Transcript

2.6.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome. This is Radioized History Show and I'm
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your host today and reader Joseph Bolt. So happy to
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be with you for this time. And before we begin
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today's program, we just need to remind you that Radio
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I is listener driven and so that means you, as listeners.
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If you have comments or suggestions, please call us and
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the number to call would be eight five nine four
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two two six three nine zero and let us know
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what your thoughts are, suggestions or if you just want
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to talk. Radio I is a reading service intended for
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people who are blind or have other disabilities and make
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it difficult to read printed material. I'll cite the sources
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as we go along today. Today I thought we would
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look at a history of word idioms, and I believe
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I've done a show on this in the past, but
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this is going to be part two. Hopefully I'm not
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going to repeat some of the idioms that had already
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gone over a while back, but so let's go with this.
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The first source that I'm going to read from comes
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from rd dot com. That's reader digest dot com, and
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it's an article entitled Here's why people say pardon my
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French when they swear? And this was written by Joanne
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Liguri in August of twenty twenty five. Some people have
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a bit of a pottymouth, and those studies have shown
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that swearing can be a sign of intelligence. Using strong
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language isn't appropriate in every context, so when people drop
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a cuss word in the wrong situation, they sometimes instinctively
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follow it up with the phrase, pardon my French. But
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why those colorful words we pepper into speech are definitely
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not French? So why do people say pardon my French?
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To find out, the writer of this article spoke to
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a Michael Adams, pH d, who is a professor of
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English and Linguistics at Indiana University. The saying pardon my
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French or excuse my French is an idiomatic expression used
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when someone wants to apologize for swearing, using crude language,
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or making a potentially offensive remark. Adam says, quote it's
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sort of lists responsibility for using the word that you
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aren't supposed to use, even though it's not a French word.
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Pardon my French acts as a humorous or polite buffer,
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signaling to listeners that the speaker knows the language may
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be inappropriate. People say pardon my French to soften the
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impact of their words and make swearing or blunt statements
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more socially acceptable. It's a way to acknowledge that what
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they're saying, are about to say, are already said, might
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offend someone, while still expressing their true feelings. For many people,
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following a swear word with pardon my French is just
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as instinctive. Is just an extinctive response, much like saying
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knock on wood to ward off bad luck, and they
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don't even know why they say it, says Adams, like
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other expressions including break a leg, spill the beans, and
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take it with a grain of salt. The phrase pardon
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my French has an interesting origin. Here's how the phrase evolved.
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In nineteenth century Britain. English speakers use the phrase pardon
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my French literally when slipping French words into conversation. Because
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not everyone spoke French, people would politely excuse themselves with
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pardon my French. Take this example, published in The Ladies
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magazine in eighteen thirty a quote bless me how fat
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you are, grown absolutely as round as a ball, you
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will soon be as and pombois excuse my French, as
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your poor dear father. The major end quote here, and
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boompois is French for well nourished or plump. So yeah,
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the speaker is apologizing for calling someone fat in French,
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not for the insult except accept itself. Rather, how rude
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is this? Over time, the meaning of pardon my French
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shifted to cover profanity or strong opinions, because the word
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French is the real target in the phrase. Adams says,
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French just became an English word for anything that was risque.
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary or the OED, the
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word French was used with the implication of sexual adventurousness
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or explicitness as far back as sixteen eighty two. But
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why the French are thought to be a very lascivious
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group of people, Adams says, And he goes on to say,
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if you are going to blame anybody for being lascivious,
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it would be the French. One example, in seventeen forty
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nine's Tom Jones, Henry Fielding refers to racy books as
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French novels. Though the stereotype that the English are uptight
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and the French aren't is debatable, Adams admits that it's
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quote certainly true that the English didn't talk about some
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things openly in the way that some other cultures did
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end quote. Though England and France had a neighborly rivalry
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for centuries, going all the way back to the Norman
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conquest in ten sixty six, English speakers often borrowed French
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words to sound worldly or refined. Over time, some of
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these terms retain their flirtatious or taboo undertones, which is
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why pardon my French evolved from literally apologizing for using
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French words to apologizing for naughty language even when no
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French was involved. And by the way, somewhere around eighteen thirty,
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the phrase was excused my French, and it developed into
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pardon my French some sixty five years later, around eighteen
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ninety five, as Adam notes pardoned one excuse lost. As
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British literature and newspapers circulated internationally, American readers and writers
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adopted the expression pardoned my French as a tongue in
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cheek way to excuse profanity. It spread was reinforced by
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the British cultural influence on American society during the Victorian era.
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In the early twentieth century, a time when borrowing idioms
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and phrases from Britain was common. These days, it's fair
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to say the phrase is alive on both sides of
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the Atlantic, but more actively used in the United States,
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according to Adams, So the next time you drop a
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naughty word, don't panic, just follow it with pardon my French.
