charmed life, to bear (lead) a

To be extremely lucky, to emerge from danger unscathed. The term probably was invented by Shakespeare, for whom charmed had the significance of “magical.” Thus Macbeth proclaims he is magically protected against death (“I bear a charmed life, which must not yield to one of woman born,” 5.7) but is nevertheless slain by Macduff, who “was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped.” The expression was trans- ferred to less combative affairs and said of anyone who escaped unfortunate consequences. It was a cliché by the mid-nineteenth century.

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chapter and verse, cite/give

Back up a statement or belief by citing the precise authority on which it is based. The chapter and verse refer to the Bible, which was long considered the ultimate authority, and was (and is) frequently quoted by the clergy with precise attribution to the exact chapter and verse. The figurative use, referring to any established set of rules, dates from the seventeenth century and was long very common, but is heard less often today.

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charity begins at home

One should take care of oneself and one’s family before worrying about others. This proverb is a version of Paul’s advice to Timothy in the New Testament (Timothy 5:4), which in the King James ver- sion was translated as “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents.” The four- teenth-century English churchman John Wycliffe wrote, c. 1380, “Charity schuld bigyne at hem-self,” which soon became “at home,” not just in English but in numerous other languages. Later theologians suggested that charity should begin but not end at home, yet even in the twentieth century it con- tinued to be pointed out that it often does (“Charity begins at home and usu- ally stays there,” H. B. Thompson, Body, Boots and Britches, 1940).

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change one’s tune, to

To reverse one’s views, change one’s mind, switch sides in a controversy. The analogy is very old; John Gower wrote, c. 1394, “Now schalt thou singe an other song,” and the actual phrase, “change your tune,” appears in a ballad about Robin Hood (one of the Child ballads) from about 1600. And a character in Samuel Beckett’s novel, The Unnameable (1953), says, “I have my faults, but changing my tune is not one of them.”

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change one’s stripes/spots, cannot

One cannot alter one’s essential nature. The cliché refers to the tiger, who obviously cannot change its stripes. This in turn is an alteration of a much older saying, an ancient Greek proverb also found in the Bible (“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Jeremiah 13:23). The phrase appears in numerous places until the end of the seventeenth century.

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change of scene, a

New surroundings, referring to a trip or vacation, new employment, or similar event. The term comes from the theater, where changing the scenery has been important since Shakespeare’s time. The figu- rative use of “scene” dates at least from the seventeenth century. “Through all the changing scenes of life,” wrote Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate in their New Versions of the Psalms (1696).

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change of heart, a

Revising one’s opinion, intentions, or feelings. Although the idea is much older, the precise expression dates from the early nineteenth century and was a cliché by 1900 or so. Groucho Marx poked fun at it in the motion picture Duck Soup (1933); when Mrs. Teasdale says, “He’s had a change of heart,” Groucho, playing the role of Firefly, replies, “A lot of good that’ll do him. He’s still got the same face.”

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champ at the bit, to

To express impatience at delay, to be eager to get going. To champ has meant to bite, chew, or grind upon since the sixteenth century, although its precise origin is uncertain. The analogy of the cliché is to a racehorse chewing on the bit at the start of a race, anxious to be off. The term was still being used literally in the nineteenth century (“The very horses champed at their bits,” Sketch Book, Washington Irving, 1820) but began to be used figuratively by 1900.

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chalk it up to, to

To credit or ascribe something. The term comes from the practice of keeping accounts by writing them down with chalk on a slate. It was long used in shops, restaurants, and bars, and later also to keep score in games and sports. The figurative use, as in “chalk it up to experience,” dates from the nineteenth century.

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chalk and cheese, the difference between/no more alike than

See APPLES AND ORANGES.

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caught napping

See NAPPING.

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cat that swallowed the canary, (look) like the

Look both smug and guilty. The analogy dates back to the mid-nineteenth century and was used by many writers, especially mystery writers (Dashiel Hammett among them), in the first half of the twentieth century.

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behind the scenes

In private or in secret. The term comes from the the- ater, where, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, violent action such as a murder or execution generally took place backstage (behind the scenery). The English journalist Joseph Addison pointed out, in 1711, that this practice was followed particularly in the French theater. By the late eighteenth century the expression was used figuratively for any activity that took place out of the public eye.

