Idiom of the Week—“In Spades”

When we say something is done “in spades”, we mean that it is done in abundance or to a great degree.  For instance, if more volunteers turned out to help for a project than we anticipated, we might say that people turned out “in spades”.  It's easy to believe that this expression derives from the imagery of digging with spades and that 'in spades' is just short for 'in spadefuls'. However, the spades concerned here aren't the garden tools but the suit of cards. Spades is the highest ranking suit in the game of Contract Bridge, a very popular pastime in the USA in the early 20th century, which is when and where the phrase originated.

Despite the agricultural-sounding name and the shovel-like shape, the suit of spades in cards has nothing directly to do with garden spades. Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century, arriving in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.  The Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is 'espada' and 'spada' respectively, hence the suit 'Swords' became anglicized as 'Spades'.

The term “in spades” was often used prior to the 20^th century in card games, where Bridge contracts might be entered into in the minor suits of Clubs or Diamonds or, for the higher scores, 'in Hearts' or, best of all, 'in Spades'.  From here, it was a relatively short jump to apply the term “in spades” (outside of sphere of card games) to anything that was done to the highest degree or with the highest impact.  The figurative meaning, i.e. the non-cards-related 'very greatly' meaning, isn't found in print before the 1920s. The American journalist and writer Damon Runyon used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst's International magazine, in October 1929:

"I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw."

It isn't possible to be sure that the figurative 'in spades' derives from Bridge, but the coincidence of the time and place of the origin of the expression and the popularity of the card game certainly does suggest a connection.

Idiom of the Week—“Warm the Cockles of your Heart”

Well, after taking some heat from Rob Newman for last week’s “lame” idiom, I am feeling a lot of pressure to come through with something especially witty today.  So here goes:

An inspirational story or nostalgic movie is often said to "warm the cockles of your heart", but where exactly are the cockles of your heart located?  The cockles of your heart are more metaphorical than physical, although the phrase can be traced back to 15th century medical beliefs. Unfortunately, the etymological path gets a little murky after that.

Under one popular theory, the phrase "cockles of your heart" is derived from the Latin description for the heart's chambers, cochleae cordis. It is believed that the word 'cockles' is a corrupted version of cochleae, most likely entering the popular vernacular as a form of slang.  The prevailing medical opinion of that day and time was that the ventricles of the human heart resembled the concentric shells of small mollusks or snails, also known as cochleae or cockles.

Another theory concerning the "cockles of your heart" dates back to the Middle Ages.  During this time, there were an abundance of small mollusks and snails whose shells were vaguely heart-shaped. In the old Irish folk song "Molly Malone," a reference is made to these edible mollusks as "cockles and mussels." It is possible that the shape of these cockle shells inspired a comparison to the chambers of the human heart. This theory sounds plausible, but the Latin root for the mollusks and the Latin root for the heart are not similar. If the phrase "cockles of your heart" did come from a comparison to mollusk shells, then it may have been a form of slang all along.

One final possibility of the origin of "warm the cockles of your heart" may be an alternative definition of "cockles." Some say the chambers of a kiln were called cockles, although that usage has apparently fallen out of common use. Under this theory, the cockles of your heart are analogous to the cold chambers of a kiln, which must be warmed to a certain temperature in order to function at its best. It could be argued that a nostalgic movie or other life-affirming experience warms the cockles of your heart in the same sense that a fire warms the "cockles" of a kiln.

There is even a theory that the French word for shell, coquille, is so close in pronunciation and meaning to "cockle" that a comparison to the shell-like chambers of the human heart was inevitable. Using foreign words in casual conversation is an age-old practice in any language, and it is possible that the phrase "cockles of your heart" may have evolved from the more affected "coquilles of your heart."

Idiom of the Week—“Kick the Bucket”

 Idiom of the Week—“Kick the Bucket”

This is a pretty common idiom, so it’s hard to believe we haven’t addressed it yet.  But I went back and checked the archives, and we haven’t explained “kick the bucket” yet, so here we go.  To “kick the bucket” means to die, and was the inspiration behind the title of the recent movie “The Bucket List”, which refers to a list of things you want to accomplish in your lifetime before you die (or, “kick the bucket”).

