“Peeping Tom” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 14)

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 stories. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. Up next, we continue with
our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings,
the stories behind them. Here to join us again is

(00:31):
Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slaves from
his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these many mysteries, these many
stories of our precious English language.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Out of the blue means a complete or unexpected surprise,
and it's a variation of the expression a bolt from
the blue. The ancient Romans called a flash of lightning
on a clear day a thunderbolt from the blue. The
blue in the phrase is related to the blue of
the sky. Lightning on a Sunday was obviously very rare,
and the Romans began to use the saying to refer

(01:03):
to any sudden surprise. The phrase was first used in
writing by Thomas Carlyle in a book he wrote in
eighteen thirty seven. The expression over the top, sometimes shortened
to ott, means to an excessive degree or beyond acceptable limits,
or outrageous, and it has its origins in trench warfare

(01:25):
in World War One. To go over the top was
to charge on foot across open ground from the safety
of the trenches. The order was given over the top
lads and the best of luck, but few had much luck,
as they often ran head on into enemy machine gun fire.
On the first day of the Battle of the Psalm
in July nineteen sixteen, over fifty eight thousand casualties were

(01:46):
sustained by the British when they all went over the
top to paint the town Red means to go out
and celebrate or get very drunk, and it owes its
origins to a legendary night of revelry. In eighteen thirty
there was a man called the Marquess of Waterford, known
as the Mad Marquis because of his erratic behavior, and
he went out one night in the English town of

(02:08):
Melton Mowbray. The group went berserk on vandalism's spree, and
they broke windows, pulled off door knockers, and smashed flowerpots.
Unsatisfied with that, though, they acquired some red paint and
painted a Swan statue, a number of house doors and
even a toll gate completely read the marquis later paid
compensation for the damage caused, but he had painted the

(02:30):
town red and would never live it down. A parting
shot is a hostile gesture or remark made while departing
which the person hearing has no chance to respond to.
And it's a phrase I've always found interesting. It dates
to a military tactic from the seventeenth century. The Parthians
at the time were an ancient race living in northeast Persia,

(02:51):
and their army include mounted archers. These archers would ride
away from the enemy at full gallop, giving the impression
of a retreat, but as the enemy approached, the archers,
who were superb equestrians, would turn and fire arrows backwards
with great accuracy. Originally known as a path in shot,
the phrase was corrupt a departing shot by the early

(03:12):
twentieth century. To pass the buck means to shift blame
or responsibility to someone else, and it originates from the
game of poker. Poker became popular in America during the
eighteenth century, and players were always suspicious of any form
of buyers or cheating. To stop this, the car dealer
was frequently rotated during a game, and the person who
was next in line to deal was given a marker,

(03:34):
which was often a knife. The handles of most knives
at the time were made of buck's horn, so the
marker became known as a buck. When the dealer's turn
was complete, he would pass the buck. President Harry S.
Truman famously displayed a sign on his desk that read,
the buck stops here, and that gave rise to the
expression and made it more commonplace. To pass with flying

(03:56):
colours means to have success at a difficult task, and
it's a sailing term that dates back to the early
seventeen hundreds. A ship's flag or banner was known as
its colours, and when a ship or fleet was successful
in battle and was returning to its homeland, it would
sail in with its flag flying high on the mast.
This indicated that the ship had been victorious. It had
retained its flag rather than lost it to the enemy.

(04:20):
To pass with flying colours was a sure sign of victory.
To pay through the nose means to pay an excessive
amount for something, and it's got to interesting and strange origins.
It dates all the way back to the ninth century
when the Vikings invaded Ireland. The Danish had extraordinary harsh
tax laws which they imposed on any land they invaded.

(04:41):
With the invasion of Ireland, they applied a particularly harsh tax,
known as the nose tax. The punishment for evading the
nose tax was quite perverse. Anyone refusing to pay the
tax had their nose slip from tip to eyebrow. The
people had a choice either pay the tax or pay
through the nose. Pecking order is a hierarchy or authority

(05:02):
in a group, and it's a phrase that began with
the farming of chickens. Domestic poultry maintain a strict hierarchy
where the lead hen is able to peck any other
for whatever reason without fear of retribution. The other hens
are ordered beneath the lead hen, and each of them
know which hens are lower than them and thus able
to be packed. This cascades down to the lowest hen,

(05:24):
who gets pecked by all the other hens. It was
German biologists who were observing this behavior who coined the
phrase pecking order in the nineteen twenties, and it went
on to take its wider meeting by the nineteen fifties.
A peeping tom as a man who secretly observes women
who were naked and its origins line the story of

(05:45):
Lady Godiva in the eleventh century. She was married to
an earl who owned large landholdings, and he imposed heavy
taxes on the less wealthy, which resulted in public outrage.
Godiver disagreed with the taxes and asked a husband to
reduce them. Thinking she would never do it, he agreed
to lower the taxes on the condition that she rode

(06:05):
a horse naked through the streets of Coventry in England.
She decided to take up the challenge, and as a
mark of respect, all the townsfolk agreed to stay indoors,
close their shutters, and not watch the highly publicized spectacle.
Everyone kept their word in the town except for the
tailor Tom. Tom was unable to resist a glimpse of
Godver and peep through his shutters and a phrase was spawned.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
And terrific storytelling and great production on that by Greg Hangler. Funny,
Funny Stuff and good Stuff. Andrew Thompson is the voice
you were listening to his book Hair of the Dog
To Paint the Town, Read the curious origins of everyday
sayings and fun freezes and my Goodness, another Chicken story,

(06:50):
and we've watched that with our own little chickens and
the hierarchy. They have this one poor chicken that just
takes it from everybody, and we don't know what to
do about it because there's nothing you can. There is
a thing called the pecking order. These are terrific stories
about our English language and where these phrases come from.
Greg Hengler is always great job on the production. Andrew Thompson,

(07:11):
the stories of everyday sayings our English language celebrated here
are now American story folks. If you love the stories
we tell about this great country, and especially the stories

(07:34):
of America's rich past, know that all of our stories
about American history, from war to innovation, culture and faith,
are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College,
a place where students study all the things that are
beautiful in life and all the things that are good
in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale
will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.

(07:54):
Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more.