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You're not just swearing, You're participating in centuries of linguistic history,
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and really, isn't that a little classy? The next article
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I'd like to read from comes from the website wordsmarts
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dot com, and the article is entitled take the Bull
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by the horns and Learn These Animal Idioms, written by
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Jennifer A. Fa Freeman No Date. Tell a small child
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it's raining cats and dogs and you might get a
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giggle or a confused look. While adult native English speakers
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know this just means it's pouring, A child or a
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new English learner might not understand this or other idioms
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which are non literal expressions whose meanings are not easily understood.
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Among the twenty five thousand known idioms in English, a
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wide swath are based on animals, a topic that everyone's
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familiar with. So why does it rain cats and dogs
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and not zebras and giraffes? So let's look at the
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first one animal idiom, the straw that broke the camel's back.
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This idiom is essentially a more imaginative way to say
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the final straw, which is also an idiom. The straw
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that broke the camel's back has negative connotations, referring to
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the final element in a series of negative things that
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have already happened. For example, quote, after a long week
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of work, the dead car battery was the straw that
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broke the camel's back en quote. While the phrase has
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been seen in English publications dating back to the sixteen hundreds,
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it most likely comes from an ancient Arab proverb that
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translates as the last straw breaks the camel's back. The
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wording sometimes varies slightly, as seen in the nineteen fifty
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four journal publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. In
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the line quote, it is certainly true that the last
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feather will sink the camel en quote, but the usage
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carries the same meaning. Other animals, including monkeys and horses,
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have been used interchangeably in this idiom as well, but
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the camel is the most popular version. Take the bull
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by the horns when the best course of action is
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to deal with something directly and confidently. One might say
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they are taking the bull by the horns. This is
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as common advice to tell someone to face something head on.
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It might have originated with cowboys in the American West,
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who often wrestled cattle, but it more likely came from
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farmers who controlled cattle by grabbing their horns to guide them.
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The earliest versions of the phrase appeared around the early
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eighteenth century. I'll be a monkey's uncle. Did you hear
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Mary won the lottery? Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle.
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This idiom is bound to be mused non native English speakers,
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but it's been used for a century as a display
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of astonishment, sometimes sarcastically. Its exact origin has never been
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pinned down, but one guess is that the phrase was
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a sarcastic response to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. One
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of its earliest recordings came in a nineteen seventeen ad
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in the El Paso Herald for a play entitled A
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Brass Monkey. A small ad features the line, well, I'm
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a monkey's uncle. It's raining cats and dogs. The first
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recorded use of cats and dogs who refer to heavy
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rain came in sixteen fifty one from British poet Henry Vaughan,
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who wrote Cats and Dogs Reigned In Nearly a century later,
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Jonathan Swift popularized the phrase rain cats and dogs in
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the seventeen thirty eight satire Complete Collection of Genteel and
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Ingenious Conversation. There are several leading theories as to why
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Swift and other writers chose cats and dogs over zebras
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and giraffes. The most eccentric hypothesis deals with Odin, the
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Norris god of storms, who is often depicted with dogs
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symbols of the wind. This idea was allegedly combined with
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the folklore of witches, who were associated with black cats
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and rainstorms, so raining cats and dogs referred to the
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rain and the wind, combining two mythologies. Another possible source
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is a perversion of the Old English word katadupe, meaning
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cataract a large waterfall, and yet another theory stems from
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the perversion of the Greek phase katadoxa, meaning contrary to belief,
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as in its raining beyond belief one trick pony. When
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someone or something that is lacking diversity in abilities, they
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might be referred to as a one trick pony. For example,
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after decades of romance writing, the author released a new
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sci fi novel proving that she wasn't just a one
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trick pony. This idiom was probably derived from a literal
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circus expression at the beginning of the twentieth century, when
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a one trick pony would have been rather boring to
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the audience. By the mid twentieth century, it had transformed
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into the idiom we still used today, make a bee
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line four. If you've been told you make a bee
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line to the coffee pot in the morning, you likely understand.
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This idiom describes taking a quick and direct path. It
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relates to the science behind how bees travel to their
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hives after they've had their fill of nectar and pollen.
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Research has shown that they take the fastest, most direct
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route home, in other words, a bee line. This saying
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has been around for centuries, as seen in the nineteen
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or rather eighteen thirty excerpt from the Massachusetts Spy that
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read quote the squirrel took a beeline and reached a
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ground six feet ahead end quote. Get your ducks in
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a row. This phrase was popularized in the nineteen seventies
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as slang to tell someone to get ready for something. However,
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early variations date to the nineteenth century. These references all
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pertain to the idea of ducks being in a literal row,
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but they point to real ducks, target ducks in a
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shooting gallery, and duck pins a type of bowling pin.
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So take your pick on the origin of the idiom.
