Definition: Somebody who comes to the aid of another, especially a man coming to a woman’s aid.

Example: Belinda’s knight in shining armour came in the form of a vending machine repairman. She’d had her arm caught in the machine for three hours. And she still hadn’t been able to reach that Mars bar.

Origin:

A knight in shining armour (or armor if in the States) owes its existence to the romanticised ideals of Victorian painters, poets, and novelists. Tales of knights in gleaming suits of armour rescuing fair maidens from all manner of evil proved popular at the time, especially stories of Camelot and King Arthur. Everyone had a go. Le Morte d’Arthur was re-printed after an absence of centuries. Pre-Raphaelite painters like Edward Burne-Jones created images infused with light. Tennyson wrote romantic poetry about Arthur. Even Mark Twain visited the tale in a more satirical form with A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

The reality was entirely different. Suits of armour rarely gleamed unless they were royal showpieces. They rusted. Their occupants washed infrequently. In the sunshine, the temperatures soared inside the suit. As it took ages to put armour on, those same occupants could not afford the time to take them off for toilet related activities. You could probably smell the knight coming before you heard the ragged breathing of his overloaded horse.

As for the damsels in distress… with all the various forms of pox, poor diet, and questionable personal hygiene of the age, Iddy’s not sure how fair they would have been…..

This idiom was requested by Carsten. Hope your students enjoy it!

Definition: Somebody disreputable, especially within a family

Example: Despite being a vicar, Roger was always considered to be the black sheep of the family. And all because he had stolen a chocolate bar when he was five.

Origin:

‘Black sheep‘, unsurprisingly, comes from the appearance of black sheep within flocks. Black wool is a recessive genetic trait and their appearance within white breeds is rare. Generations past, this colouring was interpreted many ways. To a few, it was a good omen, but to the majority, it was seen as bad. Some even considered black sheep to be touched by the devil. Whatever the superstition, the wool was considered less valuable as it could not be dyed, and so a black sheep was less desirable than a white one.

Some sources also say that a poorly translated bible in 1525 didn’t help matters, speaking negatively of ‘blacke shepe amonge the lambes‘. By the way, its not poorly spelled as well. English is an ever evolving language, and that was the correct way of spelling in 1525.

There seems to be no connection between the idiom and the popular nursery rhyme ‘Baa baa Black Sheep’, and there are no racial slurs to be read into it either.

This phrase is one of the most widely adopted in languages across Europe from Spain to Denmark to Bulgaria, and almost everywhere inbetween.

Iddy was never described in this way by his relatives. He was the green ovoid of his family

Iddy is happy to have been featured on two blogs in the past week….

Firstly, Idiomic.com was chosen as site of the day at The English Blog (www.englishblog.com). Check out the entry here. Thanks Jeffrey!

Secondly, BIG CHEESE has been featured on Mary’s English Blog (www.marysenglishblog.com). Check out the entry here. Thanks Mary!

Well done Iddy!

Definition: The most important person/ the boss.

Example: Sir Bigglesworth-Smythe was a big cheese in the world of moustache grooming products, having created the world’s best-selling tash wax.

Origin:

Big cheese has undergone a series of changes over the centuries. Originally, just a simple ‘the cheese’ meant something top notch. Even the word ‘cheesy’, which now represents something tacky and embarrassing, once meant something of quality.

In the early 20^th century, big cheese stood for wealth or fame. It wasn’t until 1922 that its current usage came into being.

So Iddy, where did this ridiculous phrase come from in the first place?

Some attribute it to literal big cheeses created as showpieces in those same years of the 20^th century.

A truly monstrous cheese was created in 1799 by dairy farmers from Cheshire, Massachussets and sent to President Thomas Jefferson as a gift. It weighed 1250 pounds, was four feet in diameter, and had to be carried in a wagon. Legend has it that it was still being served five years later. That’s a lot of cheese. Iddy’s not sure if this particular fromage gave birth to the idiom, but it’s a great anecdote nevertheless.

Some sources claim it derives from a Persian/Urdu word ‘chiz’, which means ‘thing’. It was probably absorbed into the UK English language by returning soldiers in the Victorian age and Indian emigrants in later decades. In this way, the phrase is a corruption of ‘big chiz’ or ‘big thing’.

Interestingly, big cheese can be used with respect (though quite informally), or in a sarcastic way. If somebody calls you a big cheese, listen carefully to their tone!

Definition: To be overcome with anger

Example: The scratches down the side of his prized Corvette made Nigel see red. Ironically, that was the same colour of the paint that was damaged.

Origin:

It is widely thought that to see red comes from the ‘sport’ of bull fighting, specifically the waving of the red cape to enrage the bull. Despite this connection, it actually isn’t the colour of the cape that attracts the bull. Why? Because bulls are colourblind. It’s the movement of the cape that actually gets their attention. There is another phrase ‘like a red rag to a bull’ which seems to back up this theory as it has a very similar meaning.

