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    The Cat's Pyjamas


    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty At full tilt

    Post by Kitkat Sat 18 Feb 2017, 11:58

    AT FULL TILT

    At full speed or with full force.

    The expression probably originated in the fourteenth century, when 'tilting at the quintain' was a popular sport among medieval knights.  A dummy head, often representing a Turk or Saracen, was fastened to rotate around an upright stake fixed in the ground.  At full speed, the knight on horseback tilted towards the head with his lance.  If he failed to strike it in the right place, it would spin round and strike him in the back before he could get clear.

    Tilting at the quintain remained a rustic sport, especially popular at wedding celebrations, until the mid seventeenth century.

    The similar phrase 'to tilt at windmills' has a rather different meaning, namely 'to battle fanciful enemies'.  The reference is to the crazed knight Don Quixote (in Miguel de Cervante's [1547-1616] novel, Don Quixote, 1605), who imagined the windmills to be giants and advanced to attack.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty It's an ill wind

    Post by Kitkat Sun 19 Feb 2017, 12:43

    IT'S AN ILL WIND

    Similar in spirit to 'every cloud has a silver lining', this ancient nautical proverb suggests that some good can come from most misfortunes.  The full phrase is, 'It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good', meaning that only the very worst situations are universally bad, and that hardships usually bring benefits eventually.

    It was already widely used by 1546, when John Heywood (c.1497-c.1580) included it in his book of English proverbs.  In 1591, Shakespeare wrote in Henry VI; 'Ill blows the wind that profits nobody' (2:5).

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To make no bones

    Post by Kitkat Mon 20 Feb 2017, 16:37

    TO MAKE NO BONES

    To be honest and direct without any risk that the statement may be misunderstood, but also sometimes used to mean to have no scruples about something.

    One oft-cited source for this phrase is the world of gambling.  Dice were often known as 'bones' because they were originally made from animal bone.  Yet there is no further evidence to link the phrase to dice.

    It is more likely that it has its roots in the older expression 'to find bones in something', which was used from the fiftenth century.  That phrase came from the fact that finding bones in a bowl of broth was considered troublesome, so to find bones in something came to mean to take issue with it.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty My word is my bond

    Post by Kitkat Tue 21 Feb 2017, 16:04

    MY WORD IS MY BOND

    The motto of the London Stock Exchange since 1801.  At the Stock Exchange, deals are made on the 'nod' without a written pledge being given, and without documents being exchanged.

    The motto's Latin form is Dictum meum pactum, and the phrase implies a sense of honour, an agreement that cannot be broken without disgrace.

    How times have changed.  These days bankers are not held in quite such high regard.


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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty No news is good news

    Post by Kitkat Wed 22 Feb 2017, 14:49

    NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

    The absence of information justifies continued optimism; that is, if all's quiet, then there is no cause for alarm.  The phrase probably dates back to the early seventeenth century; in 1616, King James VI and I (1566-1625) wrote: 'No newis is bettir than evill newis.'

    The word 'news', now understood as a singular noun, was still plural up to the nineteenth century, as seen in this letter from Queen Victoria to the King of the Belgians, 20 August 1861:  'The news from Austria are very sad, and make one very anxious.'

    The word is in fact short for 'new stories', and the old spelling was 'newes', a literal translation from the French nouvelles.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Not my bag

    Post by Kitkat Thu 23 Feb 2017, 12:40

    NOT MY BAG

    A slang expression for something which is definitely not one's subject or style.

    It probably came from the American jazz scene, 'bag' meaning a personal style of playing; for instance, 'playing with a hip-hop band was not his bag'.  However, the phrase came into general use, being applied to almost anything, in both America and Britain.

    It shares a meaning with the more common phrase 'not my cup of tea', which has been used throughout the twentieth century to denote something that isn't to one's taste.


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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Not worth a tinker's damn

    Post by Kitkat Fri 24 Feb 2017, 13:49

    NOT WORTH A TINKER'S DAMN

    This is one of many phrases meaning that something is worthless.  Tinkers were itinerant menders of kettles and pans and were a common sight on the streets in the eighteenth century.  It has been suggested that the term comes from the tinker's custom of blocking up a hole in the article he was mending with a pellet of bread, thus making a 'dam', or plug, that would hold the molten solder.  This pellet was discarded when the job was finished.  So a tinker's dam is a useless or negligible thing.

