Posted on 05/05/2016 5:03:45 AM PDT by harpygoddess
"Hang up the phone." comes from one specific kind of land-line phone that had a kind of hook you'd hang the handset from when you were done. Doing so would pull down the hook that was connected to a switch inside the phone that would disconnect the line.
And lots of nautical stuff:
Groggy - In 1740, British Admiral Vernon (whose nickname was "Old Grogram" for the cloak of grogram which he wore) ordered that the sailors' daily ration of rum be diluted with water. The men called the mixture "grog". A sailor who drank too much grog was "groggy".
Leeway - The weather side of a ship is the side from which the wind is blowing. The Lee side is the side of the ship sheltered from the wind. A lee shore is a shore that is downwind of a ship. If a ship does not have enough "leeway" it is in danger of being driven onto the shore.
Pipe Down - Means stop talking and be quiet. The Pipe Down was the last signal from the Bosun's pipe each day which meant "lights out" and "silence".
Slush Fund - A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff called "slush" was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund.
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That is funny. I would love to have seen the look on her face as she made that pronouncement. And probably the look on your face.
Full steam ahead!
Lock, stock and barrel. (Flintlock rifle)
tv was the tube, memory banks
Hanging fire.
Keep your powder dry.
The whole nine yards.
Lock, stock, and barrel.
A lot of Latin roots reveal such misinformed associations, as well
Lunatic - (perhaps akin to sundown syndrome) that one’s ability to stay rational was compromised by the presence of the moon
Hysteria - that out of control emotional behavior was a result of a malfunctioning uterus (maybe this association isn’t so misinformed...).
Thanks for posting. I scatter these phrases around when I start a Grumpy Old Man routine for the grandkids.
Grandpa, why do you call the TV remote a clicker?
Can someone tell me how to “gird my loin”?
Good one !
"You can trust your car to the man who wears the star"
The earliest known citation I know of for ‘the whole nine yards’ is from 1907, which disproves any WWI or II origin. From The Mitchell Commercial (an Indiana newspaper) 2 May 1907:
“This afternoon at 2:30 will be called one of the baseball games that will be worth going a long way to see. The regular nine is going to play the business men as many innings as they can stand, but we can not promise the full nine yards.”
The same paper a year later, 4 June 1908:
...Roscoe went fishing and has a big story to tell, but we refuse to stand while he unloads. He will catch some unsuspecting individual some of these days and give him the whole nine yards.
Another fascinating game of connections is how many of our everyday phrases have Biblical origins. Here is just a small sample:
By the skin of my teeth (Job 19:20)
Practice what you preach (Matt 23:3)
Pride goes before the fall (Prov 16:18)
the apple of my eye (Ps 17:8)
saw the handwriting on the wall (Dan 5)
Jumping the gun
Give him both barrels
Shooting blanks
Under the gun
Smoking gun
Gunning for
Hired gun
Stick to you guns
...and a thousand more
“Lock and load”
Why does little Johnny look like the milk man?
So Franklin would have been just a flash in the pan?
Maybe that’s just your opinion as an Oriental, Katana.
Franklin was also a brilliant scientist, and that’s not an old wives’ tale.
Can’t go into more detail, It’s the top of the hour and I’m running late.
I will, but first you need to batten down the hatches.
I was in the Navy so I know how to hatch batten.
When english is a 2nd language, using colloquialisms to define technical issues doesn't work very well...
Hummmmmm.......because he delivers milk after dad has gone to work?
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