“High and Dry & Let the Cat Out of the Bag” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions

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. His 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

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib with our American Stories, and we
tell stories about everything here on this show, including your story.
Send them to our American Stories. There are some of
our favorites. Up next, we continue with our recurring series
about the curious origins of everyday scenes. Here to join
us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share
another slaves from his Ultimate Guide to understanding these mini

(00:33):
mysteries of the language we all speak.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
In the lap of the gods means a situation whose
outcome is unclear and can't be influenced. Some say the
expression began with the practice of leaving gifts of fanks
with statues of gods, and whilst this has occurred for century,
the phrase actually derives from the Iliad Homer's text from
the eighth century BC. In the story, Achilles battles the

(00:57):
Trojans and kills Hector's brother Polydorus. Hector sees this and
challenges Achilles, brandishing a spear in his face. Hector says
to Achilles, I know you are brave and stronger than
me by far, but these things lie in the lap
of the gods. Though I'm the weaker man, I'll take
your life Achilles survives and the Trojans are defeated. A

(01:21):
last ditch attempt is a final effort to solve a
problem or avoid defeat, and it's a military term that
dates of the late seventeenth century. King William the Third
of England is credited with the expression. During the Anglo
French War with the Dutch Republic, William was offered to
be made sovereign Prince of Holland if he would capitulate,
but he refused, and an envoy of the Dutch king

(01:43):
threatened that William would witness the end of his fate.
William replied, there is one way to avoid this, to
die defending it in the last ditch. The phrase was
then picked up by the citizens of Westmoreland in the
American War of Independence, when in seventeen ninety eight they
said in war, we know but one additional obligation, to

(02:04):
die in the last ditch or uphold our nation. By
the early eighteen hundreds, the figure was being used figuratively.
If someone's a laughing stock, they're an object of ridicule
or humiliation, and that originated from the medieval form of punishment.
In England. Most villages had stocks set up in the
public square, and the stocks comprised two sliding boards with

(02:26):
holes in them that were secured on a wooden frame.
The hands and feet of the victim were placed in
the holes, rendering him unable to escape or move freely.
Petty criminals were put in the stock so the town
people could gather around, laughing and humiliating the person, even
throwing rotten vegetables at them. The phrase laughing stock had
developed into its current use by the early fifteen hundreds.

(02:49):
To lead someone up the garden path means to deceive them,
and it's also sometimes set us down. The garden path,
and its origins started in the early nineteen hundreds in
England country. Estates at the time usually had acres of
gardens that contained trees, hedges, and pass that would whine throughout.
It was in the romantic parts of these gardens that
gentlemen would traditionally propose to their sweetheart. Women knew this,

(03:14):
so to be invited on a walk by a suitor
was a positive sign and one they were often keen
to accept. But it also wasn't uncommon for some men
to lead a woman up the garden path, not to
propose marriage, but merely to try to seduce her. To
leave high and dry means to be stranded without hope
of recovery, and not surprisingly, this expression relates to the

(03:35):
world of sailing. It dates on the early eighteen hundreds
and originally referred to a ship being run aground and
unable to move. This left the ship exposed and vulnerable
to attack, and the captain was rendered helpless until the
tide came in. Its first written usage was in The
Times newspaper in London in seventeen ninety six, where it
was said that a ship had gone aground when the

(03:57):
tide had ebbed left her nearly high. And to be
left in the lurch means to be abandoned in an
awkward or difficult situation, and its origins are with an
old French board game called launch. It was played with
dice and was similar to backgammon. If a player was
left in a position from which they couldn't win, he
suffered a launch, which was a disadvantage. This concept was

(04:20):
then brought into the card game of cribbage, where if
a player is trailing by a certain margin, he is
said to be left in the lurch. To let the
cat out of a bag means to give away a secret,
and it dates from the early sixteenth century and derives
from a time when unscrupulous market vendors sold false goods.
One of their common deceptions was to substitute a worthless

(04:41):
cat for a valuable pig. After showing a buyer the
sought after suckling pig, negotiations on price would begin, and
the pig would be placed in a carry bag. At
some point, when the buy was distracted, the pig would
be replaced for a cat. It was only when the
duped by got home that the fraud was revealed he
let the cat out of the bag. The expression licked

(05:04):
into shape means to mold something or someone to sue
the situation, and it derives from the ancient Roman belief
that animals were born formless and that their mothers had
to lick them into the required shape. This belief is
likely to have arisen because all mammals are born covered
with a thick after birth, which can make them unrecognizable.
The mother then licks that off and the probably formed

(05:26):
animal appears. Bear Cubs in particular, are born in a
seemingly shapeless form and receive a lot of attention from
their mothers, so this would have also lent weight to
the Romans belief. If you say that someone is lily livid,
it means that you think they are cowardly. It's often
heard in Western movies, and it's an expression that we

(05:47):
owe to the ancient Greeks. Like many others, they believe
that the liver was the organ that created blood, and
that a poorly functioning liver resulted in physical and mental weakness.
In line with this belief, they thought that a pale,
lily colored complexion indicated a cowardly person, while rosy cheeks
would be found on a strong man in good health.

(06:08):
The Greeks also had the custom of sacrificing an animal
before each battle. They looked to the animal's liver as
an omen A liver full of blood was a good sign,
but a pale liver did not augur well. It was
the Great Barred Shakespeare that brought the phrase into the
mainstream when he used it in his sixteen oh six
play Macbeth. The lion's share is the largest part of something,

(06:29):
and it derives from one of Aesop's fables which now
bears that name. It tells the story of a lion
a wolf and a fox, as well as an ass
who kill a stag to eat. The bounty is divided
into quarters to share equally, but before they start eating,
the lion claims the first portion because he's the king
of the jungle. He then claims the second portion because

(06:51):
he's the strongest, and then the third portion because he
is the most courageous. The other animals are left with
the last quarter to eat, but they are too afraid
to claim it with the line standing over them. So
depending on the version of the story, the line shares
either three quarters or everything.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
And great jobs always to Greg on the production, and
a special thanks to Andrew Thompson Hair of the Dog
to paint the town. Read is the book. Go to
Amazon dot com and the usual suspects to buy it.
Andrew Thompson the stories of how our language came to
be here on Our American Stories. Leehabibe here the host

(07:33):
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(07:56):
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