Transcript of AE 1338 - The Goss: 10 English Idioms & Their Strange Origins

G'day, you mob! Pete here. And this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So today I have a Goss episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news whether locally Down Under here in Australia or non locally overseas in other parts of the world, okay. And we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind, right. If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss.

So these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English. So it is particularly good to improve your listening skills.

In order to complement that, though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership or the Academy membership at AussieEnglish.com.au, where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads, and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time, okay.

So if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time. Keep practising and that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode guys. Smack the bird and let's get into it.

Dad.

Pete.

So I have asked ChatGPT here to give me a list of expressions with very strange origins.

Ah, all right.

And so..

Not necessarily Australian or..?

English expressions. I think we'll go through them, but I thought I could either quiz you and see if you know where they come from.

.. For you, too.

Yeah, you pick your favourites.

Go on. So number one here is "let the cat out of the bag". You'll know the definition of pretty much all of these, if not all of them. But do you so well, first, do you want to define it? How would you use "let the cat out of the bag"?

Um, it's exposing a secret.

Yeah. So what's an example? When, when does someone "let the cat out of the bag"?

We've hidden the Christmas presents from the kids, and then one of them finds them and tells the other kids. They've "let the cat out of the bag".

Exactly. Where do you reckon this origin comes from?

I dunno.

The phrase is believed to come from medieval markets, where dishonest vendors would sell piglets in a bag but secretly swap them for a less valuable cat. If someone opened the bag, the scam was revealed.

All right..

And so..

They let the cats out instead of pigs.

They had "let the cat out of the bag", yeah.

I've seen. I've seen pigs in bags. Um, in markets.

Pigs in a blanket?

Yeah. Markets in South America where they have the, you know, all the piglets are in a sort of enclosure in the market and people will walk over. I'll have that one and they pick it up by the hind legs, throw it in a sack and hand it to the person. So they're carrying a pig in a bag around.

Yeah. And probably keeps it calm.

Squealing and carrying on. But yeah.

All right. Number two. "Mad as a hatter".

Well, that's an easy one. Um, because that's, uh, back in the old days.

What does it mean? What does it mean?

It means people are insane. But it's, it's an expression that was, uh, that is used to describe somebody who was just silly.

Or crazy. Yeah. Literally crazy.

Literally crazy. But it comes from people who- hatters. People who made hats, used mercury salts to treat the felt that they were making their hats out of. And one of the problems of mercury poisoning is that it affects the nervous system. And you go loopy!

You go crazy!

Hatters used to be known for being silly.

And this is the, I think that culturally, we would learn about 'the mad hatter' is from?

Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland is where we learn about it, because he's the crazy dude who lives down that little hole in the ground, right? Or whatever that she goes into and..

When she disappears into.

And he's got the Cheshire Cat. And it's so funny when you think about Alice in Wonderland, that type of story that was written, I imagine, in the 1800s. And you're like.

Yeah.

This was before hallucinogenic drugs.

Well before people, before people admitted to hallucinogenic drugs.

Yeah. But it's like this is before..

I mean, mushrooms and stuff natural to have. Yeah. Not, you know, cannabis is not hallucinogenic, but, you know, there's plenty of natural plant products that are hallucinogenic that people have known about for thousands of years, but.

Cannabis is a funny one. It's sort of like it doesn't make you visually hallucinate, but it definitely does. Or audio wise, like you, you think you hear things or someone will say something to you.

Accentuates things.

Yeah, yeah. So it definitely. Not that I would know, but no.

Allegedly.

So yeah. The ori- this originates from the 18th and 19th century, uh, hat makers who suffered mercury poisoning due to the chemicals used in hat production, causing symptoms like trembling and hallucinations. So there you go. Dad nailed it. One for two, one for two. "To butter someone up". Number three. "To butter someone up".

Um.

What does this mean?

It means you're, uh, complimenting them to get something out of them, usually.

So, what's an example? Can you give me a situational example of where you would "butter someone up"?

Yeah, I don't know.

Like.

Like.

You and mum. When would you "butter mum up"?

I'm not going to go there. Um, it's usually when you want something. Oh, you've been really good. Yeah. You're really good at cooking cakes, you know?

You buttered her up. Yeah. What do you want?

Can you cook a cake?

What do you want? All right. This phrase comes from an ancient Indian religious practice where people threw butter at statues of gods to seek favour.

There you go.

I would never have guessed.

Uh, no, no, no, not not being not being, uh.

Hold on.

Terribly.

Hold on. Now say it.

Not being terribly ofei with my, um, Hindu religious practice.

Yeah. I would never have guessed that. I had no idea. Again, ChatGPT may hallucinate things of its own, but quite often it's pretty accurate. So that's crazy. All right, so you're one for three. Number four, "to give someone the cold shoulder".

It's to ignore them.

Yeah.

Literally turning away from them.

Usually when you're upset, right.

Yeah.

They've done something and you're like, Oh no. Fuck that guy.

..The cold shoulder. And turning away.

So where does this come from?

Oh no, I got, I can, I can hypothesise but I wouldn't, I don't know.