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behind the eight ball

In a bad situation, bad luck. The term, originating in the United States in the first half of the 1900s, comes from a form of pool in which all the balls (which are numbered) must be pocketed in a cer- tain order. The only exception is the No. 8 ball, which is black. If another player touches the eight ball he or she is penalized. Therefore, if the eight ball is in front of the ball one is trying to pocket, one is in a difficult position.

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beg to differ, I I disagree

This polite conversational phrase uses beg in the sense of “ask” or “entreat,” much as it is in the stock locution “I beg your pardon” for “Excuse me.” This usage dates from the 1300s.

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beg the question, to

To assume that the very matter being questioned is true. A point of logic originally raised by Aristotle, it became a Latin proverb, Petitio principii, meaning “to beg the main point” (or “assume with- out proof ”). It was most clearly defined by Thomas Reid (Aristotle’s Logic, 1788): “Begging the question is when the thing to be proved is assumed in the premises.” Since about 1990, however, it has sometimes been used differently, to mean avoiding a straight answer, as “Using a round table begs the question of who is paired with whom.” An even more recent usage is as a synonym of “to raise the question,” as in “King’s new e-book begs the question of what constitutes a book.” Because of these confusions of mean- ing, this cliché is best avoided in clear discourse or writing.

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beginning of the end, (this is) the

The start of a disaster (ruin, defeat, fatal illness, or the like). The term was used by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but without the same meaning; it appears in the tangled pro- logue to the play within a play (Pyramus and Thisbe) in the last act. “I see the beginning of my end” occurs in an early seventeenth-century play, The Virgin Martyr, by Massinger and Dekker, here meaning death. The origin of the current cliché, however, is generally acknowledged to be a statement made by Talleyrand to Napoleon after losing the battle of Leipzig (1813), “C’est le commencement de la fin.” It was widely quoted thereafter, although Talleyrand may not have been the originator (he was known to borrow freely from others).

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beginner’s luck

Success from an endeavor tried for the first time. The term dates from the late 1800s and soon was used enough to become a cliché. For example, “She said she’d never made a soufflé before but it turned out per- fectly. Beginner’s luck, I guess.”

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beggars can’t be choosers

Those in need must take whatever they can get. A proverb in John Heywood’s 1546 collection, this expression has been repeated ever since, with very little variation. A minor exception was Thomas Fuller’s version (Gnomologia, 1732), “Beggars and Borrowers must be no Chusers.”

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beggar description, to

Impossible to describe accurately because mere words are not enough. The phrase is Shakespeare’s, who used it in referring to Cleopatra’s beauty: “For her own person, it beggar’d all description” (Antony and Cleopatra, 2.2). It not only entered the language but was, by the late eighteenth century (according to Eric Partridge), a cliché.

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before you can say Jack Robinson

At once, instantly. No one seems to be able to trace this term precisely or to discover the identity of Jack Robinson. Its earliest documented use was in 1778 in Fanny Burney’s Evelina (“I’d do it as soon as say Jack Robinson”). It appears in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. According to Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary (1785), the original Jack Robinson was a gentleman who called on his neighbors so peremptorily that there was hardly time to announce him before he was gone.

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beg, borrow, or steal

Obtain in any possible way. This saying appears in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (The Tale of the Man of Law, c. 1386): “Maugre [despite] thyn heed, thou most for indigence or stele, or begge, or borwe [borrow] thy despence [expenditure]!” In slightly different form it appears in a seventeenth-century poem with a cautionary moral that is quoted by Washington Irving (“But to beg or to borrow, or get a man’s own, ’tis the very worst world that ever was known”). Almost the same wording appeared in Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack (1742).

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ax to grind, an

A selfish motive. Allegedly this term comes from a cau- tionary tale by Charles Miner, first published in 1810, about a boy per- suaded to turn the grindstone for a man sharpening his ax. The work not only was difficult to do but also made him late for school. Instead of prais- ing the youngster, the man then scolded him for truancy and told him to hurry to school. Other sources attribute it to a similar story recounted by Benjamin Franklin. Whichever its origin, the term was frequently used thereafter and apparently was a cliché by the mid-nineteenth century.

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awesome!

Slang for “wonderful,” “terrific,” originating in the second half of the twentieth century and used widely by youngsters. It transferred the origi- nal meaning of awe-inspiring, dating from the seventeenth century. A NewYorker cartoon caption had it (Dec. 19, 1983): “Third grade? Third grade is awe- some!”

