Have you let the cat out of the bag or bought a pig in a poke? Is it raining cats and dogs at your house? No, I don’t have any big news or secrets to tell, but sometimes it’s fun to think about why we say the things we do. Especially when it comes to idioms.
What is an idiom? Glad you asked. 🙂 An idiom is a phrase or expression that has a meaning that in most cases cannot be deduced directly from the individual words in that phrase or expression. Such as “stirring up a hornets’ nest.” It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what that one means if you’ve ever been the victim of a wasp or hornet sting. I’ve been stung by wasps numerous times but luckily have avoided angering a hornets’ nest. So that idiom simply means, you’re making trouble you or others around you are sure to regret.
Other idiom meanings or origins aren’t quite so easily figured out. Take that one about letting the cat out of the bag. There are two origins suggested online. One relates to that “pig in a poke.” For those of you who don’t know country or mountain speak, a poke is a bag. Buying a pig in a poke means that you bought something without actually seeing it. You trusted the seller and then found out you didn’t get exactly what you thought you were going to get. Maybe instead of the expected pig, that poke held a cat. If that was so, I’m guessing when you opened up the bag it would be like stirring up a hornets’ nest and you’d better get out of that cat’s way. That makes me think of the old farmer advice that it’s a lot easier to get the cat in the bag instead of out of the bag. That’s not an idiom. That’s just some true advice. 🙂
But back to “letting the cat out of the bag.” Another origin given was the whip that’s called a cat of nine tails that was used for flogging people as punishment. The resource I read said it could be the whip was kept in a bag, but that doesn’t seem to fit with the meaning we give “letting the cat out of the bag” of revealing a secret either intentionally or accidentally.
But what about raining cats and dogs? Where could that have come from since no historical record has ever claimed cats and dogs fell out of the sky? Nobody is actually sure where this idiom originated. One idea is perhaps someone seeing bodies of cats or dogs in flood waters. Another suggestion was since cats and dogs are natural born enemies that can end up in ferocious fights or flight that perhaps the phrase just indicates a storm of fearful ferocity. In this case nobody knows and those venturing a guess may just be “barking up the wrong tree.”
Now, that one I understand from being a dog owner and from being acquainted with those who hunt raccoons with dogs. First I’ve often seen a dog keep barking up a tree they happened to notice a squirrel running up. The dog didn’t see the squirrel hop to another tree and race through the branches to get away from that barking. With raccoon hunters, their dogs pursue the raccoon and eventually “tree” it. Then the dogs stand at the bottom of the tree barking until the hunters make it through the woods to them. But occasionally a raccoon will somehow give a dog the slip by climbing to another tree or doing some other wily trick. Then the dog ends up “barking up the wrong tree.”
The earliest known printed citation is in James Kirke Paulding’s Westward Ho!, 1832:
“Here he made a note in his book, and I begun to smoke him for one of those fellows that drive a sort of a trade of making books about old Kentuck and the western country: so I thought I’d set him barking up the wrong tree a little, and I told him some stories that were enough to set the Mississippi a-fire; but he put them all down in his book.”
So if we say somebody is “barking up the wrong tree,” we mean they have the completely wrong idea or are “running down the wrong road.”
So I’ve “chased enough rabbit trails” for one day, but hope you enjoyed this peek at some of the things we say.
What are some idioms you say or that make you smile when you hear them or read them in a story?
Note: Check back Wednesday or Thursday. It’s time to give away some more books so we’ll play the caption game. I’ll post a picture and you can come up with the most interesting or fitting caption.
Comments 21
Ann, I love idioms and other unusual expressions. Because of our family’s contacts with international university students who requested explanations of such sayings, I began a blog, Words, Wit, and Wisdom: Life Lessons from English Expressions, on my website. Thank you for sharing the fun.
Author
I need to check that out, Diana. I know that would be something I would really enjoy. What fun!
I met someone who goes to church with you last night. I was the guest of a Campbellsville Book Club and because I met a dozen or so new friends, I may not have the right name of the person who said they knew you, but I think it was Linda.
