July 17, 2024 • 7 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
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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 our American Stories dot com.
They are some of our favorites. Hair of the Dog,
To Paint the Town Red. The Curious Origins of Everyday
Sayings and Funphrases is a book that reveals the surprising, captivating,
(00:30):
and even hilarious origins behind four hundred of these things,
including Read Between the Lines, Cat Got Your Tongue, Raining
Cats and Dogs. Here with the recurring series is Hair
of the Dog author Andrew Thompson as he shares another
slice from his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these baffling mini
(00:51):
mysteries of the English language.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The first expression I'd like to tell you about is
above board, which means honest and open or legal. If
something's above board, everything's okay. It reminds me years ago.
I used to have a weekly game of blackjack with
a group of guys and people are often cheat. It
was all a bit joking, but people that have their
hands under the table and everyone say get your hands
(01:13):
on the table. You've got to be above board. And
that's where that expression comes from. It's a gaming expression
in card playing. The board was the table as in
a sideboard, and if a player dropped his hands below
the table, he could be accused of cheating by swapping
his cards or pulling a card out that he had
stashed under there. So to stop any sort of suspicion,
(01:34):
people had to keep their hands above the table. So
if the player's hands are above board, nobody could suggest
anything was wrong. A saying that comes from ancient times
is achilles heel, which everyone's heard of. It means a
weakness or vulnerability. He might say he's a great runner,
but that's his achilles heel when he can't do long distances,
(01:56):
for example. It has its origins in ancient Greek legend.
Acchilles was dipped into a river by his mother in
order to give him a skin of armor and make
him invulnerable to his enemies. But she held him by
the heel, which didn't get covered by the water and
became a weak point for him. He became this great warrior,
but his arch enemy, a guy called Paris, discovered his
(02:18):
weakness and killed him by shooting an arrow through his heel.
And Homer wrote about this Aeliad, and the phrase became
popular in the nineteenth century. The expression across the board
means it applies to everyone. For example, the government might
impose tax cuts across the board. This phrase is from
the sporting arena. It was coined in America in the
(02:41):
early nineteen hundreds from horse racing at the time. At
race meets, a large board would display the odds of horses,
and the odds were listed for a horse to win
place or show which was to make third, and if
a punter placed a bed across the board, he put
an equal amount of money on a horse to finish first, second, third,
So it was an across the board bet that applied
(03:02):
to everything every option. To add another string to your
bow is another sporting expression which comes from the sport
of archery, and it started in medievil times when in
competitions often men who were the best shot. Became widely
popular when archery was very popular for fighting and exhibition sports.
(03:24):
So never to be caught short, the best archers would
add another string to their bow. They'd attach a second
string at the top of the bow that was wound
around the handle. If the first string snapped or was damaged,
the archer had a backup string to get him out.
Of trouble, and that's also how the expressions second string
came about. To add. Insult to injury is an expression
(03:44):
that comes from the literary world. It dates way back
to twenty five BC and was from a writer from
ancient Rome, and it was from the story of the
bald Man and the Fly. In that story, a fly
stings a bald man on the top of his head,
and the man swats at the fly, trying to kill it,
but the fly moves away so that the man hits
himself on the head as well, and the fly then remarks,
(04:06):
all you've done is added insult to injury, which is
where the expression comes from, to mean making an already
bad situation even worse. The phrase began in twenty five
BC didn't pass into English until about the mid seventeen hundreds.
The saying against the grain comes from tradesman. It means
(04:26):
against the natural flow, or opposed to one's normal inclination.
