A turn of phrase
March 18, 2010emily 2 Comments »Do you ever think about the sheer wonderfulness of idioms in the English language? They’re so diverse, so eccentric, so… bizarre! Take the idea, for example, of falling “ass over teakettle” in love. What on earth? Or being so hungry you could “eat a horse.” In the interest of full disclosure, though, I should note that in John’s house, growing up, if you were truly hungry you could “eat the ass out of a dead horse.” Mmm. Thanks, but I’ll pass. Keeping with the horse theme, what about “wild horses couldn’t keep me away”? Are wild horses better at this than tame horses? In my family, there’s the classic “Bob’s your uncle,” which is utterly nonsensical, but none the worse for it. And let’s not forget that something that’s easy “is like taking candy from a baby,” that “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” and that if you’re really happy, you’re “happier than a pig in sh*t,” which may or may not be as “happy as Larry.” Which, what? Really, what?!? Who comes up with these things? Can anyone, just anyone? And, more importantly, who’s Larry and why is he so happy?
Posted on March 19th, 2010 at 9:13 am
I say push things as far as they can go!
Make a game out of trying to get something utterly bizarre to make it into the vernacular!
Posted on March 23rd, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I’ve never heard the Larry one. I think most idioms must derive from some inside joke that somehow spreads.