The link between buckets and death was made as early as 1785, when the phrase was defined in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue as:  "To kick the bucket, to die."  As we have found with a lot of idioms, there are multiple theories as to the origin of “kick the bucket”.  Here are the two most popular:

1.        The Suicide/Execution Theory

One theory is that the phrase originates from the notion that people hanged themselves (or were hanged by a mob or posse) by standing on a bucket with a noose around their neck and then kicking the bucket away (or having it kicked away by someone else). There are no citations that relate the phrase to suicide and, in any case, why a bucket instead of, say, a chair or a crate or a rock?  This theory, although popular doesn't have a lot of evidence to support it.

2.       The Butcher Theory

         This theory has a little more historical credibility.  It seems that in 16th century England, the word “bucket” had an additional meaning (and in some parts of England, still carries this meaning.  The work “bucket” was used to refer to a beam or yoke used to hang or carry items. The term may have been introduced into English from either the French “trébuchet“, meaning a balance, or “buque“, meaning a yoke.  Many of you are probably thinking right now, “Wait a minute.  Didn’t Shakespeare use the term ‘bucket’ in reference to a yoke in his play Henry IV Part II, in 1597?”  Well, as a matter of fact he did.  Here’s the citation:  "Swifter then he that gibbets (or hangs) on the Brewers Bucket."  Over time, the wooden frame (or yoke) that was used to hang animals up by their feet for slaughter came to be called a bucket.  As you can imagine this was a rather messy affair, and it was not unusual for the animals to put up a struggle during the process.  In fact, it was pretty common for the animals to undergo a violent spasm after death and quite literally 'kick the bucket'.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this phrase could make the leap from being applied to slaughtered animals to being applied to expired human beings.

Idiom of the Week—How did the symbol“$” come to mean “dollars” (and, coincidentally, why is 25 cents sometimes called “Two bits”)?

      Those of you who remember typing on an actual typewriter may recall that the dollar sign originally had two vertical lines through it, not one (as in the symbol shown above).  Not surprisingly, there are multiple theories as to how this symbol came about.  Here they are for your consideration:

1.       The United States Abbreviation Theory

One of the most popular theories is that the dollar sign is derived from the initials of the United States. If you superimpose a capital "U" on a capital "S" then drop the lower part of the "U", what you end up with is a version of the dollar symbol with two strokes. This theory was endorsed by the American libertarian philosopher and staunch defender of capitalism, Ayn Rand, in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Chapter 10 is entitled the Sign of the Dollar. Rand claimed the dollar sign was the symbol not only of the currency, but also the nation, a free economy, and a free mind.

2.       The Peso Abbreviation Theory

A more widely accepted theory nowadays is that the sign owes its origins to the Spanish peso.  One version of this theory is that the standard abbreviation of "peso" was simply "P", but the plural form was a large "P" with a small "s" above it and to its right. This was simplified by retaining only the upward stroke of the "P" and superimposing the "S" upon it. Hence the symbol of the dollar.  But if the peso abbreviation theory is the correct one why is the US dollar sign sometimes written with two vertical strokes? A possible explanation is that the best known Spanish Peso coin had two pillars engraved on the reverse side to symbolize the "Pillars of Hercules" at Gibraltar and the words "Plus Ultra" indicating that beyond the Pillars of Hercules there were other lands. That coin was called the Pillar Dollar in the British colonies in North America and the two pillars may have become the two strokes in the Dollar sign.