A second theory says it may come from an American phrase ‘to see things red‘ which has fallen out of fashion. This refers to the colour that infuses the cheeks during rage, as your blood pressure soars, sometimes referred to as the ‘red mist’.

Iddy doesn’t understand the colour reference at all. When he gets angry, he just goes a deeper shade of green. And it’s not pretty at all. Trust me.

Definition: Something controversial that nobody wants to deal with.

Example: The topic of Mal’s new hairpiece was something of a hot potato at the party.

Origin:

The inference is that a hot potato is too hot to handle. It is derived from drop like a hot potato, meaning to abandon something as quickly as possible. Coined in the mid-nineteenth century, the full phrase has fallen somewhat out of fashion in recent decades, leaving us with just the overheated tuber at its heart.

It also lends its name to a party game where participants pass an object as quickly as they can. Iddy would love to give the game a whirl, but he’s never been invited to a party.

Definition: Slow down!

Example: “Hold your horses!” Jen shouted at her husband as he ran towards the pub. He’d heard there was free beer to be had.

Origin:

Not surprisingly, this command dates back to the American West and the time of cowboys, six-guns, and wagon trains. It simply refers to pulling back on your horses’ reins in order to bring them to a halt. First found in print in 1843, the original phrase was more informal, being ‘hold your hosses’. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the modern version first appears.

Some sources cite its heritage all the way back to Homer’s Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy. In it, Menelaus tells Antilochus to hold his horses during a chariot race. This is more likely to be co-incidental in nature, and the choice of words by the translator, rather than the birth of an idiom.

Definition: Somebody you cherish, a favourite person.

Example: My kids are normally the apple of my eye, but after their behaviour on the car journey, I may have to reassess that.

Origin:

In olde English, the pupils of the eye were referred to as ‘apples’ as they were thought to be spherical like a piece of fruit such as an apple.

Shakespeare used the phrase in A Midsummers Night Dream (c1590), describing a character having been struck by Cupid’s arrow in ‘the apple of his eye’. The King James Bible of 1611 also uses the phrase. The Hebrew translation of the same passage uses the phrase ‘little man of the eye’. This refers to your reflection in somebody else’s pupils. You have to look really really close and invade their personal space to do this. A liitle bit of advice: don’t do it to a stranger.

Going deeper down the rabbit hole of word origins, the word ‘pupil’ is derived from the Latin ‘pupilla’ or ‘little doll’. This also refers to that reflection. And that is why students are also pupils, being little people.

But we’re slowly drifting off topic…

So, what has this have to do with someone you cherish? Simply, they are somebody you keep close. Close enough to be little reflections in your eye.

Definition: To be alert, quick to react, or clever.

Example: Luckily, Smithy was on the ball, and noticed that he had spelled his boss, Mr. Fort’s name wrong on the email, and corrected it before sending it. It’s amazing how a misplaced ‘a’ can do so much damage.

Origin:

A common explanation for on the ball gives it a naval connection like so many other phrases. We’ll visit some of the others at a later date. This particular one claims that it is related to the time-ball atop the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London, which in turn overlooks the Royal Naval College on the banks of the Thames. Ships moored riverside could set their timepieces by it as it dropped at the strike of one. Their clocks would be set to the second, or ‘on the ball’. Sounds great, but apparently untrue.

It is simply a shortening of the sporting advice “Keep your eye on the ball”. Bet you heard that phrase more than once during your childhood.

BOOOORRRRIIINNNGGGG!  Iddy liked the naval origin much better.

Incidentally, that ball in Greenwich? It still drops every day, even now. Check it out if you ever happen to be in the vicinity!

Definition: Being deceived in a humorous way.

Example: Larry realised his friends had been pulling his leg, but only after he turned up to the party as the only person in fancy dress. Doubly unfortunate was his choice of a French maid’s outfit.

 Origin:

There are two widely discounted theories to why you might have your leg pulled, rather than another part of your anatomy.

• In Victorian London, street thieves would tackle their victims by their legs, or trip them up with strings or wires. Once down, they were easy targets. Iddy thinks this is a little bit vague and not clearly related to its current usage.
• Still in good olde London, executions at Tyburn were often carried out via hanging by suspension. This grisly method did not employ a long drop which would normally break the victim’s neck. Instead, it left them dangling on the rope until they died of strangulation. It is said that relatives of the soon to be departed hired men to grab them by the legs and pull down with all their might in hopes of speeding up the process, and reducing the suffering. This, Iddy says, seems to be even more unrelated to its usage than the first explanation. He also adds that there seems to be a desire to connect all unknown origins to the ghastliest stories possible.

The idiom does, in fact, seem to originate from 19^th century America, not London at all. It had a different meaning in its earlier inception, that of asking for something, usually money. If somebody was pulling your leg, they were probably hitting you up for a short-term loan.

Not to be outdone, the British have added an extension to the base idiom. “Pull the other one. It has bells on.”