    However, the present spelling of 'damn' alludes to its meaning as a curse or oath, and the phrase is also heard as 'not worth a tinker's cuss', a cuss being slang for a curse, which tinkers uttered frequently.


    It is still common 'to tinker about' with something, which means to fiddle, often in a clumsy fashion, in an attempt to make repairs.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty One sandwich short of a picnic

    Post by Kitkat Sun 26 Feb 2017, 20:11

    ONE SANDWICH SHORT OF A PICNIC

    A derogatory description of someone who is not terribly bright.  It is one of many such cartoon-like expressions, such as 'one prawn short of a cocktail' and other variations.

    'The lights are on but no-one's at home' and 'the lift doesn't go to the top floor' have very much the same meaning.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty One man's meat is another man's poison

    Post by Kitkat Mon 27 Feb 2017, 15:01

    ONE MAN'S MEAT IS ANOTHER MAN'S POISON

    This is a very old adage that simply means that what is palatable or beneficial to one person is distasteful or harmful to another.

    In ancient times, meat and bread were generic terms for food, and in Britain the use of the word 'meat' in many proverbs simply meant 'food'.

    The phrase 'different strokes for different folks' pretty well sums up the meaning.  The rhythm and phrasing of this expression in particular have given rise to an endless stream of imitations.  To an adulterer, perhaps, 'One man's mate is another man's passion', or even 'One man's Jill is another man's thrill'.

    The proverb's meaning in general has also inspired spin-offs.
    'One man's floor is another man's ceiling' is attributed to D. Bloodworth (1967), while a contemporary version has a more political ring 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Out for the count

    Post by Kitkat Tue 28 Feb 2017, 17:35

    OUT FOR THE COUNT

    Said of someone who is fast asleep, dead drunk or completely demoralized.

    It is a boxing and wrestling term describing defeat by being counted out by the referee.  If a fighter is floored and does not find his feet withiin ten seconds counted out loud, he has lost the bout.

    To say 'count me out', on the other hand, means 'do not include me in this'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Over a barrel

    Post by Kitkat Wed 01 Mar 2017, 18:43

    OVER A BARREL

    To be stuck in a helpless position, powerless to get yourself out of it, or to be at someone's mercy.

    The phrase is possibly nautical in origin and is said to derive from the practice of draping over a barrel someone who has been rescued from the water when close to drowning, so encouraging the ejection of water from the lungs.

    A more likely derivation, however, may be a form of punishment or torture in which the victim is bent over a barrel and beaten.


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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Over the top

    Post by Kitkat Thu 02 Mar 2017, 16:02

    OVER THE TOP

    An expression that describes something that goes way beyond the bounds of good taste or good sense, or which is outrageously inappropriate, or a complete overreaction.

    It came from the trenches of the First World War, when soldiers were described as going 'over the top' when they scrambled out of the trenches to attack the enemy.

    Over The Top was also the name of a television show in the 1980s, which became known only by its initials, OTT.  These are still used today in many colloquial contexts in place of the original phrase.

    For example, a particularly impassioned verbal outburst, or a person who behaves or dresses outrageously, might be described as 'OTT'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Pandora's Box

    Post by Kitkat Fri 03 Mar 2017, 14:27

    PANDORA'S BOX

    This is a troublesome 'can of worms' - a gift that seems of great value but is actually a curse, generating all sorts of unmanageable problems.

    In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman, sent by Zeus as a gift to Epimetheus, who married her, against the advice of his brother Prometheus.  As a wedding present, Zeus gave Pandora a beautiful box, but instructed her that she must never open it. Over time, Pandora was tempted to defy this condition... but when she finally opened the box, all the evils of the world escaped, ever after to afflict mankind.

    According to some, hope was the last thing that flew out; others believe that hope alone remained in the box.

    The more modern phrase 'to open a can of worms', which was first used in America in the 1950s, is a euphemism that became popular in the UK in the 1970s.

    It is a graphic metaphor for a tangled, squirming, unpleasant or uncontrollable situation that had not been apparent beforehand.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To pour oil on toubled waters

    Post by Kitkat Sat 04 Mar 2017, 15:46

    TO POUR OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS

    A well-known metaphor meaning to mollify or soothe with gentle words, or to use tact and diplomacy to restore calm after an angry or bitter argument.

    It has been a well-known scientific fact since the first century AD that rough waves are calmed when oil is poured upon them.  According to the Venerable Bede's (AD 673-735) History of the English Church and People (AD 731), St Aidan, an Irish monk of Iona, knew of this 'miracle' and gave a young priest a vessel of holy oil to pour on the sea when the waves became stormy.  (The priest was on an important voyage to fetch a maiden destined to be the bride of King Oswy.)