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avoid like the plague,

To stay away from, assiduously shun. The scourge of western Europe on numerous occasions, the plague, although poorly understood, was known to be contagious even in the time of St. Jerome (A.D.345–420), who wrote, “Avoid, as you would the plague, a cler- gyman who is also a man of business.”

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at this juncture/moment/point in time

Now, at a particular time. Originally a journalistic locution for the simple word now, this verbose expres- sion is a twentieth-century cliché. Another version, from sports, is at this stage of the game. Both represent an attempt to be legalistically specific. Indeed, an Atlantic Monthly article of January 1975 pointed out, “The phrase ‘at that point in time’... quickly became an early trademark of the whole Watergate affair,” a political scandal in which everyone tried to deny knowledge of and/or par- ticipation in various events.

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at the crossroads

At a critical juncture or turning point. The place where two roads intersect has had special significance from ancient times. Some tribes used a crossroads as a place for religious sacrifices, and hence they came to be associated with execution. In Christian times, criminals and those who died by their own hand often were buried at a crossroads (since they could not be buried in consecrated ground). Crossroads also were a favorite spot for ambushes, highway robbery, and other nefarious deeds. The phrase “dirty work at the crossroads” crops up throughout the nineteenth century, as well as in a spate of twentieth-century murder mysteries. The idea of a figurative crossroads, a point of having to decide which road to take, is also very old. Erasmus quotes a fragment from the Greek poet Theognis’s Elegies, dating from about 600 B.C., translated as “I stand at the crossroads.

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at the drop of a hat

At once, without delay. It is thought to come from the practice of dropping or waving a hat as a starting signal for a race, fight, or other event. The phrase also has come to mean “without further encour- agement.” The British composers Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, known for their humorous songs and revues, told their friends they could be per- suaded to sing their songs “at the drop of a hat,” which in the mid 1950s became the title of their first record album, followed by At the Drop of Another Hat. The term has been a cliché since the mid-1900s.

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happy hunting ground

Heaven; a place of abundance, replete with what one wants. The idea comes from the beliefs of Native American tribes that after death they will go to a paradise with an abundance of game and there- fore always enough to eat. The term appears in the works of James Feni- more Cooper and other writers on Indian subjects. As Cooper wrote in The Pathfinder (1840), “‘Do the dead of the savages ever walk?’ demanded Cap. ‘Ay, and run, too, in their happy hunting grounds.’” Later the term became a euphemism for death, and still later it was transferred to any place of abundant treasures.

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happy as a clam (at high tide)

Delighted with one’s lot. An American expression dating from the early nineteenth century, it comes from clam- ming, which involves digging clams out of the sand at low tide. At high tide it is difficult, if not impossible, to dig for clams. Safety thus is the obvious reason for the mollusk’s carefree state of mind.

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hang out one’s shingle, to

To open an office, especially a professional practice. This term comes from nineteenth-century America, when lawyers, doctors, and various business concerns often used actual shingles for sign- boards. Van Wyck Brooks, in The World of Washington Irving (1944), wrote, “Catlin hung out his shingle as a portrait-painter.”

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hang loose

Relax, take it easy. This expression dates from the mid-1900s and became very popular during the hippie era of the 1960s. R. S. Parker had it in Effective Decisions (1977), “It is a popular philosophy today to ‘hang loose, trust your feelings, do what you really want to do.’”

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hang in there

Keep at it, persevere. An American slang expression dat- ing from the first half of the 1900s, this imperative is believed to have origi- nated in sports, where it is often shouted as an encouragement to a competitor or team. However, it also is used as a simple verb meaning the same thing, as in, “He has managed to hang in even though he does not have tenure.”

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hang in the balance

A state of doubt or suspense regarding the out- come of something. The balance referred to is the old weighing device in which an object to be weighed is put in one pan and weights of known quantity are added one by one to the other pan, until the two are balanced. The unknown weight here is fate—that is, the outcome. The expression dates at least from the fifteenth century; it appeared in John Lydgate’s trans- lation of the Fall of Princes (1430) and has been used ever since.

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hanging fire

Delayed; undecided. This term comes from the seventeenth-century flintlock musket. Frequently an attempt to fire it would end with a flash in the lockpan, a depression that held the priming powder, which would fail to explode the main charge. Thus the gun was left hanging fire, that is, slow to fire a charge. See also FLASH IN THE PAN.

