Laura Dean Bennett
Staff Writer
Imagine Early American colonists sitting in on a 21st century conversation.
A lot of our modern lingo would undoubtedly be Greek to them – but not all of it. After all, we still use many expressions which would have been heard in the colony of Virginia in the 18th century.
Some come from venerable English literature.
Many of us have remarked, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” The self-explanatory phrase was first published in The Book of Husbandry, in 1534 by John Fitzherbert.
Shakespeare’s plays gave us “mum’s the word,” “break the ice,” “faint-hearted,” “wild goose chase,” “in a pickle,” “the world is my oyster,” “heart of gold,” “good riddance” and many others.
In Othello, he was first to refer to jealousy as a “green eyed monster”.
Lots more of our common expressions from the Middle Ages were included in the works of Chaucer, like “pig in a poke.”
This term referred to the habit of unscrupulous merchants substituting an animal of lesser value and selling it, unseen, in a sack or “poke.”
“Piping hot,” first appeared in The Canterbury Tales in 1392. It was a descriptive phrase referring to food so hot that it comes off of the hearth making a hissing or piping sound.
Also from The Canterbury Tales: “busy bee,” (someone as industrious as a honeybee), “strike while the iron is hot,” (as a blacksmith would strike hot iron to mold it) and “as dark as pitch” (pitch meaning tar) – this gives us our modern expression, “pitch dark.”
Early English and colonial “publick” houses provided much terminology still in use in the vernacular.
“Pub” was abbreviation for “publick house” – which was a tavern, inn or a coach stop where travelers could find food, drink and accommodations.
Public houses served ale and cider in half pints, pints and quarts and both innkeepers and customers were wise to keep a good count of consumption.
Patrons often drank from ceramic mugs made with a whistle baked into the rim or the handle.
Come time for a refill, they used the whistle to call for service. Hence, the expression, “wet your whistle” which now means, “have a drink.”
Some expressions came from the Bible, like “man after my own heart,” which is from Samuel 13:14, where it says that the Lord “sought Him a man after His own heart.”
There are dozens and dozens of words and expressions which “hail from” England’s nautical history.
Until the 1800s, when Morse Code was invented, seafaring vessels communicated by “hailing” one anther using a loud voice or flag signals.
During the Battle of Copenhagen, when his ship was hailed by his superior, England’s naval hero, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson “turned a blind eye” to his orders. He purposely put his telescope up to his blind eye, so he couldn’t see the signal instructing him not to attack.
He did attack, by the way, and was victorious. And the English populace began using the expression.
Sailing ship lingo gave us lots of colorful expressions.
“Going to the head” comes from the fact that the “head” was the designated place for a ship’s crew to relieve themselves. It was located all the way forward, on either side of the bowsprit, to which the figurehead was attached.
Sailing ships also gave us “learning the ropes,” “down in the doldrums” and “as the crow flies:”
“Learning the ropes” refers to sailors having to learn the names and purpose of the many ropes on the ship.
Being caught “down in the doldrums” could do more than cause sailors to be depressed.
The Doldrums lie along the equator in the Atlantic Ocean (now known as the Intertropical Front) where the winds could die down completely, stranding ships for weeks on end – often with fatal consequences.
Before modern navigational equipment, sailing ships carried crows. Helmsmen would set course “as the crow flies” because, when released, the ship’s crow would invariably fly towards land.
When the crew was called to assemble in a straight line, they would “toe the line” by putting their toes on the seam of the deck.
Like office workers gathering at the water fountain to exchange the latest gossip, sailors gathered around the ship’s drinking water – in a barrel called “the scuttlebutt.”
Stories of bloodthirsty pirates swinging from their ship’s rigging with knives clenched in their teeth inspired the 17th century expression, “armed to the teeth.”
It’s not hard to guess the original meaning of old hunting terms like “loaded for bear,” “barking up the wrong tree, “in the bag,” “hounded to death,” “sitting duck” and “give it your best shot.”
They mean the same thing today as they did three hundred years ago.
The wearing of wigs by both men and women in Europe and England seeded wig-related terms into the English language. After a successful two hundred year run during the 17th and 18th centuries, wigs fell out of favor.
