See GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.
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boy toy
An attractive younger man who is linked with an older woman, for social activities, sexual favors, or the like. In effect he is the counterpart
of a SUGAR DADDY. This slangy term dates from about 1980 and may be used disparagingly or admiringly, depending on the context. A headline in the magazine Maxim ran “Be Her Boy Toy: Younger Guys and Older Women”
(June 2004). The term, which is on its way to becoming a cliché, may also be applied to a homosexual relationship, that is, a younger man kept by an older man. It is also put as toy boy.
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boys will be boys
Children can be expected to act childishly. As might be expected, the observation is far from new. A Latin proverb held, Pueri sunt pueri, pueri puerilia tractant, translated variously as “Children/boys are boys and do childish things.” The emphasis on boys in the English language probably reflects the sexist view that boys are essentially more mischievous and active than girls. The statement appears with increasing frequency in nineteenth-century literature (Bulwer-Lytton, Thackeray, Mark Twain, Shaw, et al.), when it already must have been a cliché.
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bowl over
Overwhelm, astonish, surprise. This term originated in the mid-
1800s in the game of cricket, where it signifies knocking all the bails off the
wicket. It has been used figuratively since the twentieth century, as in “I was
just bowled over when I learned he’d gotten the million-dollar grant.” See also
BLOW OUT OF THE WATER
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bow and scrape, to
To behave obsequiously, to show too much defer- ence. The term literally means to bow one’s head and draw back one foot, which then scrapes the ground. A cliché since the mid-nineteenth century,
it is becoming as obsolete as the custom of bowing has, at least in the West- ern world.
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in for a penny, in for a pound
Do not stop at half-measures; once involved, even a little, one is involved a lot. This term, which originally meant that if one owes a penny one might as well owe more, dates from the seventeenth century. Thomas Ravenscroft wrote, “Well, that, O’er shooes, o’er boots, And In for a penny, in for a Pound” (The Canterbury Guests, 1695,
5.1). It was quoted over and over. Dickens, always intrigued with debt, used it in at least three of his novels (Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop). Today it is common mostly in Britain and Ireland, where the pound is a unit of currency, but it is still occasionally heard in America.
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in clover, to be/live
To prosper. This expression, with its analogy to cat- tle feeding happily in a field of clover, dates from the early eighteenth cen- tury. It occasionally has been put like pigs in clover, and, in twentieth-century America, rolling in clover. All of them mean “to live well.”
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in a word
Briefly, concisely. This expression, which is usually followed by
a fair number of words—as in, “In a word, the bank is unable to accommo-
date Mr. Brown’s request for a loan”—was used by Shakespeare in Two Gen-
tlemen of Verona (“And in a word . . . he is compleat in feature and in mind”).
It was much favored by various of Dickens’s more verbose characters, such
as Mr. Micawber.
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in at the death/finish
Present at the end, usually meaning at some- one’s ruin, but sometimes only at the climax of an important event. The term comes from fox hunting, where, in the eighteenth century, it denoted the presence of hunters and hounds at the killing of a fox they had run to the ground. By 1800 the term was being transferred to other kinds of demise.
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in a pinch
When hard-pressed. The British version of this expression, “at
a pinch,” dates from the fifteenth century, when William Caxton in his
translation of The Book of Faytes of Armes and of Chyualrye (1489) wrote, “Cor-
ageously at a pynche [he] shal renne vpon hem.” By the time Robert Louis
Stevenson wrote Black Arrow (1888) it also was put as, “It yet might serve
him, in a pinch.” A related expression of more recent provenance is in a
jam, which similarly implies that one is “compressed” or “squeezed,” by cir-
cumstance, into a tight spot.
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in a pig’s eye
Never! Several sources have been suggested for this Amer- icanism from the late nineteenth century. One holds that it is rhyming slang for “when pigs fly,” which of course is never. Another, more probable theory
is that it is a euphemism for “in a pig’s ass,” which came from a bawdy song. Whatever the true origin, it has been on its way to becoming a cliché since about 1950.
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in a pickle, to be/get
In a bad situation; in trouble. Although it sounds very up to date, this expression dates from Shakespeare’s time. “How camest thou in this pickle?” says Alonso to his fellow-conspirator (The Tem- pest, 5.1). The term has been so used ever since.
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in any way, shape, or form, not
Not at all, in no possible manner. Also put as in no way, shape, or form, this emphatic and partially redundant phrase
(shape and form mean the same thing) dates from the mid-1900s. It is gener- ally a reply to a question, such as “‘Are you planning another family reunion?’ ‘No, not in any way, shape, or form.’” Also see NO WAY.
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in a nutshell
Concisely or compactly, usually referring to written or spoken words. The Roman writer Pliny in his Natural History stated that Homer’s great (and very long) epic poem, the Iliad, was copied in such tiny
handwriting that the whole text could be enclosed in a nutshell. This obvi-
ous hyperbole caught the imagination of numerous subsequent writers who
referred to “the Iliad in a nutshell,” among them Jonathan Swift and Thomas
Carlyle. Later “the Iliad” was dropped and anything extremely compressed
was described as being in a nutshell, a cliché since the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury. See also IN A WORD
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in a huff
Angry. The verb to huff in the late 1500s meant to bluster, or blow out puffs of breath in anger. It thus appeared in the nursery tale of The Three Little Pigs, in which the wolf threatened, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in” (published in J. Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, 1890). The noun usage with the current meaning of “angry” was first recorded in 1599 and has been so used ever since.
