By Ann Petersen, SBA Columnist | 06/04/26
(SBA) - It’s hard to believe that it’s already June and summer is upon us. I look forward to the opening of our pool and the opportunity to join other ladies in our community to swim five mornings a week from 8-9 a.m. The water will be cool for the first couple of weeks, but we are a hearty bunch and once warmed up, it’s easy to forget the temperature of the water. If you enjoy exercising in the pool, I encourage you to join us. Believe me, no one cares what you look like in a bathing suit, and we are all friendly and always glad to welcome new women in the water! We laugh a lot, but not at each other!
I thought I would share with you a few idioms that I have encountered lately as a way to explain phrases with which we are familiar but may not know their origins. The expression, “chew the fat” means to make small talk in informal situations and comes from the practice of actually snacking on fatty pork rinds when visitors came to call. Farmers would preserve their pork by smoking and salting and then would offer visitors pieces of the rind. It was also common in the Royal Navy when after some time at sea when food stores were running low, to offer this high fat fare as a way to fill stomachs craving additional food. The sailors would take the salty snacks out onto the decks to chew during their free time.
According to legend, it was once common for visitors to show up at a home unannounced. If the hosts were happy to see the visitors, they would take the time to prepare sumptuous meals for their guests, but if the visitors were not welcome, but still required some hospitality, the hosts would express their displeasure by serving a cold shoulder of mutton to their guests. As a result, the idiom of “giving the cold shoulder” to someone came to represent a passively hostile response to unwanted visitors.
The Marquis of Waterford, Henry de la Poer Beresford, was well known for his wild partying and mischief. Not only was he kicked out of Oxford for his wild ways, but he often engaged in extravagant fights that resulted in duels, stealing and damaging property. On one of his more legendary rampages, the Marquis and his friends visited the town of Melton Mowbray where in their drunken state they painted several buildings in the town bright red. This spree became so famous that the phrase “to paint the town red” came to mean “to go out and enjoy oneself in a flamboyant or over-the-top-manner.”
Long before electricity, natural gas and most fossil fuels were invented, people used candles and oil lamps to light their homes at night. Oil was very expensive because it was sourced from whales and so most people used oil sparingly, often retiring to bed early so that they would not have to use much of the expensive oil. However, some activities were so important that people had to keep working at them until later hours and by the 17th century, these later evening events were referred to as “burning the midnight oil.” Today, light is produced by other means, but the term has come to indicate late night activities that once would have required the use of the very expensive whale oil.
The phrase “rule of thumb” came from a time when British common law permitted a man to beat his wife, but only in moderation. Apparently, an 18th century judge, Sir Francis Buller, determined that a man could chastise his wife with a stick, as long as the stick was no thicker than his thumb. I assume this law cut both ways!
Pipe organs are musical instruments that produce sound by forcing pressurized air through pipes. The pipes have knobs that control the tune and volume of the instrument. The knobs are known as “stops” and when they are pulled out, the instrument can play all tones at the same time to produce the highest possible volume. This is the origin of the idiom “to pull out all the stops” which means to make the maximum effort to achieve something.
“Mayday” is a term used internationally as a distress signal and comes from the French “venez m’aider” which translates to “come help me.” The term was coined in the 1920s by a radio operator, Frederick Stanley, who worked at a London airport. Stanley was asked to create an emergency signal that could be easily understood by pilots and other airport personnel. Because of the air traffic between the airports in London and Paris, Stanley chose “Mayday” as it would be easily recognized by French speakers.
On January 13, 1996, nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered but the killer was never found. The Amber Alert that is put out when a child goes missing is a result of that event. It alerts local broadcasters and law enforcement to come together to disseminate information regarding a child’s abduction quickly. Today, the term is nationally known and stands for “America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response.”
So now you know.
