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| "Creativity is using the same post but putting the word "again" into it, to sound like it was just you being sassy and not lazy. Teehee" - OddballGreg |
Did your friend turn a blind eye to your bare-faced lie after you rubbed them the wrong way or did the jaywalker bust your chops for having sideburns? Words and sayings that we use every day have very unique origins, that are debated among many. Let's talk about that.
When you are doing something (usually wrong) and another person pretends not to see it, they are said to be "turning a blind eye". This saying is said to come from time of war, during one of the battles, the commander of the British fleet attempted to stop Horatio Nelson from continuing the attack on enemy ships, by the use of signal flags, but Nelson rose his telescope to his blind eye and said, "I really do not see the signal." Now if you lie on the other hand, it is easier to spot it if you have no hair on your face, as nothing is concealing small movements. So if a person makes no attempt to conceal a lie they are telling a "barefaced lie."
After trying really, really hard to reach a goal but you fall just short, someone might say, "close but no cigar." At carnivals they used to give cigars out as prizes, so if you almost won at a carnival game but didn't, you came close but got no cigar. Herders use a stick to herd sheep, if they are short of a dog. The waving motion causes the sheep to travel in the opposite direction, but sometimes they have too many sheep to wave the stick at, so when you have more of something that yo need, it is said you have "more then you can wave a stick at."
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| Don't be a sheep. You won't know if you are many or if you are one. |
"Blood is thicker than water" is often referred to as strong family bonds, but the origins might have little to do with family. In the Middle eastern culture, blood rituals symbolized bonds that were a lot stronger than that of family bonds. So when warriors symbolically shared blood on the battlefields, it was believed their bonds were stronger than those of blood brothers. When you are family, however, it can be hard to "rub them the wrong way." This saying comes from colonial America where servants were to wet-rub and dry-rub the wooden floors in their masters house, and if done against the grain it would leave streaks, which annoyed the owners.
Walking across the street at a place that is not designated to walk, is called "Jaywalking." This word came from birds, (naturally), Jay birds that traveled into towns often became confused and are unaware of some of the dangers that the town might have, eg traffic. People began using the term "Jaywalker" to identify someone who walks across the road in a reckless or irresponsible manner. When you get home after seeing a jaywalker, you can "let your hair down." this means to relax after a tiring day. This phrase came into existence because of Parisian nobles. They risked disapproval from their peers if they were found in public without a fancy hairstyle. Many of the styles of the time required a lot of work, so when they came home after a long day it was really relaxing to literally let their hair down.
You must have seen sideburns before and if you are a male over 17, you most probably have had sideburns at least once in your life. This word for facial hair was named after a person, Colonel Ambrose Burnside was well known for his facial hair on the sides, (see picture below). People started calling the hair on the cheeks sideburns and then the term just stuck. Now there were some people who "bust your chops" by giving people a hard time. This phrase started when people punched others in the face for having sideburns, (also know as chops, how rude is that).
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| "Burnside didn't have much hair on his head, so he grow some on his cheeks." - Theory by JovialJman. |
OMG stands for, "oh my gosh/god" and has been used by many a teenage girl around the world, but the person who coined the acronym was the furthest thing from a teenage girl as you can get. Admiral John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone used it first while writing his memories in 1917, (that is a while before the internet don't you think). The exact words he used were, “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!” Then there is a word that means little girl but is used by boys and men alike. "Boobies" used to mean little girls, the way it is used today might be because bubby (plural boobies) was used by children as a child-talk term for a breast and it evolved from there, (this may have been the same as the name Dick)
When someone is "shitfaced", they are most probably young, but did you know it was a term to describe young people, ie teenagers. A Scottish dictionary from 1826 defined it as "having a very small face, as a child." Drinking Whiskey could get you "shitfaced" if you don't watch out. Whiskey (or whisky) comes from the Gaelic words "uisge beatha", which means “water of life,” (Scottish people might take their drinking a little bit seriously). Vodka is a bit more potent than whiskey to some (unless you are Russian, the birthplace of Vodka), but it means small water, (yes Russia named it after water, which explains why they drink it as such).
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| This picture is a tough question |
Anyways, did you find any of these words interesting? or are you "shitfaced"?, please let us know down in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter, as we here at TSCA love to hear from you. Thank you for taking the time to read today's post, and if you liked it or would like to see the newest posts as the are published, please like us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter, using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Do you have any friends or people you know who like to drink Whiskey or might need a bit of "chop busting", please share this post with them as I am sure they might get a laugh out of it and will thank you for sharing it. I hope you have/had a really good day, and I shall write again overmorrow.
Cheers and cross the streets safely, jaywalkers.
