“In a Nutshell & In the Doghouse” 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. 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

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to us and our American
Stories dot com. There's some of our favorite and up
next we continue with our recurring series about the curious
origins of everyday scenes. Here to join us again is

(00:31):
Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slace from
his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these mini mysteries of the
English Language.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
In a nutshell means concisely, or in a few words,
he might say to someone, just tell me in a nutshell.
And it's said to originate from the ancient story described
in seventeen a d by the Roman scholo Pliny the Elder.
The story goes that the philosopher Row witnessed a copy
of Homer's epic poem The Iliad, written onto a piece

(01:05):
of parchment and enclosed into the shell of a walnut. Obviously,
this is impossible, but it is believed that important documents
were folded and inserted into walnut shells and bound so
that they were waterproof and could be taken long distances
without damaging them. Shakespeare referred to the expression in his
sixty to oh three play Hamlet, and that immortalized the

(01:25):
expression in a shambles means a state of complete disorder
or ruin, and it derives from the open air meat
sellers of medieval times. The word shambles derives from the
Old English word meaning footstool, which came from the Latin
word meaning small bench. Most towns at that time in
England had streets designated to a single type of vendor.

(01:49):
There were streets for grocers, streets of bread sellers, butchers
who all offered their wares from street side workbenches. These
streets were known as shambles, but it was the butcher's
that became particularly associated with the term, as they were
supplied directly by the slaughter houses. The meat shambles were
renowned for being a complete mess of blood and off cuts.

(02:11):
By the fourteen hundreds, the word shambles had become synonymous
with general mess and disorder, and the town of York
in England to this day has a street called shambles.
In cold blood means deliberately and without emotion, and is
often related to murders, for example, he murdered the man
in cold blood. It's an expression that dates from the

(02:33):
early eighteenth century and began with the belief that a
person's blood heated up when an act of great emotion
or passion was committed. This was based on the reddening
of the face and the feeling of heat that a
person experienced. It was thought that when one could carry
out a violent crime without excitement or emotional involvement, the
person was acting in cold blood. The term was first

(02:55):
used in the English publication The Spectator in seventeen eleven.
To say something is in the bag means a successful
outcome is absolutely certain, and while there are different theories
on the origins of the phrase, including those relating to
baseball and hunting, the early days of the British Parliament
as the likely birthplace. On the back of the speakersh

(03:17):
chair in Parliament hung a velvet bag, and all successful
petitions that were brought before the House of Commons would
be placed in that bag. Because it was known that
all such petitions had been successful, they became known as
in the bag. If you say to someone I'm in
the doghouse, it usually means you're disgraced and out of favor,

(03:39):
usually said by a husband or wife, and in the
doghouse as a phrase that has literary origins. It derives
from J. M. Barry's nineteen oh four book Peter Pan.
Mister Darling, the children's father in the book, is particularly
unpleasant to nan At, the family dog. His children then
fly off with Peter Pan, and as a self imposed
punishment for his behaviour, he goes out to live in

(04:02):
the doghouse until the children return from Neverland. Peter Pan
was obviously a very popular book, and as a result,
the expression quickly came into widespread usage. If you say
in the doldrums or you're feeling in the doldrums, it
means to feel unmotivated or depressed, and it relates to
a region by that name, which is located slightly north

(04:24):
of the equator between two belts of wind Sailors used
the term because winds there met and neutralized each other,
which resulted in ships becoming stranded and sitting around idly,
virtually unable to sail. Many assume that the expression comes
from the name of the region, but it's actually that
the region came to be named because of its nature.

(04:46):
Doldrum comes from the Old English word dull, meaning dull,
and that led on to the word doldrum and The
phrase was then used in the figurative sense by the
early nineteenth century. In the groove is an expression which
means to function perfectly or with little effort, and it
stems from the early vinyl record days. Records made with

(05:06):
a number of grooves cut into the material where the
music is recorded. The record is played by a stylus
or needle, which must sit neatly in the groove to
ensure good sound quality. If a stylus is worn, making
its tip too wide, it will not sit in the
groove and the sound will become distorted. Equally, if the
record is scratched, the stylus may slip out of the

(05:27):
groove and the record won't play. The phrase took on
its idiomatic qualities with the arrival of jazz in the
nineteen twenties. The free spirited nature of jazz bands and
the way they played with each other led people to
describe them as in the groove. In the limelight means
at the center of attention. You may say John loves

(05:47):
being in the limelight. And this is one of the
very first phrases I ever learned. It has its origins
in the theater when calcium oxide more commonly known as
lime is heated, it produces an hence white light, and
this process was first used to affect by a man
named Thomas Drummond in the eighteen twenties. He was a

(06:07):
Scottish Army engineer who used heated lime as an aid
in map making. Because of the bright light was visible
at a distance. The technique was then adopted in theaters
to illuminate the stage, and was first used in Covent
Garden in London in eighteen thirty seven. The actors who
were the center of attention on the stage were said
to be standing in the limelight. And that saying now

(06:30):
applies to anyone who's the focus of attention. If you
say something is in the offing, you mean it as
likely to happen soon or as imminent. And it's a
naudical expression originating in the early sixteen hundreds that came
in the widespread usage by the late seventeen hundreds. The
offing is that part of the sea that is visible

(06:50):
from or off the shore, the area between the shore
and the horizon. In other words, a ship that was
in the offing was within sight.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
And a special thanks to Greg Hangler for the production
on the piece and a special thanks to Andrew Thompson
Hair of the Dog to paint the town red. The
curious origins of everyday sayings and funphrases go to Amazon
dot com or any of the usual suspects the story
of the English language, or at least it's curious sayings

(07:22):
and phrases here on Our American Stories.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Folks.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
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(07:52):
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