3.       The Piece of Eight Theory

There is another version of the theory linking the sign to the Spanish peso. The peso was subdivided into eight smaller units of currency called “reals”, hence the name piece of eight. This was represented as P8 or /8/. Eventually it became customary to write the oblique strokes across the figure 8. In the past precious metal coins were sometimes split into pieces to provide small change. The use in America of the expression two bits for 25 cents is a legacy of this since if a Spanish dollar or peso or piece of eight was split into quarters each part would consist of two pieces (or “two bits”) of the original eight pieces (or “reals”).  The 8 with two strokes became a letter S with two strokes since S looks like an 8 that has been split, as when a peso was broken to provide change in reals. Eventually a further simplification was introduced by dropping one of the strokes.

Idiom of the Week—“Keep Your Nose to the Grindstone”

To “keep your nose to the grindstone” means to apply yourself conscientiously to your work.  There are two rival explanations as to the origin of this phrase. One is that it comes from the supposed habit of millers who checked that the stones used for grinding cereal weren't overheating by putting their nose to the stone in order to smell any burning. The other is that it comes from the practice of knife grinders when sharpening blades to bend over the stone, or even to lie flat on their fronts, with their faces near the grindstone in order to hold the blades against the stone.  All the evidence is against the miller's tale, most because the stones used by millers were commonly called millstones, not grindstones. The two terms were sometimes interchanged but the distinction between the two was made at least as early as 1400. 

The first known use of this phrase in print occurred in 1532 in an obscure work by John Frith:

"This Text holdeth their noses so hard to the grindstone, that it clean disfigureth their faces."

The phrase appears in print at various dates since the 16th century. It was well-enough known in rural USA in the early 20th century for this picture, taken from around 1910, which alludes to the 'holding someone's nose to the grindstone' version of the phrase, to have been staged as a joke.

Idiom of the Week—“Eating Humble Pie”

To “eat humble pie” means to act submissively and apologetically, especially in admitting an error.  For instance, “When the Packers beat the Bears in the NFC Championship game, many Chicago fans were forced to eat humble pie.”  Since the mid 19th century, anyone who had occasion to 'eat his words' by humiliatingly recanting something would be said to 'eat crow' (we’ll save that one for another time), or to eat humble pie.

In the 14th century, the numbles (or noumbles, nomblys, noubles) was the name given to the heart, liver, entrails etc. of animals, especially of deer.  By the 15th century this had migrated to umbles, although the words co-existed for some time. There are many references to both words in Old English and Middle English texts from 1330 onward. Umbles were used as an ingredient in pies, although the first record of 'umble pie' in print is as late as the 17th century. Samuel Pepys makes many references to such pies in his diary. For example, on 5th July 1662: "I am having some venison given me a day or two ago, and so I had a shoulder roasted, another baked, and the umbles baked in a pie, and all very well done." and on 8th July 1663: "Mrs Turner came in and did bring us an Umble-pie hot out of her oven, extraordinarily good."

It is possible that it was the pies that caused the move from numbles to umbles. 'A numble pie' could easily have become an umble pie', in the same way that 'a napron' became 'an apron' and 'an ewt' became 'a newt'.  The adjective humble, meaning 'of lowly rank' or 'having a low estimate of oneself' derived separately from umbles, which derives from Latin and Old French words for loins.  The similarity of the sound of the words, and the fact that umble pie was often eaten by those of humble situation could easily have been the reason for 'eat humble pie' to have come to have its current meaning.

Idiom of the Week—“curry favor”

To “curry favor” with someone means to do something that will ingratiate you to them.  For instance, “Joe pretended to be interested in the project in an attempt to curry favor with his new boss.”  This phrase has an interesting origin.  The first part, “to curry”, is an equestrian (horse-related) term, which means “to clean the coat of”.  This process was completed with a currycomb, a comb made of rows of metallic teeth or serrated ridges and used especially to curry horses. 

OK, but how did it come to be associated with “favor”, and why would anyone “clean the coat of” favor?  Turns out that this one traces its roots all the way back to AD 1310 and a long French poem written by Gervais du Bus called Roman de Fauvel ("Story of Favel").  The protagonist in the story is an allegorical horse that is the incarnation of the sins represented by the letters of his name: flatterie, avarice, vilainie, variété (fickleness), envie, and lâcheté (cowardice).

