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History of Idioms: "red cent" and others *now Hedgehog Free*

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  1. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:18pm)

    I'm interested in the origins of our phrases and sayings. There are some books on old sayings, but I haven't found any on idioms. If anyone knows of any, please let me know.

    As for "red cent": Is the cent red from blood (blood money, as in I want to recoup every red cent); or is it that pennies were red, maybe redder than they are now?

    Post your favorite or confusing idiom!

    Edits:

    she has a nice turn of the ankle

    rule of thumb

    3 sheets to the wind

    armed to the teeth

    nose to the grindstone
  2. threeven threeven is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:19pm) in reply to userid363

    wtf is "red cent"?
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  3. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:24pm) in reply to userid363

    As in, "I'm not giving you one red cent"
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  4. (oIo) (oIo) is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:30pm) in reply to userid363

    I love etymology and stuff like this too. Idioms are tough because some idioms have mostly theories as to where they came from, because people never really documented them in print until it was in the vernacular and nobody really remembered where they came from at that time.
  5. threeven threeven is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:31pm) in reply to userid363

     
    Originally Posted by userid363 View Post

    As in, "I'm not giving you one red cent"

    I have never heard anyone say this in my entire life that I am aware of
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  6. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:35pm) in reply to userid363

    Just found this interesting website:

    The Word Detective

    It mostly deals with individual words, though, not idioms
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  7. (oIo) (oIo) is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:43pm) in reply to userid363

    my favorite book for the shitter is called "Dubious Doublets". A doublet is two vastly different words in meaning that came from the same origin.

    did you know zodiac and whiskey have the same origin? they both evolved from the same indo-european root gwei which means to live.
  8. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:44pm) in reply to userid363

    She has a nice turn of the ankle:

    A friend once told me that when women wore full-length clothes, maybe Elizabethan era, the only part of the body besides the face and hands that you could see were the ankles.

    How much would that suck that all you have to go on is the ankle?
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  9. sol160 sol160 is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:46pm) in reply to userid363

    i heard "rule of thumb" is from an old law that said you could not beat your wife with a stick thicker than your thumb. have no idea if it's true or not.
  10. Braaak Braaak is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:46pm) in reply to userid363

    <SPAN>The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. </SPAN>
  11. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:50pm) in reply to userid363

    <span>Keep your nose to the grindstone (to keep working hard).

    In colonial America without electricity, the Pilgrims’ main staple food was corn. To get the greatest use from the corn it was ground to a powder known today as cornmeal. The corn kernels were poured in to a stone “bowl” in which the giant wheel (the millstone) rested. The wheel was turned from above by the power of a windmill. In order to get the corn in to the bowl, the “miller” had to pour it in from the back side which made his nose get quite close to the turning millstone.
    </span>
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  12. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:52pm) in reply to Braaak

    wow, you two are synced perfectly.
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  13. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:52pm) in reply to userid363

    <span>Three sheets to the wind (to be drunk) Again, when the Pilgrims arrived on the

    Mayflower, the only resources they had to use were those from the ships on which they came. To make windmills for power they used strips of the sails from the ships – in those days called sheets. The first windmills were constructed with three “blades” to catch the wind, but it was found that in a strong wind that the blades would turn in a rickety fashion. Reconstruction of the 4-blade windmill soon replaced the rickety ones. Thus, when a person walked in a “rickety”fashion being drunk, he (or she) was labeled as “three sheets to the wind”.</span>
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  14. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:55pm) in reply to userid363

    <span>Armed to the teeth

    Back in the days when America and it’s close neighbors were being discovered by sea faring men, life was different. Weapons in those days were less than efficient, including the single shot black powder guns used by pirates in Jamaica in the 1600s. Knowing that the gun had just one shot, the pirates would also carry a knife in their teeth to use once the gun was used up. This created the phrase “armed to the teeth”</span>
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  15. DaPretzel DaPretzel is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:57pm) in reply to threeven

     
    Originally Posted by threeven View Post

     
    Originally Posted by userid363 View Post

    As in, "I'm not giving you one red cent"

    I have never heard anyone say this in my entire life that I am aware of

    this

    and how did two people post the exact same phrase at the exact same time, that's kinda spooky actually
     
  16. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:59pm) in reply to DaPretzel

    have you heard "don't take any wooden nickels"?
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  17. norcaljeff norcaljeff is offline 2010 OT Thread Kill Leader

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 9:59pm) in reply to userid363

    pm howard lederer/annie duke's dad. he's richard lederer
    http://www.verbivore.com/
  18. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 10:06pm) in reply to userid363

    <span>Can’t hold a candle to

    Before electric lights there were candles. Someone performing a task requiring two hands after dark would also need a person to hold the candle while they worked. Of course, the person holding the candle would be in a position of service to the person doing the work. To not be worthy of even holding the candle for someone was considered to be of very low estate in these days. So to say, “She can’t hold a candle to him/her” means that the person “accused” is pretty much worthless.</span>
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  19. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 10:07pm) in reply to userid363

    <span>Dressed to the Nines

    Common lore has it that a tailor making a high quality suit uses more fabric. The best suits are made from nine yards of fabric. This may seem like a lot but a proper suit does indeed take nine yards of fabric. This is because a good suit has all the fabric cut in the same direction with the warp, or long strands of thread, parallel with the vertical line of the suit. This causes a great amount of waste in suit making, but if you want to go "dressed to the nines", you must pay for such waste.</span>

    (also maybe where 'the whole nine yards' comes from...either this or from the fact that a full load of cement in a cement mixer is nine yards)
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  20. ozibloke ozibloke is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 11:23pm) in reply to userid363

    RED CENT - "The original 1793 U.S. one-cent copper coin was issued until 1857. The cent has also been called 'red cent,' 1839 (from the copper's reddish color), which sometimes has been shortened to 'red' since 1849.Since so many penny copper coins had been called 'coppers,' the first U.S. copper cent was immediately called a 'copper' and 'copper cent.' 'Not worth a copper' is an American term of 1788, followed by 'not worth a cent' (1820s)." From "Listening to America" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982).
  21. emcee21 emcee21 is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 11:28pm) in reply to userid363

    jesus christ...do you people read books? i'm saying "red cent" is a reference to pennies being red. wooden nickels i'm gonna have to look up.
  22. SouthRaker SouthRaker is offline

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 11:34pm) in reply to userid363

    how about:

    to hell in a handbasket
  23. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 24th, 2009 (4/24/2009 11:39pm) in reply to emcee21

     
    Originally Posted by emcee21 View Post

    jesus christ...do you people read books? i'm saying "red cent" is a reference to pennies being red. wooden nickels i'm gonna have to look up.

    I read books
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  24. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 25th, 2009 (4/25/2009 12:09am) in reply to userid363

    here's a fun quiz

    I pretty much guessed on all of them and scored 42% (all questions are either T/F or have 3 possible answers)
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  25. userid363 userid363 is offline I want an undertitle

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    Apr 25th, 2009 (4/25/2009 5:06am) in reply to userid363

    bump for Saturday morning titillation
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  26. Milo Milo is offline

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    Apr 25th, 2009 (4/25/2009 7:34am) in reply to userid363

    The replies to "Rule of Thumb" are incorrect according to Snopes. Urban Myth, and so forth . . .
  27. Willywoo Willywoo is offline

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    Apr 25th, 2009 (4/25/2009 9:54am) in reply to Milo

    George carlin did a bit on idioms. I can't find it on youtube but one he talked about was "selling like hotcakes". Funny stuff.
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