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hanged for a sheep (as well) as a lamb, (might) as well be

One might as well commit a great crime as a small one, since the punishment would be the same; also, do not stop at half-measures, but enjoy something to the fullest. This term comes from the times when both sheep and lamb were considered so valuable that the theft of either was punishable by death. “As good be hanged for an old sheep as a young lamb” appeared in both John Ray’s English Proverbs (1678) and James Kelly’s Scottish Proverbs (1721), and has persisted to the present day. See also IN FOR A PENNY, IN FOR A POUND.

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hang by a thread, to

To be in a precarious situation. This expression comes from the story of Damocles, a servile courtier to Dionysius I of Syra- cuse. Tired of hearing Damocles praise him to the skies, Dionysius invited him to a magnificent banquet. Seated there, Damocles looked up and saw a naked sword suspended over his head by a single hair, whereby the king intended to show his servant the insecurity of his position. By the sixteenth century the story had been converted into a proverb, “It hangs by a hair,” listed in Erasmus’s Adagia (1523), and in the course of time hair was changed to thread.

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handwriting on the wall

See WRITING  ON THE WALL.

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get one’s act together

Get organized, behave effectively. This slangy expression, dating from about 1960, alludes to show business. It does so even more explicitly in “I’m getting my act together and taking it on the road” (NewYork Times, June 15, 1980).

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fate worse than death, a

Seduction or rape of a woman. This term, orig- inating about the mid-seventeenth century, became a cliché in the late nine- teenth century, when it also began to be used in a jocular fashion for sexual relations among willing partners. E. R. Burroughs, however, still meant it seriously: “The ape . . . bearing Jane Porter away toward a fate a thousand times worse than death” (Tarzan, 1917).

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get off one’s duff

Get moving, become active. This slangy idiom uses duff in the sense of buttocks, a usage dating from about 1840 and at that time considered impolite. It no longer is, at least not in America, and if any- thing this cliché is a euphemism for still ruder synonyms, such as get off one’s butt or get off one’s ass

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fat city

Prosperous circumstances. This slangy Americanism originated about the middle of the twentieth century and is on its way to becoming a cliché. “This last jump in the Dow average has put Mr. Welch in fat city” (Boston Globe, 1987).

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get (something) off one’s chest, to

To unburden oneself of a secret, criticism, worry, or the like. The London Daily Chronicle of 1902 is cited by the OED: “To deliver a message to the world or to express the individual personality—to ‘get it off your chest’ is the horrid vulgar phrase.”

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fat chance

Practically no chance at all. Although fat in this context means “good,” the term is always used ironically to mean hardly any oppor- tunity. A slangy Americanism of the twentieth century, it was used by P. G. Wodehouse in Laughing Gas: “A fat chance, of course. I should have known his psychology better.” For synonyms, see CHINAMAN’S CHANCE; SNOWBALL’S CHANCE.

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get off my back

Stop nagging or pestering me. This slangy expression has been popular since the late 1930s, and its precise origin has been lost. It may have come from the older saying, to have a monkey on one’s back, which once meant to be angry or annoyed but since about 1930 has meant to be addicted to drugs. More likely “get off my back” alludes simply to a burden. As governor of California (1966–74), Ronald Reagan frequently used the term, saying we need to “get government off our backs.”

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fat cat

A wealthy individual. This rhyming term, originating in America about 1920, once had a more specific meaning, that is, a rich individual who made large contributions to a political party or campaign. Later it was extended to any wealthy person, as well as an individual who has become lazy or smug as the result of material assets. Thus, an article in the Saturday Review of Literature in 1949, “Hollywood celebrities, literary fat cats.” See also DEEP POCKETS.

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get lost

Go away, leave me alone. This rude, slangy imperative dates from the first half of the 1900s. It seems to be replacing the somewhat earlier scram, with the same meaning, heard less often today. P. G. Wodehouse had it in Company for Henry (1967), “Can I have a word with you? In private ... Get lost, young Jane.”

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fatal attraction

An affinity for something or someone inherently harm- ful. This twentieth-century term appears in such locutions as, “Even after the deaths of hundreds of climbers, Mt. Everest continues to exert a fatal attrac- tion for many mountaineers.” It was used as the title of a 1987 motion pic- ture about a happily married man who has a weekend affair with a beautiful woman; she turns out to be psychotic and tries to destroy his and his family’s life.

