Straight From the Horse’s Mouth

Acquired from the most authoritative source.

Etymology: Horse traders often lied about the age of their horses. To verify the age of a horse, a potential buyer would examine the horse’s teeth, which would be a reliable indicator of the animal’s true age. Thus, the horse’s teeth were considered the most reliable authority. The phrase was very well known among stable hands and fans of horse racing for many years. The phrase first appears in print in May, 1913 in the Syracuse Herald: “I got a tip yesterday, and if it wasn’t straight from the horse’s mouth it was jolly well the next thing to it.”

The phrase gained wider use after it appeared in a story written by P.G. Wodehouse in August 1928. The short story, “The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” appearing in Strand Magazine, introduces the phrase and its meaning: “The prospect of getting the true facts — straight, as it were, from the horse’s mouth — held him fascinated.” Four years later, Aldous Huxley would use the phrase in Brave New World: “Straight from the horse’s mouth into the note-book, the boys scribbled like mad.”

For further reading: From the Horse’s Mouth: Oxford Dictionary of Idioms by John Ayto, Oxford University Press (2009); Common Phrases and the Amazing Stories Behind Them by Max Cryer, Skyhorse Publishing (2010). http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/336400.html

Phrases Associated with the Hindenburg

Thanks to the newsreels and radio broadcasts of 1937, the Hindenburg disaster ranks in the top 100 of the world’s greatest disasters. Even though the number of people killed was low compared to many other notable disasters, it was the way that a small group of journalists were able to record what they saw and their immediate reaction to it that had a very lasting impression on the public. For over 75 years, the words and phrases related to this airship disaster are part of the English lexicon:

Oh, the humanity!: Exclamation: the sudden and terrible loss of life. This phrase was a portion of one of  the most famous radio broadcasts of all time. Herb Morrison, a young radio reporter for station WLS was present to witness the arrival of the Hindenburg at the airfield in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Morrison came along with a still  photographer and a newsreel photographer; they were anxious to try out their new equipment. Morrison was speaking into the microphone describing what he saw and when the zeppelin burst into flames, Morrison becomes very emotional, expressing his shock and disbelief at what he sees: “It’s burst into flames. … Get out of the way, please; oh my, this is terrible. … It is burning. … This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world … oh, the humanity!” (On the recording, Morrison’s voice sounds very high-pitched because the recording was set to the wrong speed, masking his normally deep voice.) German employees at the airfield did not want this accident to reflect badly on the Third Reich so they tried to confiscate the recording equipment. Thinking quickly, Morrison distracted the Germans, while Charles Nehlsen, a WLS engineer, gathered and hid the equipment. Later that evening, the WLS team boarded a flight to Chicago from a very remote part of the airport. Back at WLS, Morrison’s voice was dubbed onto the newsreel footage.

Hindenburg: Adjective. A horrible disaster or failure.

To buy a ticket on the Hindenburg: an action or effort is doomed; a person faces certain death as a result of a specific action.

Read related posts: The Hindenburg Disaster by the Numbers

For further reading: Adonis to Zorro: The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion by Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen, Oxford University Press (2010). www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/opinion/
ct-per-flash-blimpside-0506-20120506,0,4778204.story

 

Phrases Associated with the Titanic

Even if one is not familiar with the all the details of the most famous maritime disaster of all time, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, a modern-day English speaker probably uses or is familiar with phrases that are associated with this legendary event. As its hull cracked and slipped into the dark, icy sea, the Titanic managed to toss overboard a number of phrases into the expansive ocean of the English language. The phrases are as vivid today as the events that unfolded on that cold April morning over a century ago:

And the band played on: to continue to do something bravely in the face of hostile or life-threatening conditions. The phrase first appears as the title to a song, “The Band Played On” written in 1895 by John Palmer. The song includes the refrain “And the band played on.” The phrase, as we know it, was redefined by the ill-fated maiden journey of the Titanic. Survivors of the ship witnessed one of the greatest acts of selflessness and courage when Wallace Hartley and his string ensemble played music on the upper deck soon after the Titanic struck the iceberg in order to calm the passengers. One of their selections, “Nearer My God to Thee” was truly prescient and for many, the last song they would ever hear.  Passengers scrambled their way to the lifeboats, rushing past the band that never wavered in its performance. Harold Bride, the ship’s junior wireless operator, recalled that the last song the musicians played was Francois Barthelemon’s “Autumn.” Eventually the mighty ship tilted and the waves swept the band into an icy tomb. Witnesses recall that Hartley’s last words were: “Gentlemen, I bid you farewell.”  Hartley’s body was recovered weeks later and was honored at a funeral with over 1,000 people attending and another 40,000 people lined up along the funeral procession. And the Band Played On was the title of a 1987 book written by Randy Shilts about the discovery of and spread of HIV and AIDS and the battle against government indifference. The book was adapted into a movie version by HBO in 1993. In 2011, Christopher Ward, grandson of one of the members of the Titanic orchestra, published And the Band Played On: The Enthralling Account of What Happened After the Titanic Sank focusing on the events after the Titanic sank.

