Whether it be a flash-in-the-pan, a Curate’s egg or a Red Herring- we know what it is.
But where have these bizarre sayings come from?
In an attempt to shed some light in the murky fathoms of the English Language- it’s about time we understood why we say- the things we say.
So here it is, ‘from the horse’s mouth.’
An easy one to start. Labelling someone ‘mad as a hatter’ has a perfectly legitimate explanation. It’s all down to the Mercury used in hat making, which affected the nervous system and caused hatters to tremble.
And if they ended up in cloud cuckoo land then they would be lost in an imaginary city, floating in the air, in a play by Aristophanes called the Birds.
But beware before casting assertions or you may end up eating humble pie- a hearty meal made from the offal of a deer -the cheapest meat back in the day, eaten by the poor and humble.
If you’ve read this far then you may have already ‘crossed the Rubicon’ and taken a step on which there is no going back- sparking a sudden chain of events, like good old Julius Caesar.
He crossed the Rubicon- the ancient river in northern Italy- in 49BC which he was banned from breeching. But he nevertheless took his army and effectively declared war on Rome.
Some may say this was ‘beyond the pale’ but let’s get the geography right at least. The original Pale was an area surrounding Dublin which was under English control in the 12th century. And those living outside it where considered dangerous and uncivilised.
Anyway, good old Caesar’s reign was far from a ‘flash in the pan’. And that’s the last thing you’d want on a battle field, because the original flash in the pan’ occurred in the old flintlock guns.
The loose gunpowder, carefully placed in the gun’s flashpan, was meant to be ignited by a spark from the flint. But if the gunpowder was damp it would fizzle or flash instead of exploding effectively.
But having a choice- you’d probably not want to be on a battle field in the first place. And as far as choices go, a ‘Hobson’s choice’ is best avoided- where all your options turn out to be the same.
The original Hobson’s choice was offered in a Shakespeare play by a Cambridge stable keeper called Hobson. He hired out his horses in strict rotation, forcing clients to take the next one in line- hence eliminating any form of choice.
Speaking of horses, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. This proverb advises that one should accept gifts without inspecting them too closely and it refers to the practise of inspecting a horse’s teeth.
The shorter the teeth- the older the horse, since chewing wears them down.
And someone buying a horse would obviously inspect its mouth- hence the expression ‘from the horse’s mouth’- as an assurance of reliable information.
But when it comes down to buying anything at all it’s never really worth a ‘pig-in-a-poke’ or a purchase made without seeing the goods. This dates back to the old market custom of selling live piglets in a sack or a poke.
A dishonest trader might sneak a stray cat or dog in there and the unwary buyer might be sold a kitten. The buyer who opens the sack to check the contents would be ‘letting the cat out the bag.’
And then you’d be in the ‘doldrums’- which is a reference to the equatorial seas, where ships were often deprived of wind and left to drift at the mercy of the ocean.
Sometimes it’s just best to except that certain things are a Curate’s egg which is claimed by some to have both good and bad parts- but in actual fact is bad through and through.
This comes from a Punch cartoon in which a nervous young Curate at a bishop’s table is given what is obviously a bad boiled egg but fearful of giving offence he tells his host that ‘parts of it are excellent.’
But if you’re going to lie at all you may as well ‘pull out all the stops’ like the organ player which the saying is based upon, who requires great effort and dexterity to manipulate all the stops of the instrument.
But be careful with those mind games- there are plenty of ‘red herrings’ out there. The original red herring is a throwback from foxhunting folklore when hounds were traditionally trained to ignore any distracting scent trials by having smoked herring- reddish in colour- dragged across the countryside.
That must all have been pretty misleading , but no more so than the rat race which was historically designed by scientists for experimental purposes in animal behaviour where rats would try to find their way out of a maze, or run continuously on a treadmill.
Gordon Bennett! Sounds like too much hard work to me. And I’m sure the sensational 19th century journalist Gordon Bennett would agree.
He took over control of the New York Herald in 1866, by which time he was well into an enthusiastic and hedonist playboy lifestyle, indulging in spending the family fortune on air and road racing in the USA, England and France.
From 1877 Bennett lived in Europe and continued to run the New York Herald from his $600,000 314-foot yacht, the Lysistrata.
Well anyway, all that taken into consideration I’m off to paint the town red, in a bid to emulate the great Marquis of Waterford who with a group of friends ran riot in Melton Mowbray in 1837 painting several buildings red including the town’s toll-bar.
I’m off to catch last orders- just in the nick of time.