But the expressions they gave our language had taken root and are still in use today.
We now know “powder room” as a polite substitution for the word, restroom. But originally, it referred to a small room where wigs were kept, dressed and powdered.
More than 500 years before Lucy van Pelt began calling Charlie Brown a blockhead in the Peanuts comic strip, English speaking people were using the term, with exactly the same meaning.
The wooden head-shaped blocks used to hold wigs became the foundation for “blockhead.” It was a popular English insult – a term meaning “idiot” – someone so stupid that their head might as well be made of wood.
“Bigwig” means exactly the same thing now as it did in the 1700s. It’s an impertinent slang name for a person of importance or authority.
These days, “being caught red-handed” still refers to proof of guilt – although not necessarily of a capital crime. It’s easy to understand its evolution from its origin in Scotland when it referred to capturing a poacher or a murderer.
Colonists soon learned many Native American customs when they arrived on the North American continent. They began using the term “bury the hatchet” to describe the ending of hostilities as a reflection of the Native custom of burying weapons to seal a peace treaty.
In modern America, we still use the euphemism to indicate making up after a fight.
“Down in the dumps” is a commonplace expression used in exactly the same way today as it was in the 1500s. It is thought to come from the Dutch word “domp” (meaning mental haze or dullness) or the German word “dumpf” (meaning heavy, oppressive or gloomy).
In Elizabethan England, “dumps” were slow, mournful songs and dances and Shakespeare used the expression “in the dumps” to mean “in low spirits.”
When smallpox was running rampant in the 1700s, it was common for aristocratic ladies and gentlemen to use wax to fill the pock marks. When sitting too close to the hearth, the wax might melt but it was an awkward proposition to tell someone that their makeup was melting… hence, “mind your own beeswax,” meaning “keep it to yourself.”
Both “saving face” or “losing face” came from exactly the same era and the same circumstances. Melting makeup made for potential embarrassment.
The art of dying cloth gave us two expression which has been with us since the 1600s.
A woolen garment which was dyed before the wool was spun into yarn, would be unlikely to fade or discolor. The saying, “dyed in the wool,” began to refer to opinions or allegiances formed early in life, and highly unlikely to change.
In the 17th century, Coventry, England, became famous for the beautiful blue cloth made by its skilled artisans who developed a blue dye that was color fast. Its color remained “true.” The expression, “true blue” captured the English imagination. Soon a person who remained true to their principles could be described as “true blue.”
The expression “given the third degree” originated with the practices of the Freemasons, a charitable organization formed in the 18th century with roots in the Medieval stonemason guilds. Applicant had to undergo three difficult tests to become a full-fledged member. Interrogation for the third degree was the final and most rigorous, hence, to be “given the third degree” in common parlance came to mean to undergo a rigorous interrogation.
“In the nick of time” refers to money lenders who for hundreds of years, even until the 18th century, kept track of loans and when they came due by carving notches (nicks) on a “tally stick.” If a debtor arrived just before the next nick was carved, he could save the next increment of interest.
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“Black ball” means to reject someone from membership to a certain social circle, or private club. It refers to the practice of exclusive 18th century men’s clubs deciding membership by secret ballot.
In one famous method, the vote to accept or reject a new member was taken by each member casting their vote by putting either a red or a black ball in a box. A red ball was a vote to accept, a black ball was a vote to reject the applicant. It only took one black ball to reject a new member.
“Get off your high horse,” meaning to stop being so arrogant, is an old expression harkening back to Medieval England when knights and the nobility rode heavy charges in tournaments and in battle and a person’s rank indicated what size horse he rode.
In the 14th century John Wyclif (English philosopher, writer and religious scholar), recorded a pageant in which cardinals and important persons rode on “high horses.”
In 2025, we still say “when pigs fly,” sarcastically referencing something that is a huge improbability. It started out as an old Scottish proverb a century ago.
A phrase much like it, “that is as likely as to see an hog fly” was included in a book of “common wisdom” called Gnomologia, published in 1732 by Thomas Fuller. Some historians believe that book inspired Benjamin Franklin to write Poor Richard’s Almanack.