Women and children first: if the lives of a group of people are at stake, then the lives of the women and children should be saved first, followed by the men. This act of chivalry was not new to the crew of the Titanic nor did that phrase originate that evening. The first recorded use is in the novel Harrington: A True Story of Love by William O’Connor written in 1860. The phrase was popularized, however, by the famous order issued by the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith. Unfortunately for the men aboard the sinking ship, some of the officers misunderstood the order and prevented men from climbing aboard the lifeboats. The final casualties explain the cost of that misunderstanding: 74% of the women and 52% of the children were saved; however only 20% of the men survived.

The tip of the iceberg: something that appears small or trivial is, in fact, larger or more important. The phrase also has a temporal meaning: that something is just beginning, with something more or worse to follow. This is based on the natural observation that an iceberg floats in the ocean and only shows about 10% of its mass above sealevel, and the larger portion is hidden below.

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: a futile or pointless activity — because no matter how you rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, it will not prevent the inevitable — it will still sink. Often used as a very memorable and effective simile “[an action] … is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Read the related post on the book, Futility, that predicted the sinking of the Titanic.

Like the Titanic headed for an iceberg: An unavoidable disaster, especially when happening to something that is supposedly indestructible. This simile is as vivid and as commonly used as the prior entry.

To buy a ticket on the Titanic: an action or effort is doomed; a person faces certain death as a result of a specific action. The phrase can imply that an action that might seem safe is actually very dangerous and will lead to a tragic consequence or death. Often used in the past tense: “The college student bought a ticket on the Titanic when he decided to climb a steep mountain without any training or assistance.”

I’m the king of the world! (Often misquoted as “I’m king of the world!”): a feeling of enormous elation, often celebrating success or achievement (or as in Dawson’s case — falling hopelessly in love). This is one of the most memorable lines from the 1997 movie, Titantic, directed by James Cameron. In a key scene Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCapprio) stands with his friend, hops onto the railing of the ship’s bow, and screams into the wind “I’m the king of the world!” Interestingly, that famous line was improvised on the set by Cameron who shot the scene nine times to capture the ideal composition and lighting. The movie went on to become the highest grossing film in history ($1.8 billion — only recently surpassed by another Cameron film, Avatar, that grossed $2.8 billion). Titanic also went on to win 11 Oscars at the 1998 Academy Awards. Upon winning for best director, Cameron exclaimed, “I’m king of the world” — omitting the word “the.” The film, running over three hours, was noted for its historical accuracy; however to appeal to a wider audience, Cameron wove a fictional love story (Jack and Rose) into the narrative. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, the Titanic was released in 3D in early April.

 A Night to Remember: an eventful, often tragic, evening. The title of a book written by Walter Lord, published in 1955, considered by many to be the definitive source about the Titanic disaster. Lord was able to interview many of the survivors and distilled and consolidated many of the facts gleaned from the many articles and books by the survivors. The book was the basis for the film, A Night to Remember, released in 1958. Prior to Cameron’s Titanic that utilized more historical material, the early film was praised for its attention to detail. Since then, there have been numerous songs recorded with the same title.

The Unsinkable Titanic: unsinkable means unable to be sunk, but in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster, the phrase has taken on an ironic twist — almost as if the word unsinkable should be in quotation marks — meaning that the ship is indeed sinkable. Just the very use the word “unsinkable” immediately conjures up the famous ship. The phrase implies the shattering of man’s absolute faith in technology, invention, and science — a lesson learned by Icarus who didn’t know the limitations of his wings. As one minister of that time preached: “The Titanic, name and thing, will stand as a monument and warning to human presumption.” In a quick public relations maneuver soon after the headlines announced the tragedy at sea, White Star Lines emphatically declared that they had never stated that the Titanic was unsinkable. The sentence in one of their brochures, printed in 1910, read: “These two wonderful vessels [The Olympic and Titanic] are designed to be unsinkable.” In a classic case of backpedalling or spinning (recall Clinton’s “I smoked but did not inhale” line from his 1992 presidential race), White Star Lines claimed that the sentence really meant that the Titanic was designed to be unsinkable, but stopped short of declaring it unsinkable.