    Moreover, on his many Atlantic crossing between Pennsylvania and Portsmouth in the eighteenth century, the ever-curious Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) observed not only the Gulf Stream, but also the calming effect of oil on the waves.


    No. No.  NO!  judge
    Remember this !  
    Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water repellency of a bird's feathers, thus exposing these creatures to the harsh elements. Without the ability to repel water and insulate from the cold water, birds and mammals will die from hypothermia.
    How does oil impact marine life? - NOAA's National Ocean Service

    and this:  http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Oc-Po/Oil-Spills-Impact-on-the-Ocean.html

    Environmental Effects of Oil Spills
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty As pleased as punch

    Post by Kitkat Sun 05 Mar 2017, 18:36

    AS PLEASED AS PUNCH

    In the traditional comic puppet show Punch and Judy, the pompous Mr Punch gloats smugly at the success of his evil actions and superiority over his shrewish wife Judy, and it is from this scenario that the phrase originates.  Punch had a lot to be pleased about; his quick wit was triumphant even over the Devil.

    The show first came to England at about the time of the Restoration in 1660.  Then, it was known as Punchinello, which (and the name of Mr Punch himself) probably comes from the Italiana pulcinello (young chicken).


    The present Punch and Judy scenario is similar to the original by the Italian comedian Silvio Fiorello, dating from about 1600. Although the basic plot varies, it usually involves Punch's enraged bludgeoning of his wife, Judy, their child, and several lesser characters, followed by his imprisonment ... and escape, thus him being 'pleased as Punch'.

    The violence of the storylines is counteracted by slapstick action and comic dialogue.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Pride goes before a fall

    Post by Kitkat Mon 06 Mar 2017, 21:13

    PRIDE GOES BEFORE A FALL

    An ancient warning for the arrogant to avoid conceit; do not be too cocksure or big-headed because events may conspire to bring you down.  The phrase is shortened from the passage in Proverbs (16:18):

    Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

    'Pride goes before, and shame comes after' is another form of the proverb as it was used in the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries.  It has also been said that 'he who gets too big for his britches gets exposed in the end'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To put on the back burner

    Post by Kitkat Tue 07 Mar 2017, 14:54

    TO PUT ON THE BACK BURNER

    To put off or postpone.  A very useful expression in business if a decision cannot be made immediately, meaning that an idea, proposition, course of action or project can be put aside and kept in reserve for use when necessary, or when circumstances are more propitious.

    It stems of course from the back burners, or rings, of a cooker, which are used for simmering, while the front burners are usually the hottest and used for fast cooking.

    There is now even a verb form gaining increasing usage in office jargonese, with people talking of 'back-burnering' something.

    An almost diametrically opposed metaphor is also used: an idea or project can be 'put on ice', to be figuratively defrosted at a later date.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To put one's foot in it

    Post by Kitkat Thu 09 Mar 2017, 14:03

    TO PUT ONE'S FOOT IN IT

    To make an inadvertent blunder, particularly to say the wrong thing and to embarrass oneself.  To make a faux pas, which literally means 'a false step'.

    The full phrase, from which this shortened version comes, is 'to put your foot in your mouth', and several sources suggest that this was first used in reference to eighteenth-century Irish parliamentarian Sir Boyle Roche (1736-1807), who in oratorical terms seems to have been the George W. Bush (1946-) of his day.

    He famously delivered lines such as:  'All along the untrodden paths of the future, I can see the footprints of an unseen hand.'  A contemporary is believed to have said of him, 'Every time he opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it,' and the phrase took off.

    Prince Philip (1921-), who has something of a reputation for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, calls the afliction 'dentopedalogy'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To be in Queer Street

    Post by Kitkat Fri 10 Mar 2017, 13:12

    TO BE IN QUEER STREET

    Not to be confused with the gay district, this phrase means to be in financial difficulties or in dire straits.

    Use of the word 'queer' could be a pun on 'query' - because Victorian tradesmen might mark the name of a customer with a poor credit rating on the ledger with a question mark.

    It is more likely, however, that it is a direct translation of the German word Querstrasse, that is, a road at right angles to the main road.


