July 24, 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, this time diving into how phrases like "gung-ho" and "cheesy smile" came to be. His book, Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions and Fun Phrases, is full of these fascinating stories. Be sure to check it out!
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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 up next
we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins
of everyday sayings. Here to join us once again is
Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slaves from
his ultimate kid to understanding these mini mysteries of the
(00:32):
English language.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A Goody two shoes is someone who is virtuous in
a smug manner, and it derives from the seventeen sixty
five children's book The History of Little Goody two Shoes,
written by Oliver Goldsmith. It tells the story of Marjorie Meanwell,
an orphan who can only afford one shoe. She has
given a pair of shoes by a rich man, and
(00:55):
in her excitement, yells two shoes, two shoes. She repeats
this to everyone she meets, earning the nickname Goody two shoes.
A great White hope is someone or something expected to
achieve great success, and it has its origins in the
sporting arena, in particular boxing. It also has racial connotations.
(01:16):
Jack Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing
champion when he beat the Canadian Tommy Burns in about
that took place in Sydney, Australia. In nineteen oh eight,
racial animosity among white boxing fans was so intense that
they called for another white boxer to take back the title.
To answer the call, James Jeffries, a white American boxer,
(01:38):
came out of retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries was billed
as the Great White Hope, but he too was beaten
by Johnson in nineteen ten, triggering violent racial riots across
the country. If you say someone that is green with envy,
you're saying that they're very jealous or envious, and that
expression began in ancient Greece. Believe that various illnesses and
(02:01):
restless emotions such as jealousy, were accompanied by an overproduction
of bile, which lent a pallid green color to a
person's complexion. In the seventh century, the Greek poet Sappho
described a stricken lover as being green, but it was
Shakespeare who popularized the expression in his sixteen to oh
(02:22):
three play Othello, when he wrote, beware, my lord, of
jealousy is the green eyed monster, which doth mock the
meat it feeds on. To be grinning like a cheshier
cat is to be very pleased with oneself and smile
broadly without any inhibition. That expression has mixed origins. There
(02:42):
is no such breed of cat as the Cheshire cat,
but the expression began because all cheeses produced in Cheshire
in England since the twelfth century had the face of
a grinning cat stamped on them. This is also thought
to be the origin of the expression cheesy grin. The
expression was first used by Peter Pinder in a work
he did in seventeen ninety five, but it wasn't until
(03:05):
eighteen sixty five that the saying reached worldwide popularity. That
was in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where the
mysterious Cheshire Cat appears and disappears, gradually fading away until
only its enormous grin remains to be gung Ho means
to be eager and zealous, and it originated during World
(03:26):
War II. It's an adaptation of the Chinese words kung
meaning work and hoe meaning together. The term was anglicized
by General Evans Carlson, who had spent time in China
before the war. He adopted gung ho as a slogan
for his US Marines unit, known as the Carlson Raiders
who served in the Pacific region. The nineteen forty three
(03:49):
war film Gung Ho told the story of Carlson's Raiders
and brought the expression into the mainstream. A hair of
the dog is an expression which means an alcoholic drin
intended to cure a hangover, and the expression is actually
contraction of the full expression the hair of the dog
that bit you, and it's got strange origins. It lies
(04:10):
in medieval English medicine, where it was believed that if
someone was bitten by a rabid dog, any ill effects
would be cured by rubbing the same dog's hair into
the infected wound, which would then heal, despite the obvious
risks of being bitten again while acquiring the hair. This
practice actually did persist for many years. Eventually it came
to be used in relation to people having a couple
(04:32):
of extra drinks to cure a hangover, a remedy that
also has often temporary success. Handover fist means quickly or
at a fast rate, and as often used in relation money,
saying someone was making money handover fist or losing money
hand over fist. It's an expression that has nautical origins.
(04:52):
It was originally hand over hand when it began in
the early seventeen hundreds, and was used to describe the
fast progression of a sailor climbing up or hauling in
a rope, one hand quickly going over the other. It
was later modified to hand over fist, describing the flat
hand passing over the fist that clenched the rope, and
went on to mean anything happening quickly. To hang fire
(05:16):
means to wait before beginning something an It's an expression
that originated in the sixteenth century when muzzle loaded weaponry
was used. When the trigger of a musket is pulled,
a small quantity of gunpowder is ignited in an area
called the priming pan. The flame from there burns through
towards the barrel and sets off the main charge. Possibly
(05:36):
because of the poor or inconsistent quality of the gunpowder,
there was often a delay between the ignition in the
priming pan and the detonation of the main charge that
expelled the bullet. This period of delay was called the
hang fire. If you say something is hanging by a thread,
you mean it is ready to fall apart or could
change at any instant, and that expression originated from a
(05:59):
banquet held in four hundred BC by Dionysius the Elder,
the Tyrant, king of ancient Syracuse, for Damocles, one of
his courtiers. The king had become annoyed with Damocles as
constant flattery, and invited him to the banquet. There was
a sword hung by the ceiling, suspended by a single hair.
