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

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 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 scenes.
Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he

(00:32):
continues to share another slace from his Ultimate Guide to
understanding these many mysteries of the English language.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Here's Andrew put a sock in it means to be
quiet and its origins of it. 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 was limited. When orchestras
were recorded in the studios, the horn sections to be
overpowering and completely drowned out the wind and string sections.

(01:04):
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 yellow put a sock
in it. And then by the nineteen twenties this expression
was being used 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

(01:25):
the phrases put a damper on something because of the
notion of putting water to dampen out a 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. 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,

(01:48):
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 derives from the
flower making process. In medieval England before electricity was invented,
classical mills were 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

(02:11):
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 grain in a mill. If you say
to someone put your thinking cap on, you're telling them
to think seriously about a problem, more to concentrate, and

(02:32):
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 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

(02:54):
took on its broader meaning by the mid nineteenth century.
A pyrrhic victory is a victory gained at too great
a cost, and it's a phrase that comes from the
Greek king Pirris. His army fought the Romans during the
Pyhic War for control of the Magna Gracia. In one
battle in southern Italy in two seventy nine BC, Piris

(03:17):
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 spawn
the expression pyrrhic victory, which was used figuratively from the
late eighteen hundreds. Raining cats and dogs means very hard rain,

(03:37):
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 frequently shown surrounded by dogs and wolves,
and this led early sailors to believe that in any storm,

(04:00):
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 cryptography in the nineteenth century. Cryptography involves encoding messages

(04:22):
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
reveal any code, but it was only when the alternate
lines were read that the code was able to be deciphered.

(04:45):
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 authority did he to label any group of
more than twelve people a threat to the peace. When
such a group gathered, a public official would read aloud

(05:07):
a section of the Riode Act, which demanded people immediately
disperse themselves and go about their lawful business. Anyone who
remained after one hour was subject to removal by force
and arrest. This Riot Act actually remained in effect until
nineteen seventy three. If you say something's the real McCoy,
you're saying it's an authentic or genuine personal thing, not

(05:27):
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 it derives from a
man named Kid McCoy, which was a name used by
Norman Selby, the American wel toweight boxer who dominated the
sport in the eighteen nineties. McCoy had many imitators who

(05:48):
would use his name in an attempt to capitalize on
his popularity, and it became so commonplace for Kid McCoy
impostors at fairgrounds that not many people actually believed it
was ever the real Kid 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 him not to fight McCoy, but the drunk

(06:10):
didn't believe it was him. Then, provoked to his limit,
McCoy knocked the man 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

(06:30):
no refrigeration, they were preserved by smoking. The smoking process
turned the fish of 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

(06:50):
often follow the scent of the red herring instead of
the fox.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
And a special thanks to Greg Angler for the production
on the piece, and to Andrew Thompson for sharing with
us the stories of everyday sayings. By the way, you
can get his book Hair of the Dog to paint
the town red. The curious origins of everyday sayings and
funphrases get Amazon or the usual suspects. The stories of

(07:15):
everyday sayings here on our American Stories. Here at our
American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,

(07:36):
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(07:56):
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