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.

Read more

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!”

Read more

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.”

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

at swords’ points

Openly hostile. This term obviously refers to sword- fighting, long a thing of the past, but it has not died out. Mary McCarthy used it in her novel, The Group (1963): “Mrs. Hartshorn and her dead husband had had a running battle over Wilson and the League, and now Priss and Sloan were at swords’ points over Roosevelt and socialized medicine.” A synonymous expression it is at daggers drawn, first recorded in 1668 but used figuratively only from the 1800s. Robert B. Brough, Marston Lynch, His Life and Times (1870) had it: “Was Marston still at daggers drawn with his rich uncle?

Read more

at sixes and sevens

In disarray or confusion. The term comes from a game of dice in which throwing a six or seven has special significance, as it does in modern craps. There is considerable disagreement as to the precise game, or even if “six” or “seven” are not corruptions of sinque (five) and sice (six). Erasmus quoted a proverb to that effect, but, since dicing is very old indeed, the idea may be much older yet.

Read more

at sea, to be/all

To be bewildered, to have lost one’s way. Presumably it reflects the idea of literally having lost one’s bearings while at sea. It was so used by Dickens and other nineteenth-century writers

Read more

at one’s wits’ end, to be

To be at a total loss, completely perplexed. “Wits” here means mental capacity or ability to think. The term was used by Chaucer (Troilus and Criseyde) and William Langland (Piers Ploughman) in the late fourteenth century and has been a cliché since the eighteenth century.

Read more

at one’s fingertips

Ready, instantly available; at one’s command. The term refers to both cognizance and competence—that is, it can mean either knowledge or the ability to carry out a task. Presumably it is based on something being as close at hand and familiar as one’s own fingers. Its roots may lie in an ancient Roman proverb, “To know as well as one’s fingers and toes,” which in English became one’s fingers’ ends (in the proverb collec- tions of John Heywood, John Ray, and others). Fingertips appears to have originated in the United States in the nineteenth century.

Read more

at one’s beck and call

Required to tend to someone’s wishes; totally under someone’s control. The obsolete noun beck, which survives only in this cliché, meant a mute signal or gesture of command, such as a nod of the head or a pointing of the finger; the verbal form, to beckon, still exists, as does call, for a vocal summons.

Read more

at one fell swoop

A single operation, often a violent one. This term was coined by Shakespeare, who used the metaphor of a hell-kite (probably a vulture) killing chickens for the murder of Macduff ’s wife and children: “Oh, Hell-Kite! All? What, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?” (Macbeth, 4.3). The adjective fell was Old English for “fierce” or “savage.”

Read more

at long last

Finally, after a long delay. The expression has been traced to the sixteenth century and was usually put as “at the long last,” last then being a noun meaning “duration.” Eric Partridge cited its perhaps most famous use, the opening words of the abdication speech of King Edward VIII in 1935, when he gave up the British throne in order to marry a divorced woman. By then it had long been a cliché.

Read more

at loggerheads, to be

To disagree, dispute, or quarrel. A logger was a heavy wooden block, and one meaning of “loggerhead” is “blockhead,” a stu- pid person or dolt. Possibly this meaning led to the phrase “at loggerheads,” with the idea that only dolts would engage in a quarrel. Shakespeare used the word as an adjective in The Taming of the Shrew (4.1): “You loggerheaded and unpolish’d grooms.” The full current expression appeared in the late seventeenth century.

Read more

at a snail’s pace

Very slowly. The slowness of snails was pointed out about 200 B.C. by the Roman poet Plautus and the term “snail’s pace” in English goes back to about 1400. Relative to its size, however, a snail travels a considerable distance each day, using the undersurface of its muscular foot to propel itself.

Read more

at a loss, to be

To be puzzled or unable to come to a decision. The En- glish clergyman Charles Colton (c. 1780–1832) wrote, “As completely at a loss as a Dutchman without his pipe, a Frenchman without his mistress, an Italian without his fiddle, or an Englishman without his umbrella” (Lacon, Part 2, no. 116). One may also be at a loss for something, most often at a loss for words, meaning that one is rendered speechless.

Read more

at a snail’s pace

Very slowly. The slowness of snails was pointed out about 200 B.C. by the Roman poet Plautus and the term “snail’s pace” in English goes back to about 1400. Relative to its size, however, a snail travels a considerable distance each day, using the undersurface of its muscular foot to propel itself.

Read more

as we speak, (even)

At this moment, right now. An oral equivalent of AT THIS JUNCTURE. For example, “When is her plane due?—It’s landing even as we speak.”

Read more

as we know it

As something is currently understood or viewed. This phrase usually implies that current conditions will change, as, for example, “Nuclear warfare will mark the end of civilization as we know it.” First recorded in the late 1800s, the phrase began to be widely used from the 1940s on and has reached cliché status.

Read more