By now, I have gone over many English phrases and idioms in my posts. Still, it always seems that there are more. That is one of the great frustrations and joys of English. You can be remarkably expressive in countless ways, but only if you understand the words, you are using. There’s always more to know, and often I find myself falling into the same pitfalls as any other writer if I am not careful.
The format of this post will be the same as the previous one. We’ll cover some common English idioms, explain what they mean, and maybe uncover a bit of their history. Keep reading to get one step closer to mastering English.
On the Ball
In today’s parlance, ‘on the ball’ is regularly used to describe someone’s knowledge and competence regarding a given situation. It is also used in similar but subtly different ways depending on context. It can also be used about one’s attentiveness, awareness, and understanding.
Dating back to the 1800s, it is often said that ‘on the ball’ is an abbreviation of ‘keep your eye on the ball’, but that may or may not be true. What is generally agreed is that the original phrase has its origins in baseball. At the turn of the century, sportswriters began describing successful pitchers as having ‘a lot on the ball’ to convey their talent at the game. By the 1930s, the phrase ‘on the ball’ was a regularly used idiom.
Then again, maybe the answer is a little of both. Viewing ‘on the ball’ as an abbreviation of ‘keep your eye on the ball’ makes more sense in the attentiveness and awareness definition. Considering it in the sense of ‘a lot on the ball’ speaks to competence and understanding. Either way, now you have the context, you need to utilize this phrase properly.
Example:
Our new assistant has been on the ball with organizing schedules and preparing files for reports.
Kill Two Birds with One Stone
This phrase is a jarringly violent way of saying ‘getting two things done with a single action.’ The metaphor here lines up cleanly, with the stone being the action and the dead birds the things you get done.
The earliest known use of this phrase in its modern understanding can be found in Thomas Hobbes’ 1656 book ‘The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance’. Some argue that this is derived from a somewhat similar phrase in a book of proverbs a century earlier. It has also been argued that this is a reference to the story of Daedelus and Icarus. However, both of those theories seem unconvincing.
Example:
I needed to buy groceries and get a gift for my in-laws, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and get them a bottle of wine from the supermarket.
Scot-Free
This is one of those odd phrases where half of it just seems irrelevant. After all, someone who ‘gets off scot-free’ suffers no harm, punishment, or consequences for their actions. In other words, they get off free. So, where does the ‘scot’ come in? The answer comes from the crazy hodge-podge of languages that is English and some European history. The word ‘scot’ originates from the Scandinavian word ‘skat’, meaning ‘tax’ or ‘payment’.
Supposedly, in the 10th century, a redistributive tax was implemented to provide relief to the poor. This tax, known as the ‘scot’, did not require those under a certain income to pay. Thus, they got off ‘scot-free’. Alternatively, other sources say the origin was an identically named tax in 12th-century England, and the ‘scot-free’ simply failed to pay their taxes. Either way, the term eventually entered contemporary common parlance.
Example:
I got in trouble for taking office supplies home, but everyone else got off scot-free.
Bend Over Backward
The phrase ‘bending over backward’ describes someone going through excessive or extreme motions to help or please another person. It is often used in a derogatory sense to make fun of such actions, particularly when done in service to another person, but this is not always the case.
The phrase is not meant to be taken literally. Instead, it compares the efforts one takes for someone else to the challenging act of completing this gymnastic feat (I, for one, indeed can not). At least by my understanding, the phrase also implies a certain level of submission, as essentially doing the wheel pose in yoga would put you in a very vulnerable position. This would also explain some of the negative connotations of the phrase.
However, that is from a thoroughly modern perspective. The phrase is astonishingly old. The term was used as early as 920 CE to make the same comparison of the athletic act of bending backward with an effort to ensure that something went as planned
Example:
My coworker is trying to get a promotion. He’s bending over backward for our boss every chance he gets.
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