    Similarly, 'to be in Carey Street' is to be bankrupt.  Carey Street is situated in the City of London off Chancery Lane, and is home to the bankruptcy courts.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To ring the changes

    Post by Kitkat Sat 11 Mar 2017, 13:43

    TO RING THE CHANGES

    This phrase comes from the world of bell ringing, which became popular in Britain in the seventeenth century and remains so to this day.  It means to make variations in the way you do something.

    A 'change', you see, is the order in which a series of bells is rung.  Thus with a series of four bells, as in many parish churches, it is possible to ring twenty-four changes without once repeating the order in which the bells are struck (4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24).

    In the nineteenth century, the phrase took on a new meaning and was used to imply that someone had been paid back for a wrongdoing or practical joke, usually by being given a taste of their own medicine.

    We now most commonly use the phrase to mean simply 'to make changes' or 'to try several changes'.

    The greatest number of changes ever actually rung on bells is reported to have been 40,320, which took about eighteen hours.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Rome was not built in a day

    Post by Kitkat Sun 12 Mar 2017, 15:29

    ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY

    Great achievements, worthwhile tasks and the like are not accomplished without patient perseverance and a considerable passage of time.

    This was originally a Latin proverb and has been quoted ever since, as in A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tongue (1546) by John Heywood:
    Rome was not bylt on a daie (quoth he) and yet stood Tyll it was fynysht.

    Rome was the greatest city in the ancient world and, according to legend, was founded in 753 BC by Romulus (hence the city's name) and his twin brother Remus.  However, it is most likely to have been named from the Greek rhoma meaning 'strength'; its other Latin name is Valentia, from valens meaning 'strong'.

    As an indication of its importance in the world, Rome features in numerous old sayings such as 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do' and 'All roads lead to Rome' (or 'All roads lead to rum', as W.C. Fields [1880-1946] put it).

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Round Robin

    Post by Kitkat Mon 13 Mar 2017, 19:38

    ROUND ROBIN

    A petition or protest signed in a circular form on the page so that no one name heads the list.  The device is believed to have originated in seventeenth-century France and the term could be a corruption of rond and ruban - round ribbon.

    The round-robin letter is believed to have been adopted by British sailors in the seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries, for use when presenting a grievance to the ship's captain.  To avoid punishment, the ringleader would arrange for the signatures to be inscribed in a circular fashion around the page - although if the ship's captain was particularly vindictive, he would punish all the signatories for insurrection.

    Today, we use the phrase to mean the opposite of its original meaning - it is rather a letter or email from a single author that is sent to numerous recipients.


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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Round up the usual suspects

    Post by Kitkat Tue 14 Mar 2017, 12:03

    ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS

    Since the film The Usual Suspects was released in 1994, this phrase has returned to regular use, and is employed as a jocular instruction to gather a group of people together.

    It is thought that the line was first spoken in the film Casablanca (1943), directed by Hal B. Wallis (1899-1986) and starring Humphrey Bogart (1899-1967) and Ingrid Bergman (1915082).  Claude Rains (1889-1967), playing the French Captain Renault, Chief of Police in wartime Casablanca, delivers this classic line in a scene near the end of the movie:  'Major Strasser has been shot.  Round up the usual suspects.'

    When shooting began on Casablanca, the script was not finished.  Towards the end of filming, the dialogue was written on demand and literally rushed to the set.

    According to the film chronicler Leslie Halliwell (1929-91), the film 'just fell together impeccably into one of the outstanding entertainment experiences in cinema history'.

    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To sail close to the wind

    Post by Kitkat Wed 15 Mar 2017, 16:15

    TO SAIL CLOSE TO THE WIND

    This is another of the many proverbs that come from life on the high seas.  It is a figurative term, still in use today, meaning to take a chance, to emerge from an escapade just within the letter of the rule book, or, more riskily, to push the limits of what decency or propriety allows.

    The nautical expression refers to the practice of steering a ship as near as possible to the point from which the wind is blowing, while keeping the sails filled.

    To 'sail against the wind' is to go against the trend, in opposition to current thinking, practice or fashion.  And to 'sail before the wind' is to prosper, to meet with great success, just as a ship sails smoothly and rapidly with a following wind.

    Similarly, to 'sail into the wind' is to tackle a difficult task with great vigour and directness.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The sands are running out

    Post by Kitkat Thu 16 Mar 2017, 15:10

    THE SANDS ARE RUNNING OUT

    A metaphor to remind us that time is short; there will be less time to do what you have to do unless you act now.  The phrase is frequently used with reference to someone who has not much longer to live.

