Straight from the Horse's Mouth

By Stephen Liddell

The English language is incredibly rich with centuries of history behind it. This does mean though that a lot of us use phrases today but we have absolutely no idea of why? What do they mean? Where does the saying come from?

The meaning and origins of 100 common idioms or phrases are explained in this irreverent journey through the English language. This book takes you from the ancient world to the modern day and covers almost every aspect of life, it will open your eyes to the rich and fun heritage of the English language, maybe make you think twice but definitely raise a smile.

'The writings on the wall' though we don't want to 'blow our own trumpet' so 'keep your shirt on', we'll give you the 'full monty', 'Warts and all' lowdown on 100 of the most interesting Idioms. This isn't a 'damp squib' that deserves to be 'left on the shelf.' and that's 'Straight from the horse's mouth'!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Liddell
• Release date: May 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370772308

Stephen Liddell

Author Stephen Liddell lives in Hertfordshire, just outside London, England. For Stephen, writing started as a hobby and turned into a career as he became a multi-genre writer and historian for magazines, online resources and of course his first love, books.When not writing, Stephen enjoys travelling with his wife and personally runs Ye Olde England Tours which specialise in private tours to historic and cultural attractions. Stephen loves meeting people from all walks of life and this often shows through in his stories.For more information on Author Stephen Liddell please visit his website www.stephenliddell.co.uk for links to his books, blogs and tours.

Book preview

Straight From The Horse's Mouth:

100 Idioms, their Meanings and Origins

Written by Stephen Liddell

First Published in 2017

Copyright © 2017 Stephen Liddell

Front Cover Art and Internal Illustrations by Jo Robinson

The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my great friend Dave Miller. A wonderful and entertaining wordsmith.

Acknowledgements

My thanks go out to all those who helped me with this book. Specials thanks to the very talented Jo Robinson for her superb cover art and illustrations which excellently capture the themes of the book.

Also to Colin Craigie for his assistance in preparing the manuscript.

Introduction

What is an Idiom? The Oxford English Dictionary defines an Idiom as being A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.

Many Idioms sound quite bizarre and have seemingly inexplicable origins that are totally lost to us today. Partly this is because English is such an incredibly rich, flexible and imaginative language. Just as we invent slang and new words today, so too did our forbears.

Some of the everyday expressions you might say may be a complete mystery but finding out their origins can be a lot fun as well as demonstrating just a little bit of our military, historic and literary culture. Some have surprisingly graphic metaphors though nothing too graphic I hope!

Several of the more bizarre idioms in the English language appear to have completely inexplicable origins. Out Of The Horse’s Mouth takes a closer look at some of these phrases that have made their way into everyday life despite many of us not knowing why or how.

1. Bob’s your Uncle.

Meaning: The natural result of an event or circumstance. Similar to the French term ‘Et Voila’.

We’ve all heard and most likely used this Idiom. Most people know its meaning even if we don’t know why we say it. If you’re anything like me, you’d insist in your early years that you don’t even have an uncle named Bob.

Origin: Whilst you and I may not have an uncle Bob, back in 1886 a young Arthur Balfour wanted to progress in the world of politics. To the surprise of many, he was made Chief Secretary for Ireland; an unpopular decision to say the least. How could someone be given such an important position against all the odds? Things become a little clearer when you think about how Lord Salisbury, who was the Prime Minister of the day was also the uncle of Arthur Balfour. The name of the Prime Minister was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil. So Arthur gained his high office because of his uncle, Bob.

2. Mad as a hatter.

Meaning: To be completely insane.

This Idiom seems to be insanely irreverent. Why on earth would a hatter be considered mad? Some assume it is due to the memorable Mad Hatter character in Alice in Wonderland. In reality, it’s likely that the Mad Hatter was himself influenced by the older origins of the phrase.

Origin: Traditionally in the 18th and 19th century, mercury was used in felting and hat making. We now know that mercury is highly toxic and the poisoning that hat makers suffered was a direct result of mercury poisoning. Some of the milder symptoms included slurred speech, tremors, stumbling, and later in extreme cases, hallucinations.

3. Kick the bucket.

Meaning: To die.

This one always struck me as particularly strange. Why would anyone or anything kick the bucket when they die?

Origin: There is a popular belief that this phrase might originate from when a prisoner is about to be hanged, that they would be stood on a bucket which would then be kicked out from under them for the hanging to take place.

This sounds good but if you think about it for a while, who uses a bucket either to hang someone else or even to commit suicide. Surely most people use a chair, table or even a small ladder.

Going back to around 1570, an English Dictionary records the word ‘bucket’ as being a synonym for a wooden beam. Back then, animals would be hung upside down from the beam before being slaughtered. During their death throes, the animals would often thrash out and kick the bucket.

4. Bite the bullet.

Meaning: To do something unavoidable which is never the less very unpleasant or difficult to do.

Origin: Unlike biting the dust, this Idiom doesn’t relate to dying though in some ways its original meaning was almost as bad.

In the old days before general anaesthetic, patients would be given something to bite on during an operation as the pain would be so unbearable. In normal circumstances, some wood or perhaps leather would be used to make sure they didn’t break their teeth.

This wasn’t always possible in war and soldiers would have a slightly malleable bullet placed between their teeth to serve the same function. Perhaps if they were lucky, they would pass out from the