Wiregrass Seniors Magazine August 2017 AUGUST ISSUE | Page 21

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Origins Of Popular Sayings
"Let the cat out of the bag."
Meaning to reveal a secret, "letting the cat out of
the bag" finds its roots in 18th-century street fraud.
Suckling pigs were often sold in bags, and a popu-
lar scheme was to replace the pig with a cat and
sell it to an unwitting victim.
"You're pulling my leg."
Meaning to tease someone or jokingly lie to them,
"pulling one's leg" actually has sinister origins,
rooted in the criminal world of the 18th century.
Street thieves would literally pull victims down by
their leg in order to more easily rob them.
"Eating crow."
To eat crow means to admit fault or be proved
wrong after taking a strong position. The Bible lists
crow as unfit for eating, and along with buzzards
and rats, it was actually illegal to eat crow in the
Middle Ages. As such, it was notably humiliating
to consume.
"Break a leg."
The term "break a leg" originates in theater. Since
superstitions run rampant in the theater, it's not sur-
prising to learn that wishing someone good luck
outright is actually considered bad luck. Instead, it
was more suitable to wish ill will on someone be-
fore a performance, since the opposite was sup-
posed
"Can't hold a candle to..."
Before electricity, workers needed a second set
of hands to hold a candle for them. Holding a candle
was clearly a less challenging job, so someone
who isn't even qualified to provide light to a com-
petent worker obviously wouldn't be able to per-
form the task himself.
"Dressed to the nines."
Meaning to dress exceptionally well, there's no con-
crete consensus on the origin of "dressing to the
nines," but the most popular theory comes from
the fact that the very best suits used a full nine yards
of fabric.
"Close, but no cigar."
Carnivals used to give out cigars as prizes, so al-
most winn ing would get you close to achieving a ci-
gar, but not quite. The phrase evolved in meaning
and now refers to coming close to a goal but falling
short.
"Once in a blue moon."
A blue moon is the second full moon in a single cal-
endar month, and it's rare as heck. The phrase "once
in a blue moon" is used colloquially to mean some-
thing that doesn't happen very often.
"Mind your p's and q's."
In the 17th century, pubs served beer in pints and
quarts. If a patron was getting unruly, the bartender
might warn them to mind their p's and q's. Now the
term simply means to mind your manners, drunk or
not.
"The kiss of death."
"The kiss of death" marks the demise of something.
Its roots rest in the Italian mafia, where someone
who's been marked for death receives the meta-
phorical kiss prior to execution.
"Stay on the straight and narrow."
Today it means to generally stay out of trouble, but
the original phrase is actually biblical in origin. Mat-
thew 7:13/14 described the gates to heaven as
"strait" and the way to eternal life as "narrow."
"Three sheets to the wind."
Sailors had a lot of terms for being drunk and they
all related to the ship. Being tipsy was "a sheet in
the wind's eye" and being hammered was a full "three
sheets to the wind." The sheets in question were
actually the ropes that held down the sails, so if all
three ropes were loose, the sails would billow about
like a drunken sailor.
"White Elephant."
Albino elephants were highly regarded in Southeast
Asia, and they were cared for lavishly. The term "white
elephant" eventually evolved to mean any valuable
but burdensome possession of which its owner can-
not dispose and whose cost of upkeep is out of pro-
portion to its usefulness or worth.