MORE THAN SEW SO

OH MY~Am I glad it’s the weekend! Had 2 of my grandchildren all of this week 24/7. Now I love those boys more than life itself, but I now understand why God, in His infinite wisdom, gave the child-bearing years to the young. I may be young at heart, but my body says SIT DOWN, GRAMMA! I took the 4-year-old to Once Upon a Child which is a store that sells used children’s clothing, furniture and toys. Grandson had seen something he wanted when he was there last week with his Mom and wanted Gramma to buy it for him. It went into his Leap Frog which is a handheld “video” game. While there, he was explaining to me how the game worked and what this particular “insert” did and why it was EXTREMELY important that he have it. A lady stopped and listened to him for a minute and said, “My, you certainly are smart.” His response was a sweet smile and an “I know it”. After we got home and he had played his game for awhile as I watched, I said to him, “That looks like fun, maybe Gramma ought to get one of those games”. He suggested that maybe Santa would bring me one. I told him that I thought I would ask Santa to bring it for Christmas. His reply was, “Oh, Gramma, if you want one of those you have to be very, very precious!” I guess that’s something I’m going to have to work on.

If you remember in my last post (you DID read it, didn’t you?) I had written that I didn’t want to be a “stick in the mud” but didn’t really know what that meant. I knew it was used to describe someone that didn’t want to go along with what everyone else wanted to do, but couldn’t figure out where it got it’s beginning so I did a little research. I uncovered the “roots” of several phrases that I use quite often.

STICK IN THE MUD: Early examples of this phrase were to “stick in the briars” and to “stick in the mire”, which were used for a person who has got himself into a difficulty or trouble from which he is having trouble extricating himself. Stick-in-the-mud seems to have been modeled on these earlier forms but was first recorded in 1733 with essentially the modern meaning: a person who is stolid and unimaginative, content with his lot and unprepared to make an effort to improve it.

STARS AND GARTERS: (”Oh my stars and garters was an expression my Scotch Grandmother used often.)

An English expression that refers collectively to honors and awards. Perhaps the oddest-sounding is the Order of the Garter, (seen in the picture at right) the highest order of English knighthood, which was founded by Edward III around 1344. Since most of the honors of knighthood and the like come with a medal in the shape of a star, the phrase stars and garters appeared in the early eighteenth century as a collective reference to all these medals, honors and decorations and—by a figurative extension—to the group of people that hold them. The stars and garters expression appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a humorous expression of astonishment. World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2006.

UNDER THE WEATHER:

This popular phrase for “ill” dates back to 1827. It is commonly believed that bad weather can make you

sick. I believe that “under the weather” is an old sailor phrase. When men were sick, they would rest below deck and thus were literally “under” the weather on deck. Moreover, the deck they were under was likely “the weather deck”, meaning the most exposed deck on the ship, usually the foredeck (over the seamen’s quarters at the front end of the ship) or the quarterdeck (where the helm was located, high for a good view). Either way, if you needed to be sick, you wouldn’t want to “toss your cookies” where the wind could toss them back in your face, nor would anyone with you want you to do so. You’d be firmly told to “under the weather” to be sick.

FOR PETE’S SAKE: (One of my favorite phrases) It is an English phrase, Pete may be Saint Peter, who is traditionally regarded as the gatekeeper at heaven. So if you are enjoining someone to do something you might remind them that when they stand before the pearly gates, they do not want St peter to point out to them that they are not allowed in because they failed in some duty or were lacking in some way.

HEAVENS TO BETSY: The meaning is simple enough: it’s just a mild exclamation of shock or surprise. It is almost exclusively an American expression, associated in my mind with mature females of the Prohibition era or earlier (though this may just be a reflection of my recent reading). As to where it came from, nobody has the slightest idea. It seems to be one of those traditional sayings that have been around in the language for generations, but which only latterly have come to be recorded in print. The big Oxford English Dictionary has a first citation from 1914, but I’m told it can be found as far back as 1891. Some have tried to trace it to the Revolutionary War and to Betsy Ross, but have failed; others think it may have something to do with the frontiersman’s rifle, often called Old Betsy, but there’s no evidence that saying and name are associated. Charles Earle Funk, who in 1955 used the phrase as part of the title of a book about curious phrases, said that its origins were “completely unsolvable”. We have to leave it as one of the great mysteries of lexicography, along with the similar heavens to Murgatroyd. Unless someone reading this knows different?

GET ONE’S GOAT: Goats, of course, are famously irritable creatures (which is why you should never turn your back on one), but the precise logic behind “get one’s goat” has never been definitively established. The most popular theory, endorsed by H.L. Mencken among others, traces the idiom to the racetrack, where trainers believed that putting a goat in a skittish racehorse’s stall would calm the horse. If an unscrupulous gambler stole the goat the night before an important race, this theory goes, the horse might be so upset that its performance would be affected. Ergo, “to get one’s goat” meaning “to upset and thereby make vulnerable.”

SCOT FREE: To get off scot free means to escape without punishment – scot free (originally ’skot free’) meant ‘free of taxes’, particularly tax due from a person by virtue of their worth. One who avoided paying their tax was described as ’skot free’. ‘Scot and lot’ was the full English term for this levy which applied from 12th to 18th century. Scot was derived from the Norse ’skot’, meaning tax due from a tenant to his landlord; ‘lot’ meant the amount allotted. Less significantly, a ’skot’ was also a slate in Scottish pubs onto which customers’ drinks debts were recorded; drinks that were free were not chalked on the slate and were therefore ’skot free’.

HOLY COW: (Another one I use all the time.) Some believe that this comes from the bible story of Aaron fashioning a golden calf for the people to worship while Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments? Others think it has more to do with the worship of “Brahma” of the Hindus. (However the cow as a sacred symbol is ubiquitous among the ancient cultures during the age of Tarus.)

You have had your lesson on phrase origins for the day so, I’ll just say:

Until next time!

Filed under: history, origins, phrases