March 13, 2024 • 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. The story of
the English language is itself something we cover, and we've
been doing it with a remarkable author, Andrew Thompson, who's
written a terrific book, Hair of the Dog. To paint
the town read the curious origins of everyday sayings and
fun phrases. Here's Andrew with some more stories about phrases
(00:35):
we all know but don't know why we use them.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Sold down the river means to be betrayed, or cheated
or misled, and it drives from the times of slavery
in America. In the early nineteenth century, when the slave
trade was in full swing, wealthy estate owners in northern
Mississippi would hand pick the best slaves to live and
work on their properties. These slaves are in close contact
with the families and lived in relatively speaking, comfortable situation.
(01:02):
They are often treated well and sometimes seen as respected
members of the family. But any slave who caused trouble
or was considered unsuitable for the landowner's family were put
on a boat and sold down the river to the
slave plantations on the lower Mississippi. There, the conditions were
much harsher and life was cheap, so the slave was
sold down the river. Son of a gun is usually
(01:25):
said to someone in a friendly way, sort of a
young rogue, you son of a gun? And which yet
another nautical phrase. Centuries ago, the British Navy allowed women
to join sailors on long voyages and live on the ships.
Sometimes the women were partners of the sailors, and sometimes
they were prostitutes. Pregnancies were common, and most babies were
born in a designated area behind the ship's gun. Many
(01:49):
pregnancies were unplanned, and in a lot of instances, the
child's paternity was unknown, and in such cases the child
was listed in the ship's log as a son of
a gun. Sour grapes means to act in a jealous
way after a disappointment. It's one of a number of
expressions attributed to Aesop, the ancient Greek writer. In his
(02:10):
fable The Fox and the Grapes, a hungry fox sees
and ripe grapes hanging from a trestled vine. He used
all of his cunning to get them, but is unsuccessful.
Knowing that he won't be able to get the grapes,
the embittered fox says that he didn't really want them anyway,
declaring the grapes are sour and not ripers. I thought.
Spick and span means fresh and unused, or neat and clean,
(02:34):
and it's an expression that originated in the sixteenth century shipyards.
The two words are now obsolete, but at that time
a spick was a spike or a nail, and a
spam was a wooden shaving chip. When a ship was
brand new and first launching, its nails would be shiny
and rust free, and there would be the odd bit
of wood shaving on the deck, so it was still
(02:54):
considered spick and span. To spill the beans means to
confess or divulge secret, and it has its origins in
ancient Greece. When an election was conducted for a new
member to enter a secret society or private club, the
existing members would vote. They were given a white or
a brown bean, and each member could place only one
(03:15):
in the jar to cast his vote. A white bean
meant yes and a brown bean meant no. Nobody apart
from the vote counters knew how many of each in
each jar, so the new member would never know just
how popular or unpopular he was unless the jar was
knocked over in that case, the beans would spill and
the votes would be divulged. The expression spin doctor means
(03:37):
someone who gives a twisted and favorable version of events,
normally a political press agent or publicist, and it began
with American politics. And while the words spin had been
used since the early eighteen hundreds to mean telling a story,
it wasn't until the nineteen eighties when the expression began properly,
when Ronald Reagan described the public relations officer to his
(04:00):
Strategic Defense Initiative as being on spin control in providing
a favorable version of events to the media. The phrase
soon changed to spin doctor, and it went from there.
The expression spitting image means an exact likeness, and it's
actually a corruption of the expression spit an image. The
(04:22):
saying began with the idea of someone being formed from
the spit of another. So great is the similarity between
them it was as though one had been spat out
of the other's mouth. The phrase began in the sixteen
hundreds and had developed a spitting image by the early
twentieth century. A square meal is a nutritious meal, and
(04:43):
it's a nautical phrase from the British warships of the
seventeenth century. They had poor living conditions. The corders were cramped,
and most meals were in substantial. In particular, breakfast and
lunch usually consisted of little more than bread and water. However,
the final meal of the day did provide some sust
stenants and usually included some form of meat. It was
(05:03):
this meal that was served on a large square tray
made of wood, designed in that shape for easy storage.
This larger, more nutritious serving became known as a square meal.
To start from scratch means to start again from the beginning,
and it originated from the sport of horse racing in
the Middle Ages. At that time, a line was marked
(05:24):
or scratched in the ground by a sword, and the
jockey began the race behind the mark it it was
found that any of them weren't following the course that
was set out, they would have to go back and
start again from scratch. This progressed into foot races with handicaps,
where weak competitors were given head starts, while a contestant
who started from scratch in the ground was given no advantage.
(05:46):
The expression was then adopted into the golfing world with
swing from scratch. If someone steals your thunder. They are
taking credit for something that you did. And that expression
began in the theater in the seventeen hundreds with a
playwright named John Dennis. He produced a play at the
Drury Lane Theater in London, and for the show he
(06:07):
invented a novel method for creating the sound effect of thunder.
He hit large tin sheets together backstage. But his play
flopped and was replaced by Macbeth. When that production used
his technique for simulating thunder, Dennis was enraged and was
reported to have said, how these rascals use me. They
will not have my play, and yet they steal my thunder.
