Expressions you use every day and where they come from

This content is sponsored by Long Fence Each day you maybe use a variety of expressions idioms proverbs and slang that aren t meant to be taken literally If you ve ever wondered why we say certain things the way we do you might be able to guess where they came from Still specific English phrases are so peculiar that their origins remain a mystery unless you understand the historical context behind them Saved by the bell Meaning Rescued from a arduous situation just in time Origin This phrase is often thought to have originated in the th and th centuries One theory is that it relates to the practice of placing a bell near the grave of someone who was thought to be dead in episode they were mistakenly buried alive The bell would ring if the person regained consciousness thus saving them from being buried alive Burning the midnight oil Meaning To stay up late working studying or working hard Origin This expression dates back to the time before electric lights People used oil lamps to read write and work at night If someone was burning the midnight oil they were working late into the night Getting cold feet Meaning To become nervous or hesitant especially before a big decision or event Origin This phrase likely comes from the th century possibly related to the practice of soldiers experiencing fear before battle Cold feet could signify anxiety or nervousness Specific believe it was connected to a traditional belief that cold feet symbolized a lack of courage or resolve Cat s out of the bag Meaning A secret has been revealed or an undisclosed fact is now known Origin This saying originates from medieval markets where farmers would sell a pig in a sack to unsuspecting buyers Unscrupulous vendors might substitute a less valuable cat for the pig If the cat was let out of the bag the fraud would be exposed Bridging the Rubicon Meaning Making an irreversible decision or committing to a unit of action from which there is no turning back Origin The phrase comes from a notable moment in Roman history In BC Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River with his army defying the Roman Senate and starting a civil war The act was a point of no return symbolizing a bold and irreversible step Spill the beans Meaning To reveal a secret or disclose information Origin This phrase may have originated from ancient Greece where voting was done using beans A white bean indicated a positive vote and a black bean meant a negative one If someone spilled the beans they would accidentally reveal the outcome of the vote prematurely A penny for your thoughts Meaning A way of asking someone what they are thinking Origin This phrase dates back to the th century It was common in the time of Queen Elizabeth I to ask for a person s thoughts in exchange for a small coin symbolizing that their thoughts were worth something The writing on the wall Meaning A clear warning or sign of impending doom or accident Origin This expression comes from the Biblical story in the Book of Daniel Daniel During the Babylonian King Belshazzar s feast a mysterious hand appeared and wrote on the wall foretelling the fall of the kingdom The phrase now refers to any clear ominous sign of something bad happening Through the grapevine Meaning Hearing information through informal channels or rumors Origin This expression is tied to the telegraph system used during the th century The telegraph wires were sometimes likened to grapevines because of the way they sprawled and twisted through the landscape The phrase hearing through the grapevine became common during the U S Civil War when messages would often movement rapidly through unofficial channels spreading rumors A red herring Meaning A misleading clue or distraction Origin This expression comes from the practice of using smoked red herring a type of fish to mislead hunting dogs during a hunt The fish s strong smell would confuse the dogs causing them to go off track The term has been used figuratively since the early th century to describe false clues or distractions in a mystery or argument Riding shotgun Meaning To sit in the front voyager seat of a automobile Origin This phrase dates back to the days of the Old West in the U S When stagecoaches were used for transportation the person who sat next to the driver often armed to protect the coach from bandits was reported to be riding shotgun The term evolved to refer to sitting in the front seat of a modern automobile A bird s eye view Meaning A view from a high vantage point seeing everything at once Origin This expression comes from the natural ability of birds to view large areas from high up in the sky The term suggests the comprehensive perspective that a bird might have when flying overhead looking at the bigger picture The last straw Meaning The final issue or event that causes a situation to collapse or something to reach a urgent point Origin The phrase comes from an old proverb It s the last straw that breaks the camel s back It suggests that while a camel can carry a heavy load even one more small item like a single straw could cause the animal to collapse It symbolizes the final small burden that causes a larger complication to break To steal someone s thunder Meaning To take credit for someone else s idea or achievement Origin This phrase originates from the th century and is attributed to playwright John Dennis Dennis invented a method of creating thunder sounds for a play but when his play flopped another theater used his thunder technique in a different production Dennis is noted to have exclaimed that they had stolen his thunder The tip of the iceberg Meaning The small visible part of a much larger issue or dilemma Origin This expression comes from the observation that only about of an iceberg is visible above the water s surface while the remaining is hidden underwater It suggests that what s this instant apparent is only a small part of a much larger situation Fool s gold Meaning Something that seems valuable but is really worthless Origin This phrase refers to pyrite a mineral that resembles gold to the untrained eye Early miners in the U S during the th century were often fooled by pyrite thinking they had discovered gold hence the term fool s gold The grass is inevitably greener on the other side of the fence Meaning the things a person does not have unfailingly seem more appealing than the things he or she does have Origin The phrase dates back to the Greek poet Ovid who lived in the first century B C The original saying was The harvest is invariably richer in another man s field Source