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esprit de corps

A sense of unity, pride, or common purpose among the members of a group. The term came directly from French into English in the late eighteenth century and often was misspelled, as by Jane Austen in Mansfield Park (“I honour your esprit du [sic] corps”). It continued to be used because, as Sir Frank Adcock put it, it describes “that typically English char- acteristic for which there is no English name” (1930). An American equiva- lent from the sports world is team spirit.

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dirty mind, a

Prurient, describing someone who thinks of or sees the obscene or indecent aspects of something. The adjective “dirty” has been used in this sense since the 1500s, but the phrase dates only from the 1900s. Stephen Price played on it in Just for the Record (1961): “He had a real porny [pornographic] article ... not just dirty, mind you, but Art.”

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enter the lists, to

To engage in combat, rivalry, or competition. The term comes from medieval jousting tournaments, in which the list or lists was the barrier around the arena for such a contest. It was used figuratively already by Shakespeare (“Now is she in the very lists of love,” Venus and Adonis, 1592). In 1647 Nathaniel Bacon used the full expression, “The King, loth to enter the List with the Clergy about too many matters” (Historical Discourse of the Uniformity of the Government of England). The term is similar to the slightly newer eager for the fray or enter the fray, “fray” being a battle, skirmish, or other fight, usually of a noisy nature. The first originated as a direct quotation from Colley Cibber’s version of Shakespeare’s Richard III (5.3): “My soul’s in arms, and eager for the fray.” However, all these expres- sions appear to be dying out.

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dirt cheap

Very inexpensive. The idea of something being as cheap as dirt dates back at least to Roman times. Petronius’s Satyricon (A.D. 60) says, “In those days food could be had for dirt” (Illo tempore annoma pro luto erat). It may already have been a cliché by the time Dickens used it in Oliver Twist (1838): “I sold myself ... cheap, dirt cheap!”

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enough said

No further amplification is needed. Although Plautus’s Dixi satis (in Rudens, c. 200 B.C.) has been so translated, the expression in English became current only in the nineteenth century, on both sides of the Atlantic. It was well known enough in America to acquire what Eric Par- tridge called a “comic perversion,” that is, the variant nuff said, which the OED editors traced back as far as 1840 in a U.S. newspaper. Its most emphatic use appeared in Gertrude Stein’s poem, Enough Said (1935), which in its entirety consists of this expression repeated five times.

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dire straits, in

In an awful situation, terrible circumstances. The adjec- tive “dire,” which dates from the mid-1500s, is rarely heard today except in this cliché and one other phrase, dire necessity, which uses it more or less hyperbolically (as, for example, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 1836 letter, “The dire necessity of having every window in the house open . . .”). In con- trast, the cliché describes a genuine difficulty or danger, as in “The stock- market crash left him in dire straits financially.”

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enough rope, to give (someone)

To allow someone to continue behav- ing badly until he or she reaps the consequences. The rope in question alludes to enough rope to hang oneself, which is how the phrase is often completed. It was well enough known by the mid-seventeenth century to appear in four slightly different forms in John Ray’s English Proverbs (1678), the most common being “Give him rope enough and he’ll hang himself.”

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dime a dozen, a

Readily available, so cheap as to be without value. The dime being an American coin, declared the ten-cent piece by the Continen- tal Congress in 1786 (the word comes from the French dime, for “tithe,” or one-tenth), this expression is obviously American in origin and probably owes its long life to alliterative appeal. Inflation has further degraded the meaning. Early in the twentieth century a dime could buy a paperback book (dime novel) or a cup of coffee and a doughnut; “Brother, can you spare a dime?” was the universal cry for a handout during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

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enough is enough

That is sufficient, no more is needed or wanted. “There is now enough” appeared in the works of numerous Roman writers (Horace, Martial, Plautus, and others), and “Enough is enough” was already a proverb by the time John Heywood amassed his 1546 collection. Versions in other Euro- pean languages—Italian, French, Dutch—append the notion that not only is enough sufficient, but that too much is bad. In any event, the expression was well on its way to being a cliché by the time Robert Southey wrote (The Doctor, 1834), “As for money, enough is enough; no man can enjoy more.” Wallis Warfield, Duchess of Windsor (1896–1986) reportedly disagreed, saying, “You can never be too rich or too thin” (attributed). A much more recent syn- onym is the interjection enough already, a translation of theYiddish genug shoyn.

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different strokes for different folks

See NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTES

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