Etymology of Idioms: Weird History

Next time you’re washing your hands and the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s.

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children – last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Houses had thatched roofs thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof – hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bed-room where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying, “dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway, hence, a “threshhold.”

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things in the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite awhile. Hence the rhyme, “peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man “could bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with quests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale bread which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mould got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, mouldy trenchers, one would get “trench mouth.”

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or “upper crust.”

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a “wake.”

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a “bone-house” and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.

Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the “graveyard shift”) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be “saved by the bell” or was considered a “dead ringer”.

And that’s the truth… (who ever said that History was boring?).

Questions for discussion:

1. What are idioms and how do we translate them?

2. How do idioms appear?

3. What interesting stories do you know about appearance of idioms?

Translate the following definition of Ellipsis into English:

Еліпсис – 1. Пропуск (вилучення) елемента мовлення, який легко відновлюється в даному мовленнєвому або побутовому контексті або ситуації. 2. Стилістична фігура, яка полягає в пропуску будь-якого елемента речення, що мається на увазі; широко використовується не тільки в розмовній мові (телеграфні повідомлення, довідники, словники, SMS-повідомлення тощо), але й в офіційно-канцелярському та науково-технічних стилях мови, а також в стилі публіцистики та преси (газетні оголошення, реклама, заголовки). 3. Усіченість вислову, вислів без деяких членів речення, що характерна для діалогічного мовлення.

Translate the following sentences paying attention to elliptical constructions in italics:

1. The students have very limited, if any, opportunity to speak Russian outside of school. (“The Modern Language Journal”)

2. Sacco and Vancetti were electrocuted many years ago. The intervening time has enhanced, if anything, the importance of the case. (“The Nation”)

3. Harriman, the head of the ticket was, if anything, an even more ardent upholder of the cold war line than his opponent. (“The Worker”)

4. On the whole, Canada appears to have shown much wisdom in developing its end of the expanding neighbourly relationship with the U.S. Rather than inhibiting Ottawa’s world position, the process has, if anything, increased it. (“The New York Times”)

5. I do not believe for one moment that a merger of our armed services would save the taxpayer one thin dime. If anything, I am sure that merger might bring about greater expenditure.

6. In general she has changed little, if at all, in the two years of her absence.

7. The inhabitants of his real saw him, if at all, only in passing.

8. Some 2 billion people — three quarters of the world’s population — speak languages that are rarely, if ever, taught in the U.S. (“The Modern Language Journal”)

9.Thus the U.S. was under pressure to come forward with a serious reply to the Russian proposals — if only for the sake of public opinion in an apprehensive world. (“The New Times”)

10. With French consent, the United States was becoming officially involved for the first time in the Algerian question, if only, on its fringes. (“The New York Times”)

11. Under no circumstances must the Labour movement permit divisions to arise between workers, whatever the colour of their skin. In strike after strike — with the London bus strike as the most recent example — the coloured workers have stood firm with their colleagues against the boss. (“DW”)

12. Whatever the outcome, the emphasis of both parties is more on “liberal” candidates. (“The Times”)

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