I probably knew most of the people in last night’s group. Although I’m not a member of the club, I knew you were their speaker and would love to have been able to attend. I can’t wait to hear from some of them about the meeting.
Idioms are fun and we all have used them at one time or another:
Every cloud has a silver lining
It fell on deaf ears
Easier said than done
It was like “finding a needle in a haystack”
Getting cold feet (nervous)
He was like a “fish out of water”
Looking forward to your caption game; however, I’m not very good at it. 🙄
Author
I’ve said or heard all of those, Karen. I’ve had cold feet about doing something and felt like a “fish out of water” and hoped for some silver linings while what I said to my kids sometimes fell on deaf ears. I’ve look for that needle in a haystack and known plenty of things that were easier said than done. Haven’t we all? 🙂
I’ll be searching for some good pictures for the caption game.
My mother has a treasure trove of idioms . How about, “Too much sugar for a cent” another one, “Bet your bottom dollar to a donut” or “That’s a piss poor attitude”
Author
I never heard the “too much sugar for a cent,” but I have heard the other two. When we first bet our bottom dollar to a donut, the donut probably wasn’t as expensive as it is now, Betty. 🙂
I really enjoyed this!
Author
I’m glad you liked the post, Nyla. I always enjoy finding out why we say the things we say and playing with words. Maybe I’ll do more posts in the future about word or idiom origins.
A number of years ago I taught an ESL class at our church. I had several Japanese ladies and one lady from India in the class. They were a delight.
We worked on new idiom each week. It was not a easy task. I am not sure that they ever grasped the meaning of some of them.
Author
Well, you can understand their confusion, Sharon. While some of them make sense, others don’t. Like being the “bee’s knees.” Somebody just mentioned that one on my Facebook page and I looked it up. Seems originally that meant some delicious food and they figured it was because of the sacs on a bee’s knees where it collected the pollen to carry back to the hive to make honey. In the 1930’s that got changed to something that was extra good or looked good. But that might be hard to explain to somebody from Japan or India. They’d probably just think we all just had a few screws loose. Another of those idioms. 🙂
Best thing since sliced bread and cost an arm and a leg. I wonder how much an arm and a leg cost, ha!
Author
I don’t know how much an arm and a leg cost, but whatever costs that much, I don’t think I want it, Connie. LOL. But best think since sliced bread isn’t too hard to figure out.
I recently “took in” a stray cat. The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” has new meaning to me. And I am so glad that she has “nine lives.” She has used about seven of them just today.
Author
Sounds like you’ve got a fun cat, Sandi. And a very curious one. Don’t use up any of your lives trying to keep her out of trouble.
Looking forward to the caption game! Have a great week!
Author
Thanks, Paula. I’ll have to search through some of my pictures to see what interesting one I can come up with. Always a fun game and a little easier than the mystery picture game. I have to really work with that mystery picture to try to come up with something to trick you sharp-eyed readers. 🙂
“Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite” is always one that makes me smile. 😊 Psalm 117
Author
With bedbugs making a comeback, we might have to still worry about that one, Emily. My mother could remember staying at an aunt’s house when she was young where you did have to worry about bedbugs. Many people during that time would set the legs of their beds in dishes of kerosene to keep the bedbugs away. But it is a saying I’ve heard spoken many, many times when nobody was really worried about bedbugs just hoping whoever they were speaking to had a good night’s rest.
I work at an historical museum and just learned what “sleep tight” meant. We have an old rope bed with a funny looking tool that tightens the ropes on the bed. If the ropes weren’t tightened often enough, everyone (sometimes up to a half dozen kids to a bed), would all roll to the center or toward the biggest person in the bed. Thus, sleep tight meant they hoped the ropes were tight. And with a straw mattress on the bed too, I’m sure everyone worried about bugs in the straw.
I love reading all these posts, and look forward to the caption contest. I’m not very good at it, but have fun reading the comments! 🙂
Author
Thanks for your insight on “sleep tight,” Lavon. I have seen that about the ropes of the beds needing to be tightened. Of course, sleeping with 6 or 8 in a bed might be another way of sleeping tight. Very close together and tightly packed into the bed. 🙂