With all due respect to Simon & Garfunkel, when you consider the sound of silence, you’ve probably thought “crickets”, the noisy insects that have somehow become synonymous with no sound at all. But how did crickets come to symbolize silence? Well, this sense of the word “crickets” is so recent that it has yet to…
Like many old proverbs, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” used to have a very literal meaning before the passage of time turned it into a figure of speech. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth means being thankful for a gift, even if you secretly wished for something else. The phrase…
There’s so much going on in the world these days. So many “hot button issues”, as news anchors & political pundits call them. But what actually is a “hot button issue” anyway? Why is it called that? Nowadays, the term “hot-button issue” refers to any situation with a heavy emotional undercurrent. If a subject gets…
On the heels of this year’s Oscars ceremony, where so many “box office blockbusters” were honored, have you ever wondered where the term “box office” originated? You couldn’t be blamed for thinking it sprouted from the box-like nature of many old-fashioned box offices, which were enclosed, detached booths situated just outside theaters…but you’d still be…
Whenever people start talking about “ringing in the New Year”, you’ll usually hear them talk about doing so with things like a kiss, a toast, a New Year’s resolution, a movie marathon, or an entire dozen donuts all to themselves. But when you think about it…none of those things ring, do they? So, why do…
You’ve probably heard the term “Roger that”. It’s a widespread way of providing confirmation, whether that be between truckers on their CB radios, kids playing with walkie-talkies, or even folks talking face to face. But while it’s easy to use the phrase & understand what it means, have you ever wondered where it came from?…
If anyone’s ever tried to give you a false answer to an earnest question, they may have followed up their response with “I’m just joshing ya!” But who is this Josh fellow, and why do folks invoke his name when trying to pull the wool over our eyes? The phrase “just joshing you” arose out…
Whenever someone’s sharing some juicy details with you about something of questionable veracity, but they want to try & be cagey about where they got their information, sometimes they’ll say they “heard it through the grapevine.” They might say, “I heard through the grapevine John & Sarah are getting divorced,” or, “I heard through the…
Pretty much everyone has heard of the expression “86”, which means to do away with something (like, “Yeah, 86 that order!”). But where did it come from & why? Well, there are a few schools of thought as to its origin, though none of them are actually official. Some possibilities… The restaurant business in the…
Some truck driver slang just makes sense. Like “Bambi”, which means a deer is in the vicinity. “Go-go Juice” means diesel fuel. “Seat covers” are actually pants. But what about the phrase “10-4”. You may know that 10-4 basically means “okay” or “I got your message”, but why? Where did that come from? 10-4 came…