    The allusion is to the sand in an hourglass.  The original version of the phrase is 'the sands of time are running out', the first part of which appears in the poem 'A Psalm of Life' (1838) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82):

    Lives of great men all around us,
    We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time.

    Or as Robert Burns (1759-96) wrote in 'Tam o'Shanter' in 1791:

    Nae man can tether time or tide


    This is a variant of the old (c.thirteenth-century) English proverb 'Time and tide wait for no man.'

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To sell off the family silver

    Post by Kitkat Sat 18 Mar 2017, 13:31

    TO SELL OFF THE FAMILY SILVER

    To dispose of long-held and valuable assets for immediate short-term gain.  This phrase comes from a speech made by former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) to the Tory Reform Group in 1985.

    Though in favour of privatization in principle, he objected to methods used by Margaret Thatcher's government and to the use of the profits of the sales of Britain's big industries as if they were income.

    'First of all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon.  Then the Canalettos go,' he said, likening the process to the selling off of prized heirlooms by aristocratic families desperate for a quick injection of cash.

    The term is now common shorthand for the selling of state-owned resources to private companies.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To see through rose-tinted spectacles

    Post by Kitkat Mon 20 Mar 2017, 16:16

    TO SEE THROUGH ROSE-TINTED SPECTACLES

    To look at life or to regard circumstances with unjustified optimism, always looking on the bright side of life, as though it were suffused with a gentle pink light.  Spectacles of such a hue would show the world 'in the pink' - but it would be misleadingly rosy, bright and hopeful.

    The French equivalent is voir la vie en rose - again, to see life 'in the pink', which in turn means to be in excellent health (abbreviated from the phrase 'in the pink of health' or 'in the pink of condition', a definition derived from a flower in its best state).

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty As sick as a parrot

    Post by Kitkat Tue 21 Mar 2017, 18:02

    AS SICK AS A PARROT

    A term to describe extreme disappointment at an unexpected failure or setback.  A similar phrase, 'melancholy as a parrot' was used by the author Aphra Behn (1640-89) in the seventeenth century, and it is to describe this kind of malady, rather than sickness to the stomach, that the phrase is used today.

    In the 1970s and 1980s, it was a somewhat overused metaphor favoured by football managers, who often employed it to describe their feelings after losing a match.  This surge in use of the phrase may have been linked to scare stories in the press at the time about the highly contagious disease psittacosis or 'parrot fever', which could be passed from birds kept as pets to their human owners.

    Despite being mocked by the satirical magazine Private Eye, though perhaps heldped by the absurdity of the 'Dead Parrot' sketch in Monty Python's Flying Circus, the phrase caught the public imagination and is still common, though it has been superseded in some circles by the more economical 'gutted'.

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    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Sour grapes

    Post by Kitkat Thu 23 Mar 2017, 15:13

    SOUR GRAPES

    This is an ancient metaphor used when someone denigrates something that is clearly desirable because they know they can't have it for themselves.

    The phrase comes from the well-known fable 'The Fox and the Grapes' by Aesop, dated to the sixth century BC:
    One hot day, a thirsty fox spotted some juicy-looking grapes hanging from a vine.  The cluster of fruit was just out of reach.  However hard he tried, he could not reach the grapes; and the greater the effort he made, the hotter and thirstier he became.

    Eventually, the fox gave up and reasoned that as the grapes were beyond reach, they would probably be sour and inedible.

    The moral of the story is that we can console ourselves with the fact that, although some things are unattainable, we probably wouldn't like them anyway.

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    Kitkat
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To sow dragon's teeth

    Post by Kitkat Fri 24 Mar 2017, 09:06

    TO SOW DRAGON'S TEETH

    To stir up trouble, strife or war, or to foster disagreement.

    The reference is to the Greek myth of Cadmus.  Cadmus was supposed to have introduced the alphabet to Greece and, according to legend, he killed the dragon that guarded the fountain of Dirce, in Boeotia, and sowed its teeth in the ground.

    From these sprang up a horde of warriors intent on killing him.  On the goddess Athene's advice, Cadmus threw a precious stone among them.  The warriors set upon each other in the struggle to retrieve the stone until only five remained alive, and with Cadmus they founded Thebes.

    The teeth which Cadmus did not sow came into the hands of Aetes, King of Colchis, and one of the tasks he gave the hero Jason - he of the Argo and the Golden Fleece - was to sow them and slay the armed warriors that rose from them.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To spill the beans

    Post by Kitkat Sat 25 Mar 2017, 14:23

    TO SPILL THE BEANS

    The exercise means 'to let on', to tell all - perhaps prematurely - to an eager audience, to give away a secret or 'to let the cat out of the bag'.

