It’s a truism that you’ve mastered a language when you can understand humor in that language. For English, one can probably call themselves a master if they understand common slang and metaphors that have worked their way into everyday speech and writing.
English is hard enough on its own, but when you add idiomatic expressions into the mix it can become straight-up mind-boggling. That’s why in this post I’m going over some common English idioms, explaining what they mean, and maybe a bit of their history. Read on to get one step closer to mastering English.
Beating Around the Bush
This phrase is used as part of a sentence to describe someone who is avoiding giving a definite answer or position on something.
It can be used directly, as a command
‘Stop beating around the bush!’
Or in reference to something
‘In the interview, the politician was accused of beating around the bush on his support for healthcare reform.’
As for the origin of the phrase, it is a reference to a practice in hunting. In medieval times, hunters would hire men to rustle the bushes with sticks and make noise to flush out the game hiding within and underneath. Smaller game like squirrels, rabbits, and birds would be scared out so they could be pursued by the hunters. However, hitting the bush directly could be dangerous if it meant disturbing a wasps’ nest or a wild boar. As a result, they would literally beat around the bush to avoid danger.
While the exact phrase ‘beating around the bush’ was used as early as the 15th century, the modern, figurative understanding is recent, now calling back to a practice that few users of the phrase even know. Today it functions purely as metaphor, deriding someone for cautiously avoiding a potentially controversial topic by playing around its edges.
Cut One Some Slack
To ‘cut one some slack’ has a few similar meanings. It can mean giving additional freedom or allowances to someone, giving someone a break, or not judging them too harshly. The subject of the sentence can be switched out as needed depending on the sentence in which it is used. The phrase can likewise be translated into different tenses.
‘Cut me some slack.’
‘I’m cutting you some slack.’
‘We’ll be cutting them some slack.’
The origin of the phrase comes from late-1700s nautical terminology. ‘Slack’ refers to the loose part of a sail or rope. ‘Cut’, in the context of the idiom simply means ‘give.’ I was unable to find the earliest usage of the phrase in its modern, metaphorical understanding, but suffice it to say that today the phrase is fully divorced from its seafaring roots and can be used in any number of situations.
Break a Leg
This idiom is used as an exclamation wishing another good luck, particularly prior to a performance. This makes sense, as the phrase originates in theater.
It is near-exclusively used as a direct command to someone
‘Break a leg!’
Or telling someone to relay the same to a third person
‘Tell him to break a leg out there tonight.’
The most commonly told origin for the phrase is that it is based on the superstition that you should never say ‘good luck’ to an actor. In response, this ironic reversal took its place in the theater community. One of the earliest published appearances of the phrase in this understanding comes as recently as 1948 in an interview in The Charleston Gazette.
However, this is far, FAR from the only origin story. There are an endless number of competing versions, and that number likely grows every day. Some say it calls back as far as ancient Greece, where mischievous spirits would wreak havoc on your wishes and cause the reverse to happen. Others say it comes from Elizabethan times, when theater patrons would bang their wooden chairs on the floor as applause after a good show. One can only imagine that the actors enjoy the mystery.
Go Back to the Drawing Board
This phrase is typically used in a sentence to indicate that one has failed at something, and now must restart from the beginning with a new approach. The phrase is thought to originate from a cartoon first published in the New Yorker in 1941 where a man holding a pile of blueprints walks away from a crashed plane. The caption states:
‘Well, back to the drawing board.’
This is one of those phrases where its modern use sprang into being fully formed, metaphors and all. The only thing that really needs explaining is the drawing board. Before computers were the most prominent tools of design, all that work was done by hand on drafting tables, also known as drawing boards. If a design failed, and the engineer had to start again from scratch, they would have to go ‘back to the drawing board.’
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