a tingling, ringing,
(06:27):
or burning feeling in the ears meant that someone was
talking about you. The philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote about
this in his book Naturalis Historia in AD seventy seven,
when he said, it is acknowledged that the absent feel
a presentiment of remarks about themselves by the ringing of
the ears. The Romans also believed that everything on the
(06:49):
left signified evil and everything on the right signified good.
So it was thought that if the left ear was burning,
the speakers had malicious intent, but if the right hear
was burning, the person was being raised. To eat humble
pie means to act submissively in admitting an error, often
in humiliation, and it's got rather distasteful culinary origins. In
(07:11):
medieval feasts, there was a hierarchy with the food. The
Lord of the Manner, in his guests from the upper
echelon of society, will serve the finest cuts of meat,
usually venison, while the reviled offals and entrails known as humbels,
would be baked in a pie. Lower class people or
people who are out of favor with the Lord of
(07:32):
the Manner would be served this humble pie. They were
often humiliated when their plate arrived and they realized what
they were eating. This expression eventually came to be known
as humble pie. To egg on means to encourage or
urge someone, usually to do something foolish, and it's got
linguistic origins. Originally to edge on. It derives from the
(07:56):
Old Norse word egger, meaning to edge or to incite.
To edge and or edge someone was to encourage them.
The expression then adapted to egg on by the fifteen
hundreds and has been used in that sense since that time.
The eleventh hour means the latest possible time, or the
last minute, and that expression has biblical origins. In the
(08:20):
Book of Matthew, there's a reference that reads, and about
the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle,
and said, unto them, why stand ye here all day idle?
At that time, the working day for manual labourers was
twelve hours. In a last ditch attempt to finish the
day's scheduled work on time, workers were sometimes hired at
(08:41):
the eleventh hour of the day, and because of the urgency,
they were paid the same amount as if they'd worked
the full day, so the eleventh hour came to mean
the last possible minute. To enter the lines den means
to enter a hostile or dangerous place or situation, and
it has biblical origins as well, from the story of
Daniel in the lions Den from the Old Testament, and
(09:05):
in that story, Daniel has betrayed and sentenced to death
for publicly praying to his own God while he was
a friend of Daniel's. The king has no choice but
to condemn Daniel to death, and he threw him into
the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, may your God,
whom you serve, continually rescue you. At daybreak, the king
hurried back to see if God had saved his friend.
(09:27):
Daniel remained there unscathed, and said that God had sent
an angel to close the jaws of the lions. The
King then cast those who conspired against Daniel into the
lion's den.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And great job is always to Greg Hangler for producing
the Peace and for finding the book. And a special
thanks to Andrew Thompson, author of Hair of the Dog.
To paint the town red, the curious origins of everyday
scenes and fun phrases here on our American story.
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for our recurring series with Arthur Andrew Thompson. His
book is Hair of the Dog, to Paint the Town
Red the curious origins of everyday scenes and fun phrases.
He continues here to share another slaves from his ultimate
(00:31):
guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the English language.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
A dark horse is a competitor that is unknown or
wins unexpectedly, and that expression originated with the writer Benjamin Disraeli,
who was also a nineteenth century British politician who became
Prime Minister twice. In his eighteen thirty one novel The
Young Duke, he describes a horse race where two favorites
are beaten by a rank outsider, which has described as
(01:00):
a dark horse which had never been thought of, rushed
past the grandstand in sweeping triumph. It was common in
the racing industry at the time for owners to conceal
their fastest horses until the day of the race, and
because of Disraeli's book, they became known as dark horses.
A dead end is an expression which means an impass
(01:21):
or allowing no progress, and whilst many may think it
relates to the dead end of an alley, it actually
relates to the English game of lawn bowls, which has
been played for centuries. In bowling, an end is one
stage of a game where all players have bowled towards
the jack, which is the small white target ball. If
the jack is driven out of the playing area by
(01:42):
one of the player's balls, the end cannot be continued
and must be replayed. It is considered a dead end.
If someone calls you a dead ringer, it means that
you very closely resemble another person. And while the origins
of that expression are very disputed, some site hall horse raising,
it actually has a perverse beginning in the combas of
(02:04):
medieval Britain. Now Combs at the time were not fully
understood by the medical profession, and anyone not showing signs
of life was presumed to be dead. But on some occasions,
when bodies were later exhumed, evidence was found suggesting that
the person had been buried alive. The fingernails were worn
down and there were scratches on the roof of the coffin.
To combat this, people started putting a rod into the
(02:26):
ground with a bell at the top and a string
around the dead person's wrist. That way, if a person
came back to life, so to speak, they could ring
the bell and attract attention to themselves. This actually did
occur from time to time, and if the person was
later seen in public and anyone suggested a likeness to
the person they used to know, it was said that
(02:48):
they were a dead ringer. The die is cast means
that something is past the point of no return, and
it's an expression that originated in ancient Greece and Rome
in around three hundred BC. But the expression was actually
made famous by Julius Caesar and forty nine BC when
he said let the die be cast as he led
(03:10):
his army across the Rubicon River into Rome, which committed
them to a civil war. And in fact that's where
the expression passed the Rubicon has come from, meaning you've
passed the point of no return. A die hard supporter
is one who stubbornly resists change despite a hopeless cause,
or supports a team no matter what, and that phrase
(03:33):
has military origins and comes from a battle during the
Peninsular War in eighteen eleven. During that battle, the commanding
officer of the fifty seventh West Middlesex regiment of foot
William Ingliss was badly wounded and lay injured on the battlefield.
