Phraseology 101
BY IRENE FRANK
Every day we use phrases to
accentuate our ideas, never
thinking of their origins
which, in many cases, go back centuries.
What fun it is to discover
their original meanings. During
your next dinner party, see if you
can casually slip some of these
phrases into the conversation.
Your friends will find you smart
and amusing.
In the 1500s, baths consisted of
tin tubs filled with hot water. The
man of the house had the privilege
of immersing himself first, then the
sons, then the women, and finally
the children. The babies were last.
By then the water was so dirty you
could actually lose someone in it.
Hence the saying, “Don't throw the
baby out with the bath water.”
Only the wealthy had floors NOT
made of dirt. They had slate floors
that would become slippery in bad
weather. They would spread thresh
(straw) on the floor so as not to
slip. As winter wore on, they added
more and more thresh until it overflowed
into the streets. Someone
decided to add a piece of wood at
the entryway to keep the thresh in
place. Voila! A “threshold.”
There were communal ovens in
the town square. Bread was inserted
onto racks according to social
status. Laborers had to put their
loaves on the bottom rack where
they usually burned. Middle class
families used the middle rack and
the town officials got to place their
loaves on the top rack where the
bread would bake to perfection.
These people were “the upper
crust.”
Mattresses were filled with straw,
oftentimes containing insects. The
mattresses were placed on cords
attached to the sides of the bed and
kept in place by a piece of wood
which pulled all the connected
cords together. There were times
when the wooden handle would
loosen and the mattress would fall
to the floor. Hence the expression,
“Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs
2021
August ¢COURIER TOWERS SHORE got into trouble for treating the
injuries of John Wilkes Booth after
bite.”
he assassinated President Abraham
NORTH Local folks in old England started
Lincoln.
running out of places to bury their
Though these expressions are
loved ones. They would dig up the
centuries old, they still “pack a
30 old coffins and take the bones to a
punch.” bone house for keeping and then
reuse the grave. When opening
the old coffins, they would often
find scratch marks on the inside.
They realized they had been burying
people alive. The remedy was
to tie a string on the wrist of the
corpse, lead it through the coffin
lid up through the ground and tie
it to a bell. Someone would have
to sit out in the graveyard all night
(“the graveyard shift”) to listen for
the bell. Thus, someone could be
“saved by the bell” or was considered
“a dead ringer.”
Lead cups were used to drink ale
or whiskey. The combination would
sometimes knock the imbibers
out for a couple of days. Someone
walking along the road would take
them for dead and prepare them for
burial. The body was laid out on the
kitchen table for two days and the
family would gather around and
eat and drink and wait to see if the
person would wake up. Hence the
custom of holdng a “wake.”
In the Middle Ages, a tally person
put nicks in a piece of wood when
teams competed. If the winning
nick was added during the last
minute of the game, it was “the nick
in time,” or later, “nick of time.”
Kings and knights rode on
chargers, while ladies and those
of lower stations rode on smaller
saddle horses, begetting the phrase
“on one's high horse.” The drink
Bloody Mary is named for Mary
Tudor, the English queen who is
remembered for her bloody persecution
of Protestants.
In the taverns there was no way to
determine how much people were
drinking because they would just
shout out their orders. Eventually
tavern owners set up blackboards
which named the person and a
mark was made to show how many
pints or quarts were consumed. So,
mind your “P's and Q's.”
Wing chairs were designed to
protect visitors from the drafts as
well as to protect ladies' faces from
being too close to the fireplace. A
major ingredient of their makeup
was wax and if they got too close
to the fire, the makeup would
melt and there would be great
embarrassment. The wing chairs
prevented this and the ladies would
“save face.”
“Touch and Go” has a nautical
origin. When a vessel is in relatively
shallow waters so that its bottom
occasionally touches the ground
but then moves off without damage,
it's considered “touch and go.”
“Son-of-a gun” is also nautical in
origin. Pregnant women aboard a
ship commonly gave birth beneath
the guns of the ship.
A “Whipping Boy” was an underprivileged
youth raised in the same
household as young noblemen. If
the royals did something wrong, the
boy was sent in to endure the whipping
in place of the wrongdoers.
Someone's “name is mud” originated
with Dr. Samuel Mudd, who