What Does That Mean? MNO

What Does That Mean?

MNO

Mad as a hatter
Meaning: Crazy and susceptible to unpredictable behavior.
Origin: This phrase likely dates to when people who made hats (hatters) used mercury in the process, thus poisoning themselves and appearing to be crazy.

Make ends meet
Meaning: Earn enough money to live.
Origin: This phrase is thought to have been brought into English by a clergyman named Thomas Fuller in 1662 but could be even older. The French saying ‘joindre les deux bouts de l’année’ translates to roughly the same thing and refers to the ‘ends’ as the beginning and conclusion of the calendar year.

Mayday
Meaning: International distress signal sent via radio.
Origin: In 1923, English radio officer Frederick Mockford was tasked to coin an unmistakable word that would be used by ships and airplanes in dire need of assistance. Although the term itself is meaningless, he chose ‘mayday’ because it sounded like the French term ‘m’aider’, which means ‘help me’.

Mind your Ps and Qs
Meaning: Be on your best behavior.
Origin: Two hypotheses with the most support are: 1) Pints and Quarts, as drinks were once served in English pubs. The bartender (or whomever was tallying) had to keep accurate track of what was being consumed. 2) Children and/or print-shop workers were instructed to do this because the lower-case versions of the letters look similar.

Muckraker
Meaning: A person- especially a journalist- who finds and publicizes scandalous information about celebrities by using sneaky methods. (The paparazzi comes to mind.)
Origin: An actual muckraker was a person who made a living by clearing filth, such as mud or excrement. The current definition was introduced in a 1906 speech by President Theodore Roosevelt, comparing under-handed reporters to a character in the 1678 novel The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Munchausen by proxy
Meaning: A mental disorder that causes a person to invent an illness or injury for a person they are taking care of.
Origin: In 1700s Germany, a man named Karl Friedrich Hieronymus was famous for telling exaggerated stories about his time in the military. His noble title was the Baron Munchausen (or Münchhausen), though what exactly Munchausen was is not known. ‘Proxy’ comes from a Middle English word referring to a person who acts on behalf of another.

My cup runneth over
Meaning: I have more than what is needed.
Origin: Psalm 23 of the King James Bible states how comfortable King David is knowing that God is protecting him. He is adequately provided with what he needs and is confident his faith will guide him to goodness. David thanks God for supplying him with plenty and describes the situation as an over-flowing cup.
Note: This Psalm also features the phrase, ‘The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want’.

Neck of the woods
Meaning: Specific area, usually near where a person lives.
Origin: Early American settlers (Europeans) used the term ‘neck’ to describe narrow strips of land. How that passed into modern usage is uncertain but the word definitely comes from Old German.

Nit picking
Meaning: Criticizing a person or thing because of small details, seemingly just to speak badly of the situation.
Origin: The small eggs of lice are called nits. A human, gorilla, or other creature must use great care and attention to detail when removing nits from another’s head.

No spring chicken
Meaning: An often-insulting expression indicating that a person is no longer young and fit.
Origin: Farmers sell their chickens every Spring. Ones that are not sold will be offered the following year at a lower price, as they are no longer in their prime. The phrase as an insult likely came from a British periodical around 1700.

Noble gases (a.k.a. Inert gases)
Meaning: Elemental gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, radon) that have no color or odor, practice sustained stability, and react poorly with other chemicals. Their outer-most layers of electrons are full, preventing them from bonding.
Origin: In 1898, German chemist Hugo Erdmann used the term ‘Edelgas’ to describe these elements. This, of course, translates to ‘noble gas’, titled as such because people of nobility are often stubborn and avoid interactions with commonfolk.

Not in the cards
Meaning: Very unlikely to occur.
Origin: Since at least the 1800s, people have used cards (Tarot, common playing, or otherwise) to predict the future. In this arena, the phrase ‘in the cards’ means that something was destined to happen.

Not my cup of tea
Meaning: Something I do not like.
Origin: The British, who love drinking tea, began referring to favorable things as their ‘cups of tea’ in the 1930s, specifically meaning flavors of tea and not simply tea in general. The opposite phrase came about in similar fashion later in the decade.

Not out of the woods yet
Meaning: Having difficulties that prevent the intended result from completion.
Origin: The root of this phrase is disputed, but it may have begun in ancient Rome, late-1700s England, or from a letter between First Lady Abigail Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Regardless, its original meaning was literal, describing a person who was lost in a forest but emerged safely.
Note: The initial phrase had to do with not shouting until you were out of the woods, implying that you should not celebrate a victory until you are sure of it.