    There are various explanations for the derivation, one of the most colourful being that it may have originated at the turn of the twentieth century as an Amerian euphemism for vomiting because beans represented basic food.

    Another possibility is that the phrase comes from ancient Greek voting practices,where black and white beans were used to represent agreement and disagreement with the issue bing voted on.  Each voter put one bean into a pot or helmet - and the result was revealed by spilling out the beans.

    Beans appear in various expressions:  'to be full of beans' means to be in high spirits orfull of energy, and was originally said of lively horses; beans used to be slang for money or property, so that 'I haven't got a bean' means that one is broke.

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    Post by Kitkat Sun 26 Mar 2017, 13:28

    SPIN DOCTOR

    This phrase comes from baseball and refers to the spin put on the ball by a pitcher to disguise its true direction or confuse the batter.

    It is an American idiom which was first applied in political commentary in the mid 1980s during Ronald Reagan's presidency, describing his public-relations advisers during promotion of the 'Star Wars' Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI).

    These so-called 'spin doctors' were on 'spin control', their mission being to give the preferred interpretation of events to the world's media, thereby manipulating public opinion in the desired direction.  The spin doctor is now a prominent feature of British politics and business in general.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Strike while the iron's hot

    Post by Kitkat Tue 28 Mar 2017, 12:05

    STRIKE WHILE THE IRON'S HOT

    To act immediately when the opportunity arises.  This is a metaphor from the blacksmith's shop, since iron cannot be easily worked once it has cooled down.

    The phrase has been attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer, although there are many ancient sayings that encourage action today rather than waiting for tomorrow.  Pittacus (c.640-568 BC) said, 'Know they opportunity', while make hay while sun shines appears in an early sixteenth-century book of proverbs.

    More up to date, a women's-lib slogan neatly inverts the proverb in a warning against inaction:  'Don't iron while the strike is hot'.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Suck it and see

    Post by Kitkat Wed 29 Mar 2017, 14:48

    SUCK IT AND SEE

    Said of anything experimental, the saying alludes to taking a pill, which has to be sucked first to see if it works.

    The expression was a catchphrase of Charlie Naughton (1886-1976) of the Crazy Gang (a group of British entertainers from the 1930s), and probably originated earlier in the music halls.

    To say that something 'sucks' is a derisive description of something bad or of someone's failure.

    A 'sucker', meanwhile, is someone who is easily deceived, a greenhorn; that is, a newborn creature that still suckles at its mother's breast.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The sword of Damocles

    Post by Kitkat Thu 30 Mar 2017, 10:15

    THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

    Impending danger or disaster in the midst of great prosperity or good fortune.

    In the fourth century BC, Damocles, who was a toadying sycophant of Dionysus the Elder of Syracuse, was invited by the tyrant to test his self-proclaimed charm and wit.  Damocles accepted and was treated to a sumptuous banquet, but over his head a sword was suspended by a mere hair, intended by Dionysus as a symbolic indicator of the fragility of wealth and power, his own included.

    This quite naturally inhibited Damocles's performance at the banquet because he was too frightened to move.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty To take a dekko

    Post by Kitkat Fri 31 Mar 2017, 11:11

    TO TAKE A DEKKO

    To glance at, or to have a quick look at.

    This is one of the many phrases that were brought back from India by the British Army in the colonial days in the late nineteenth century.  In Hindi, dekho is the imperative form of the verb dekhna, meaning 'to look at'.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty What a carve up

    Post by Kitkat Sat 01 Apr 2017, 12:41

    WHAT A CARVE UP

    This is an English slang phrase meaning to spoil someone's chances, or to have all prospects ruined.

    In criminal circles, a 'carve up' means to share out illicit booty, while in New Zealand, it means to have bested everyone else, as in, 'He carved up in the snooker contest'.

    The phrase is taken from the title of a 1961 spoof horror film starring Sid James (1913-76) and Shirley Eaton (1937-), in which family members gather at a haunted house to hear the reading of a will.  The title made use of the double meaning of 'carve up' to refer both to the dividing of the inheritance and to a more literal 'carving up' of the victims, as members of the party are methodically picked off and gruesomely murdered.

    Jonathan Coe (1961-) published a satirical novel of the same name in 1994:  It concerns the greed prevalent in 1980s Britain, including the 'carving up' of state assets (see to sell off the family silver).