The English were vastly outnumbered by the French at the
time and were under attack. Despite this, English refused all
(03:56):
attempts to carry him to safety and instead shouted at
his men when die Hard fifty seventh die Hard. The
English ended up winning the battle, and from then on
that regiment was the die Hards. The phrase diehard supporter
then crossed into politics in the early nineteen hundreds to
describe anyone who stood staunchly by a cause or a colleague.
(04:19):
A dog day afternoon is a very hot afternoon that
makes a person lazy, and it owes its origins to
ancient Roman astronomy. The Romans called the days between July
three and August eleven the dog days, and this is
when Sirius the dog star rises and sets in line
with the sun. In the northern hemisphere. These were usually
(04:40):
the hottest days of the year, and the Romans believed
that this was caused by the combined heat of the
dog star and the sun. If someone says, don't look
a gift horse in the mouth, what their meaning is
not to be critical or ungrateful for a gift, and
that expression derives from race horses and horses generally owing
a horse. There are very few ways of assessing a
(05:02):
horse's age, and it's a risk to buy a race
horse that's passed its prime or a work horse that's old.
The most reliable way of determining a horse's age is
from its teeth, as a horse age, as its teeth
wear down and they also protrude forward and its gums recede.
If a horse is given to you, it was thought
to be rude to look that gift horse in the mouth,
(05:23):
because this suggested you're assessing its value, and in fact
this is where the expression straight from the horse's mouth
to describe firsthand information comes from, as well as does
the saying long in the tooth to mean that someone
is old down to the wire means until the last
possible moment, and its expression has its origins with horse
(05:43):
racing before camera technology existed. To determine the winner of
a close run race, a string was stretched across the
finish line to assist the judges to see who crossed first.
The string was called a wire, and however broke at
first was the winner an evenly run race was said
to go down to the wire. This was also used
in foot races, and the expression was used figuratively by
(06:07):
the early nineteen hundreds. The expression your ears are burning
means that someone is talking about you somewhere, and this
idiom originated with ancient Rome. The Romans were very superstitious
and believed that different feelings in the body were signs
of current or future events. It was said that a tingling, ringing,
(06:27):
or burning feeling in the ears meant that someone was
talking about you. The philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote about
this in his book Naturalis Historia in AD seventy seven,
when he said, it is acknowledged that the absent feel
a presentiment of remarks about themselves by the ringing of
the ears. The Romans also believed that everything on the
(06:49):
left signified evil and everything on the right signified good.
So it was thought that if the left ear was burning,
the speakers had malicious intent, but if the right hear
was burning, the person was being raised. To eat humble
pie means to act submissively in admitting an error, often
in humiliation, and it's got rather distasteful culinary origins. In
(07:11):
medieval feasts, there was a hierarchy with the food. The
Lord of the Manner, in his guests from the upper
echelon of society, will serve the finest cuts of meat,
usually venison, while the reviled offals and entrails known as humbels,
would be baked in a pie. Lower class people or
people who are out of favor with the Lord of
(07:32):
the Manner would be served this humble pie. They were
often humiliated when their plate arrived and they realized what
they were eating. This expression eventually came to be known
as humble pie. To egg on means to encourage or
urge someone, usually to do something foolish, and it's got
linguistic origins. Originally to edge on. It derives from the
(07:56):
Old Norse word egger, meaning to edge or to incite.
To edge and or edge someone was to encourage them.
The expression then adapted to egg on by the fifteen
hundreds and has been used in that sense since that time.
The eleventh hour means the latest possible time, or the
last minute, and that expression has biblical origins. In the
(08:20):
Book of Matthew, there's a reference that reads, and about
the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing idle,
and said, unto them, why stand ye here all day idle?
At that time, the working day for manual labourers was
twelve hours. In a last ditch attempt to finish the
day's scheduled work on time, workers were sometimes hired at
(08:41):
the eleventh hour of the day, and because of the urgency,
they were paid the same amount as if they'd worked
the full day, so the eleventh hour came to mean
the last possible minute. To enter the lines den means
to enter a hostile or dangerous place or situation, and
it has biblical origins as well, from the story of
Daniel in the lions Den from the Old Testament, and
(09:05):
in that story, Daniel has betrayed and sentenced to death
for publicly praying to his own God while he was
a friend of Daniel's. The king has no choice but
to condemn Daniel to death, and he threw him into
the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, may your God,
whom you serve, continually rescue you. At daybreak, the king
hurried back to see if God had saved his friend.
(09:27):
Daniel remained there unscathed, and said that God had sent
an angel to close the jaws of the lions. The
King then cast those who conspired against Daniel into the
lion's den.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
And great job is always to Greg Hangler for producing
the Peace and for finding the book. And a special
thanks to Andrew Thompson, author of Hair of the Dog.
To paint the town red, the curious origins of everyday
scenes and fun phrases here on our American story.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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