call a spade a spade, to

To speak frankly and bluntly, to be quite explicit. The term dates from the sixteenth century, but may go back even to Greek and Roman times. One translation of Cicero’s Ad Familiares reads,
“Here is your Stoic disquisition . . . ‘the wise man will call a spade a spade.’” There are numerous repetitions throughout the 1500s, such as John Tav- erner’s (“Whiche call . . . a mattok nothing els but a mattok, and a spade a spade,” Garden of Wysdome, 1539), and later uses by Ben Jonson, Robert Bur- ton, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain, among others. A cliché since the nineteenth century, it acquired a more sinister meaning when spade became an offensive slang word for a black person.

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calculated risk

An action taken even though it might fail, because not taking it might be more dangerous. The term comes from World War II, where it was applied to the chances of losing bombers, personnel and equip- ment, weighed against the benefits of hurting the enemy. It soon was trans- ferred to other situations. For example, “‘You don’t know a thing about him.’ – ‘It’s a calculated risk’” (Robert A. Heinlin, Double Star, 1956), or “We took the calculated risk of . . . using inanimate mother surrogates rather than real mothers” (Science, Aug. 21, 1959).

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cabin fever

Restlessness, irritability or depression resulting from prolonged confinement, as during severe winter weather. This term comes from the American West of the late 1800s, when it literally meant being stuck inside a remote cabin, a situation that could lead to fights, divorce, and occa- sionally even murder. It is used somewhat more loosely now.

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back number

Something or someone outdated. The term comes from the back issues of newspapers and other periodicals, which carry items no longer new and events no longer current. The term began to be used figura- tively in the late nineteenth century in the United States.

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back and fill, to

To temporize or vacillate. This metaphor comes from the days of sailing ships, and refers to a mode of tacking when the tide is running with a ship and the wind against it. The sails are alternately backed and filled, so that the vessel goes first back and then forward, ultimately remaining in just about the same place.

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babe(s) in the woods

Extremely naive or innocent individual(s). The term comes from a popular ballad, “The Children in the Wood” (1595), about two orphaned children. Their wicked uncle wants their inheritance and hires two men to murder them. One of the men repents and kills the other, but he abandons the children in a deep forest, where they die. The tale was kept alive by numerous writers, notably through Thomas Percy’s collection, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765).

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all hell breaks loose

Chaos prevails. The expression crops up often in Elizabethan poetry (Robert Greene, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare) and continued to be used by an amazing number of fine poets (Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Browning, among others).

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all for naught

Everything done has been in vain. Today a poetic word for “nothing,” naught formerly meant “morally bad” or “worthless.” Thus the King James version of the first Book of Kings (2:19) says, “The water is naught and the ground barren.”

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all ears, to be

To pay close attention to what is said. The term may have originated in John Milton’s Comus (1634): “I am all ear and took in strains that might create a soul under the ribs of death.” It has been used again and again, by Anthony Trollope and others, to the present day.

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all cats are gray after dark/at night

Without sufficient knowledge one cannot distinguish between alternatives. This assertion appeared in numerous proverb collections, beginning with John Heywood’s of 1546, where it was put, “When all candels be out, all cats be grey.” A still older version, dating back some 2,000 years and stated by the Roman writers Ovid and Plutarch as well as by later writers, had it that all women are the same in the dark, a view now disputed by all but the most hardened misogynists.

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all bets are off

The agreement is canceled, because the relevant conditions have changed. This phrase comes from gambling, such as betting on a horse race, where it indicates that wagers are withdrawn. It is much more widely applied, as in “They say the wedding’s scheduled for December, but to tell you the truth, all bets are off.”

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all and sundry

Everyone, both collectively and individually. The term dates from at least the fourteenth century and is tautological—that is, it needlessly repeats the same thing, just as the related each and every does.

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alive (live) and kicking (well)

Very much alive and alert; still surviving. The term originated with fishmongers who thus described their wares, mean- ing that they were extremely fresh. By the mid-nineteenth century it was con- sidered a cliché. A more recent version is alive and well, which originated as a denial to a false report of someone’s death. It was given a boost by the French singer Jacques Brel, whose show and recording, translated as Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, became immensely popular in the 1970s.

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albatross around one’s neck, an

A burden or curse. The figurative mean- ing comes straight from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), a narrative poem in which a young sailor who shot an albatross, considered an extremely unlucky action, was punished by having the dead bird hung around his neck.

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ain’t it the truth

That’s definitely so. This slangy phrase dates from about 1900. It is often put regretfully—That’s so but I wish it weren’t—as in “‘I’ll have to lower the price if I want to sell it fast.’—‘Ain’t it the truth.’”

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aid and abet, to

To assist and promote or encourage something or some- one. The pairing of these nearly synonymous verbs, always in this order, comes from criminal law, where it denotes helping, facilitating and promoting the commission of a crime. The verbs themselves are quite old, aid dating from about 1400 and abet from about 1300. Although the term still is principally used in relation to criminal actions, it gradually crept into more general speech, as in “The influx of Canada geese on the golf course, aided and abetted by people feeding them . . .”

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ahead of the pack

In advance of the rest of a group, doing better than the others. The noun pack has been used for a group of persons since the 1400s, although for about 400 years it had a derogatory connotation, as in “a pack of thieves.” That sense is not implied in the cliché. The act of advancing beyond the others is called breaking out of the pack.
A related phrase is ahead of the game, meaning in a position of advantage, usually financial advantage. The game here alludes to gambling, but the term is applied to any endeavor.

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age before beauty

Defer to the older person. This phrase is traditionally used when inviting another individual to pass through a doorway before one. Eric Partridge described it as a mock courtesy uttered by a young woman to an older man. Currently it is used only ironically or sarcastically. According to an old story, it was said rather snidely by Clare Boothe Luce when ushering Dorothy Parker through a doorway, and Parker replied, “Pearls before swine.” A related cliché is after you, Alphonse—no, after you,Gaston, repeated a number of times (in Britain, after you, Claude—no, after you, Cecil). The American version is based on a comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper, Alphonse and Gaston, which was popular in the early 1900s, and pokes fun at exaggerated politeness.

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against the grain, to go

“There was something about Prohibition that went against the American grain,” a high school history teacher once said, quite innocent of her pun on this phrase, which means contrary to expecta- tions, custom, or common sense. The literal meaning, against the natural direction of the fibers in a piece of wood, was turned figurative by Shake- speare in Coriolanus (“Preoccupied with what you rather must do than what you should, made you against the grain to voice him consul”). By the time Dickens used it in Edwin Drood (1870) it probably was already a cliché.

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