Garden-variety
Meaning: Average, common,
ordinary.
Origin: This was a
popular phrase in the early 1900s to describe plants usually found in gardens.
How it extended beyond the plant world is unclear but it was probably due to
its everyday use in garden-variety slang.
Gas-lighting
Meaning: Tricking someone
into questioning their own sanity.
Origin: A 1938 stage
play (and 1944 film based on it) called Gaslight told the story of a man who
convinced his wife she was imagining sights and sounds around their house,
which he was actually causing while looking for valuable jewelry. The dimming
of gas-powered lamps that lit their home was a key device in the plot, hence
the title.
Get
off scot-free
Meaning: To do something
without punishment although that should be the result.
Origin: In medieval
England, a ‘scot’ was a property tax that some people got out of paying because
their land was in an unfavorable area.
Get
off your soapbox
Meaning: Stop preaching
unwanted advice and personal opinions.
Origin: An area of
London’s Hyde Park called Speakers’ Corner has been a spot for people to
publicly voice their views since 1872. At first, speakers would stand on wooden
boxes made for transporting soap to be seen by the crowd.
Get
one’s feet wet
Meaning: Begin
involvement with a new activity in a cautious, slow manner.
Origin: Though possibly
untrue, the ancient Romans had a pre-battle ritual of soldiers dipping their
feet in water, possibly influenced by the Bible (Joshua 3). The more common
(but less interesting) root dates to the 1500s when timid people would test
water before getting into it.
Get
the ball rolling
Meaning: Begin an
activity.
Origin: During the
American presidential election of 1840, supporters of William Henry Harrison
were invited to push Victory Balls (actual balls made of tin and leather
measuring 10 feet in diameter) between campaign stops. While doing this,
spectators would often shout “Keep the ball rolling”. How this came to mean
starting any endeavor is not known.
Note: Harrison won the
election but died 33 days into the term from pneumonia. His inauguration speech
was about 90 minutes long and given during a snow-storm. He refused to shorten
the address or wear proper clothing while giving it, resulting in the shortest
presidency in American history.
Get
the hang of it
Meaning: Learn how to do
something after several less-than-successful attempts.
Origin: Unknown but
there are two popular hypotheses: 1) It has something to do with an
unidentified kind of tool, or 2) Some public executioners were so good at their
duty that a tongue-in-cheek thing to say was they “got the hang of it”.
Give
110%
Meaning: Make the maximum
amount of effort.
Origin: Unclear but
since the phrase is common in sports, that world may very well be the source,
when a coach or players calculated a plan mathematically.
Note: Giving more than
100% of something with a finite capacity is impossible.
Give
up the ghost
Meaning: Cease working
and die, in reference to a person or machine.
Origin: Though it may
have been used earlier, this Biblical phrase can be traced back to a 1535
version by preacher Myles Coverdale, the first person to fully translate the
Bible into English. It rejoined popular culture in 1832, when James Paulding
used the saying in his story, Westward Ho!, and is currently used more
often for machinery than living creatures.
Go
ape/bananas
Meaning: Act wildly
because of excessive anger or excitement.
Origin: These phrases
referred to how animated gorillas would get when seeing bananas and both
expressions were used to describe passionate activists at American colleges in
the 1960s.
Go
down the rabbit hole
Meaning: Descend into
unfamiliar environments and become addicted to seeking further information.
Origin: In Lewis
Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Alice chases a
strange rabbit into its hole and encounters increasingly-bizarre experiences.
The phrase was frequently used in scholarly papers then gained common
popularity via the 1999 film The Matrix.
Go
for broke
Meaning: Risk everything
in trying to attain a goal.
Origin: The 1951 war
film of the same name brought this phrase to popularity, but its root probably
rests in Hawaiian slang for betting everything on a roll of dice.
Go
off half-cocked
Meaning: Do or say
something before it is appropriate.
Origin: When single-shot
guns had to be fully-cocked to fire, one going off before that point meant a
mistake had been made. The phrase dates to the 1700s and was also used by
writers to mean ‘drunk’.
Go
through the roof
Meaning: 1) Become
extremely angry. 2) Unexpectedly rise to a high level, such as prices or sales.
Origin: The root is
unclear, but the phrase appears to have been created in the first half of the
1900s and referred to attaining a great speed to actually go through a roof,
which would probably not be expected.
Go
with the flow
Meaning: Adapt to and
embrace whatever is currently happening.
