in one ear and out the other

Inattentive; soon forgotten. This vivid image dates from Roman times. “The things he says flow right through the ears,” wrote Quintillian (Institutionis Oratoriae, c. A.D. 80). The sentiment was echoed by Chaucer and joined John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection  (“Went in the tone eare, and out at the tother”). Thomas Hood punned on it in his “Ode to the Late Lord Mayor” (1825): “He comes in at one year, to go out by the other!”

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in no uncertain terms

Emphatically, very clearly. This double negative appears to have become very popular about the middle of the twentieth century. Lawrence Durrell used it in Balthazar (1958): “I told Abdul so in no uncertain terms.” A slightly slangier synonym is LOUD AND CLEAR.

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in high dudgeon

Angrily, resentfully, IN A HUFF. The origin of dudgeon has been lost and today the word is never used except with high—never alone and not even with low. In use from about 1600 on, the term was a cliché by the time explorer David Livingstone wrote “He went off in high dudgeon” (The Zambezi and Its Tributaries, 1865). The phrase may be dying out.

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in full swing

Vigorously active. Various etymologists to the contrary, this term comes from a sixteenth-century use of swing for the course of a career or period of time. The only modern vestige of this meaning is in the cliché, which has survived. Indeed, it was already a cliché when George Meredith wrote (Evan Harrington, 1861), “A barrister in full swing of practice.”

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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 trice

See IN TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB’S TAIL.

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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 jam

See IN A  PINCH.

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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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in a heartbeat

Extremely quickly. This hyperbolic expression—what could actually happen in the space of a single heartbeat?—dates from the late 1800s.

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in a dither, all

In a jittery, agitated state. This expression dates from the early 1800s, when it also was put as of a dither. The noun dither comes from the Middle English verb didderen, meaning “to tremble.” A newer synonym is in a tizzy, dating from the first half of the 1900s. Its origin is not known.

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I’m from Missouri, you’ve got to show me

I won’t believe it without proof. This expression, signifying shrewd native skepticism rather than provincial stupidity, has been traced to a number of sources. The oldest source of the thought suggested to date is the Missouri Compromise of 1820, a proviso that the constitution of the then new state would not pro- hibit slavery, which was reached after several years of dickering. As for the wording, one writer cites a speech made by Congressman Willard D. Van- diver in 1899; another refers to a song from the same period, “I’m from Missouri and You’ve Got to Show Me,” with lyrics by Lee Raney and music by Ned Wayburn. Thomas Oliphant, describing Senator Edward Kennedy’s doubts about a Supreme Court nominee, wrote, “Kennedy has become the leading Show Me Senator” (Boston Globe, Sept. 29, 2005).

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ill wind that blows no one any good, it’s/’tis an

Someone or other usually benefits from a misfortune or loss. This expression appeared in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection and several of Shakespeare’s plays. Today it remains current, often shortened simply to an ill wind. Laurence McKinney punned on it in People of Note (1940), saying of the notoriously difficult oboe, “It’s an ill wood wind [sic] no one blows good.”

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