Phrase origions

[IEditYourWorld]

Hi all.

I heard a rather interesting topic on the radio this afternoon that I thought would be fun to discuss. The radio DJ talked about phrase origions. I was not able to hear them all since I had to go into work, but these are two that I heard from him:

Chew the fat: A phrase that means chatting with friends. Back in the day, people used to sit on their porches to chat and chew fat like it was chewing gum. (Now that I think about it, I wonder what their cholesterol ended up raising to just from talking to their friends. One could die from a massive artery clog if they were popular.)

Bite the bullet: A phrase meaning that one must sit tight and endure what they are going through. This phrase origionated on the battle field when they were without the use of anesthesia. They would bite bullets to distract themselves from pain. Of course, their teeth would also end up sore.

Have you heard any old phrases that you would like to discuss? I am open to learning new things.

Care to chew the fat?
IEditYourWorld  

[splashseal]

O, this is a cool topic! I find this kind of stuff interesting. Hehehe, let's see...I would have to say that I like "pull the wool over one's eyes", which basically means to hoodwink or completely fool someone. It originated from the time that judges used to wear those funny looking white, wool wigs, and that to pull the wool over their eyes meant that they literally could not see anything. (Pardon me pointing out the obvious; I am sure we could figure that out for ourselves, but it feels naked without such an explanation. sweatdrop )  

[play it loud]

Interesting, something that always bugs me is the origin of "Gordon Bennet". It doesn't make all that much sense and begs the question, why someone's name to give an exclamation of surprise?

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

"Hold your horses!" This phrase of course is said when asking someone to wait instead of charging ahead recklessly. It comes from the days when people used horse-drawn carts and wagons before cars were invented. To keep the horses from charging ahead, one had to hold them back by the reins.

"Flash in the pan": This phrase is for someone or something that has a meteoric rise to success, then just disappears. Athletes and celebrities who are successful for only a few years could be considered flashes in the pan. Hanson and the Spice Girls, anyone? This saying originates from the time when people used muskets before rifles were invented. The muskets were cheap pieces of s**t that often misfired. When they misfired, people would see a flash in their pans because the gun powder had ignited too soon.


origionated originated



This is a properly formatted sentence. The first letter of a sentence is ALWAYS capitalized. A sentence always ends in a punctuation mark, usually a period, but sometimes a question mark or exclamation point. Punctuation such as the comma, the colon and the semicolon are used as sentence pausers. Never should a sentence end with one of these.  

[Razormancer]

Anyone have details for "Bob's your uncle?" As I understand it, it's more or less synonymous with "you're all set" or "you're good to go."