call a spade a spade, to

To speak frankly and bluntly, to be quite explicit. The term dates from the sixteenth century, but may go back even to Greek and Roman times. One translation of Cicero’s Ad Familiares reads,
“Here is your Stoic disquisition . . . ‘the wise man will call a spade a spade.’” There are numerous repetitions throughout the 1500s, such as John Tav- erner’s (“Whiche call . . . a mattok nothing els but a mattok, and a spade a spade,” Garden of Wysdome, 1539), and later uses by Ben Jonson, Robert Bur- ton, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain, among others. A cliché since the nineteenth century, it acquired a more sinister meaning when spade became an offensive slang word for a black person.

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calculated risk

An action taken even though it might fail, because not taking it might be more dangerous. The term comes from World War II, where it was applied to the chances of losing bombers, personnel and equip- ment, weighed against the benefits of hurting the enemy. It soon was trans- ferred to other situations. For example, “‘You don’t know a thing about him.’ – ‘It’s a calculated risk’” (Robert A. Heinlin, Double Star, 1956), or “We took the calculated risk of . . . using inanimate mother surrogates rather than real mothers” (Science, Aug. 21, 1959).

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cabin fever

Restlessness, irritability or depression resulting from prolonged confinement, as during severe winter weather. This term comes from the American West of the late 1800s, when it literally meant being stuck inside a remote cabin, a situation that could lead to fights, divorce, and occa- sionally even murder. It is used somewhat more loosely now.

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back number

Something or someone outdated. The term comes from the back issues of newspapers and other periodicals, which carry items no longer new and events no longer current. The term began to be used figura- tively in the late nineteenth century in the United States.

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back and fill, to

To temporize or vacillate. This metaphor comes from the days of sailing ships, and refers to a mode of tacking when the tide is running with a ship and the wind against it. The sails are alternately backed and filled, so that the vessel goes first back and then forward, ultimately remaining in just about the same place.

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babe(s) in the woods

Extremely naive or innocent individual(s). The term comes from a popular ballad, “The Children in the Wood” (1595), about two orphaned children. Their wicked uncle wants their inheritance and hires two men to murder them. One of the men repents and kills the other, but he abandons the children in a deep forest, where they die. The tale was kept alive by numerous writers, notably through Thomas Percy’s collection, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765).

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all hell breaks loose

Chaos prevails. The expression crops up often in Elizabethan poetry (Robert Greene, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare) and continued to be used by an amazing number of fine poets (Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Browning, among others).

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