By John Grindrod
Guest Columnist
During my student days, as my math grades will verify, I really wasn’t much of a numbers guy. My forte, whether speaking or writing, has really always been the language and its various components.
While much of the grammar, punctuation and other mechanical aspects of the language have remained with me long after I stopped teaching them in 2005, I’ve ramped up my interest in an aspect of the language which I largely ignored following my teaching days, the stories behind the common expressions known as idioms.
Recently in working with another of Lima’s talented and dedicated doctors, Kent Brandeberry, my primary-care physician, to attack issues I was having with extremely high blood pressure, he told me he wanted to make “wholesale changes” to my hypertension meds. As far as what’s behind the meaning, this one’s pretty easy. Since, as a noun, “wholesale” refers to the selling of any goods in large quantities, wholesale changes would be really “selling” the old way of doing something and supplanting it with a new way, which meant, in my case, new pills.
There are hundreds if not thousands of idioms. Creative elements of the language such as idiomatic expressions and figures of speech are essential to add zest to communication.
One expression used especially during the holiday season is “white elephant gift.” The term refers to some offering that’s difficult to give away. The expression can also refer to a project where considerable money was spent up front before the project was abandoned.
As for its origin, it dates back to ancient Asia in Thailand, where an owner keeping a white elephant incurred great upkeep expenses, especially special food. Additionally, keeping one also cost owners what has been said to be our most valuable commodity, time. Since white elephants were considered holy, an owner always had to make himself available to anyone who showed up to pay the pachyderm homage. So, if a Thai king became dissatisfied with one of his subordinates, he would give him a white elephant, thus, creating a constant drain on both his finances and time.
Another word with an interesting story behind it is “sideburns.” In my classroom days, I wanted my young people to be familiar with all of the “nym” words, from the common to the less familiar, and “sideburns” was a great example of an eponym, the word used to describe words originating from a person’s name.
As for the story behind the word, during the time of the Civil War, there was a Union General named Ambrose Burnside, who favored below his bald pate a wild-looking extension of hair in front of both ears. In Burnside’s case the strips swept up to form a very impressive moustache. It was such a distinctive look that longer strips of hair that other men began to grow in front of their ears began to be called “burnsides,” which, as years went by, underwent syllabic transposition to what became known as sideburns.
Another favorite story-behind-the-expression favorite is “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” used to describe the wait for some event that’s inevitable. It’s a feeling I get every tax season when I see what I owe my Uncle Sam. The wait for that other shoe to drop would be my accountant’s revelation as to what my next year’s quarterly estimated tax checks will need to be.
As for the story behind the expression, boarding houses and multitenant houses back in the late 1880s and early 1900s in places like Chicago and New York tended to have all the rooms on each floor align precisely with what was above and below. So, if you were in your bedroom perhaps going to bed early and heard from the bedroom above a weary blue-collar type’s boot hit the floor, before you could get serious about getting to sleep, you waited for the other shoe to drop.
Finally, what’s this expression “canary in a coal mine” all about? As far as its meaning, the expression describes a warning of an impending danger, and the story does go back to the mining industry.
At one time in the industry, miners carried caged canaries into mining shafts. This was done as an early warning to detect if there was carbon monoxide or methane gas in the shaft. Since noxious gasses are often colorless and odorless, miners needed a way to ensure work conditions were safe. Since animals are far more sensitive to poisonous gasses than humans, the canary would collapse long before it would be dangerous for humans to be in a shaft. If that happened, the miners evacuated. This technique first was used in England before being used both in Canada and the United States.
While some stories behind idioms are more involved, some are as simple as the expression used for someone not feeling well being “under the weather,” which refers to the nautical practice of sending a sickly sailor below deck to rest.
And, to this language devotee, the stories behind our common expressions are often quite intriguing.
John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].
