“Propose a Toast” and the Wonderful Origins of Everyday Expressions (Pt. 17)

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.

https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.
Says You're to join us again, as Andrew Thompson as

(00:31):
he continues to share another slice from his Ultimate Guide
to Understanding these many Mysteries of the English Language. Here's Andrew.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
If you say peter out, you mean to dwindle, or diminish,
or come to an end. Some suggest the expression comes
from Biblical times and the apostle Peter when he strenuously
defended Christ when Christ was arrested, but by the next
morning he is supported diminished. However, the likely origin of
the phrases actually from the early days of gold mining

(01:02):
in America. Potassium nitrate non as saltpeter was a mineral
ingredient in the explosives used in mining. When all the
gold in a mine was exhausted, it was said to
have petered out because the explosives had dwindled it down
until nothing was left. The expression was used figuratively by
the eighteen forties. Pigeon English is a term meaning a

(01:24):
simplified language used to communicate between two people who don't
have a common language, and it originated in the late
seventeenth century. It was developed by British traders in China
as a way of doing business without having a common language.
The expression actually means business English and came about because
of the mispronunciation of the English word business by the Chinese.

(01:45):
They pronounced it bidgeon, and this led to pigeon. The
language they used was a combination of both English and
Cantonese and was spoken as a second language. Then Over
the years, the phrase pidgeon English developed to mean any
two languages that a piece together to aid a communication.
From pillar to post means from one place to another,

(02:08):
and it dates back to a brutal form of punishment
in medieval England. Each town at the time had a
whipping post and a pillary to deal with criminals, also
known as the stocks. A pillary was a wooden frame
with three holes in it. A criminal's head and hands
would be placed through the holes, and the public would
gather and throw rotten vegetables and eggs at the man.
This may last even a number of days. The criminal

(02:31):
will then be dragged to the whipping post, where he
would receive a public flogging. Originally from pillary to post,
the expression gradually evolved to pillar to post. Pipe dreams
are unrealistic hopes or plans, or a fantasy, and they
refer to the dreams experienced by the smokers of opium pipes.
Opium is a narcotic drug that produces an hypnotic effect,

(02:55):
and the pipe is the device that the open is
placed in. People under the influence of opium often have
vivid and fantastic hallucinations. The expression was then used in
America since the late eighteen hundreds, when opium smoking was legal,
and the phrase was first written in eighteen ninety in
an edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune where they were

(03:16):
talking about the first man made flight, and it was
said it has been regarded as a pipe dream for
a good many years. If you plug something, that means
you promote something and it owes its beginnings to Captain
Leonard Frank Plugg as Pluge a British businessman and politician
who was prominent in the early nineteen hundreds. He created

(03:39):
a broadcasting company that bought airtime from European radio stations.
He reached an agreement with the French station Radio Normandy
to produce programs and transmit them to England. Plug partially
financed Radio Normandy by receiving payments to play and promote records,
and it was from this practice that Plug's name came
to mean to plug something. Point blank means to tell

(04:03):
directly or to refuse completely, and it has sporting beginnings,
which originated in France. Point blanc is French for white
mark the bull's eye or center of an archery target,
and a shot from distance at that sport has to
be aimed above the target to allow it to drop
with gravity, But a shot point blank is close enough
so that the flight of the arrow hits the target

(04:24):
directly without any arching. The expression then later was widened
to refer to anything done at very close range, especially gunfire.
To propose a toast is obviously a ritual in which
a drink has taken in someone's honor, and that began
as early as the twelfth century. The quality of the
wine at the time was not high and varied a
lot in order to soak up some of the acidity

(04:46):
and improve the flavor. A piece of spiced toast was
placed in a wine jug, or small pieces were placed
in wine glasses. By the seventeenth century in England, the
practice of proposing a toast to someone emerged. The glass
would be raised as it is today, and it was
usually a lady who was toasted. The idea was that
she became a figurative piece of toast that flavored the wine.

(05:10):
To pull out all the stops means to make every
possible effort, and that stems from the musical world. Church
organs used knobs that control the airflow through the pipes,
and these knobs are known as stops. When all the
stops are in, the airflow was less and the music
not very loud. If there were not many people in
a congregation and the music was needed to be heard
at the back of the church, the organist would pull

(05:32):
out all the stops, which would increase the volume. To
pull the wool over your eyes means to trick or deceive,
and it relates the elaborate wigs that people wore in
the seventeenth century. The whigs had a thick, wooly appearance,
and the social standing of a man was sometimes judged
by the size of his wig. The bigger it was,
the more wealth a man was thought to have. By

(05:53):
wearing large wigs, men were advertising their wealth and then
became a target for petty criminals. Wig would also be
able to be pulled down more easily, so a tactic
employed by some criminals was to creep up behind a
man and pull the wig down over his eyes. This
would temporarily render the victim unable to see, making him
easier to rob. A purple patch is a period of

(06:16):
notable success or good fortune, and that expression stems from
ancient Rome. At the height of the Roman Empire, purple,
which became known as imperial purple, was a revered color
and was reserved for emperors and other distinguished statesmen. This
is because purple dye was great, to be prized and rare.
It was obtained from the mucous secretions of a sea

(06:37):
snail found in the Mediterranean Sea, and did not easily fail,
but became brighter with weathering in sunlight. The Roman nobleman
wore purple togures, and because they were considered exceptional people
to whom all was provided, purple patch later became associated
with success.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
In a job well done. On the production by Greg Hangler.
In a special thanks to Andrew Thompson for his storytelling
on the origins of everyday sayings and a plug for
the book The Hair of the Dog To Paint the
Town Read the curious origins of everyday sayings and fun phrases.
These great stories about our language and where sayings came from.

(07:16):
Here on Our American Stories, Lie Hibibi here the host
of our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're

(07:36):
bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from
our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't
do the show without you. Our stories are free to
listen to, but they're not free to make. If you
love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.
Go to Auramerican Stories dot com and give