Origin: Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius and playwright William Shakespeare are both credited with using
the root of this phrase, though it is not known for sure if either or neither
is the true originator. The former described happiness as “flowing” and said
going against it was difficult and often problematic. Shakespeare referred to
tides flowing in his play Julius Caesar. Regardless, the saying itself is
thought to have arisen in the 1900s.
Going
swimmingly
Meaning: Happening
without any problems.
Origin: Unknown but the
phrase is thought to have been introduced in the 1600s and was related to the
smooth, seemingly-effortless act of swimming.
Going
to Hell in a handbasket
Meaning: Quickly heading
toward something’s demise.
Origin: This phrase is
likely an alternative way of saying ‘going to Hell’. The vehicle being a
handbasket likely has no significance but begins with H and has a catchy sound.
Despite this, a popular thought suggests that people during the American gold
rush were lowered into dark mines via baskets to set up dynamite. Almost
anything could have gone wrong.
Good
Samaritan
Meaning: A person who
performs an act of kindness to someone in need, regardless of the risk, even if
the recipient is unknown to the helper.
Origin: In the Bible’s
book of Luke, a parable (moral story) tells of a traveler to the region of
Samaria in modern-day Israel. The traveler had been robbed, beaten, and
stripped but because he was an outsider, nobody (including a rabbi) stopped to
help him since Samaritans and Jews often conflicted. Eventually, a Samaritan
put aside his pride to aid the traveler.
Note: In the United
States, a person is legally required to help another who is in imminent danger.
The Good Samaritan Laws protect helpers from being charged if they
unintentionally harm victims, such as breaking a rib while performing
life-saving CPR on a stranger. This was implemented to encourage citizens to
help each other without fear of legal punishment.
Goosebumps
Meaning: Involuntary
muscle contractions at the base of hair follicles, which are often caused by
cold weather or strong emotions, such as fear. People also get “the chills”
when experiencing something intense, such as a gripping piece of music or an
emotional story.
Origin: A human’s
goosebumped skin resembles that of a feather-less bird. The word as we know it
can be traced back to ‘goose-flesh’, probably from the 1600s. Languages other
than English have the same expression but often refer to the skin of a chicken,
turkey, or other avian creature.
Note: Some animals get
goosebumps to guard against the cold and make themselves appear bigger near a
threat. It is thought that humans were once much hairier and would have used
them in the same way, but they are now seen as an unnecessary leftover from
Evolution.
Greenhouse
gases
Meaning: Gases that trap
heat in Earth’s atmosphere, leading to a warming climate. The main greenhouse
gas is carbon dioxide and others include methane, nitrous oxide, and human-made
fluorinated gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans.
Origin: A plant-growing
greenhouse stays warm by preventing warm air from escaping, which converts
light into heat energy. Earth’s atmosphere’s “greenhouse effect” absorbs
infrared radiation and re-distributes it. In 1901, Swedish meteorologist Nils
Ekholm wrote a paper comparing Earth’s climate to a greenhouse, though it is
disputed if he was the first to do so.
Habeas
corpus
Meaning: A right in the
American Constitution that prevents a suspect in a criminal case from being
unlawfully detained, such as holding the person based on a feeling rather than
because of evidence.
Origin: Loosely
translated from Latin to ‘you have the body’, the legal phrase was used in
England as early as the 1200s, since Latin had been used for official
proceedings due to the expansion of the Roman Empire. England’s Habeas Corpus
Act of 1679 enacted the process as an official right, which the American
“founding fathers” adopted since most of them were from England.
Hail
Mary
Meaning: A last-minute,
desperate attempt to win.
Origin: In Christianity,
Hail Mary is a prayer honoring the mother of Jesus. In a 1922 college football
game, players from Notre Dame said the prayer while huddling before an
important play- and it worked. The scheme was successful again later in the
game and the phrase (obviously, in a non-religious sense) has been used in the
football world since. In a 1975 interview, quarterback Roger Staubach called
his long pass a Hail Mary, popularizing the term and its eventual use in the
non-sports arena.
Hair
of the dog that bit you
Meaning: An alcoholic
drink consumed after one got too intoxicated. Usually the main beverage that
got the person into that state, doing so supposedly gets rid of a hangover.
Origin: In medieval
England, putting fur from a rabid dog in a victim’s wound was thought to help
cure it. As this practice faded, the phrase became used to describe alcohol
consumption, though it is not clear how.
Note: The method does
not work to cure hangovers nor wounds from animals but taking a drink after
being bitten by a creature might help a person calm down.
