For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by the hundreds upon hundreds of rather mysterious old sayings that are a part of every day English language.
When analyzed literally, many don’t make much (if any) sense. But most never receive such scrutiny and are simply carried on through the generations.
In many cases, time has caused old sayings to lose their original form, and in others, to take on entirely different meaning. But whether they’ve withstood the pressure of change, or have been altered over time, finding out where old sayings come from always sheds very interesting light on them.
I chose a handful of familiar favorites and did a little research. Here’s what I found.
•God (or Lord) willing and the creek don’t rise
During the late 1700s, politician and Indian diplomat Benjamin Hawkins was working in the southeastern U.S. and was requested by the president to come to Washington, D.C.
Hawkins’ responded by writing that he would do so, “God willing and the Creeks don’t rise.” He was referring to the Creek Indians.
Over time the saying has morphed into the one we are now familiar with, in which the word “creek” has been substituted for “Creeks” and is associated with a swollen stream of water.
Doug Davison
•Tough row to hoe
Most often mistakenly stated a “tough road to hoe,” the phrase means to have a daunting task to perform, and refers to hoeing rows on a farm.
A tough row to hoe would in a literal sense be one full of rocks and roots, which in a figurative sense would be a tough problem to face.
The origin of the expression dates back to 1834, from a passage in the book “Tour to the North and Down East,” by frontiersman Davy Crockett, who wrote, “I know it was a hard row to hoe.”
Nowadays, you might hear a TV sportscaster say a team has a “tough road ahead.”
•Balls to the wall
The familiar old saying that means to push to the limit, or go all out, is not a reference to male anatomy, but an expression from the world of aviation. On an airplane, the handles controlling the throttle and fuel mixture are often topped with ball-shaped grips, which are not surprisingly referred to by pilots as “balls.”
Pushing the balls forward – toward the “wall” of the cockpit – is to apply full throttle and reach the highest possible speed.
•Round-robin
Most present-day sports fans are familiar with this phrase and its use to describe a tournament in which each entrant (whether team or individual) plays all other entrants.
But its origin is vastly removed from athletics, and has nothing to do with a red-breasted bird.
The word “robin” in the saying is a corruption of the French word “ruban,” which means “ribbon.”
In 17th and 18th century France, the average peasant had plenty to complain about, and they often did so by petitioning the king. But that wasn’t a particularly wise move for a while, because his usual reaction was to seize the first two or three people who signed the petition and have them beheaded.
Wishing to keep their heads about them, but determined to petition for justice, peasants began signing their names on petitions in a circle, like a ribbon. That eliminated any order to the signatures, and if there were hundreds on a given petition, it was impractical for the king to punish all signers.
•Pleased as Punch
An old saying that’s generally recognized as meaning very pleased, it comes from the traditional, popular puppet show with roots in 16th century Italy known as “Punch and Judy,” featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. Mr. Punch, who wears a brightly colored jester’s outfit, is typically portrayed as a character possessing gleeful self-satisfaction, hence the modern phrase.
•Big wig
In the 18th century when many men wore wigs, the most important men wore the biggest wigs. Important people are still called “big wigs” today.
•Bone up on
Commonly known to mean studying or learning about something, the phrase was originally slang used by American students in the 1800s.
A publishing firm owned by Henry Bohn produced Bohn’s Classical Library, a series of study aids that translated Greek and Latin classics to English and were widely used by students cramming for exams. The expression to “Bohn up” eventually became to “bone up.”
•Flash in the pan
Musical artists who become “one hit wonders,” or athletes who have a great moment but not a great career, sometimes end up wearing this label.
It originates from firearms jargon. For hundreds of years, muzzle-loaded rifles called muskets were designed to shoot with help from a priming pan filled with gunpowder. When flint hit steel, the powder in the pan would ignite, which then ignited the main charge of gunpowder and fired the musket ball. When the powder in the pan failed to light the main charge, all that took place was a “flash in the pan.”
•Swan song
Signifying a final performance, this saying comes from an ancient belief – which has no foundation in fact – that the only time a swan sings in its entire life is just before it dies.
The phrase was first recorded in the 6th century B.C. (Aesop), and is also found in Latin literature and in English beginning in the 14th century.
So there you have it.
A bit of somewhat interesting trivia to add to your relatively useless information file.
Realistically, it doesn’t matter where old sayings come from, and it would take a month of Sundays to even scratch the surface of finding out. All that matters is that a person understands what is being said when someone else pulls the old saying card.
And they usually do, because most people are “on the ball” when it comes to old sayings (there are at least three possibilities as to where that one came from; look it up if you feel led).
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.
June 30, 2012 at 3:07 am
Interesting. But, your answer to: “Balls to the Wall” is completely incorrect. (Which puts the rest into question…) “Balls to the Wall”, comes from old steam locomotives. The mechanical governors that controlled the speed of the old locomotives, use the centrifugal force of spinning weights, which are ultimately geared to an axle, and the weights are countered against a spring. It is essentially a constant speed device. This controls a steam valve. The weights are steel balls at the end of a levered arm (the flyball unit), and are housed in round cylindrical housings,. If you increase the pressure on the spring, the weights are forced inward, and it opens the steam valve, and lets more steam in. As the train speeds up, the weights spin faster, and the spinning flyball weights again counter the spring pressure, and balance out once again. Thus, regulating the steam for that speed. If the train goes uphill, both the train, and the balls slow down, and move inward, opening the valve, and letting more steam in, speeding up the train until they balance again. As the train goes over the hill, they spin faster, and fly outward, and steam is automatically reduced to slow the speed. If you keep Increasing spring pressure, the valve is forced open, and it makes you go faster and faster, so the weights are spinning very fast because it now takes a lot of force to close the valve. But, with enough spring pressure, the balancing point of centrifugal force against the spring can never be reached. The balls are held inward, the valve is held open, and the train keeps going faster and faster, until you run out of horsepower to go any faster, or run out of coal, or both. The hope is to go so fast that the flyballs will eventually be pushed to the wall of the housing. …In the case of a runaway train going down a mountainside, you are indeed “balls to the wall”. Gravity is pulling the train downhill, and the balls are pushed centrifugally to the housing wall due to the speed of the spinning weights, which is closing the steam valve fully, but, it is to no avail, as gravity keeps pulling you faster and faster. (assuming no brakes). That is the real meaning of “Balls to the wall”. It means you are in a runaway train, intentionally, or not, the flyballs are spinning very fast, and are spinning right up close to the outer wall of the governor housing. Either way, you are going fast. Older airplanes have propeller pitch governors as well, and can be similarly, and correctly, associated with speed, but that is not at all where it originated. And, it has absolutely no origin in the power levers of modern jets. Although, the term can be used there subjectively.