Read related posts: The Titanic by the Numbers, The Best Books on the Titanic, Futility (the book that predicted the Titanic disaster), The Titanic and the Costa Concordia

For further reading: A dictionary of catch phrases: British and American from the 16th Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge, Taylor and Francis (1985). Adonis to Zorro: The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion by Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen, Oxford University Press (2010).
www.phrases.org.uk. http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/press/2012/03/rr-auction-holds-titanic-auction.phtml?utm_source=fbnotes&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120403 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/tnc02.html.htm. http://shine.yahoo.com/the-thread/the-thread-sits-down-the-the-cast-of-titanic.html
http://www.titanicuniverse.com/titanic-the-unsinkable-ship/1443
http://historyonthenet.com/Titanic/unsinkable.htm

Clothes Make the Man

People will judge you by the clothes you wear

 Although “Clothes make the man” seems like some glib ad pitch made by Mad Men’s slick Don Draper, this proverb has quite an impressive literary pedigree: from Twain to Erasmus to Quintilian to Homer. Many articles mistakenly attribute the source of the proverb to Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Indeed Mark Twain (who made quite a fashion statement when be began wearing white suits late in his career in 1906, only to be outdone by Tom Wolfe who began wearing his iconic white suit early in his career in 1962) did write: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society” (date unknown; Twain was writing from 1851 to 1910). But Twain was not the first to observe the human propensity to judge a book by its cover, as it were. That proverb actually originated over 400 years earlier during the Middle Ages. The most notable use of the proverb is found in the works of Erasmus (Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus) a Catholic priest, theologian, and social critic. Erasmus published Collectanea Adagiorum (1500), an annotated collection of 800 Greek and Latin proverbs, and years later, an expanded version, Adagiorum Chiliades (1508, 1536), containing 4,251 essays — a proverbial encyclopedia of proverbs.

 The proverb as it is recorded in Latin by Erasmus (Adagia 3.1.60) is: “vestis virum facit” meaning “the man is his clothing” or the variant: “clothes makes the man.” In the Adagia, Erasmus quotes Quintilian’s (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) work, Institutions (orat. 8 pr. 20): “To dress within the formal limits and with an air gives men, as the Greek line testifies, authority.” Quintilian is, in turn, citing the work of Homer who wrote his epics about 7 or 8 B.C.. In the Odyssey (6.29-30, 242-3, 236-7), the key lines are: “From these things, you may be sure, men get a good report” and “At first I though his [Ulysses] appearance was unseemly, but now he has the air of the gods who dwell in the wide heaven.” Thus the impact of making a good impresion by way of fine threads and bling was not lost on the great classic writers.

 Variations of this proverb appear earlier than Erasmus however they appear in obscure works: “Euer maner and clothyng makyth man” (Prov. Wisdom, 1400) and “Ffor clothyng oft maketh man.” (Peter Idley’s Instructions to His Son, 1445).

 Not to be one-upped by classical writers, Shakespeare (who wore his fine Elizabethan white ruff with great pride and dignity) weighed in on the matter through Polonius: “The apparel oft proclaims the man” (The Tragedy of Hamlet, written around 1600).

For further reading: The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs edited by Jennifer Speake, Oxford University Press (2003). The Adages of Erasmus by Desiderius Erasmus, Edited by William Barker, University of Toronto Press (2001). Bodies and Boundaries in Graeco-Roman Antiquity By Thorsten Fogen (Google Books). Adages: III iv 1 to IV ii 100 by Desiderius Erasmus, Edited by John Grant (Google Books). More Maxims of Mark by Mark Twain edited by Merle Johnson, private press in NY (1927) also reprinted in Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches and Essays, vol.2, 1891-1910, edited by Louis Budd, Library of America (1992).

Heard It Through the Grapevine

To acquire information by rumor or word-of-mouth. Also: heard it on the grapevine.

Etymology: The phrase originated in the 1840-50s during the early days of the telegraph. The telegraph and Morse Code were developed by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail in 1936 and beginning in 1844 telegraph lines were being strung throughout the eastern states (and eventually across the country). Early telegraph lines were crudely strung, so people likened them to sagging grapevines. Thus, “grapevine” was a shortened form of the “grapevine telegraph.” The phrase gained common usage during the Civil War (1861-65). The idea behind the phrase was not that rumors were actually sent by telegraph, but rather the enormous speed by which a rumor spreads. 

