Friday 16 February 2018

Where Did That Come From?





I hope you're enjoying these little posts about unusual sayings or phrases.  Feel free to suggest ones I should do for future posts.


Pardon My French – I haven't heard this one much lately.  But it is used to apologise for using bad language.  Why French?  Apparently in days gone past the phrase was used when a French word was used in an English sentence.  But I suspect this has origins in Anglo/French rivalry of old.


Chew the fat – this means to have a chat with someone.  There is no agreement as  to the origins of this.  Equating having a nice chat  with chewing on a piece of animal fat doesn't seem that sensible!


Thick as thieves – thick here isn't meant in the sense of meaning stupid (like she's thick as a brick).  It means to be close to or being close allies – as in thieves conspiring together or sharing secrets.


Curiosity killed the cat – according to Wiki this is an Irish proverb.  It's meant to warn of the dangers of unnecessary experimentation. I was reminded of this by a TV ad for cat food where the tag line was 'feed their curiosity'.  In my experiences cats are both curious and good at staying alive.  It is possible that originally the saying was 'care killed the cat' – care, as in worry.

1 comment:

  1. I haven't seen some of your other posts on this but after reading this one, I bet they're really good. My unusual phrase is 'win hands down'. I don't know if you've got it already but it means to do something without a lot of effort!

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