"White Elephant" & "Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve" and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 24)

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):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, we
continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of
everyday scenes. You're to join us again is Andrew Thompson
as he continues to share another slaves from his Ultimate
Guide to Understanding the stories the Mysteries of the English language.

(00:33):
Take it away, Andrew.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
To up the anti means to raise the cost or
risk of an activity, and that expression sprung up from
a card game of poker. Anti's a Latin word meaning
before or in front, and at the start of a hand,
before any cards are dealt, players must place a bet
called the anti, that is the upfront bet. As the
hand progresses and cards are received, players can increase their bet,

(00:56):
which is only usually done if a player has a
good hand or is bluffing. Increasing the bed is known
as raising the stakes or upping the ante. The expression
was used more widely since the early eighteen hundreds. Up
to the mark means to be acceptable or up to
the required standard, and it's often used in the negative
in that he's not up to the mark. But the

(01:17):
expression originated in sixteen ninety seven when the Britannia Standard
was introduced. It provided that all gold and silver that
satisfied a certain level of purity be stamped with a hallmark.
This proved the authenticity of the material and became assigned
to duelism buyers that it was genuine. In the beginning,
all precious medals were inspected at Goldsmiths Hall in London,

(01:39):
before the inspection process spread to other locations. If a
medal was not considered of the required standard, it was
rejected as not being up to the hallmark, and the
expression was laid shortened to not up to the mark.
To get the upper hand means to obtain a dominant
position or a position of control. It began with a

(02:00):
simple fifteenth century game. It involved a stick and two
or more contestants. One person held the bottom of the
stick and the next person placed their hand directly above that.
This happened turn after turn until the top of the
shaft was reached. The last person to place their hand
on the end of the shaft was said to have
the upper hand and was the winner. This game was

(02:21):
then adopted in the nineteenth century in American playgrounds to
determine who would bat first in impromptu baseball games. To
upset the apple cart means to create a difficulty or
cause an upset, and that expression has the unlikely origins
of wrestling. During the eighteenth century, the apple cart was
a slang term in wrestling circles from a man's upper body.

(02:43):
To upset the apple cart was to throw the opponent down,
which put him in a difficult position and prevented him
from winning. To wait for the other shoe to drop
means to await a seemingly inevitable event, and that expression
began with the American manufacturing boom in the late nineteenth century.
In large cities like New York, apartment housing became common.

(03:04):
These dwellings were all built with similar designs, and bedrooms
were typically located one above the other. He was common
to be awoken late at night by a neighbor removing
their shoes, and the apartment above the person below would
often wake when the first shoe dropped on the floor
and made a loud bang. Already disturbed, the person would
then wait for the inevitable noise of the other shoe

(03:25):
hitting the floor. Warts and all means the entire thing
and not concealing any detail, and it derives from Oliver Cromwell,
the Lord Protector of England in the sixteen fifties, Cromwell
instructed the Royalist painter Sir Peter Levy to paint his portrait,
and as was usual at the time, Levy's style was
to flatter the subject, showing them in the best possible

(03:47):
light with all blemishes removed. Cromwell was known for being
opposed to personal vanity, and he issued this instruction to Levy.
I desire you use all your skill to paint my
picture truly like I am, and not flat to me
at all. Remark all roughness, pimples, warts and everything you see,
otherwise I'll never pay you a farthing for it. Lily

(04:08):
did just that, and the portrait includes a mole above
Cromwell's eye and a large wart below his lip. To
wear your heart on your sleeve means to show all
feelings and emotions, and that expression derives from medieval jousting matches.
When a king's court held a jousting match, it was
customary for the competing nights to dedicate their performance to
the woman that they were courting at the time. To

(04:30):
show that he was representing his sweetheart, a knight would
wear the colors of the lady was supporting in cloths
or ribbons tied to his arm, he would symbolically wear
his heart on his sleeve. Shakespeare then popularized the expression
in his sixteen oh four play Othello, when he wrote,
I will wear my heart upon my sleeve. If you
say someone is well healed, you're saying they've got a

(04:51):
lot of money. And that expression lies in the sport
of cock fighting. When the sport began, birds that were
equipped with long and strong spurs as well healed the hill,
relating to the position of the spur on the back
of the cock's foot. The cocks obviously used their spurs
to kill the other birds saw a well healed cock
as a very dangerous bird. To be wet behind the

(05:13):
ears means to be naive or inexperience, and it's got
a very simple origin. The phrase stems from the state
of farm animals just after birth. There's a small indentation
behind the ears of a newborn horse carful lamb, and
this area is protected from sunlight and wind and is
the last place to dry on the animal after its born.
The saying began in America and was well known by

(05:34):
the early twentieth century. A whistle stop tour is a
trip that makes many stops in many places over short
space of time, and that expression stems from politics. During
the mid nineteen hundreds in America, train stopped at all
the major towns, but they only stopped at small towns
if a passenger requested it. Upon a request, the conductor
would blow the train's whistled twice to indicate a train

(05:56):
was approaching. During Harry Truman's nineteen forty eight camp, he
traveled by train, stopping briefly at many places to deliver speeches.
During his speech in Los Angeles, Truman joked and said
that it was the biggest whistle stop town he'd ever visited.
The crowd loved it, and the phrase stuck. A white
elephant is an expensive but unwanted possession or thing, and

(06:20):
that expression stems from Thailand in the seventeenth century. Albino
elephants were extremely rare at the time, and any born
there became the property of the king. The elephants were
considered sacred, though, and therefore couldn't be ridden, killed, or
put to work. They were also very expensive to feed
and hows so if the king was displeased with any nobleman,
he would give them a white elephant. Out of Mallas.

(06:43):
Then unable to refuse the royal gift, the nobleman would
be forced to care for the useless animal for the
rest of his life, which would often lead to financial
ruin and.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
A terrific job on the production editing and storytelling by
our own Greg Hangler loved that last one White Elephant
and so many of the others. Just terrific storytelling by
Andrew Thompson his book The Curious Origins of Everyday Sayings,
and you can go to our website and listen to many,
many more. Andrew's been very generous with our American Stories

(07:13):
and share it all of them, from A to Z,
from soup to nuts. Is that one of them? By
the way, Greg, I'm not sure I think so too.
The story of the origins of everyday sayings the ones
we use all the time here on our American Stories.
Lie Hibib here, the host of our American Stories. Every

(07:35):
day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across
this great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.
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(07:57):
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