Oedipus complex
Meaning: Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud coined the phrase to mean a boy’s unconscious desire to get too familiar with his mother.
Origin: In Greek mythology, the baby Oedipus was left to die after an oracle predicted he would kill his father and marry his mother. Found and adopted by a neighboring city’s rulers, Oedipus learned of the prophecy and fled, believing those who raised him were his biological parents. On his journey, Oedipus encountered his biological father and killed him after an argument. He then ventured to the city of his birth, which he rid of the brutal Sphinx that guarded it. As a reward, Oedipus was set to marry the queen, who was, of course, his genetic mother. They had four children until discovering the truth, when she hanged herself and Oedipus gouged his eyes out. The prophecy was fulfilled.
Note: The female equivalent of this is the Elektra Complex, after the mythological Greek figure who plotted to murder her mother and step-father for killing her father.

Off the top of my head
Meaning: My first thought, without consideration.
Origin: An early use was in a 1939 by an advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, though the phrase likely began in 1920s London. The exact source of the phrasing is not known.

Old wives’ tale
Meaning: A story presented as true but actually based on superstition and/or nonsense.
Origin: The idea of passing word-of-mouth information through generations has been active for a long time. This phrase’s middle word comes from an Old English term meaning ‘woman’, married or not.
Note: Many modern fairy tales have their roots in old wives’ tales.

On a wing and a prayer
Meaning: With little chance of success.
Origin: This phrase is likely American and came about during the time of World War 2. One hypothesis suggests it was spoken in the 1942 film Flying Tigers while another claims it was written for a patriotic song in 1943. Regardless of its source, the idiom refers to a badly-damaged airplane returning to base with just enough fuel, wings, prayers, and whatever else to get there.

On cloud nine
Meaning: Very happy.
Origin: In literature, clouds have always been associated with bliss, even euphoria. The use of ‘nine’ has been disputed, possibly relating to meteorology, Buddhism, or a random phrase in a California newspaper.

On/Off the wagon
Meaning: On = abstaining from alcohol; Off = drinking alcohol after giving it up for a period.
Origin: Before Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933), water wagons were commonly used to clean streets. The story goes that people would climb onto these and swear they would rather drink the water inside than alcohol ever again. This is unconfirmed but seems to be the most likely root of the phrase.

One-horse town
Meaning: A small, seemingly-unimportant place.
Origin: It is not known who first used this phrase, but it likely happened in 1850s America, referring to a town so unimpressive that one horse could serve the transportation and agricultural needs of all who lived there.

One-trick pony
Meaning: A person who is skilled at only one thing.
Origin: The circus gave us this term. A story says that in 1800s Oregon a traveling circus, slangily called a ‘dog and pony show’, featured a pony whose only trick was playing dead. The bored audience was furious and somehow popularized the saying. Though it is not known for sure if the tale is actually true, something like it is probable.

Once in a blue moon
Meaning: A rare occurrence.
Origin: A “blue moon” is the second full moon within one calendar month. The Moon can appear blue after a big volcanic eruption, which happens even more rarely than the expression suggests. The modern usage likely arose in the 1800s.
Note: There are 29.5 days between full moons, so a ‘blue moon’ happens less than every three years- a fairly short amount of time, depending on the context.

Open a can of worms
Meaning: Create a series of troubles because of one act.
Origin: This phrase dates to at least the 1950s, when fisher-people would get live bait in actual cans. Leaving the container open would result in worms escaping and therefore producing the messy situation of trying to get them back into the can. It is unclear how the saying came to mean any cause of problems but it was definitely used in print by 1951.

Open Pandora’s box
Meaning: Initiate a series of problems.
Origin: In Greek mythology, Zeus (king of the gods) created the beautiful Pandora (the first mortal woman) as a wife for the Titan Epimetheus. For their wedding, Zeus gifted Pandora a jar (later translated as ‘box’) but instructed her to never open it. Humans tend to be curious, so the bride opened the jar anyway and all the world’s evils (greed, disease, death, etc.) escaped from it. Zeus knew Pandora would do this and it served as a punishment for Epimetheus’s brother, Prometheus, who disobeyed the god by giving the knowledge of fire to humans.

Out of the blue
Meaning: Unexpectedly.
Origin: The complete saying is a bolt out of the blue, referring to lightning suddenly coming from a clear, blue sky. The earliest recorded use of it was in an 1837 history of the French Revolution by Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle.

Oxymoron
Meaning: A word or phrase that seems to contradict itself if taken at face value, such as ‘pretty ugly’, ‘jumbo shrimp’, or ‘seriously funny’.
Origin: Greek words meaning ‘sharp’ and ‘foolish’, claiming that a purposeful mistake was made. The word’s first known use was in a 1657 writing by English author John Smith.