We use these phrases every day, but in the main we have no idea of their origin. Perhaps if I tell you the story of their origin, you may find them amusing, educational....but most of all, .....interesting!
Going round the Bend
The Victorians built hospitals to house the mentally unsound. At the time, stately homes were builtwith long straight driveways so that the house could be seen in all its grandeur from the main road.Mental homes however, were placed at the end of long curved drives so that they would remainunseen by passers by.To 'go round the bend' has meant to be confined in a mental home ever since.
Pay Through the Nose
When the Vikings invaded ninth century Britain, they brought with them their violent customs and imposed strict tax laws on the locals. (Aye, and you thought it was a scheme thought up by our current Government) Attention now, any citizen refusing to pay would either have his nostrils slit open or his nose cut off. Only when English king Eldred beat Viking leader Eric Bloodaxe (it's true, that was his name) in 954 at the battle of Stainmore did the practice stop. However the phrase remained to imply paying dearly for something through the nose.
To The Bitter End...........................
This phrase has come to mean the end of one's endurance.The "bitt" is a post at a ship's prow to which the end of an anchor's cable is fastened. If all the anchor cable has been let out, you have come to the bitter end.
Flogging a Dead Horse
A ceremony held by British crews when they had been at sea four weeks and had worked off their initial advance, usually one month's wages (and usually long gone). The term 'flogging a dead horse' alludes to the difficulty of getting any extra work from a crew during this period, since, to them, it felt as though they were working for nothing.
It's Raining Cats and Dogs
Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw pilede high. It was the only place for animals to get warm,so all the pets, dogs, cats and other small aminals, mice rats, bugs, lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof.
Burning a Candle at Both Ends
Once upon a time the only light in a house was provided by the taper. This was kept alight usually on a holder beside the fire.. It provided a small amount of light. If a special vistors came and more light was demanded then the taper was lit both ends.
That's a Turn Up for the Book.
"Turn up for the book" is when no one has backed the winner and the bookmaker has a clear book.
The Full NineYards
“The Full NineYards” which I believe (despite all sorts of alternatives) is the length of the ammunition belt used in the standard ammunition container of the machine gun but I don’t know if it was the Vickers or the Maxim. Hence going ‘The Full Nine Yards” means emptying a whole belt of ammunition at a target – giving as much as you possibly could.
The Full Monty
A breakfast at The Dobbins Inn in Carrickfergus that simply must get a 5 star rating from ‘Exit’
comprising of anything that wandered through the kitchen whilst the cook had the frying pan on the hob, the origin is believed to be from Montague Burton, a British tailor, and refers to when a customer would buy himself a new outfit from head to toe including everything seen and unseen.
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times used round iron cannonballs. The master wanted to store the cannon balls such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels
would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs.
The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn't rust to the "brass monkey", but would have rusted to an iron one.
When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gundecks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the
indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
The Clink
This word for a prison referes not to the sound of rattling chains, but to the name of a prison in an area of 13th century London known as, The Liberty of Clink.
Just south of the Thames, the prison lay outside London jurisdiction and so was notorious for brutal punishment ( unlike the namby-pamby sentences of today) Owned by the Bishop of Winchester ( note how the clergy are in there earning a fast buck) inmates at The Clink could expect to be burned with boiling oil, forced to stand in cold water until their feet rotted, or crushed under weights. ( Such was the quality of mercy shown by the religious bodies of the time.)
Payment to the church coffers could free you however, so those rich enough to buy favour
made the bishop rich, that is until rioters destroyed the prison in 1780. (Come to think of it, if it was financially rewarding to surpress the masses, the Church always led the way. )
Keep your nose to the grindstone
Concentrate on working hard. In Victorian England, there were many knife grinder's workshops. Workers lay flat on their fronts and held the blades against grindstones.
Keep your pecker up
Remain cheerful. This is the English pecker, i.e. mouth, as opposed to the American, i.e. penis.
Keep your powder dry
Be prepared. The allusion is to gunpowder which soldiers had to keep dry in order to be ready to fight when required.
Kick the bucket
Die. The wooden frame that slaughtered animals were hung from is known as a bucket.
The death spasms of the animals caused them to kick the bucket.
Know the ropes
To understand how an organisation works. Nautical origin, where sailors had to learn which rope raised which sail.
Interesting....innit?