February 20, 2025 • 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 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 Inglis 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, die Hard fifty seventh die Hard. The English
ended up winning the battle and from then on that
regiment was in arms 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
(04:17):
a colleague. 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
(04:40):
were usually 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
when by a horse. There are very few ways of
(05:01):
assessing a 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
(05:22):
horse in the mouth, 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
(05:42):
origins with horse 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 you crossed first. The string was called a wire,
and whoever broke at first was the winner, and evenly
run race was said to go down to the wire.
This was also used in foot races, and the expression
(06:06):
was used figuratively by 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
(06:26):
was said that a tingling, ringing, 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
(06:47):
also believed that everything on the left signified evil and
everything on the right signified good. So it was thought
that if the left here was burning, the speakers had
malicious intent, but if the writer hear was burning, the
person was being to eat. Humble pie means to act
submissively in admitting an error, often in humiliation, and it's
(07:08):
got rather distasteful culinary origins. In 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
(07:30):
out of favor with the Lord of the matter would
be served this umble 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
(07:54):
to edge on. It derives from the Old Norse word egger,
meaning to edge or to incite. To edgin 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
(08:16):
expression has biblical origins. In the 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
(08:38):
on time, workers were sometimes hired at 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
(08:59):
as well. The story of Daniel in the lions Den
from the Old Testament, and 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
(09:21):
rescue you. At daybreak, the king hurried back to see
if God had saved his friend. 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 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 Inglis 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, die Hard fifty seventh die Hard. The English
ended up winning the battle and from then on that
regiment was in arms 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
(04:17):
a colleague. 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
(04:40):
were usually 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
when by a horse. There are very few ways of
(05:01):
assessing a 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
(05:22):
horse in the mouth, 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
(05:42):
origins with horse 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 you crossed first. The string was called a wire,
and whoever broke at first was the winner, and evenly
run race was said to go down to the wire.
This was also used in foot races, and the expression
(06:06):
was used figuratively by 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
(06:26):
was said that a tingling, ringing, 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
(06:47):
also believed that everything on the left signified evil and
everything on the right signified good. So it was thought
that if the left here was burning, the speakers had
malicious intent, but if the writer hear was burning, the
person was being to eat. Humble pie means to act
submissively in admitting an error, often in humiliation, and it's
(07:08):
got rather distasteful culinary origins. In 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
(07:30):
out of favor with the Lord of the matter would
be served this umble 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
(07:54):
to edge on. It derives from the Old Norse word egger,
meaning to edge or to incite. To edgin 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
(08:16):
expression has biblical origins. In the 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
(08:38):
on time, workers were sometimes hired at 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
(08:59):
as well. The story of Daniel in the lions Den
from the Old Testament, and 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
(09:21):
rescue you. At daybreak, the king hurried back to see
if God had saved his friend. 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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