What Does That Mean? DEF

What Does That Mean?

DEF

Dead ringer
Meaning: A person or thing that looks so much like another that it could be mistaken for it.
Origin: The first story I heard (which is probably false) involved people being buried with strings attached to their fingers which would ring bells on the other side if the person woke up from a coma or another then-unknown condition. The less interesting but (probably) true origin lies with horses that were swapped with lookalikes combined with the word ‘dead’, meaning precise, such as ending a race in a ‘dead heat’.

Deadpan
Meaning: Having no emotional expression when delivering a message, usually associated with comedy. Leslie Nielson was known for his deadpan mannerisms.
Origin: In 1920s America, the word ‘pan’ became a slang term for ‘face’. Meaning ‘expressionless face’, ‘deadpan’ was likely first used in an article describing silent film star Buster Keaton. The versatile term is famous in grammatical circles for being a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb.

Deus ex machina
Meaning: Latin for “God from the machine”, this storytelling plot device is when a sudden and unlikely solution arises during a seemingly-impossible difficulty, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex attacking the velociraptors to “save” the people at the end of Jurassic Park.
Origin: In ancient Greece, actors playing gods were held above stages by pulleys (machines), intervening with the plays at crucial times. As storytelling developed, this method has often been used even when gods and/or machines are not involved.

Devil’s advocate
Meaning: Someone who brings up alternate possibilities for the sake of argument.
Origin: After a ‘holy’ person dies, somebody is appointed Promoter Of The Faith (a.k.a. devil’s advocate) and must argue against the person being canonized into sainthood. For the purpose of debate, this person would have to figure out how to convince others that someone should not be a saint, even if he or she thinks they should be! The title has been held by religious folks, atheists, and people in between.

Diamond in the rough
Meaning: A person who has good intentions and/or talent but lacks general manners.
Origin: A writing by English dramatist John Fletcher in 1624. The phrase refers to actual diamonds having the potential to be wonderful, but much work is needed to get them from coal, which has a rough texture.

Dive bar
Meaning: A small, un-stylish bar that often attracts older locals and serves cheap drinks.
Origin: In the 1800s, establishments like this were located in basements, under other businesses. People entering were often thought to “dive” into them.

Divine comedy
Meaning: A series of long, religious-themed poems including the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, written by Italian author Dante Alighieri in the 1300s. The fictional account describes Dante’s journey through the after-life, starting in Hell and ending in Heaven.
Origin: The word ‘comedy’ is not used as we know it today but signifies that the story told has a happy or up-lifting ending, as opposed to the sad conclusion of a ‘tragedy’. The work was first published as The Comedy Of Dante Alighieri but its reception was so high that the word ‘divine’ was used to describe it and eventually added to the popular title.

Doesn’t hold a candle to
Meaning: Cannot compete with.
Origin: Before electricity, workers needed apprentices to hold candles near them so they could see what they were doing. Saying somebody was bad at that job was a vicious insult.

Dog tags
Meaning: Pieces of identification worn by military personnel, often as a necklace made of metal.
Origin: Not known for sure but popular hypotheses are soldiers in World War Two claiming they were being treated like dogs, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst using the term to speak against Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s introduction of the social security program, or, more likely but less romantically, the IDs in question resembled the tags on dogs’ collars.

Don’t cry over spilled milk
Meaning: There is no point in being upset about something that cannot be changed.
Origin: The most common credit for this phrase points to English writer James Howell, who used it in a 1659 work. The reason he chose milk is unknown but it may have had to do with folk-lore, particularly fairies who loved milk and saw the spilled beverage as a nice offering.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
Meaning: Don’t question the value of a gift.
Origin: Likely a Latin phrase from the year 400, if not older. You can tell the age of a horse by inspecting its teeth. If given one as a gift, it would be rude to immediately try to determine the age.
Note: This origin also gives the phrase ‘long in the tooth’.

Don’t quit your day job
Meaning: Stick to what you are already good at instead of trying something new that will likely fail.
Origin: Though it may not have been the phrase’s first use, it is often credited to comedian Gene Baylos while roasting Milton Berle.

Don’t put all your eggs into one basket
Meaning: Don’t give all your resources to one plan, because if it fails you would be left with nothing.
Origin: The phrase was likely introduced to the world via the 1605 novel Don Quixote, though before that it may have been a well-known Italian and/or Spanish saying referring to actual eggs in actual baskets.