It has its origins in woodwork and carpentry. When wood
is planed, sword or sanded along the grain, it results
in a smooth finish, but when it's done across the grain,
it tends to splinter or be rough, so working against
the grain is also far more difficult, and that's where
(04:47):
the expression came from. It was first used by Shakespeare
in sixteen oh seven. Everyone knows the expression to aid
in a bet, which is usually used in relation to
criminals with a person hell or inciting someone in the
commission of a crime. So you might be convicted of
aiding and a betting a crime. It's got an interesting origin,
(05:08):
this one. It's from the now outlawed sport, or if
you could call it that, of bear baiting. The word
a bet is from the Norse word meaning to bite,
and it was originally called bear a betting in the
fourteenth century in England, where a hungry bear would be
tethered to a pole in a pit and set upon
by trained bulldogs. The dogs would bite the bear until
(05:29):
it was killed, and often in doing so they suffer
casualties or be very tired, and the owner would urge
the dog to continue to keep the spectacle going. So
it was said that he was a betting the dog
to keep biting. And frase was coined in the eighteenth
century to mean what it does today to air your
dirty laundry in public means to talk in public about
(05:52):
private matters, and this expression came from Napoleon Bonaparte in
eighteen fourteen, when he was exiled to the island of Elba.
He is forced to abdicate the French throne and he
went there and despite the island being surrounded by the
British navy, he managed to escape on a boat. After
less than a year there and back in France, he
was asked about his experiences on the island, to which
(06:15):
he replied, it is at home and not in public,
that one washes one's dirty linen, and that eventually got
corrupted to air your dirty laundry in public. To come
to what it means to know, all hellbrog loose has
become a common expression to mean wild and erratic behavior,
like if a teacher left the classroom for ten minutes,
all hellbrog loose with the students. It's got literary origins
(06:38):
as well. It's from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Loss,
which was published in sixteen sixty seven, and it tells
the tale of the biblical Garden of Eden. In one part,
just before he cast him out of the Garden of Eden,
the angel Gabriel asked Satan why he traveled alone and
hadn't been joined by other inhabitants of Hell, and Gabriel
poses the question as wherefore with thee came not all
(07:01):
hell broglues which is holdinglish obviously bent. That's where the
expression began.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And a special thanks to Greg for producing the piece,
and a special thanks also to Andrew Thompson Hair of
the Dog to paint the town. Read is the book?
Go to Amazon dot com and buy it. The story
of our own language and phrases we all know but
don't know the origins of here on our American Story Folks.
(07:29):
If you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Go to our.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
American Stories dot com now and go to the donate
button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com.
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 our American Stories dot com.
They are some of our favorites. Hair of the Dog,
To Paint the Town Red. The Curious Origins of Everyday
Sayings and Funphrases is a book that reveals the surprising, captivating,
(00:30):
and even hilarious origins behind four hundred of these things,
including Read Between the Lines, Cat Got Your Tongue, Raining
Cats and Dogs. Here with the recurring series is Hair
of the Dog author Andrew Thompson as he shares another
slice from his Ultimate Guide to Understanding these baffling mini
(00:51):
mysteries of the English language.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The first expression I'd like to tell you about is
above board, which means honest and open or legal. If
something's above board, everything's okay. It reminds me years ago.
I used to have a weekly game of blackjack with
a group of guys and people are often cheat. It
was all a bit joking, but people that have their
hands under the table and everyone say get your hands
(01:13):
on the table. You've got to be above board. And
that's where that expression comes from. It's a gaming expression
in card playing. The board was the table as in
a sideboard, and if a player dropped his hands below
the table, he could be accused of cheating by swapping
his cards or pulling a card out that he had
stashed under there. So to stop any sort of suspicion,
(01:34):
people had to keep their hands above the table. So
if the player's hands are above board, nobody could suggest
anything was wrong. A saying that comes from ancient times
is achilles heel, which everyone's heard of. It means a
weakness or vulnerability. He might say he's a great runner,
but that's his achilles heel when he can't do long distances,
(01:56):
for example. It has its origins in ancient Greek legend.
Acchilles was dipped into a river by his mother in
order to give him a skin of armor and make
him invulnerable to his enemies. But she held him by
the heel, which didn't get covered by the water and
became a weak point for him. He became this great warrior,
but his arch enemy, a guy called Paris, discovered his
(02:18):
weakness and killed him by shooting an arrow through his heel.