Hanging
chad
Meaning: Paper ballots in
elections have two parts. Typically, when a vote is cast, the spot next to a
candidate’s name is fully pierced and the other part of the ballot falls off.
When a hole is partially punched and the second part (the “chad) does not fully
separate, it results in an invalid vote. This phrase became popular during the
Bush/Gore election of 2000.
Origin: The use of
‘chad’ goes back until at least the 1930s but its origin relating to the voting
process is unknown.
Note: A ‘pregnant
chad’ happens when a vote does not pierce the paper but instead leaves a bulge,
also resulting in an invalid vote.
Happy
as a clam
Meaning: Very happy.
Origin: Open clams
appear to be smiling at high tide, when they are free from predators.
Confederate general Robert E. Lee may have coined the phrase, but regardless,
it is fairly certain that it came from 1800s American lingo.
Note: The full
expression is ‘as happy as a clam at high tide’.
Have
a field day
Meaning: Enjoy something
greatly, even when it’s unfortunate for another person.
Origin: First used by
the English military in the 1700s to describe days spent in actual fields
practicing maneuvers, the phrase eventually referred to any event held in a
field and somehow evolved into its current definition.
Heard
it through the grape-vine
Meaning: Learned about
something via rumor or speculation instead of an official announcement.
Origin: Along the route
of the Underground Railroad, a common method of communication was to hang
specifically-colored clothing. This was often done with rope, but grape-vines
were used in its stead. The phrase kept its meaning but came about in a
different way after the telegraph was invented because the wires used resembled
grape-vines. The saying became very popular during the American Civil War and
took off in 1968, when Motown singer Marvin Gaye released his version of ‘I
Heard It Through The Grape-vine’, which was originally recorded by Gladys
Knight & The Pips.
Heavy
metal
Meaning: A genre of rock
music often exhibiting fast guitars and pounding drums along with shouting
and/or growling vocals. (This is a general description as there are exceptions
and sub-genres that feature alternate or additional qualities.)
Origin: While heavy
metals have been known to Chemistry for centuries, the musical genre is said to
have begun when Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were all founded
in 1968 Birmingham, England, where several metal-making factories existed.
‘Heavy’ was used in the 1950s as another word for ‘deep’ or ‘profound’. The
exact root of ‘heavy metal’ relating to music is uncertain, though popular
theories suggest American writer William S. Burroughs coined the phrase in his
1962 novel The Ticket That Exploded while others credit the band Steppenwolf
because of their lyric ‘heavy metal thunder’ in the 1968 song Born To Be Wild.
Hedge
your bets
Meaning: Protect yourself
from loss by supporting more than one outcome, like betting on both sides of a
sporting event.
Origin: An English play
from 1672 in which a character placed one large wager and several smaller
(opposing) ones in case the big one was a loser.
Heir
apparent
Meaning: A person
next-in-line to succeed something whose claim to it cannot be taken away.
Origin: This phrase
traces to 1400s France and the word ‘aparant’, meaning evident or obvious.
French places adjectives after nouns.
Note: This differs
from an ‘heir presumptive’, whose right to succession can be removed. For
example, the step-child of a monarch would no longer be next in line if said
ruler had a genetic child during the reign.
High-tailed
it
Meaning: Left very
quickly.
Origin: Some animals,
such as deer and rabbits, raise their tails when running away from something to
warn others of danger.
High
and mighty
Meaning: A person who thinks
and/or acts like they are more important than others.
Origin: In the Middle
Ages, wealthy people commonly rode horses, appearing higher and mightier than
those of less influence. The phrase likely started with sarcasm and has since
been used with that tone.
Highway
robbery
Meaning: The unfair
profiting of one side from a business transaction, such as a deal gone bad or
high asking prices. It can also be used literally to describe a
carjacking.
Origin: In 1500s
England, travelers along main routes were often robbed due to lack of
protection, even though the crime was punishable by death. This practice led to
organized gangs of highwaymen performing the act. The phrase was likely
first used in its current form in the 1890s, though it is unclear how that came
to be.
Hock
(or Hawk) a loogie
Meaning: Spit out mucus
from the nose and/or throat.
Origin: Unknown, but
there are hypotheses for both parts of the phrase. Hock or Hawk both relate to
peddling goods. In the 18th century, hockers/hawkers commonly
cleared their throats loudly to get the attention of potential customers.