From that poem comes the Middle French expression estriller Fauvel, which was translated into Middle English as currayen Favel, meaning "to curry Favel."  Because Favel was a chestnut-colored horse (in Middle French fauvel means "fallow colored"), the expression literally means "to rub or smooth down the chestnut horse."  But Favel was not just a horse. He was a humanlike symbol of dishonesty in just about all of its forms. Therefore, currayen Favel figuratively means "to stroke or fawn on the evil chestnut horse to get some benefit in return.”

By the 15th century, the expression had become to curry favel. By the 16th century, folk etymology had replaced the still-unfamiliar word favel with the familiar and coincidentally relevant favor. Today, then, to seek to gain favor by flattery or fawning over someone is to curry favor.

Idiom of the Week—“Take it with a grain of salt”.

V.         Idiom of the Week—“Take it with a grain of salt”.

To take a statement with 'a grain of salt' or 'a pinch of salt' means to accept it but to maintain a degree of skepticism about its truth.

The idea comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt. The origin of the phrase dates all the way back to Roman times in 77 A.D., when Pliny the Elder translated an ancient antidote for poison in his book Naturalis Historia, 77 A.D.:

After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.

The suggestion is that injurious effects can be moderated by the taking of a grain of salt.   The figurative meaning, i.e. that truth may require moderation by the notional application of 'a grain of salt', didn't enter the language until much later, no doubt influenced by classical scholars' study of Ancient Greek texts like the works of Pliny. The phrase has been in use in English since the 17th century.

The 'pinch of salt' variant is more recent. The earliest printed citation that for it is F. R. Cowell's Cicero & the Roman Republic, 1948:

"A more critical spirit slowly developed, so that Cicero and his friends took more than the proverbial pinch of salt before swallowing everything written by these earlier authors."

So there you have it.  If anyone tries to tell you anything different, take it with a grain (or pinch) of salt.

Idiom of the Week—“At loggerheads”

I.        Idiom of the Week—“At loggerheads”

To be “at loggerheads” with someone means to be locked in a seemingly irreconcilable dispute with them.   The phrase 'at loggerheads' is of British origin. The singular noun 'loggerhead' has been used in several contexts - as a species of turtle, a bird and as a place name. However, the original usage of “loggerhead” was by William Shakespeare, who used it to refer to a stupid person in his play Love's Labours Lost, in 1588:

        "Ah you logger-head, you were borne to do me shame."

A 'logger-head' was literally a 'block-head'. A logger was a thick block of timber which was fastened to a horse's leg to prevent it from running away. In the 17th century, a loggerhead was also recorded as 'an iron instrument with a long handle used for melting pitch and for heating liquids'.

It is likely that the use of these tools as weapons was what was being referred to when rivals were first said to be 'at loggerheads'.  The first known use of the phrase “at loggerheads: in print is in Francis Kirkman's, The English Rogue, 1680:

        "They frequently quarrell'd about their Sicilian wenches, and indeed... they seem... to be worth the going to Logger-heads for."

The phrase continued to be used to denote physical confrontation, as in the following citation from 1681: 

        “So we went to loggerheads together, I think that was the word, or Fisty-cuffs.“

Bonus Idiom:  ‘Fisticuffs' is another two-word term from around the same date that was later amalgamated into a single word. A “cuff” was a blow with the open hand. A “fisty cuff” was a cuff using the fist, i.e. a punch. Therefore, when someone is in a bare-knuckled fight, we say they are engaging in “fisticuffs.”

But I digress.  Loggerheads is also the name of three small towns in the United Kingdom - in Staffordshire, in Lancashire and in Mold, North Wales.  Each town's residents claim that 'at loggerheads' originated in their home-town. Alas, despite the early citations referring to 'going to' loggerheads, this isn't the case. The towns were named after the term, not the other way around. It’s not clear exactly when the meaning of “at loggerheads” evolved from being in physical confrontation to having irreconcilable differences, but that is the accepted usage today.