Don’t rain on my parade
Meaning: Do not spoil the good time I had planned.
Origin: The phrase might have been first introduced in a 1912 short story in the Schenectady Gazette, but it was made popular in a song of the same name from the 1964 musical Funny Girl.

Double dog dare
Meaning: A challenge with extra seriousness often following a regular dare, commonly used by schoolchildren.
Origin: A double dare is used to counter a dare and return the challenge to the original dare-poser. It is unknown why a dog was brought into this scenario, but it could very well have been due to alliteration (all words starting with the same letter/sound) and the fact that dogs are tough. The phrase was presented to the public in an 1896 book and became popular again after the release of the 1983 film A Christmas Story.
Note: If you want to retort against a ‘double dog dare’, use the term ‘black dog dare’. However, beware of the other person imposing a ‘double black dog dare’, rendering you completely helpless from attempting the challenge.

Double whammy
Meaning: Two negative things occurring at the same time.
Origin: In the 1940s, a ‘whammy’ was a kind of evil curse, like what people might say an unlucky sports team was going through. The ‘double’ part was probably coined by a boxing manager named Wirt Ross during an interview, who was so eccentric nobody knows for sure what he was actually talking about in that statement. The phrase was then made popular by the comic strip Li’l Abner.

Dressed to the nines
Meaning: Wearing very fancy clothes.
Origin: According to those who keep such records, the number nine is quite problematic when it comes to phrase origins. (‘Cloud nine’ and ‘the whole nine yards’ are amongst the puzzlers.) A suggestion for this one’s root claims that tailors once used nine yards of fabric to make elaborate clothing, though they would have been ridiculously huge. Its first known use was in an 1835 dictionary, though it’s un-clear why the author used the phrase.

Drop like flies
Meaning: Decrease suddenly and in great numbers, such as people losing in a tournament or dying from a spreading disease.
Origin: Not known but it was likely brought about in early-1900s Atlanta and referred to actual flies being fragile and easy to kill.

Dude ranch
Meaning: A vacation place focusing on typical American Western activities, such as horse-back riding and skeet shooting.
Origin: In the 1800s, the slang word ‘dude’ was used by cattle ranchers for city folk. People from urban areas began seeking trips to the West for breaks from their daily routines. Westerners capitalized on the idea and dude ranches were born.

Eat, drink, and be merry
Meaning: Enjoy life without worrying.
Origin: This phrase likely came from Greek philosopher Epicurus, who promoted focusing on pleasure, often known as Hedonism. Alternately, it is included several times in the Bible, most famously in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Note: The full phrase is ‘Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die’.

Eat crow
Meaning: Embarrassingly admit to one’s mistakes.
Origin: A story suggests that during the War Of 1812, a British soldier forced an American to eat a crow the latter had accidentally shot. Another notion points to the phrase’s initial use in an 1850 article about a farmer who was challenged to eat a crow. If either or neither of these is true, the idea of eating a crow is largely unappealing since it commonly feasts on dead flesh.

Eaves-dropping
Meaning: Covertly listening to a conversation that one perhaps should not hear.
Origin: An eave is the part of a roof that hangs over the side of a building. The space between it and the ground is known as the ‘eaves-drop’. To hear a private conversation inside the building, a person would probably have to stand in that area. This phrase was first used as early as the 800s.

Egg on your face
Meaning: To be embarrassed by a contradictory mistake one made, such as saying an object is very light then being unable to lift it.
Origin: Unclear. One possible source has to do with unsatisfactory theater actors being pelted with eggs. Another suggests farmers would find out which dog had been eating eggs because it would have some on its face. How either root got led to today’s usage is a mystery.

Elbow grease
Meaning: Energetic physical labor.
Origin: Likely first used in the 1600s and, even then, referred to hard work, though the expression’s original focus could have been on writing and/or a general term for sweat.

Elbows off the table
Meaning: It is considered rude to have one’s elbows on the table while eating.
Origin: An inventive (though likely false) tale suggests that men with elbows on tables in taverns would be abducted and forced to serve in the military. The idea likely began simply as a means of etiquette to prevent diners from encroaching on their neighbors’ eating space.