‘Loogie’ may have its roots from the German word ‘luger’ (a type of pistol) or
a reference to Lou Gehrig’s habit of spitting while playing baseball or simply
a version of the word booger (which itself comes from an old idea that the
‘bogeyman’ would fill one’s nose with mucus).
Hold
water
Meaning: Seem valid or
reasonable, as a statement about an unfamiliar topic.
Origin: In the 1600s, a
bucket (or other vessel) that was leak-proof was valuable and could be trusted.
Hole
in the wall
Meaning: A small,
obscure, unassuming establishment.
Origin: This (probably)
first applied to places that sold alcohol illegally. A popular, though
unsubstantiated, hypothesis states poor people had holes in their walls for
secretly receiving charitable donations. How it got to its current state from
either (or both) of those sources is a mystery.
Note: In the United
Kingdom, the phrase is used in reference to an ATM.
Holy
moly
Meaning: An utterance of
surprise.
Origin: This phrase
probably has biblical roots and is an alternate version of ‘Holy Moses’ or
‘Holy Mary’. It was popularized in the 1940s when comics character Captain
Marvel often used it to express shock.
Honeymoon
Meaning: A vacation taken
by a newly-wedded couple.
Origin: Not known for
sure but the term may come from 1500s England or Scandinavia. Married partners
were commonly given enough mead (liquor made from fermented honey) for a month
(roughly one lunar cycle).
Hoof
it
Meaning: Travel by foot,
sometimes quickly and/or because faster transportation is not available.
Origin: Unknown but is
said to have been coined in the 1640s and briefly meant “to dance” in 1920s
slang.
Horsepower
Meaning: A unit of
measurement describing how much energy an engine needs to move 33 pounds of
something 1,000 feet in one minute (or equivalent variations, such as moving
1,000 pounds 33 feet in one minute).
Origin: The story goes
that Scottish engineer James Watt (of light bulb power fame) was watching
ponies lift coal in buckets at mining sites and wanted a way to gauge their
work. As a fan of Mathematics, he calculated the strength of a pony then of a
horse and applied it to his steam engine, which had around 10 horsepower. His
result was not exact but close enough for the word to still be used.
Note: A single horse
can produce up to 15 horsepower, though it usually produces roughly one, making
the term accurate.
How
do you like them apples?
Meaning: Bragging phrase
meant to taunt an adversary who did not get what they wanted.
Origin: World War 1,
when grenades were referred to as ‘apples’. The usage of ‘them’ is disputed but
was likely just an improper way of speaking.
I’ll
be a monkey’s uncle
Meaning: I am very
surprised.
Origin: This phrase
(probably) has to do with Charles Darwin’s scientific theory of Evolution. It
was used sarcastically by Creationists shortly after his work was published to
make fun of the idea that humans were closely-related to apes.
In
a nutshell
Meaning: Summarized with
a few words. (Making a long story short.)
Origin: In the year 77,
Roman writer Pliny The Elder wrote that the content of Homer’s famous story The
Iliad could be condensed to fit within a nut-shell. (A translation of
Pliny’s work explains that many instances were exaggerated, such as a person
being able to see something 135 miles away.) British novelist William Makepeace
Thackeray used the phrase in his 1841 book The Second Funeral Of Napoleon,
which may have been the root of the saying we know today.
In
the closet
Meaning: Hiding one’s
sexual identity from the world.
Origin: The closet has
been a metaphor for privacy since at least the 1600s. The gay community adopted
the phrase in the 1960s, hence today people “come out of the closet” when
announcing their homosexuality.
In
the limelight
Meaning: With attention from the public.
Origin: In the 1800s, theater productions were often
lit using quick-lime, the burning of which produced a bright white light that
could focus on an actor or section of the stage. Though effective, it was a
fire hazard and got replaced with electric lighting around 1879.
It
ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings
Meaning: If something is
still in progress, do not assume to know what the outcome will be.
Origin: The fourth and
final part of German composer Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle opera series ends
with a 10-minute solo performed by the actress playing the role of Brunnhilde.
This woman is often large in stature with a powerful voice, making the
performance literally over when the fat lady sings. The phrase became
popular in US sports via baseball legend Yogi Berra and/or various
broadcasters.
It
takes two to tango
Meaning: More than one
person or reason is always responsible for a situation.
Origin: This idiom was
coined by the composing team of Al Hoffman and Dick Manning, whose 1952 song
‘Takes Two To Tango’ was famously performed by Louis Armstrong and Pearl
Bailey, among others. When referring to the South American dance, it indeed
does take two people to Tango.
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