Читать книгу Red Herrings & White Elephants - The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day - Albert Jack - Страница 8

Once The Balloon Has Gone Up you know there is trouble ahead. During the First World War, observation balloons would be sent into the sky at the first suspicion of an enemy attack, in order to monitor distant enemy troop movements. To most this was a sign of impending action. During the Second World War, strong barrage balloons connected to the ground with thick steel cable were raised around English cities. The idea of these was to impede enemy aircraft, which might crash into them in the darkness or clip their wings on the steel cable. Often they also protected cities from enemy missiles, which would hit a balloon and explode before reaching its target. Their success was immeasurable but to city folk the sign of ‘the balloon going up’ meant an impending air raid. Trouble was indeed ahead.

To Beat A Hasty Retreat means to abandon something, to leave quickly and avoid the consequences of remaining in the same position. This term dates back to the time when a marching army would take its orders from the drummer. Positioned next to the commanding officer, the drummer boy would beat the orders to an army on a battlefield. At night time, or during a battle when things were not going well, the drummer would be ordered to beat a ‘retreat’ and on hearing the signal a fighting army would immediately cease battle and return to company lines as quickly as they could.

To Bite The Bullet is to carry out a task against the doer’s wishes. It means getting on with something that just ‘has to be done’. This phrase has its origins in the British Empire as the Victorians made friends around the world at the point of a gun. At the time of the Indian Mutiny, gun cartridges came in two parts with the missile part being inserted into the base and held in place by grease made of either cow or pork fat. To charge the bullets the two parts had to be bitten apart and the base filled with gunpowder before they could be fired. This task was usually left to low-ranking Hindu soldiers to whom pigs are holy animals, sacred and not to be desecrated. However they were forced, against their wishes, to ‘bite the bullet’ in times of battle.

To Chance Your Arm is to take an uncalculated risk, where the outcome is completely unknown: a blind bet, if you like. There are several suggestions for the origin of this saying, one being that military men, whose rank was displayed in the way of stripes on their sleeves, would take battlefield risks, which could equally lead to promotion or demotion, depending on the outcome. A better explanation (at least one that is more fun) dates back to Ireland as long ago as 1492. During a feud between two distinguished families, the Kildares and the Ormonds, during which Sir James Butler, the Earl of Ormond, and his family took sanctuary inside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The Kildares laid siege outside until Gerald Fitzpatrick, the Earl of Kildare, decided the feud had gone too far and attempted a reconciliation. But the Ormonds were suspicious of his offer of peaceful settlement and refused to leave the cathedral. As a desperate measure to prove his good intentions Fitzgerald ordered a hole to be cut into the cathedral door and then thrust his outstretched hand through, putting his arm at the mercy of those inside as it could easily have been cut off. Instead, Butler took his hand and peace was restored. It is not known if that is actually the origin of the phrase, but it should be.

To be Sent To Coventry is to become a social outcast and be ignored by everybody. But why Coventry? During the English Civil War in the mid-1600s Coventry was a strong Parliamentarian town, and Royalist soldiers, captured during the early battles in the Midlands, would be sent to nearby Coventry where they could be certain of a frosty reception. Long before the days of prison camps soldiers loyal to the King could only wander around town looking for food or work but locals would refuse to speak with them, and would even turn their backs and ignore their presence completely. Back then the only entertainment to be found was in local inns but Royalists were barred. Coventry was clearly no place for them but, short of walking back to London, and starving on the way, there was little option but to stay and scavenge. In some cases Royalist soldiers who were deemed useless or not quite committed to the cause would also be garrisoned near Coventry, assuring them of a miserable posting by way of punishment. The idea was that, as no loyalist wanted to be sent to Coventry, they might show more commitment to the King in battle and avoid the posting.

A Feather In Your Cap means you have done something well and it has been duly noted, although not rewarded by any tangible means other than by having a ‘feather placed in your cap’. Its origin seems easy to explain. Any Indian brave fighting for his tribe in America, who killed an enemy, was rewarded by having a feather placed in his head-dress. The most prolific braves would have a headband full of feathers. However, four hundred years prior to this, in medieval England, battlefield bravery was rewarded in a similar way. Knights who had shown great courage were also afforded plumes to wear in their helmets. The Black Prince, 16-year-old Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales of his day, showed such courage at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 (the first great battle of the Hundred Years War) he was awarded the crest of one of his defeated enemies, John of Bohemia. That crest, of three ostrich feathers, remains the crest of the Prince of Wales to this day.

The phrase Pull Your Finger Out is associated these days with encouraging someone to get a move on, or hurry up and complete a task more quickly. Like so many English phrases it has a military or naval origin. Loaded cannons would have gunpowder poured into a small ignition hole and held in place with a wooden plug. But in times of battle, when speed was of the essence, the powder would be pushed in and then held in place by a gun crewmember using his finger. Impatient artillerymen, anxious to fire their cannons at the enemy, would shout at the crewmember to ‘pull his finger out’ so that the gun could be fired. It has not been recorded how many digits were lost on the battlefields.

Flash In The Pan is used to describe something or somebody making a great impression at the outset but ultimately failing to deliver any real result. Of military origin the phrase emerged during the use of early flintlock muskets. Sometimes gunpowder would ignite with a flash in the lock-pan but the main charge failed to light, meaning the shot in the barrel did not discharge, so no harm could come to man nor beast that time round. It was a ‘flash in the pan’ and the expression was in regular use by 1741.

To Throw Down The Gauntlet is to lay a challenge, originally of combat but latterly to any form of contest. A gauntlet is a medieval armoured glove, forming part of a knight’s suit of armour. Traditionally a knight would challenge another to a duel by throwing down his gauntlet. If his opponent picked it up it meant he was accepting the challenge and battle would begin. Taking Up The Gauntlet has since been a phrase used for accepting a challenge. The Swedish word ‘gantlope’ (see Run The Gauntlet) was anglicised to ‘gauntlet’ as a result of this tradition, but ‘running the gauntlet’ and ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ are not otherwise connected.

Hanging Fire is often used to describe a pause before beginning a task. Sixteenth-century muskets were always slow to fire their charge due to the delay between lighting the gunpowder in the touch-hole and detonation. This was known at the time as ‘hang-fire’ and the expression was soon used to describe any person delaying or slow to take action.

To Be Hoisted By One’s Own Petard means to become a victim of your own deceit, or caught in your own trap. In medieval times a petard was a thick iron container which was filled with gunpowder and set against medieval gates, barricades and bridges. The wicks, however, were unreliable and often detonated the gunpowder immediately, blowing up the engineer in the process. In which case he was ‘hoisted (blown up) by his own petard (container of gunpowder)’.

To take someone Down A Peg Or Two means to reduce their status among their peers. It is possible the origin of this phrase is found at sea, and the peg used to fly a ship’s colours. The lower the peg, the less impressive the achievement. But there is also a reference dating as far back as the 10th century and King Edred’s anger at the amount that his army was drinking. Aware that he needed his soldiers sober for the great battles against the Vikings, Edred ordered pegs to be put into the side of ale barrels and no man was allowed to drink below the level of the peg in a single sitting. But as soon as this rule was applied soldiers would drink from other people’s kegs and take them down a ‘peg or two’.