Damocles was required to sit beneath it to remind him
(06:21):
of his tenuous position in the court. Both the sword
and Damocles's life were hanging by a thread. Hard and
fast means inflexible or rigidly adhered to. And it's yet
another nautical phrase. When a ship has run aground and
is firmly beached on land, it is considered hard and
fast and is unable to move until the tide comes in.
(06:43):
The term was defined in William Henry Smiles eighteen sixty
seven Nautical Dictionary The Sailor's Word Book, as said of
a ship on shore. The term dates from the eighteen
hundreds and was used in a figurative sense since that
time as well. To haul someone over the coals means
to severely reprimand them for something, and it originated from
(07:06):
the treatment of heretics. In the Middle Ages, heresy is
the challenge of the doctrines of an established church or
the practice of unorthodox religions. At the time, heresy was
considered a crime against the church and was punishable by death. However,
very few people would admit to it, and the crime
was difficult to prove. To combat these evidentiary difficulties, anyone
(07:27):
suspected of heresy would be bound and then pulled over
a bed of red hot coals. It was decreed that
if the person died, he was obviously an heretic and
deserved his fate, but if he survived the torture, God
had protected him and he would be set free. To
have a frog in your throat means a feeling of
hoarseness or a lump in one's throat, especially through fear,
(07:50):
and that expression began at ancient times. Many years ago.
Clean drinking water was not readily available, and people drank
water gathered from ponds or streams. A super and in
some cases, a genuine fear arose that accidentally swallowing the
eggs of a frog would lead to tadpoles hatching in
the stomach. A tadpole would then form into a frog,
(08:10):
which would try to escape through the person's mouth, producing
a choking feeling as it did. The expression was then
used figuratively in America by about the mid eighteen hundreds.
To have a hunch means to have an intuitive or
instinctive feeling, and that expression takes its origins from gambling.
In the early twentieth century. In America, there's a century
(08:32):
old superstition that hunchbacks are possessed by the devil, who
gave them the power to foretell the future gamblers. A
notoriously superstitious bunch believed that rubbing the hump on a
hunchback before placing a bet or playing a hand of
cards would bring them good fortune. It is unknown whether
this superstition was ever put to the test, and if so,
(08:52):
whether it was successful. But as a result, to have
a hunch came to mean what it does today.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thanks to Greg for finding that piece, and to Andrew
Thompson for sharing the stories of these phrases and everyday sayings.
And the book is Hair of the Dog to Paint
the Town Red. And we love drilling down on well
just storytelling about all kinds of things, and well, why
not our language? Andrew Thompson's storytelling here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories and up next
we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins
of everyday sayings. Here to join us once again is
Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slaves from
his ultimate kid to understanding these mini mysteries of the
(00:32):
English language.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A Goody two shoes is someone who is virtuous in
a smug manner, and it derives from the seventeen sixty
five children's book The History of Little Goody two Shoes,
written by Oliver Goldsmith. It tells the story of Marjorie Meanwell,
an orphan who can only afford one shoe. She has
given a pair of shoes by a rich man, and
(00:55):
in her excitement, yells two shoes, two shoes. She repeats
this to everyone she meets, earning the nickname Goody two shoes.
A great White hope is someone or something expected to
achieve great success, and it has its origins in the
sporting arena, in particular boxing. It also has racial connotations.
(01:16):
Jack Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing
champion when he beat the Canadian Tommy Burns in about
that took place in Sydney, Australia. In nineteen oh eight,
racial animosity among white boxing fans was so intense that
they called for another white boxer to take back the title.
To answer the call, James Jeffries, a white American boxer,
(01:38):
came out of retirement to fight Johnson. Jeffries was billed
as the Great White Hope, but he too was beaten
by Johnson in nineteen ten, triggering violent racial riots across
the country. If you say someone that is green with envy,
you're saying that they're very jealous or envious, and that
expression began in ancient Greece. Believe that various illnesses and
(02:01):
restless emotions such as jealousy, were accompanied by an overproduction
of bile, which lent a pallid green color to a
person's complexion. In the seventh century, the Greek poet Sappho
described a stricken lover as being green, but it was
Shakespeare who popularized the expression in his sixteen to oh
(02:22):
three play Othello, when he wrote, beware, my lord, of
jealousy is the green eyed monster, which doth mock the
meat it feeds on. To be grinning like a cheshier
cat is to be very pleased with oneself and smile
broadly without any inhibition. That expression has mixed origins. There
(02:42):
is no such breed of cat as the Cheshire cat,
but the expression began because all cheeses produced in Cheshire
in England since the twelfth century had the face of
a grinning cat stamped on them. This is also thought
to be the origin of the expression cheesy grin. The
expression was first used by Peter Pinder in a work
he did in seventeen ninety five, but it wasn't until
(03:05):
eighteen sixty five that the saying reached worldwide popularity. That
was in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where the
mysterious Cheshire Cat appears and disappears, gradually fading away until
only its enormous grin remains to be gung Ho means
to be eager and zealous, and it originated during World
(03:26):
War II. It's an adaptation of the Chinese words kung
meaning work and hoe meaning together. The term was anglicized
by General Evans Carlson, who had spent time in China
before the war. He adopted gung ho as a slogan
for his US Marines unit, known as the Carlson Raiders
who served in the Pacific region. The nineteen forty three
(03:49):
war film Gung Ho told the story of Carlson's Raiders
and brought the expression into the mainstream. A hair of
the dog is an expression which means an alcoholic drin
intended to cure a hangover, and the expression is actually
contraction of the full expression the hair of the dog
that bit you, and it's got strange origins. It lies
(04:10):
in medieval English medicine, where it was believed that if
someone was bitten by a rabid dog, any ill effects
would be cured by rubbing the same dog's hair into
the infected wound, which would then heal, despite the obvious
risks of being bitten again while acquiring the hair. This
practice actually did persist for many years. Eventually it came
to be used in relation to people having a couple
(04:32):
of extra drinks to cure a hangover, a remedy that
also has often temporary success. Handover fist means quickly or
at a fast rate, and as often used in relation money,
saying someone was making money handover fist or losing money
hand over fist. It's an expression that has nautical origins.