(06:30):
To be stone broke means having no money at all,
and that expression stems from medieval England, where your inability
to pay your debts was considered a cardinal sin and
was the reason for many suicides. If skilled tradesmen failed
to repay their debts, their tools would be repossessed and
their stone work benches broken into pieces. This meant they
were unable to work. They are also sometimes sentenced to
(06:53):
hard labor and prison, where they were forced to break
up stones and rocks. Being stone broke later became a
asociated with anyone who had no money. The straight and
narrow means proper conduct and moral integrity, and that phrase
comes from the Bible. It was formerly straight and narrow,
with straight meaning narrow or confining, as in a straight jacket.
(07:15):
The Book of Matthew reads broad is the way that
is the path of destruction, but straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth to the House
of God. It describes the way in the gate to
Heaven as being narrow, meaning that one must tread carefully
in order to make it there and end to Heaven.
To take a rain check means to decline an invitation,
(07:35):
but leave the option to take it up another time.
And it began in the world of baseball in America
in the late eighteen seventies. The attendance of baseball games
at the time during winter months was low, but the
fans did not want to shell out and pay for
a full price of a ticket, even though they loved
the game. To stop this, the game's administrators began the
(07:55):
practice of allowing fans to leave because of bad weather
up to a certain point in the match and then
reuse their ticket on another day. This way, the fans
didn't fall at the fair and got to watch an
entire game. It was no one as taking a rain check,
and the concept was actually formalized in eighteen ninety in
the Constitution of the National League. To take someone for
(08:16):
a ride means to cheat or deceive them, and it
originated during the era of prohibition in America. During the
nineteen twenties, criminality was high, with gangs dealing in bootlegging
and other illegal activities. Competition for market share was strong
and gang warfare was rife. Any rival gang member who
displeased another chief would commonly be invited by a henchman
(08:38):
to go for a ride. The idea was that the
men would drive in a car to a secluded place
where they could talk matters over and resolve differences, but
this was usually just a cover and the victim rarely returned.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And what a delay. A great job on the production
by Greg Hangler. And by the way, you can hear
Andrew Thompson time and time again. We've done a hall
series with them, practically his old book. Go to our website,
Ouramerican Stories dot com search for Andrews work and you
can hear it all. We've done so many good pieces
like this the book Hair of the Dog to paint
(09:12):
the town. Read the curious origins of everyday sayings and
fun phrases, in essence, the story and part of the
American language called English. Here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. The story of
the English language is itself something we cover, and we've
been doing it with a remarkable author, Andrew Thompson, who's
written a terrific book, Hair of the Dog. To paint
the town read the curious origins of everyday sayings and
fun phrases. Here's Andrew with some more stories about phrases
(00:35):
we all know but don't know why we use them.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Sold down the river means to be betrayed, or cheated
or misled, and it drives from the times of slavery
in America. In the early nineteenth century, when the slave
trade was in full swing, wealthy estate owners in northern
Mississippi would hand pick the best slaves to live and
work on their properties. These slaves are in close contact
with the families and lived in relatively speaking, comfortable situation.
(01:02):
They are often treated well and sometimes seen as respected
members of the family. But any slave who caused trouble
or was considered unsuitable for the landowner's family were put
on a boat and sold down the river to the
slave plantations on the lower Mississippi. There, the conditions were
much harsher and life was cheap, so the slave was
sold down the river. Son of a gun is usually
(01:25):
said to someone in a friendly way, sort of a
young rogue, you son of a gun? And which yet
another nautical phrase. Centuries ago, the British Navy allowed women
to join sailors on long voyages and live on the ships.
Sometimes the women were partners of the sailors, and sometimes
they were prostitutes. Pregnancies were common, and most babies were
born in a designated area behind the ship's gun. Many
(01:49):
pregnancies were unplanned, and in a lot of instances, the
child's paternity was unknown, and in such cases the child
was listed in the ship's log as a son of
a gun. Sour grapes means to act in a jealous
way after a disappointment. It's one of a number of
expressions attributed to Aesop, the ancient Greek writer. In his
(02:10):
fable The Fox and the Grapes, a hungry fox sees
and ripe grapes hanging from a trestled vine. He used
all of his cunning to get them, but is unsuccessful.
Knowing that he won't be able to get the grapes,
the embittered fox says that he didn't really want them anyway,
declaring the grapes are sour and not ripers. I thought.
Spick and span means fresh and unused, or neat and clean,
(02:34):
and it's an expression that originated in the sixteenth century shipyards.