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have it in for, to
To hold a grudge against. The it in this expression pre- sumably means bad things in store. The term became especially common in popular novels of the first half of the twentieth century. “I have had it in for that dog since the second Sunday,” wrote P. G. Wodehouse (Meet Mr. Mulliner, 1927).
drum (something) into one’s head, to
To force an idea on someone by means of persistent repetition. This expression, used since the early nine- teenth century, alludes to performing drumbeats over and over. John Stuart Mill used it in his Political Economy (1848): “This doctrine has been . . . tol- erably effectively drummed into the public mind.”
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have another guess coming, to
To be wrong or mistaken. This phrase also implies that though one is wrong, one has a chance to reconsider and correct one’s error. It dates from the first half of the 1900s. C. Day Lewis used it in Child of Misfortune (1939): “If you think that’s your doing, you’ve got another guess coming.”
have a nice day
A cordial good-bye to you. This intrusive imperative became extremely common after 1950 among U.S. truckers who used it on their citizens-band radios. In Britain it often is put as have a fine day or have a good day. The latter, which may have its origin in the Middle English have good day (c. 1200) and was frequently used by Chaucer, apparently died out for some centuries and then was revived. It is often heard in America and occasionally is altered to have a good one. Since the late 1960s these phrases have become ubiquitous. They often are used ironically, either knowingly or unconsciously. Following a precipitous drop in the New York Stock Market
in October 1987, the telephone clerks employed by Pacific Brokerage con- tinued to report to the company’s clients, as they always had, “This is Pacific Brokerage Calling. You just sold 30,000 shares of Widget Manufacturing at
$1. Have a nice day.” Conceivably this message might have driven the investor who bought Widget at 32 straight out of the nearest window. Or take the insurance agent who said, “I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s death. Have a nice day.” By about 2000, however, have a nice/good day had largely become a synonym of “good-bye,” and was taken no more literally than the “God be with you” that was the original source of that word. A related term increasingly heard in restaurants is Have a nice meal, which sim- ilarly induces teeth-gnashing irritation when voiced by a particularly incom- petent waiter.
give a wide berth to, to
To avoid. This term, which in the eighteenth cen- tury literally meant to give a ship plenty of room to swing at anchor, was transferred to other objects of avoidance and soon became a cliché. “I recom- mend you to keep a wide berth of me, sir,” wrote Thackeray (The Newcomes,
1854).
give (someone) an inch and they’ll take a mile
Yield only a little and you’ll be taken advantage of. This expression began life as a proverb, “Give him an inch and he’ll take an ell,” cited in Heywood’s 1546 collection. Around the turn of the twentieth century mile entered the picture, as in W. D. Steele’s The
ManWho Saw Through Heaven (1927): “Give these old fellows an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
give and take
Mutual concessions; a fair exchange. Used as a noun, this expression dates from the eighteenth century. (The verbal form, to give and take, dates from the early 1500s.) One writer believes the phrase originated
in British racing and denoted a prize for a race in which larger horses car- ried more weight and smaller ones less than the standard. “Give and take is fair in all nations,” wrote Fannie Burney in Evelina (1778), echoed in T. C. Haliburton’s Wise Saws (1843): “Give and take, live and let live, that’s the word.” See also LIVE AND LET LIVE.
give a bad name to, to
To speak ill of someone or something in order
to give it a bad reputation. This term comes from the proverb, “Give a dog
an ill name and hang him,” quoted in James Kelly’s collection of Scottish
proverbs (1721). It has been a cliché since about 1800.
girl/man Friday
Trusted assistant. This term comes from Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), in which Crusoe found a young savage on a Friday, and this man became his faithful servant and companion on the desert island.
“I take my man Friday with me,” said Crusoe. Some mid-twentieth-century advertising pundit invented “girl Friday”—or gal Friday—to describe the female clerk-of-all-work, presumably on the assumption that it lent some glamour to a low-level, poorly paid position. It caught on mainly through being used as the title of a 1940 motion picture starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, His Girl Friday. In the 1970s, when affirmative action came
to the American labor market, the term fell into disrepute.
gird (up) one’s loins, to
To prepare for action (hard work, a journey, warfare). The term comes from the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, and uses gird in the sense of “encircle with a belt or band.” The ancient Jews wore loose clothing and put on a girdle, or belt, only when they went to
work or set out to travel. Thus, “He girded up his loins, and ran” appears in
I Kings (18:76), and “Gird up now thy loins like a man” in Job (in several
passages). It had already become figurative in the New Testament, where 1
Peter has it, “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober” (1:13).
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first blush, at
Without prior knowledge; at first glance. The earliest use
of this expression dates from the sixteenth century, when blush meant not a
reddening of the cheeks with embarrassment but “glimpse.” Thus, “Able at
the first blushe to discearne truth from falsehood,” wrote Philip Stubbes
(The Anatomie of Abuses, 2:7) in 1583.
first and foremost
Most notable, most important. This tautological expression—first and foremost mean just about the same thing—has survived since the fifteenth century, when it was recorded in a work by William Cax- ton (1483). Deemed a cliché by the mid-nineteenth century, it is still popu- lar with lecturers and others who like to enumerate the various points of their argument or elements of a list.
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fire on all cylinders
Go all out. The term comes from automobiles, where
it means all of a car’s cylinders have been ignited and the engine is fully pow-
ered. It has been used figuratively since the second half of the 1900s, as in
“That was a great speech; he was really firing on all cylinders.” See also PULL
OUT ALL THE STOPS.
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