(04:52):
It was originally hand over hand when it began in
the early seventeen hundreds, and was used to describe the
fast progression of a sailor climbing up or hauling in
a rope, one hand quickly going over the other. It
was later modified to hand over fist, describing the flat
hand passing over the fist that clenched the rope, and
went on to mean anything happening quickly. To hang fire
(05:16):
means to wait before beginning something an It's an expression
that originated in the sixteenth century when muzzle loaded weaponry
was used. When the trigger of a musket is pulled,
a small quantity of gunpowder is ignited in an area
called the priming pan. The flame from there burns through
towards the barrel and sets off the main charge. Possibly
(05:36):
because of the poor or inconsistent quality of the gunpowder,
there was often a delay between the ignition in the
priming pan and the detonation of the main charge that
expelled the bullet. This period of delay was called the
hang fire. If you say something is hanging by a thread,
you mean it is ready to fall apart or could
change at any instant, and that expression originated from a
(05:59):
banquet held in four hundred BC by Dionysius the Elder,
the Tyrant, king of ancient Syracuse, for Damocles, one of
his courtiers. The king had become annoyed with Damocles as
constant flattery, and invited him to the banquet. There was
a sword hung by the ceiling, suspended by a single hair.
Damocles was required to sit beneath it to remind him
(06:21):
of his tenuous position in the court. Both the sword
and Damocles's life were hanging by a thread. Hard and
fast means inflexible or rigidly adhered to. And it's yet
another nautical phrase. When a ship has run aground and
is firmly beached on land, it is considered hard and
fast and is unable to move until the tide comes in.
(06:43):
The term was defined in William Henry Smiles eighteen sixty
seven Nautical Dictionary The Sailor's Word Book, as said of
a ship on shore. The term dates from the eighteen
hundreds and was used in a figurative sense since that
time as well. To haul someone over the coals means
to severely reprimand them for something, and it originated from
(07:06):
the treatment of heretics. In the Middle Ages, heresy is
the challenge of the doctrines of an established church or
the practice of unorthodox religions. At the time, heresy was
considered a crime against the church and was punishable by death. However,
very few people would admit to it, and the crime
was difficult to prove. To combat these evidentiary difficulties, anyone
(07:27):
suspected of heresy would be bound and then pulled over
a bed of red hot coals. It was decreed that
if the person died, he was obviously an heretic and
deserved his fate, but if he survived the torture, God
had protected him and he would be set free. To
have a frog in your throat means a feeling of
hoarseness or a lump in one's throat, especially through fear,
(07:50):
and that expression began at ancient times. Many years ago.
Clean drinking water was not readily available, and people drank
water gathered from ponds or streams. A super and in
some cases, a genuine fear arose that accidentally swallowing the
eggs of a frog would lead to tadpoles hatching in
the stomach. A tadpole would then form into a frog,
(08:10):
which would try to escape through the person's mouth, producing
a choking feeling as it did. The expression was then
used figuratively in America by about the mid eighteen hundreds.
To have a hunch means to have an intuitive or
instinctive feeling, and that expression takes its origins from gambling.
In the early twentieth century. In America, there's a century
(08:32):
old superstition that hunchbacks are possessed by the devil, who
gave them the power to foretell the future gamblers. A
notoriously superstitious bunch believed that rubbing the hump on a
hunchback before placing a bet or playing a hand of
cards would bring them good fortune. It is unknown whether
this superstition was ever put to the test, and if so,
(08:52):
whether it was successful. But as a result, to have
a hunch came to mean what it does today.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Thanks to Greg for finding that piece, and to Andrew
Thompson for sharing the stories of these phrases and everyday sayings.
And the book is Hair of the Dog to Paint
the Town Red. And we love drilling down on well
just storytelling about all kinds of things, and well, why
not our language? Andrew Thompson's storytelling here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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