BEST OF BRITAIN


“The British are known for loving their animals, so it is no surprise that cats and dogs feature in many English idioms.”


mal. When you let the cat out of the bag, you reveal the trader as a fraud.


Along similar lines, if you “throw a cat among the pigeons”,


then you cause a great upset by saying or doing things that make people cross. Another fascinating expression with cats is describing somebody as “the cat’s whiskers”, which means they are important and better than everybody else. Moving onto dogs, if you go to a social gathering and “every- body and their dog” turns up, then that means almost everybody possible came to that party. Finally, people are always intrigued by the saying “the hair of the dog”, which means to start drinking al- cohol again the next day to cure a hangover. Tis counter-intuitive idea may have come about from the early English medical idea that “a hair of the dog that bit you” was a good way to repair a wound, i.e. rub the hair of the dog into the bite he gave you.


Money


Money is another rich area for idioms and many of them have in- triguing origins. For example, we can say if somebody is rich that they are “rolling in it”, they have so much money they could roll around in it, but the opposite “strapped for cash” or “broke” means when somebody has very little or no money. If somebody comes from a wealthy family or is rich from birth,


then we say: “they are born with a silver spoon in their mouth”. Silver spoons were traditionally only used by the richer, upper classes and silver spoons used to be a traditional christening gift to a new baby. With the development of a more consumerist society throughout the past century, we see the phrase “to keep up with the Joneses”, which means to compete with your neighbours to have the best and latest gadgets and objects for the home and garden. Te phrase came from a comic strip called Keeping Up with the Joneses, created by Arthur R. “Pop” Momand in 1913, which was about two com- peting neighbours. Finally, the expression “scot free” means to escape punishment


or avoid the consequences of something when you expected to suf- fer. Although this sounds like it refers to Scotland, the origin of the expression is Scandinavian, because the word scot means payment. In the 13th century, a municipal tax called ‘scot’ was introduced


and everybody had to pay but the peasants were excluded, so they were known as “scot free”. In England, the scot tax lasted in some places for centuries until 1836 when it was finally abolished.


Very British idioms


Tere are some idioms which seem to have very British origins and people often ask me where they come from. For example, “mad as a hatter” to describe somebody who is completely crazy. Many people think this is a reference to the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland but actually Caroll took inspiration from real hatters, who sadly in the 17th and 19th centuries were slowly poisoned by the mercury they used for the hat felt. Tey experienced terrible symptoms such as irritability and trembling hands, seeming to be mad. Te expression “they were fired” is universally understood but in the UK we also say: “they got the sack/they were sacked”. Tis phrase came from craftsmen and labourers who would carry their tools around in a sack, which was given to their employer for safe keeping while working on a job. If they had to be asked to leave because of the quality of work, the sack was returned to them so they could just move onto the next job without the dis- grace of being fired. Brits like to tease, gently mock and make fun of each other and this is known as “taking the Mickey (or Mike/Michael)” in infor- mal language. Tere are a few theories about where it came from but most it likely originated in Cockney rhyming slag, referring to the invented character Mickey Bliss. A slightly older expression but still heard, is to “mind your Ps and Qs”, which means to be very polite, especially with older people and in formal situations. Tere are a couple of thoughts on where this came from. One theory says that it refers to please (Ps) and thank you (when said quickly it sounds like “thank-q”). However, there is also a very good story that pub landlords would make a note of the amount that their patrons drank with P (pints) and (Q) quarts.


Food


Finally, as in every language, food is a rich source for idioms and here I will explain a few of my favourites through a short story.


She was one of those who by fortune’s boon Are born, as they say, with a silver spoon in her mouth, not a wooden ladle


Thomas Hood www.focus-info.org FOCUS The Magazine 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40