add fuel to the fire/flames, to

add fuel to the fire/flames, to To exacerbate an already inflammatory situation, increasing anger or hostility. The Roman historian Livy used this turn of phrase (in Latin) nearly two thousand years ago, and it was repeated (in English) by numerous writers thereafter, among them John Milton (Sam- son Agonistes, 1671): “He’s gone, and who knows how he may report thy words by adding fuel to the flame.”

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act your age

Don’t be childish or act foolish. This admonition appears to date from the 1920s. “Be your age” is the caption of a 1925 New Yorker car- toon; “act your age” appears in a 1932 issue of American Speech, a journal that chronicles current usage.

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actions speak louder than words

actions speak louder than words What you do is more important than what you say. A proverb appearing in ancient Greek as well as in practically every modern language, this precise wording dates from the nineteenth century. A fifteenth-century version was “A man ought not to be deemed by his wordes, but by his workis” (Dictes and Sayenges of the Philosophirs, 1477).

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across the board

Affecting all classes and categories. The term, originally American, comes from horse-racing, where a bet covering all winning possibilities—win (first place), place (second place), or show (third place)—was so described. By about 1950 it was extended to other situa- tions, principally of an economic nature, as in across-the-board wage increases (for all employees), tax reductions (for all brackets), air-fare increases, and the like.

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acid test, the

A conclusive trial to establish the truth or worth of some- thing or someone. The term comes from a test long used to distinguish gold from copper or some other metal. Most corrosive acids do not affect gold, but a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid dissolves the metal. Used literally by jewelers in the late nineteenth century, the term soon was employed figuratively, by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson among others.

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Achilles’ heel

A vulnerable or weak spot. The term is derived from the Greek myth of the hero Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel while dipping him into the River Styx to make him immortal. He eventually was killed by an arrow shot into his heel. The term became a literary metaphor about two centuries ago and remains current as a cliché.

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ace in the hole

A hidden advantage. In stud poker the dealer gives each player a card facedown, called a “hole card”; from that point on all other cards are dealt faceup. Should the hole card be an ace, a high card, the player has an advantage unknown to his opponents. Stud poker was first introduced shortly after the Civil War and played mostly in what is now the Midwest but then was the West. In time “ace in the hole” became western slang for a hidden weapon, such as a gun carried in a shoulder holster, and by the early 1920s it was used figuratively for any hidden leverage. The related ace up one’s sleeve comes from the practice of dishonest gamblers who would hide a winning card in just this way. See also UP ONE’S SLEEVE.

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