The two words are now obsolete, but at that time
a spick was a spike or a nail, and a
spam was a wooden shaving chip. When a ship was
brand new and first launching, its nails would be shiny
and rust free, and there would be the odd bit
of wood shaving on the deck, so it was still
(02:54):
considered spick and span. To spill the beans means to
confess or divulge secret, and it has its origins in
ancient Greece. When an election was conducted for a new
member to enter a secret society or private club, the
existing members would vote. They were given a white or
a brown bean, and each member could place only one
(03:15):
in the jar to cast his vote. A white bean
meant yes and a brown bean meant no. Nobody apart
from the vote counters knew how many of each in
each jar, so the new member would never know just
how popular or unpopular he was unless the jar was
knocked over in that case, the beans would spill and
the votes would be divulged. The expression spin doctor means
(03:37):
someone who gives a twisted and favorable version of events,
normally a political press agent or publicist, and it began
with American politics. And while the words spin had been
used since the early eighteen hundreds to mean telling a story,
it wasn't until the nineteen eighties when the expression began properly,
when Ronald Reagan described the public relations officer to his
(04:00):
Strategic Defense Initiative as being on spin control in providing
a favorable version of events to the media. The phrase
soon changed to spin doctor, and it went from there.
The expression spitting image means an exact likeness, and it's
actually a corruption of the expression spit an image. The
(04:22):
saying began with the idea of someone being formed from
the spit of another. So great is the similarity between
them it was as though one had been spat out
of the other's mouth. The phrase began in the sixteen
hundreds and had developed a spitting image by the early
twentieth century. A square meal is a nutritious meal, and
(04:43):
it's a nautical phrase from the British warships of the
seventeenth century. They had poor living conditions. The corders were cramped,
and most meals were in substantial. In particular, breakfast and
lunch usually consisted of little more than bread and water. However,
the final meal of the day did provide some sust
stenants and usually included some form of meat. It was
(05:03):
this meal that was served on a large square tray
made of wood, designed in that shape for easy storage.
This larger, more nutritious serving became known as a square meal.
To start from scratch means to start again from the beginning,
and it originated from the sport of horse racing in
the Middle Ages. At that time, a line was marked
(05:24):
or scratched in the ground by a sword, and the
jockey began the race behind the mark it it was
found that any of them weren't following the course that
was set out, they would have to go back and
start again from scratch. This progressed into foot races with handicaps,
where weak competitors were given head starts, while a contestant
who started from scratch in the ground was given no advantage.
(05:46):
The expression was then adopted into the golfing world with
swing from scratch. If someone steals your thunder. They are
taking credit for something that you did. And that expression
began in the theater in the seventeen hundreds with a
playwright named John Dennis. He produced a play at the
Drury Lane Theater in London, and for the show he
(06:07):
invented a novel method for creating the sound effect of thunder.
He hit large tin sheets together backstage. But his play
flopped and was replaced by Macbeth. When that production used
his technique for simulating thunder, Dennis was enraged and was
reported to have said, how these rascals use me. They
will not have my play, and yet they steal my thunder.
(06:30):
To be stone broke means having no money at all,
and that expression stems from medieval England, where your inability
to pay your debts was considered a cardinal sin and
was the reason for many suicides. If skilled tradesmen failed
to repay their debts, their tools would be repossessed and
their stone work benches broken into pieces. This meant they
were unable to work. They are also sometimes sentenced to
(06:53):
hard labor and prison, where they were forced to break
up stones and rocks. Being stone broke later became a
asociated with anyone who had no money. The straight and
narrow means proper conduct and moral integrity, and that phrase
comes from the Bible. It was formerly straight and narrow,
with straight meaning narrow or confining, as in a straight jacket.
(07:15):
The Book of Matthew reads broad is the way that
is the path of destruction, but straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth to the House
of God. It describes the way in the gate to
Heaven as being narrow, meaning that one must tread carefully
in order to make it there and end to Heaven.
To take a rain check means to decline an invitation,
(07:35):
but leave the option to take it up another time.
And it began in the world of baseball in America
in the late eighteen seventies. The attendance of baseball games
at the time during winter months was low, but the
fans did not want to shell out and pay for
a full price of a ticket, even though they loved
the game. To stop this, the game's administrators began the
(07:55):
practice of allowing fans to leave because of bad weather
up to a certain point in the match and then
reuse their ticket on another day. This way, the fans
didn't fall at the fair and got to watch an
entire game. It was no one as taking a rain check,
and the concept was actually formalized in eighteen ninety in
the Constitution of the National League. To take someone for
(08:16):
a ride means to cheat or deceive them, and it
originated during the era of prohibition in America. During the
nineteen twenties, criminality was high, with gangs dealing in bootlegging
and other illegal activities. Competition for market share was strong
and gang warfare was rife. Any rival gang member who
displeased another chief would commonly be invited by a henchman
(08:38):
to go for a ride. The idea was that the
men would drive in a car to a secluded place
where they could talk matters over and resolve differences, but
this was usually just a cover and the victim rarely returned.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And what a delay. A great job on the production
by Greg Hangler. And by the way, you can hear
Andrew Thompson time and time again. We've done a hall
series with them, practically his old book. Go to our website,
Ouramerican Stories dot com search for Andrews work and you
can hear it all. We've done so many good pieces
like this the book Hair of the Dog to paint
(09:12):
the town. Read the curious origins of everyday sayings and
fun phrases, in essence, the story and part of the
American language called English. Here on our American Stories.
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