Origin of phrases

[Bassmama]

We seem to have a lot of phrases that we use that have their origins in past centuries but the meanings have been lost, even tho the phrases are still used.

Can you come up with a phrase & the origin? I'll start-

'Kick the Bucket'- started because that was the most popular way of committing suicide. People would stand on a bucket & kick it out from under themselves as their last conscious act.

Suggest one for the next person: "Hold Your Horses"

[JakeD]

I always thought that "Hold your Horses" was pretty close to literal, based on having to rein in horses (attached to a wagon, mebbe) if they got too rambunctious, or maybe just to keep an animal that's normally perceived as active (workhorse, rodeo bronc, whichever) under control.

Next one: "Beating around the bush"

[Poseidon]

This comes from boar hunting in which the noblemen hired workers to walk through the woods beating the branches and making noises to get the animals to run towards the hunters. Boars were dangerous animals with razor-sharp teeth (you really did not want to meet one-to-one, esp. with no weapon). So the unarmed workers workers avoided the dense undergrowth where the boar might be and beat around it, rather than going into it. Thus, this evasive technique was termed "beating around the bush" and today represents anyone who avoids approaching anything directly.


"Dead as a door nail"

[Boozer]

Dead as a Door Nail
Dead as a door nail is to be dead with no chance of recovery. Nails used to be costly hand tooled. For example, an aged cabin or barn that was torn down would have the nails salvaged so they can be reused in later construction. When building a door however, carpenters often drove the nail through then bent it over the other end so it couldn't work its way out during the repeated opening and closing of the door. When it came time to salvage the building, these door nails were considered useless, or "dead" because of the way the nail was bent.


"Face the Music"

[whitecrow]

[A] So far as we can discover, the expression was originally an American one. The first recorded use is in the Congressional Globe for 4 March 1850: “There should be no skulking or dodging ... every man should ‘face the music’ ”. It seems then to have had the meaning of facing hardship or danger. Only in the 1860s did it take on the sense it now usually has, of taking the consequences of one’s action, or suffering due punishment for some transgression.

It seems to suddenly burst into popular consciousness in 1850, with many examples to be found in the years that immediately follow (this suggests an origin as a catchphrase in popular writing or music, but none has been traced). One school of thought says that it comes from musical theatre. A nervous or inexperienced performer would have to summon up all his courage to face the audience, which would require him also to face the musicians in the orchestra pit, a cynical and world-weary group who had seen everything.

A second theory is that it is of military origin, though no two writers agree on what that might be. Explanations include a soldier taking his place in the ranks during an assembly, so facing the military band; a cavalry man trying to keep his restless horse quiet while the band is playing; or a soldier being drummed out of his regiment.



"Better The Devil You Know"

[Bassmama]

It means that it's safer to stay with what you know than to change, because the alternative could be worse: 'Better safe than sorry'

"Balls to the wall"

[HeavensAngel]

A very colorful phrase, one needs to be careful when using "balls to the wall". Although its real origin is very benign, most people assume it is a reference to testicles.

In fact it is from fighter planes. The "balls" are knobs atop the plane's throttle control. Pushing the throttle all the way forward, to the wall of the cockpit, is to apply full throttle.

Alternatively,

Early railroad locomotives were powered by steam engines. Those engines typically had a mechanical governor. These governors consisted of two weighted steel balls mounted at the ends of two arms, jointed and attached to the end of a vertical shaft that was connected to the interior of the engine. The entire assembly is encased in a housing.

The shafts and the weighted balls rotate at a rate driven by the engine speed. As engine speed increases, the assembly rotates at a faster speed and centrifugal force causes the weighted balls to hinge upward on the arms.

At maximum engine speed - controlled by these governors - centrifugal force causes the two weighted balls to rotate with their connecting shafts parallel to the ground and thereby nearly touching the sides - the walls - of their metal housing.

So, an engineer driving his steam locomotive at full throttle was going "balls to the wall". The expression came to be used commonly to describe something going full speed.

Thanks to Virgil Jose

This may also be an example of rhyming slang.


"Pushing the envelope"