The phrase was catapulted to fame by the hit song, “Heard it Through the Grapevine” sung by Marvin Gaye in 1968 (Gladys Knight and the Pips recorded an earlier version in 1967).

Today’s grapevine is the internet, fueled by tweets and texting, sending rumors and gossip around the world within seconds. Morse and Vail would truly be impressed.

For further reading: From the Horse’s Mouth: Oxford Dictionary of Idioms by John Ayto, Oxford University Press (2009); The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson, Facts on File (2008); Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang by J. E. Lighter, Random House (1994).

What the dickens!

Although this will sound counterintuitive, the following phrases: “hurts like the dickens,” “run like the dickens,” “what the dickens” “what the dickens does he want?” or any similar constructions have nothing to do with the well-known author, Charles Dickens. In this usage, dickens is simply a euphemism for the devil that was developed in the late 16th century. “Dickens” in this context derives from the common English surname “Dickens”, or from “Dickin” the diminutive of “Dick.” For whatever reason, the sound and comic effect of the surname sounded more devilish to the Elizabethans. In fact, the phrase first appears in the work of one of the greatest writers of the time, William Shakespeare — The Merry Wives of Windsor: “I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of.” (Act 3, Scene 2).

For further reading: Brush Up Your Shakespeare by Michael Macrone, Harper and Row (1990).

Red Herring

An abbreviated phrase that something is used to divert attention from the principal or key issue. The complete phrase originating in the 17th century was “Drawing a red herring across the path.” The herring was dried, smoked, and salted and consequently had a strong smell. Escaping criminals would drag a herring across a path to cover their scent, misleading pursuing bloodhounds to follow the wrong trail.

For further reading: Bring Home the Bacon and Cutting the Mustard by David Onyett, Castle Books (2002).

Banished Words and Phrases

Each year, Lake Superior State University (located in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, identifying as the oldest European settlement in the American midwest) publishes its list of banished words. The list should really be titled “Words and Phrases From 2011 We Would Like to Retire.” LSSU, like a modern day Statue of Liberty, invites the public to send your tired, your hackneyed, your annoying, horrible words, yearning to be excised from the modern lexicon, the wretched refuse of the English language.

This year, the words, in order of number of nominations (and above all, annoyance) are: amazing, baby bump, shared sacrifice, occupy, blowback, man cave, the new normal, pet parent, win the future, trickeration, ginormous. The list ends with the very polite phrase “thank you in advance.”

Accordingly, I would like to thank readers of this blog in advance for posting their nominations for words or phrases from 2011 that should be banished.

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php (2012).

A Pyrrhic Victory

A phrase that means a victory that was achieved at too high a cost. Pyrrhus (219-272 BC), said to be a direct descendent of Achilles,  was king of Epirus in Greece who was one of the greatest generals in the Greek army. Pyrrhus and his troops marched to Rome, destroying the well-trained Roman armies in two major battles in southern Italy. The troops suffered too many casualties and were too weak to storm the city walls, so they eventually had to retreat.

For further reading: Opening Pandora’s Box: Phrases Borrowed from the Classics and the Stories Behind Them by Ferdie Addis, Reader’s Digest (2011).

Dead as a Doornail

A phrase that emphasizes that something has really perished. The phrase originates in the 14th century borrowed from the jargon of carpentry. Clinching was a common practice in door-making whereby a nail that was hammered through the wood had its end bent so that it could not be pulled out again. The nail could not be reused. Charles Dickens made this phrase famous when he used it at the very beginning of the immortal holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, written in 1843: “Old Marley was dead as a doornail.” The simile is often credited to William Langland who wrote “ded as a dore-nayle” in The Vision of Piers Plowman (1362). The expression is also used by Shakespeare in 2nd Part Henry IV (5.3.111-12) Henry VI (4.9.37).

For further reading: March Hares and Monkey’s Uncles by Harry Oliver, Metro (2005). The Annotated Christmas Carol by Michael Patrick Hearn, Norton (2004).

Litterae sine moribus vanae

Latin phrase meaning: scholarship without morals is useless.

For further reading: Veni, Vidi, Vici: Conquer Your Enemies and Impress Your Friends with Everyday Latin by Eugene Ehrlich, Harper (2010).