I'd better make a quick disclaimer on this one: sometimes there are many theories as to how a phrase came about. These 12 explanations are just some of the possible origins. We've been using some of these phrases for so long that we've lost the original meanings, so our explanation of them is based on the the best guesses of linguists and historians. Take the explanations with a grain of salt (haha).
1. "Not worth his salt." In Roman times, salt was a highly valued commodity used for trading. To say a soldier was not worth his salt was the same as saying he wasn't worth his salary; he was absolutely worthless. Photo from What's Cooking America.
2. "Pie in the sky" is actually only half of the phrase - the whole thing is "there'll be pie in the sky when you die," and it's a sarcastic remark that means heaven is a silly notion.
3. Money is sometimes called "dough" or "bread" because money is what puts the bread on the table. By that logic, the two are basically interchangeable.
4. "Egg on your face" may come from the times of Victorian live theater. While we're most familiar with the fall guy getting a pie in his face, Victorian theater had the embarrassed party getting raw eggs cracked over his head. However, another explanation suggests that people who eat eggs often get yolk all over their faces, which is embarrassing. Photo from DippingEgg.com.
5. "Won't amount to a hill of beans" (or the like) comes from the practice of planting bean seeds in clumps in a mound of soil (the hill). This is a very small hill indeed, so saying you won't amount to a hill of beans is pretty insulting.
6. "Apple of my eye" is thought to have originated from an old English idea that the pupil of the eye was solid, like an apple. So the "apple of my eye" is the pupil of my eye. I guess that sort of poetically means what catches my attention most.
7. "Cool as a cucumber" exists because the high water content of a cucumber keeps them pretty cold. Lettuce and celery both have high water contents as well, but I guess "cool as lettuce" doesn't have the same ring to it. Photo from FoodMomiac.
8. "Cream of the crop" is because if you have a pail of freshly-squeezed milk, the cream will rise to the top of the pail because of the high fat content. Since cream is so rich and delicious, it's considered the best - so if you're the cream of the crop, you're obviously the best!
9. "Top banana" and "Second banana" probably come from the same place. The term comes from the early 1900s vaudeville days, and may have come from comedian Frank Lebowitz, who used bananas in his act.
10. "The greatest thing since sliced bread" is pretty self-explanatory - how great is it to just pull out a couple of pieces of bread and not have to be bothered with getting out a knife and trying to cut even slices without hacking up the loaf? It's hard to believe, but pre-sliced bread actually wasn't really a practice until 1928 and wasn't marketed until 1930 by Wonder Bread.
11. "Cut the mustard" has always seemed pretty strange to me, but it actually makes sense: it means to be up to a challenge. And if you think about it, cutting mustard? Pretty difficult. Photo from English Shop.
12. "Dollars to doughnuts" means "most assuredly," which I explain because I'm not sure how common it is. I use it, but I don't know if it's weird midwest slang or what. An example would be, "Dollars to doughnuts, Heath Ledger is going to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar." Anyway, it comes from the fact that if you're willing to bet dollars to something that's essentially worthless (although Homer Simpson would probably argue with you), you must be pretty sure that you're right. Variations include dollars to buttons, cobwebs and dumplings.
Anyone willing to make that lopsided a bet would be very sure they were right.
And "to cut the mustard" meant something else (would involve the EPA nowdays).
Dollars to doughnuts is a pretty confident bet.
for what it's worth...
'Apple of my eye' comes from a time when apple was the word for 'fruit' (the apple in the garden of Eden was the same. There's a lot of old English references using the word apple as a general for fruit, in fact).
[A] It comes from the Industrial Workers of the World, the anarchist-syndicalist labour organisation formed in the US in 1905, often called the Wobblies. The Wobblies concentrated on organising migrant and casual workers; one of the ways in which they brought such disparate and fragmented groups together was by song. Every member got a little red book when he joined, containing parodies of popular songs or hymns (the book had a motto on the cover: “To Fan the Flames of Discontent”). One of the early ones, predating the IWW, was Hallelujah, I’m a Bum."
..."The song was a parody of the Salvation Army hymn In the Sweet Bye and Bye:
Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
CHORUS:
You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die. "
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pie1.htm
Otherwise, I love reading stuff like this. It's always cool to know where the things we say come from.
Lame!
Ah now that makes more sense than either the previously given explanation or the one that I had.
And the one I had been told was better than the given one...well to my mind at least.
Mustard was not sold in jars in the UK, it was sold as a powder that was mixed with water as and when it was needed. Coleman's English Mustard is ferociously hot.
SO I was told the phrase meant to Cut the Mustard was literally to cut it with cornflour to make a milder condiment.
So to "make a thing right" is to cut the mustard.
No doubt this is balderdash.
Nothing to do with the phrase 'to pass muster' it seems.
And ditto on the homework. I'm surprised it got enough thumbs up to make it through.
You do understand that a significant part of our English vocabulary comes from Latin, right?
And just to spell it out: That is the root word the modern English "salary" is based on.
this guy says it wasn't a phrase til the 19th century,
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/worth-ones-salt.html
and just to throw a kink in it all, I was of the impression it was meaning his equivalent in salt, or worth his weight in salt, as salt had a value, and your work efforts were tied to your comparative weight...
so, homework or not, this one is still not confirmed
This is not really a food phrase. The real phrase dates back to middle English and the English Navy.
Muster (not mustard) by definition means "representative specimen" - in the English Navy calling to muster was a reference for the drills and the time it took to get all hands on deck (for evacuation or battle). Making the muster cut means that you and your team were good/fast enough to pass the drill. Those who passed made the muster cut, those who failed had to re-drill and possibly got additional duties.
I heard that the guy who invented the automatic bread slicer used to say of other inventions, "That's the greatest thing since I invented sliced bread."
People have the right to complain if they don't like it. If you don't like that fact, get over it and move on to something else. Nobody's forcing you to read their comments.
I have to agree with the criticism of the facts. It looks as if this piece was cobbled together out of urban legends and wishful thinking. Neatorama readers have a reasonable expectation of reading something that is well-thought-out, researched, and checked for facts.
This passed on from there to a euphemism about all slaves to a euphemism about any person.
"More (money, women, troubles, etc) than Carter has liver pills." "Carter" was a company that made liver pills that it seemed at one time in American history everyone was taking for one ailment or another.
Her pants are "tighter than Dick's hatband." Hat bands on fedora hats commonly worn in the 30/40/50s were actually sewn to the hat so that would be pretty damned tight.
sneeze "Bless you" This came from the medievel(sp) belief that a sneeze was so traumatic that your heart stopped momentarily and thus released a part of your soul which needed to be blessed.
I used to work with a Cuban guy, and he said that Cubans said "greatest thing since toilet paper", because, which would you rather have, sliced bread or toilet paper?
See Deuteronomy 32:10. He found them in a desert land, and in a desolate, howling wasteland. He encompassed them and bestowed understanding upon them; He protected them as the apple of His eye.
Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings
Proverbs 7:2 Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye
Zechariah 2:8 For thus says the Lord of Hosts:'For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye
All long before the English stopped painting themselves blue ((grin)).
It seems that I will have to do my own research on Neatorama lists for now on...
So much for Stacy's suggestion that readers take the explanations with a grain of salt.