And Homer wrote about this Aeliad, and the phrase became
popular in the nineteenth century. The expression across the board
means it applies to everyone. For example, the government might
impose tax cuts across the board. This phrase is from
the sporting arena. It was coined in America in the
(02:41):
early nineteen hundreds from horse racing at the time. At
race meets, a large board would display the odds of horses,
and the odds were listed for a horse to win
place or show which was to make third, and if
a punter placed a bed across the board, he put
an equal amount of money on a horse to finish first, second, third,
So it was an across the board bet that applied
(03:02):
to everything every option. To add another string to your
bow is another sporting expression which comes from the sport
of archery, and it started in medievil times when in
competitions often men who were the best shot. Became widely
popular when archery was very popular for fighting and exhibition sports.
(03:24):
So never to be caught short, the best archers would
add another string to their bow. They'd attach a second
string at the top of the bow that was wound
around the handle. If the first string snapped or was damaged,
the archer had a backup string to get him out.
Of trouble, and that's also how the expressions second string
came about. To add. Insult to injury is an expression
(03:44):
that comes from the literary world. It dates way back
to twenty five BC and was from a writer from
ancient Rome, and it was from the story of the
bald Man and the Fly. In that story, a fly
stings a bald man on the top of his head,
and the man swats at the fly, trying to kill it,
but the fly moves away so that the man hits
himself on the head as well, and the fly then remarks,
(04:06):
all you've done is added insult to injury, which is
where the expression comes from, to mean making an already
bad situation even worse. The phrase began in twenty five
BC didn't pass into English until about the mid seventeen hundreds.
The saying against the grain comes from tradesman. It means
(04:26):
against the natural flow, or opposed to one's normal inclination.
It has its origins in woodwork and carpentry. When wood
is planed, sword or sanded along the grain, it results
in a smooth finish, but when it's done across the grain,
it tends to splinter or be rough, so working against
the grain is also far more difficult, and that's where
(04:47):
the expression came from. It was first used by Shakespeare
in sixteen oh seven. Everyone knows the expression to aid
in a bet, which is usually used in relation to
criminals with a person hell or inciting someone in the
commission of a crime. So you might be convicted of
aiding and a betting a crime. It's got an interesting origin,
(05:08):
this one. It's from the now outlawed sport, or if
you could call it that, of bear baiting. The word
a bet is from the Norse word meaning to bite,
and it was originally called bear a betting in the
fourteenth century in England, where a hungry bear would be
tethered to a pole in a pit and set upon
by trained bulldogs. The dogs would bite the bear until
(05:29):
it was killed, and often in doing so they suffer
casualties or be very tired, and the owner would urge
the dog to continue to keep the spectacle going. So
it was said that he was a betting the dog
to keep biting. And frase was coined in the eighteenth
century to mean what it does today to air your
dirty laundry in public means to talk in public about
(05:52):
private matters, and this expression came from Napoleon Bonaparte in
eighteen fourteen, when he was exiled to the island of Elba.
He is forced to abdicate the French throne and he
went there and despite the island being surrounded by the
British navy, he managed to escape on a boat. After
less than a year there and back in France, he
was asked about his experiences on the island, to which
(06:15):
he replied, it is at home and not in public,
that one washes one's dirty linen, and that eventually got
corrupted to air your dirty laundry in public. To come
to what it means to know, all hellbrog loose has
become a common expression to mean wild and erratic behavior,
like if a teacher left the classroom for ten minutes,
all hellbrog loose with the students. It's got literary origins
(06:38):
as well. It's from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Loss,
which was published in sixteen sixty seven, and it tells
the tale of the biblical Garden of Eden. In one part,
just before he cast him out of the Garden of Eden,
the angel Gabriel asked Satan why he traveled alone and
hadn't been joined by other inhabitants of Hell, and Gabriel
poses the question as wherefore with thee came not all
(07:01):
hell broglues which is holdinglish obviously bent. That's where the
expression began.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And a special thanks to Greg for producing the piece,
and a special thanks also to Andrew Thompson Hair of
the Dog to paint the town. Read is the book?
Go to Amazon dot com and buy it. The story
of our own language and phrases we all know but
don't know the origins of here on our American Story Folks.
(07:29):
If you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Go to our.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
American Stories dot com now and go to the donate
button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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