WORDS AND PHRASES –FROM WHERE
1. A SHOT OF WHISKEY |
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| In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost 12 cents so did a glass of whiskey. If a cow-hand was low on cash he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. | ||
2. THE WHOLE NINE YARDS |
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| American fighter planes in WW2 had machine guns that were fed by a belt of cartridges. The average plane had belts that were 27 feet (9 yards) long. If the pilot used up all the ammo, he was said to have given it the “whole nine yards” | ||
3. BUYING THE FARM |
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| This is synonymous with dying. During WW1 soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000. This was the price of an average farm, so if you died you “bought the farm” for your survivors. | ||
4. IRON CLAD CONTRACT |
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| This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken. | ||
5. PASSING THE BUCK/THE BUCK STOPS HERE |
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| Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by the Buck knife company | ||
| When playing poker it is common to place one of these Buck knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he was. When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife were given to the new dealer. If this person did not want to deal , he would “pass the buck” to the next player. If that player accepted then “the buck stopped there” | ||
6. RIFF RAFF |
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| The Mississippi River was the main way of travelling from north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap.. The steering oar on the rafts were called “riff” and this transposed into riff-raff meaning low class. | ||
7. COBWEB |
<h2>n</h2> | |
| The old English word for spider was “cob” | ||
8. SHIP STATE ROOMS |
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| Travelling by steamboat was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called staterooms. | ||
9. SLEEP TIGHT |
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| Early beds were made with a wooden frame. Ropes were tied across the frame in a criss-cross pattern. A straw mattress was then put on top of the ropes. Over time the ropes stretched causing the bed to sag. The owner would then tighten the ropes to get a better sleep. | ||
10. SHOWBOAT |
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| These were floating theatres built on a large barge that was pushed by a steamboat. These played in small towns along the Mississippi River. Unlike the boat shown in the movie “Showboat” these did not have an engine. They were gaudy and attention grabbing which is why we say someone who is being the life of a party is “showboating”. | ||
11. OVER A BARREL |
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| In the days before CPR a drowning victim would be placed face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in an effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you are over the barrel you are in deep trouble. | ||
12. BARGE IN |
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| Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in larhe barges pushed by steamboats. They were hard to control and would sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they “barged in”. | ||
13. HOGWASH |
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| Steamboats carried both people and animals. Since the pigs smelled so bad they would be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth that was washed off was considered useless “hogwash”. | ||
14. CURFEW |
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| The word ‘curfew” comes from the French phrase “couvre-feu” which means cover the fire. It was used as the time to turn off lamps and candles. It was later adopted into middle English as “curfeu which later became curfew or the turning off lights or bedtime. | ||
15. HOT OFF THE PRESS |
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| As the paper goes through the rotary printing press friction causes it to heat up. Therefore if you grab the paper right off the press it is hot. The expression means to get immediate information. | ||
16. SHIT |
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| Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship, and it was before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large amounts of manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than wet, but once water at sea hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a product is methane gas. It was shipped below deck and you can see what happened. methane began to build up below deck and if someone came down with a lantern BOOOM. | ||
| After that the bundles of manure were stamped with instructions “STOW HIGH IN TRANSIT” so that no sea water would hit the manure bundles and start the production of methane. | ||
| Thus evolved the term SHIT (Stow high in Transit) which came down through the centuries and is used today. | ||
17. DECIMATION |
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| When a Roman Legion abandoned the field in disarray, not every legionnaire, but only one in ten( hence the term decimation) was executed. | ||
18. GERRYMANDERING |
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| The word goes back to 1812, when the administration of Eldridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, created a revised map of electoral districts for the state. This was done to get voters of the same persuasion to elect a candidate of a certain party. A cartoonist in Boston Elkaneh Tisdale thought a new district looked like a salamander and so the word “gerrymandering”. | ||
19. BARRELS OF OIL |
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| When the first oil well were drilled they had made no provision for storing the liquid oil so they used water barrels. That is why to this day, we speak of barrels of oil rather than gallons. | ||
20. FUCK YOU |
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| It goes back to the middle Ages when English archers were known well as some of the best of their day. This was partially due to the bow made from the Yew tree. And the act of shooting an arrow was know as “plucking Yew” The English archers would display their middle fingers( critical for plucking Yew) to the enemy as an act of defiance. The vernacular became what we know today (fuck you)
In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are ‘limbs’, therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.” (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)
As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October). Women kept their hair covered, while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bugs) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn’t was the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term “big wig”. Today we often use the term “here comes the Big Wig” because someone appears to be or is powerful and wealthy.
In the late 1700’s many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board folded down from the wall and was used for dining. The “head of the household” always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the “chair man”. Today in business, we use the expression or title “Chairman” or “Chairman of the Board”. |
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Thanks murray
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Thanks for your interest Murray