    On the road, the phrase means to cut aggressively in front of another driver, one of the actions that has led to the phenomenon of 'road rage'.

    There are now all sorts of 'rage' situations to describe the frustrations of modern life, such as 'trolley rage' in the supermarket, or 'air rage', as demonstrated by drunken passengerrs on aeroplanes.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The royal 'we'

    Post by Kitkat Tue 04 Apr 2017, 12:57

    THE ROYAL 'WE'

    The somewhat superior choice of the collective pronoun 'we' in place of the individual 'I' by a single person.

    Legend has it that King Henry II (1133-89) was the first to employ the royal 'we' in 1169 when justifying a decision to his barons; he argued that since kings were ordained by God, his choices were God's choices too, and so used 'we' rather 'I' when issuing his orders.

    The current Queen of England, Elizabeth II, often uses this style in referring to herself, for instance during her Christmas Day broadcasts, while the frosty comment 'We are not amused' was attributed to Queen Victoria in1900.

    In March 1989, the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, announced to the world in a famously regal tone: "We have become a grandmother."


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    [Me]:  I've often wondered about this one.  

    Now that I know the 'explanation', it seems even more absurd! surprised
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty As thick as thieves

    Post by Kitkat Fri 07 Apr 2017, 12:16

    AS THICK AS THIEVES

    To be intimate with some person or group, to be in collusion with them.  'Thick' is used in this context to mean 'closely knit', not in its other meaning of stupid, a bit slow on the uptake.

    Thieves notoriously conspire and plot together, and devise secret languages so that they can discuss their business in a code that will not be understood by others - a slang or jargon that used to be known as 'thieves' Latin'.  Cockney rhyming slang itself was originally a closed language to the uninitiated and was created by crafty East Londoners to outwit authority and eavesdroppers.

    'As thick as thieves' was already a common saying by the time it was first used in print in the 1800s, and we now use it primarily to describe people who are close friends.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty All cats love fish, but fear to wet their paws

    Post by Kitkat Sun 09 Apr 2017, 11:59

    ALL CATS LOVE FISH, BUT FEAR TO WET THEIR PAWS

    A traditional saying, dating back to at least the sixteenth century, used to describe a person who is keen to obtain something of value, but who is not bold enough to make the necessary effort or to take the risk.

    It is to this saying that William Shakespeare (1564-1606) referred in Macbeth (1:7):

    Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would',
    Like the poor cat i' the adage.


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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty About one's ears

    Post by Kitkat Mon 10 Apr 2017, 12:55

    ABOUT ONE'S EARS

    This colloquialism, which means to be in a very bothersome situation in which one might sustain some pain or trouble, is a shortened form of the saying 'to bring a hornets' nest about one's ears'.  A hornet is a type of large wasp,which can inflict a savage sting.

    Thee expression 'to stir up a hornets' nest' implies the same degree of trouble as the phrase above - and suggests perhaps deliberate provocation too.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The back of beyond

    Post by Kitkat Sat 15 Apr 2017, 16:30

    THE BACK OF BEYOND

    This is an Australian expression, nineteenth century in origin, which is now commonly used to describe any remote area, but which originally referred to the vast spaces of the interior of the country, the Great Outback.

    The 'back', reduced from 'back country', is the outlying territory behind the settled regions, and the term 'backblock' is found in 1850, referring to those territories of Australia split up by the government into blocks for settlement.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Between the devil and the deep blue sea

    Post by Kitkat Sun 16 Apr 2017, 14:01

    BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

    Caught between two evils or dangers, in a dilemma with nowhere to turn.
     
    The saying may be of nautical origin, the 'devil' being a term for a seam in the hull of a ship that ran along the waterline.

    A commonly used modern phrase with a similar meaning is 'between a rock and a hard place'.

    'Between the devil and the deep blue sea' could also have been inspired by the ancient phrase 'to steer or sail between Scylla and Charybdis'.

    In Homer's Odyssey, Scylla was a six-headed monster who lived in a cavern overlooking a narrow channel off the cost of Sicily; she seized sailors from every passing ship with each of her six mouths.

    On the opposite rock, Charybdis, another monster, lived under a huge fig tree, from where she sucked in and regorged the sea, forming a treacherous whirlpool.

