PHRASES WE ALL USE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 641, 7 February 1914, Page 2

PHRASES WE ALL USE.

THE ORIGIN OF COMMON EXPRESSIONS. Many expressions which are usee metaphorically nowadays had a rsal meaning in the past. For instance, when we say, "I didn't want to meet the fellow, so I beat a retreat," we are using an expression which has entirely lost its sense but not its meaning. The phrase comes from the fact that in war time, when a retreat was ordered the drums were beaten in a peculiar manner, just as the same movement to the rear is to-day sounded by the bugle. How often do we say, "They carried h'im off bag and baggage," or at holiday time, "Well, I'm oft, bag and baggage," without the least idea as to its true meaning. Tag one can easily understand. But. what is baggage ? As a matter of fact we get nearer to the original meaning of the word when we say of some laughing, mischievous girl, that she is a sly little baggage, for the "bag" was originally a soldier's haversack and the baggage was his wife, and when an army marched "bag and baggage" it meant that they set out with all their accoutrements and all their camp followers. People are sometimes heard to say concerning someone whom they have deliberately snubbed, "I gave him the cold shoulder." Most people, not knowing its true origin would invent a meaning for this phrase, and would naturally imagine that it meant that one half-turned one's back and put on a cold, sullen and unfriendly expression. That sounds all right, but as a matter of fact it is all wrong. The phrase originated in France, where it was the custom to serve with cold shoulder of mutton instead of hot meat, the guest who had outstayed his welcome. It was a sort of gentle hint that he should clear out "bag and baggage." When people boast of something as a "feather in their cap," they look upon it as a perfectly natural phrase denoting pride and consequent decoration. Well, that interpretation is not far from the true one, but the original phrase was a very gruesome one. It originated in Hungary during the terrible time when the Turks over-ran all South-Eastern Europe, as far as the gates of Vienna. In those days a Turk represented the enemy, and was killed at sight whereever he was seen, and it was the custom for the Hungarians to put a feather in their cap for every Turk they k'illed. The greatest boast a Hungarian could make was in those days to say, "I have got another feather in my cap.' An expression which has been much used in political circles lately has been "whole hogger," and this in its turn comes from the phrase '"to go the whole hog." I thin's. most people connect this phrase with pigs, but it has no such connection. In fact its real meaning reminds one of the Scotsman who said "bang went saxpence," for "hog" is an Irish expression for a shilling, just as "bob" is the English equivalent for the same coin, and to "go the whole hog" means to spend the whole shilling, which represented quite a little fortune in Ireland in days not long ago. When we! say that some people would "try to prove that black was white" we are supposed to be giving expression to the greatest absurdity which the mind of man can conceive, yet this was one of the old catch phrases of the schoolmen, who were so fond of propounding puzzles. In! fact, the original meaning of black) was white, a meaning which is preserved in the very similar word bleach. The: Saxon word "blac," which only lacks a "k," meant pale or white, and so black needed no proof to be white, but actually was white. Similarly good might be proved to be bad, and hot to be cold, for bad is the old Gothic word bat, which meant good, and from which our word better comes ; whilst the old word "cald" means hot and not cold, although our word cold comes from it. Take such a common expression as don't let him throw dust in your eyes." It seems to carry its meaning on its surface. What else could it mean than don't allow him to blind you as to his true intentions ? Yet it means nothing of the kind. It arises from a Mohammedan practice of flinging dirt into the air for the sake of confounding the enemies of the Faith. It was not cnly a symbolical act, but was supposed to have a magical effect. For instance, the following incident is related : One day the Koerishit.es surro-nded the house of Mohammed, resolved to murder him. They peeped through the crevice of his chamber door, and saw him lying asleep. Just at Ihis moment his son-in-law. Ali. the door silently, and threw into the air a handful of dust. Immediately the conspirators are confounded. They mistook Ali for Mohammed and Mohammed for Ali, allowed the prophet to walk through their midst uninjured and laid hands on Ali. No sooner was Mohammed safe than their eyes were opened, and they saw their mistake. Who would ever dream that such a common expression had such a strange history behind it ?—• "Weekly Telegraph "