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My next article I want to read from also comes
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from wordsmarts dot com entitled six idioms that Brits and
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Americans say differently and this was written by Rachel Grass
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with no date depending on where they live, English speakers
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refer to different instruments when boasting about themselves. To toot
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your own horn in American English is the equivalent of
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blowing your own trumpet in British English. Both expressions describe
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talking about oneself in a prideful way, though often in
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a self aware manner. In essence, you're giving yourself credit
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for being right about something or having accomplished something impressive.
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For example, one might not or one might say not
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to toot my own horn, but that presentation was pretty great.
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In Britain, on the other hand, they might say, I
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don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I think
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I secured the deal one of the earliest records of
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the origins of this This expression comes from a translation
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of In Praise of Folly, written by Desiderius Your Euriseness,
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which was first published in fifteen eleven. And indeed, what
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is more befitting than that folly should be the trumpet
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of her own praise, and dance after her own pipe.
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Here the author likens self praise to a trumpet or
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dancing to one's own music. Americans and Brits expressed their
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desire to distance themselves from something using slightly different polls.
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The expression not touching something with a ten foot pole
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means to refuse to associate with some one or something
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because it's unpleasant, risky, suspicious, or controversial in nature. For instance,
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a picky American eat or might say I wouldn't touch
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Brussels sprouts with a ten foot pole, But how would
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a brit say it? They wouldn't touch those sprouts with
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a barge pole. The American version dates to the mid
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eighteenth century, while the British version emerged during the early
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nineteenth century. The British version refers to long poles employed
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on a barge, a flat bottomed boat for propulsion, docking,
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or fending off objects. If something disrupts or impede your day,
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you might say a monkey wrench was thrown into the works. Well,
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this idiom essentially describes something that ruins a plan or
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causes you to approach things differently, the rain through a
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wrench in our beach day. Informal American English tends to
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shorten the expression omitting monkey and or the second and
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half in the works, while the British English typically sticks
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with the full expression, except a spanner is the British
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equivalent of a wrench. The idiom's origin lies in the
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notion that a small metal tool such as a wrench
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or spanner can really wreak havoc when lost in a machine,
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such as a metaphorical wrench, such as bad weather, delays,
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or illness that can make plans go awry. One of
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the earliest printed records of this expression appears in the
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nineteen oh seven edition of the Chicago Tribune. It should
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look to them as if he were throwing a monkey
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wrench into the only market by visiting that Cincinnati circus
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upon the devoted heads of Kentucky's best customers. There's another one.
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In America, we say a skeleton in the closet. What
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do they say in Britain skeleton in the cupboard? Brits
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and Americans keep their metaphorical skeletons in different places. Whereas
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Americans store them in the closet, Brits keep there in
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the cupboard. These expressions refer to an embarrassing or potentially
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ruinous secret from the past. This turn of phrase has
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existed since the early nineteenth century, though its exact origins
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are unclear. One of the earliest documentations of the actual
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idiom is from an eighteen sixteen edition of the British
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periodical The Eclectic View, which highlighted societal fears of uncovering
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uncomfortable truths, in this case genetic diseases. The author writes, quote,
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in these, as in many other highly important questions, men
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seem afraid of inquiring after truth. Cautions on cautions are
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multiplied to conceal the skeleton in the closet or to
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prevent its escape. In America, we say knock on wood.
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In Britain they say touch wood. The Brits take a
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gentler approach to this idiom, which is said to ward
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off misfortune and prevent jinxing something. Instead of the American knock.
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British speakers use a different verb touch. For example, Americans
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might say the weather looks great for the week end,
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knock on wood. In contrast, the Brits would say, the
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weather has been nice lately. I hope it stays like this,
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touch wood. This phrase has been around since at least
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the nineteenth century, but it's unclear who started it, the
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British or the Americans. The practice of knocking on wood
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for luck is found in various cultures worldwide, though its
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origins remain unclear. It may stem from an ancient Celtic
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tradition or perhaps something more modern, a nineteenth century children's
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game of tag called Tiggy touchwood. Regardless of the origins
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of all these idioms, they highlight the deep connections between traditions, superstitions,
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and language across different cultures and finally, wordsmarts dot com.
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Why don't we say eat Crow? Written by Bennett Kleiman
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with no date. One popular theory can be traced back
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to the mid nineteenth century from a story in Knickerbocker magazine.
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In summary, the story focused on a boarding house patron
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complaining about the food he was being served, so he
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caught a crow and cooked it. Frustrated, he served this
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to his housekeeper to see if the housekeeper would eat.
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The housekeeper took several bites before grabbing his stomach and
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running to the door with a terrible case of nausea,
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and was forced to admit eating crow was Well. That
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about does it for to day's Radio eye history. I'm
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your host, Joseph Bolt, and I'll be back for another
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chapter of radio eye history. Until then, happy trails.