    In the poem, Odysseus sailed between these two perils, losing his ship in the whirlpool and the crew to Scylla.  Only he survived - by clinging to the fig tree.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Beware Greeks bearing gifts

    Post by Kitkat Thu 20 Apr 2017, 12:09

    BEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS

    Sometimes expressed as 'I fear Greeks even when they offer gifts' (Virgil [70-19 BC], Aeneid, 29-19 BC), this saying has its roots in the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan War.

    After a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by the Greeks, one of the remaining Greek besiegers (the Odysseus of the previous entry) devised an ingenious plan to invade the city.  He hid all his men in a huge wooden horse, which was left outside the city gates, and then the Greeks abandoned their posts. The Trojans mistakenly took the horse to be a tribute from their beaten enemy, and in celebration took the gift to the heart of their stronghold.

    When night fell, the Greek soldiers poured out of the horse and - having the element of surprise - were victorious in the final battle.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The big enchilada

    Post by Kitkat Sun 23 Apr 2017, 12:48

    THE BIG ENCHILADA

    The leader, the top man or woman, the boss.

    The phrase crops up in the infamous Watergate tapes, referring to the then US Attorney-General, John Mitchell (1913-88).  He led President Nixon's (1913-94) re-election campaign in 1972, and was later indicted on charges that he had conspired to plan the burglary of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC, and had then obstructed justice and perjured himself during the susequent cover-up; he was convicted in 1974.

    'The big enchilada' is a modernized version of earlier phrases that became popular in the mid 1970s, such as 'big gun' or 'the big cheese', both of which are used to describe VIPs,especially in business; a group of them may sometimes be facetiously described as les grands fromages.
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The Big Apple

    Post by Kitkat Mon 24 Apr 2017, 11:46

    THE BIG APPLE

    The well-known nickname for New York City.

    The name was first coined in the 1920s by John J. FitzGerald (1893-1963), a reporter for the Morning Telegraph, who used it to refer to the city's race tracks and who claimed to have heard it used by black stable hands in New Orleans in 1921.

    Black jazz musicians in the 1930s took up the name to refer to the city, especially Harlem, as the jazz capital of the world.  The epithet was then revived in 1971 as part of a publicity campaign to attract tourists to New York.

    The sentiment behind 'The Big Apple' is likely to be the idea of an apple as a symbol of the best, as in the apple of one's eye, meaning someone or something that is very precious.

    In the eighteenth century, the writer and politician Horace Walpole (1717-97) referred to London as 'The Strawberry', being impressed by its freshness and cleanliness compared with foreign cities; he named his estate at Twickenham, Middlesex, Strawberry Hill, and founded there the Strawberry Hill Press.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Big-stick diplomacy

    Post by Kitkat Wed 26 Apr 2017, 16:44

    BIG-STICK DIPLOMACY

    A political catchphrase which describes diplomatic negotiations that are backed up by the threat of military force.

    The term was brought to public attention in 1901 when then US Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) revealed in a speech his fondness for the West African proverb 'Speak softly and carry a big stick, you will go far'.  (Later, as President, he used such practices sucessfully in the Alaskan boundary dispute of 1902-4.)
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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty The Black Dog

    Post by Kitkat Fri 28 Apr 2017, 19:57

    THE BLACK DOG

    The metaphorical 'black dog' has various personalities.  Horace wrote that to see a black dog with its pups was a bad omen, and the Devil has frequently been symbolized by a black dog.

    After British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) referred to his depression as his 'black dog', the phrase also became a metaphor for this specific form of mental illness.

    In addition, 'black dog' is eighteenth-century slang for a counterfeit silver coin made of washed pewter.  Even then, 'black' when applied to ill-begotten money was a familiar term.

    There is another phrase, 'to blush like a black dog', which means not to blush at all.

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    The Cat's Pyjamas - Page 4 Empty Business as usual

    Post by Kitkat Sun 30 Apr 2017, 10:08

    BUSINESS AS USUAL

    This self-explanatory expression was widely used in Britain in the Second World War, and especially during the London Blitz and the blitzes on other major cities, when shops and businesses continued to open in spite of bomb damage.  In the capital, 'Business as usual' and 'London can take it' were commonly scrawled defiantly on the walls of damaged buildings.

    Winston Churchill popularized the phrase in 1941 in a speech at the Guild Hall in London when he said, "The maxim of the British people is: "Business as usual."

    A later Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret (Baroness) Thatcher (1925-2013) memorably evoked the fighting spirit behind these words after the lethal IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel in Brighton, in which she was lucky to escape death or serious injury, during the Conservative Party Conference of 1984.

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