Et cetera
Meaning: Most often used at the end of a list and abbreviated ‘etc.’, this phrase signifies that there are further unnamed examples.
Origin: Latin for ‘and the rest’ or ‘and others’, et cetera has been part of the English language since at least the 1200s. There is an argument that the 1944 book Anna and the King of Siam and/or its cinematic adaptation, 1956’s The King and I, boosted the popularity of the phrase.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining
Meaning: Any situation, even a very negative one, has a positive aspect to it.
Origin: The phrase ‘silver lining’ was introduced in 1634 by English author John Milton, who is most famous for writing Paradise Lost. The saying as we know it can first be found in an 1840 novel review.

Everything but the kitchen sink
Meaning: A very large number of things, often to the point of excess or non-necessity.
Origin: Preceded by ‘everything but the kitchen stove’, this phrase was probably first used in 1911 in a Winnipeg newspaper and/or a novel called Prince Or Chauffeur? The idiom has always had the same meaning but why the kitchen stove/sink was included is unknown. It gained popularity during World War 2 as military slang when describing an intense battle.

Fairy tale
Meaning: A fictional story, usually told to children and involving magical beings. (Can also mean an imaginative lie.)
Origin: Part of the larger ‘folk tale’ category, the roots of fairy tales could go back 6,000 years, when they were told by mouth and not written. The term ‘fairy tale’ was coined by French writer Madame d’Aulnoy in the 1600s, since most of her fantastical stories contained at least one fairy. The phrase stayed within the genre but was quickly used to describe any tale with magical roots, whether a fairy was a character or not.

Fall guy
Meaning: A person set up to take blame for something who probably had little (if anything) to do with the situation.
Origin: In this phrase from the early-1900s, ‘fall’ was initially a slang term for a period of time spent in prison. The saying ‘fall money’ referred to an amount of cash set aside by a guilty person intended for the ‘fall guy’ upon release. The root of ‘fall’ is disputed but a popular theory suggests a person running away from a crime often trips and gets arrested as a result.
Note: The politically-correct term is now ‘fall person’, but ‘guy’ is commonly used because of tradition.

Fifteen minutes of fame
Meaning: A short amount of time in which a person becomes famous, usually for a silly reason rather than actual achievement, then is quickly forgotten by the public.
Origin: The actual coiner of the expression, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” is unclear but it has to do with artist Andy Warhol. If he did not say it himself, it was included in a program for his Swedish exhibit in 1968. The curator, a photographer, and a painter are among those who have taken credit for the phrase.

Fit as a fiddle
Meaning: In good health.
Origin: ‘Fit’ formerly meant ‘suitable’ and had nothing to do with health. English writer Thomas Dekker used the phrase around the year 1600 to describe someone’s appearance, since fiddles were considered prestigious and delicate.
Note: A fiddle is the same instrument as a violin.

Flash in the pan
Meaning: A person or thing that gains sudden popularity but is ultimately disappointing.
Origin: Muskets used to have small pans for holding gunpowder. When a gun was fired but no bullet came out, there was an actual flash in the pan. The phrase’s first known modern use was in a late-1600s critique of a play.

Follow suit
Meaning: Do something because another person did it first.
Origin: Playing-card games such as Bridge require participants to follow the suit of the opening card. The phrase possibly stems from the early-1800s, when card games were very popular.

For all the marbles
Meaning: To win everything in a competition.
Origin: This is related to the actual game of Marbles, in which certain shots can result in the shooter winning every marble on the table.

For the birds
Meaning: Useless and not worth pursuing.
Origin: American slang gave us this phrase, likely stemming from the time of horse-drawn carriages, when the beasts would drop manure and birds would rummage through it for seeds.

Forty winks
Meaning: A very short period of sleep.
Origin: English doctor William Kitchiner first used the phrase in an 1821 book, saying a quick nap was the best method to prepare for activity, though some relate it back to 1500s England, when prospective clergy had to read a very boring list of rules before entering the priesthood.

Freudian slip
Meaning: Intending to say one thing but mistakenly stating another, which is said to reveal subconscious truths or desires of the speaker.
Origin: A kind of parapraxis, or slip of the tongue, the idea was studied by Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, who supposedly thought of it when consulting with a man who mis-quoted a phrase from Virgil’s The Aeneid. The man left out a word referencing blood, which Freud related to the man’s girlfriend’s pregnancy and his negative emotions while experiencing it.
Note: It is not known why Freudian or any other verbal slips occur, as they are spontaneous and therefore difficult to study. Also, Freud did not use his own name while describing them, but it is believed the speaking error was set to honor him around 1951.