“Put A Sock In It” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 18)

On this episode of Our American Stories, here again with his reoccurring series is Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red: The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings and Fun Phrases author, Andrew Thompson, as he continues to share another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these baffling mini mysteries of the English language.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lei Habib, and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Send them to our American Stories dot com
with some of our favorites, and up next a recurring favorite.
We continue our series about the curious origins of everyday sayings.
Here to join us again as Andrew Thompson as he

(00:32):
continues to share another slice from his Ultimate Guide to
understanding these mini mysteries of the English language. Here's Andrew
put a socknut means to be quiet and its origins
of the early days of radio broadcasts and sound recordings.
The equipment in the early nineteen hundreds was not very sophisticated,
and the ability to control the volumes of various instruments

(00:55):
was limited when orchestras were recorded in the studio, as
the horn sections ten to be overpowering and completely drowned
out the wind and string sections. To combat this, horn
players would stuff an actual sock into the mouth of
their instrument, and if the conductor thought it was necessary,
he would yell out put a sock in it. And
then by the nineteen twenties this expression was being used

(01:16):
colloquially to put the dampers on something means to make
something less enjoyable, or to reduce your enthusiasm for something,
and a lot of people actually think the phrases put
a damp and are on something because of the notion
of putting water to dampen out of fire. But it's
actually put the dampers on, and it began with music
as well. A damper is a device used on piano strings.

(01:39):
It's operated by a foot pedal and presses against the strings.
This reduces the sound of the piano. When the conductor
instructs the orchestra to put the dampers on, he wants
to tone down the volume of the performance. To be
put through the mill means to go through a hardship
or rough treatment, and it drives from the flour making process.
In medieval England, before electricity was invented, classical mills were

(02:02):
usually powered by water which turned a large wheel. This
turned two heavy circular stones which were laid on top
of each other. Cereal seeds were fed through the top
stone and they would be finely ground to produce flour.
By the eighteen hundreds, being put through the mill came
to refer to a person going through a similar hardship,
similar to the process of being ground down like a

(02:24):
grain in a mill. If you say to someone put
your thinking cap on, you're telling them to think seriously
about a problem or to concentrate. And that expression originated
with the judges of the early law courts in England.
It was customary at the time for a judge to
put a black cap on to show the court that
he'd heard all the evidence in a criminal trial. The
cap was a signal that the judge was ready to

(02:45):
deliberate his verdict before passing sentence. Because judges were learned
men and respected intellectuals, the cap was referred to as
a thinking cap, and then the expression took on its
broader meaning by the mid nineteenth century. A Pyic victory
is a victory gained at too great cost, and it's
a phrase that comes from the Greek king pyrs His

(03:08):
army fought the Romans during the Pyic War for control
of the Magna Gratia. In one battle in southern Italy
in two seventy nine BC, Pyris defeated the Romans, but
he suffered severe losses, including most of his principal commanders.
He was later quoted as saying another such victory and
we are lost, and that spawned the expression pyic victory,

(03:30):
which was used figuratively from the late eighteen hundreds. Raining
cats and dogs means very hard rain, and it has
a number of potential origins, but the seafaring one is
the most compelling. According to an ancient nautical myth, it
was believed that cats had an influence over storms, while
dogs were a symbol of the wind. This belief was
held by the vikings Odin the Norse storm God was

(03:53):
frequently shown surrounded by dogs and wolves, and this led
early sailors to believe that in any storm, the rain
was caused by the cats and the winds were brought
by the dogs, So raining cats and dogs came to
mean any heavy rain and wind. To read between the
lines means to discern a meaning that isn't obvious, and
it's an expression that derives from the early days of

(04:17):
cryptography in the nineteenth century. Cryptography involves encoding messages into
seemingly normal text, and one of the first techniques used
to pass codes was to write the message on every
second line and have an unrelated, innocent message across all
the lines, so when read normally and in its entirety
the story was simple and made sense and did not

(04:38):
reveal any code. But it was only when the old
turnate lines were read that the code was able to
be deciphered. If you read the Riot Act to someone,
that means you're berating them harshly, and that's from the
eighteenth century where reading the Riot Act would literally happen.
It started in seventeen fifteen with the Riot Act, which
gave British magistrates the author he to label any group

(05:01):
of more than twelve people a threat to the peace.
When such a group gathered, a public official would read
allowed a section of the Riot Act which demanded people
immediately disperse themselves and go about their lawful business. Anyone
who remained after one hour was subject to remover by
force and arrest. This Riot Act actually remained in effect
until nineteen seventy three. If you say something's the real McCoy,

(05:24):
you're saying it's an authentic or genuine personal thing, not
a substitute. And it's an expression with a number of
potential origins that have been hotly contested over the years.
The most cogent theory is that derived from a man
named Kid McCoy, which was a name used by Norman Selby,
the American welterweight boxer who dominated the sport in the

(05:45):
eighteen nineties. McCoy had many imitators who would use his
name in an attempt to capitalize on his popularity, and
it became so commonplace for kid McCoy impostors at fair
grounds that not many people actually believed it was ever
the real McCoy. Then, years after he retired, McCoy was
in a bar when he was challenged by a drunk
who was much bigger than him. The drunk's friend warned

(06:08):
him not to fight McCoy, but the drunk didn't believe
it was him. Then, provoked to his limit, McCoy knocked
them out out with a single blow. When he came
to the drunk admitted, you're right, he is the real McCoy.
A red herring is a misleading clue, and that expression
dates from the eighteenth century. At the time, herrings were
caught in great numbers, and because there were no refrigeration,

(06:31):
they were preserved by smoking. The smoking process turned the
fish a reddish brown color and also gave it a
pungent odor. He'd attempt to sabotage a fox hunt. People
who are against the sport would drag the strong smelling
red herring across the trail to mislead the hunting dogs
and throw them off the scent. The dogs would often
follow the scent of the red herring instead of the fox.

(06:55):
And a special thanks to Greg Angler for the production
and the piece, and to Andrew Thompson for sharing with
us these stories of everyday sayings. By the way, you
can get his book Air of the Dog to Paint
the Town. Read the Curious Origins of Everyday sayings and
fun phrases at Amazon or the usual Suspects. The stories
of everyday sayings here on our American Stories. Here at

(07:31):
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(07:53):
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