CATCH PHRASES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 21

CATCH PHRASES.

The origin of commonly used words and household phrasesJs interesting, few folks, for instance, taking the trouble to remember that "window" :is simply "wind-hole," or that "anti-macassar" was stuck on the back of a chair,.to protect it from the Macassar oil . which our immediate ancestors' plastered their hair with—and so forth. Home newspapers have recently been devoting space to correspondents' interpretations, of well-known phrases. Here are various views about ''Getting the Sack." In the reign of Maximilian- (1564-76) two noblemen, a Spaniard and a German; were suitors for ~- the hand :• of. * tho Emperor's daughter .Helena. Maximilianr. who esteemed them . both alike, being unwilling to risk the- loss of ..either .by engaging them in mortal combat, ordered a Urge sack to be brought, and, declared that he who should first put his rivalin the sack should wed the fair Helena. This strange combat was actually performed in the presence of the Imperial Court; and lasted an hour. The Ger-nan eventually succeeded in enveloping the Speniard, and laid him at the Emperor's feet. Hence, to "give the sack" came at first to mean getting rid of a rival in love, but soon grew to include dismissals and forced resignations of all kinds.

!■ ' r expression "to get the sack" origi- ; vies from the fact that mechanics in search of work used to carry their tools in a sack: when, after a spell of work, their • services Were no longer required, their-employer would hand the sack over to them that they might pick up their tools again and depart. The expression is derived from the general method of the Sultan of putting into a sack and throwing into the Bosphorus any one of his harem he wished out of the way! " A Tinker's Dam. ■ The person who tells you care "a tinker's dam" is not being seriously obnoxious, although a modern policemani might judge differently. Here are several contributions on the subject from correspondents:— "A tinker's dani" is the rampart or "vallum" made of waste putty or clay, with which a travelling tinker surrounds the area upon whicli he is at work, to "dam" the 'flow of his solder and flux, which might otherwise get out of hand. It cannot be used twice,, and is therefore worthless. The addition of an expletory "n" by the profane doubtless led to the polite synonym "cuss." It is not the first neology which has suffered betrayal by the euphuism of the sciolist. (How's that, - America ?)~ An explanation of the etymology of the expression, "A tinker's curse," ia an example of the "play upon words y so characteristic of heraldic mottoes, names of inns, and proverbial expressions, and io beloved of our ancestor*