FAMILIAR PHRASES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 February 1925, Page 15

FAMILIAR PHRASES.

BUT MEANINGLESS WORDS. Once, when a Chancellor of the Exchequer. was making in the House of Commons a statement on Indian, finance, and was airily referring to lakhs, of rupees;, a member asked him what was a lakh. The Minister had to. confess that he did not know. It is strange how 'many people repeatedly use words the meaning of which they do nqt understand. •‘As right as a trivet,” is a phrase frequently heard! Ho\y many people know what a trivet is ? It has two meanings. A trivet is a kyiife for severing loops of the pile threads ot velvet, carpet, or the like. It is also a three-legged stand or support, especially one to hold a kettle or similar vessel near the fire. ' But these meanings do not explain the origin of the saymg.' Why should a.;! trivet always be right? '*■ WHERE IS ‘‘LOGGER HR ADS”? There is a story told by a little boy who asked a gentleman visitor when lie liacl come back. “I haven’t- been away, sonny,” said the gentleman. “But,’’ said the puzzled little fellrny, “I heard daddy say that you and’your wife were at Loggerheads.” ‘ We may the child’s mistake,* but ask the average adult what js a loggerhead, arjtl he will be unable to give a definition. A loggerhead has five significaCions. - It may be (1) a blockhead or nuinskill; (2) an iron too) terminating in ;u ball or bulb used when heated to melt liquids; (3) an upright piece- of round timber in a whaleboat around which a- turn of the line is taken when it is running out too fast;_(4) a very largo marine turtle; or - (o) an American strike. Take your choice, and then explain how “at. loggerheads” passed into our speech to define the position of people at cross-purposes. “I’m off like a redshank,” says a man when starting on an errand which admits no delay, ‘ Why should the word “redshank” be- used in such a connection ? A redshank is an Old World bird having pale red legs and feet. It also means one having red legs, as, for instance, a Highlander. That- he is “as iolly as a sandboy” is said of -a person in high good humour. What a sandboy is I have been unable to discover, and .therefore cannot say why lie. should, invariably be jolly.. ‘l’ll be there in a jiffy,” exclaims a man. What is a “jiffy”? Tilt* latest dictionary states that the origin of the Word is unknown. Obviously it- is a coined word, but how came if into being ? It must, however, lie said for “jiffy” that it- carries its own meaning, which is more than can be claimed for some colloquialisms. Misnomers furnish another subject of interest!' All of us use them quite unwittingly. How many people know that the bird which Australians call a crow is not a crow, hut a raven. The real erbw has white feathers, as well as black.

The so-called white'ants which I have seen have nob been white. Years ago an eminent authority compiled a list of misnomers, "and some of his examples may he cited Arabic figures were no.t invented by the Arabs, hut by the Indians. Catgut is not the gut of cats, but of sheep. ' • *- Oleopatria’s Needle was , not erected by Cleopartra, or in honour of that queen, hut by Thcthmes TTj.

a • - ;; ; Galvanised iron is not galvanised. It is simply iron coated with zinc. German silver is not silver at all, nor was the metallic mixture invented by , , a German; hut it has been hi use tn China tjme out of mind. : '-;J Gothic architecture is not the architecture of the Goths, hut the ecclesiastical style employed in England and France before Renaissance? “ Irish stew is a? dish unknown in Ireland. • , \ ’ "CL.-- V The iron mask was of .yplyet. Jerusalem artichoke has connection with. Jerusalem, but with the* sun- ■ ' j flower giraSdle, ivhich it resembleiis. * Kid gloves are not made of-kid. NO LEAVES IN VALLOMBROSA. Meerschaum js' not petrified “seafoani,” as the woyd implies, but a. composition cf silica, magnesia; and jvater. Rompey’s Pillar,, in Alexandria, was neither by nor to Pompey. It was set. up by rlie Emperor Diocietian. according to its inscription. Prussian blue does not come from Prussia.

Shuttle, to open a hole in a ship, means i-eally fo bolt or bar. Sealing wax does not contain a particle of waxfur keys do not copie from Turkev, nor is it exported from Turkey. Milton says in “Paradise Lost”: “Tliicjc as autiinih loaves that strew the brooks 'in yoHpmbfdsa.” . But the treqs of V qllpmbmsa, being pines, do not shed quickly in autumn, and the brooks are not strewed with! their leaves. :••*'• ' '

\YhaJebqne is no hone at all. It is a snbstaiice attached to the upper ja.w of thfi whale, and serves to strain the jviiter lyhich the creature takes nnj in large mouthfuls.