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What ? Words: Limelight
The term “limelight” today refers to any position of public attention. The word can be traced back to the 19th Century, when lighting fixtures that burned lime were used to illuminate theatrical...
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What ? Words: Read Between the Lines
To “read between the lines” is to discern a meaning which isn’t made obvious or explicit. This expression derives from a simple form of cryptography, apparently used for centuries, in which a hidden...
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What ? Words: Flash In The Pan
Meaning: Something which disappoints by failing to deliver anything of value, despite a showy beginning. Origin: There’s reason to believe that this phrase derives from the Californian Gold Rush of the...
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What ? Words: Gung Ho
This unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps is an abbreviation for the Mandarin Gongye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term was used in China, starting in 1938, to refer to small, industrial...
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What ? Words: Cost An Arm And A Leg
In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while...
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What ? Words: Pass The Acid Test
Referring to an absolute, demanding, or ultimate challenge or measure of quality or capability – deriving from very old times, several hundreds of years ago – when nitric acid was used to determine the...
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What ? Words: The Whole Shebang
Meaning All of it; the whole thing. Origin This is an American phrase, from the 1920s. The first question for those of us not living in the USA, and I suspect quite a few that do, is, what’s a shebang?...
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What ? Words: Cat Got Your Tongue
Theory #1 The saying comes from the Middle East, where as punishment, liars had their tongues ripped out and fed to the king’s cats. Theory #2 Fear of a whipping with a cat-o’-nine-tails, or “cat” for...
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What ? Words: Break the Ice
To break the ice (1) to relax a tense or formal atmosphere or social situation; (2) to make a start on some endeavor. This came into general use, in sense (1), in English through Lord Byron’s “Don...
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What ? Words: Run Amok
Meaning To ‘run amok’, which is sometimes spelled ‘run amuck,’ is to behave in a wild or unruly manner. Origin ‘Run amok’ is now synonymous with the term ‘go crazy,’ but originally had a specific...
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