The English Language...

[Gerbil-Man]

We have all heard them and we all have either laughed or hated them, there are certain things that do not go together:


" I dont give a rats ass"

Who'd wanna recive one?

"She'll bendover backwards to please you"

now we are gettin somewhere

[partyprobe]

IM lost what are we suppose to talk about.

[Corwin]

So what, are we talking about English euphemisms and cliché sayings that just sound wrong and no one seems to know or understand the origin of anymore?

[Gerbil-Man]

pretty much

[partyprobe]

That doesnt help me lol. Why would you create a thread that nobody knows what to do in lol.

[Gerbil-Man]

because i had a lapse in thought ok!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Corwin]

I know what's he talking about, old sayings like "once in a blue moon" or "slicker than a greased pig" they're just odd sayings, colloquialism's and aphorism's that have worked there way into the English language. Some of them still make sense, and some of them we can sort of understand how they came into being, but some of them are just so odd, we use them out of reflex b/c we've heard them used in context by someone else while growing up, so we know when to use it, and sort of what it means, but we don't really understand many of them, I know several but I can't seem to get them off the tip of my tongue right now, or in this case the tip of my fingers, I guess I'll see how I'm doing tomorrow w/ them

[partyprobe]

So we should post sayings like ''i almost bought the farm'' or ''he shook hands with the reaper''

[Corwin]

yes, exactly, saying like that, I imagine he wanted a little more to the topic as well, like a discussion of where the sayings come from, and what relevance they actually have anymore in conversation, but we'll have to wait and ask him

[Gerbil-Man]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[analogZero]

the majority of them are dated and regional, but make their way outward and become popularized and eventually common expressions.
a good one I remember is "the cat's out of the bag". it came from when street merchants would sell foods and such in burlap sacks. An easy way to make money was to stuff street cats (which were in abundance and likely killed first) into the sacks. Later when the buyer got back home they'd open the bag to find that the jig is up, and the cat's out of the bag."
being jip'd is reference to being taken advantage of by 'gyp'sies, who were reputed for ripping people off.
"buying the farm" is from soldiers that died during the war. one of the world wars where soldiers would would dream of settling down and buying a farm when the war was done, and when they crashed and wrecked or got shot then they'd "retire" and "buy it"