Take a guess. Make something up.

No, make something up. No. Go on. What?

Have you. Have you got like, you know, the shoulder of a beef shoulder or something in a butcheries. And you're just like, You can have the cold one. I don't like that guy. I'll give him a cold one.

It's more exposing your back to somebody, I think.

Oh. All right. In medieval England, hosts would serve an unwelcome guest, a cold shoulder of mutton as a subtle hint that it was time for them to leave.

Time to leave.

So, "to give someone the cold shoulder". So there you go. It is related to shoulder. The shoulder of meat.

As a completely, um, irrelevant aside. Do you know one of your ancestors is allegedly responsible? And I know there are other people who claim this as well. Allegedly responsible for naming the cut of meat the 'sirloin'?

Why is that?

Um, when, uh, the King James the first of England and James the sixth of Scotland, same person was visiting this house, and the King did this a few times in his life, went around visiting all his aristocratic followers. Um, and uh, had they had the big dinner and they brought out the cut of beef and he enjoyed it so much that he knighted it 'sirloin'.

Um, what? Is it actually spelt, sir, as..

S I R L O I N is the name of the cut. And that, that myth has gone around that other people have done it, and I suspect a lot of royal families or aristocratic, but that is alleged to have happened at this dinner and, uh, you know, back in the 17th century.

Oh my gosh.

You know..

Sir Loin?!

15 times great grandfather, yeah.

Number five, "raining cats and dogs". You all know this one, I think, um, you know, I know.

"Raining cats and dogs". It means it is raining, a lot.

Yeah.

Uh, but..

That's an example.

Um, well, the Australian version of that would be. "It's pissing down".

Yeah, exactly.

Bucketing down.

Bucketing down. Yeah.

That's it. So you go outside and it's raining so heavily. You're just like it's "raining cats and dogs".

Yeah.

So, do you know the origin? This one's actually a really cool one. At least there's a theory.

Yeah. Don't know.

Um, one theory suggests that during heavy rains in the 17th century, animals hiding in thatched roofs would fall out.

All right.

Making it seem like they had fallen from the sky.

I would suggest it would be rats rather than cats and dogs. I can't imagine too many dogs would be hiding in the thatched roof.

The other one that I know of that's similar to this is the same period. And it's due to heavy rain. Um, you would have dead animals flowing down the street. So any dead cats or dogs in the street? If there was loads of rain, they would just sort of flow down the street into the, um, into the with the effluent and all the other stuff.

In the assumption that they've fallen from the sky.

Yeah, exactly.

The fall killed them! Yeah.

So, yeah. You've only got one dud out of five.

I know.

Come on, you can get another one before you finish up.

You got to give me an easy one.

All right. Six. "To pull someone's leg".

Uh, it means playing a joke on them.

Can you give me an example?

Um. Pete, do you see that elephant over there? No. What elephant? Ah, just "pulling your leg"!

Yeah. Okay. Where's this one from?

No.

No. No, no. No ideas? No guesses?

No.

Originally, this phrase referred to thieves in the 18th century London. In 18th century London, who would trip victims by hooking their legs before robbing them.

Oh, there you go.

So, yeah, they obviously tripped them over and then robbed them.

Playing a trick on them to rob them.

"Pulling their legs". All right. Uh, number seven. "To bite the bullet".

Uh, "to bite the bullet" just means to just suck it up and do it. Go for it.

Example?

Um, I've just got to get in there into the cold water and go for a swim. Just "bite the bullet" and do it.

Yeah. Just do it.

Yeah.

Where did this one come from?

I don't know if where "bite the bullet" comes from. I mean, biting down on something to, you know, deal with pain.

Yeah, it's related to that.

Typical leather strap or something. Yeah.

Yeah, it's pretty close!

That to deal with pain so that you don't, you know, bite your tongue or whatever.

Ruin your teeth.

Yeah.

Before anaesthesia, soldiers undergoing surgery were given a bullet to bite on, to endure the pain, I imagine to the bullet would have been lead. So it was probably soft-ish for your teeth. It wouldn't have been hard hard?

Hard. Yeah. It used. I mean, I used to give him a leather strap and stuff to bite on.

Yeah, I can imagine that period of time where you had to do all that surgery..

Amputate your leg without anaesthetic.

Yeah, it's all right. It'll only be 30s.

Yeah.

Jesus. All right, number eight. "Saved by the bell".

It means, um, something was over before you got damaged or some bad thing happened to you. And typically, that's in a boxing match where the end of the round, the bell rings before you get knocked out.

Yeah. Yeah, it's linked to it based on the definition. It's partly like it's also linked to boxing where round ending bell saves a struggling fighter.

Yeah.

But it says this may come from the fear of premature burial in the 18th and 19th century.

Oh yeah, they used to put bells in.

When safety coffins were designed with bells to, to signal if someone had been buried alive.

Mhm.

Fuck that.

Although by the time you're buried, it's a bit late.

Yeah.

You have to wake up before you go in the ground.

Yeah. You wonder how much of an issue was this for you to have to design a coffin.

How many people got buried alive that you knew? Eh? How do you ever know?

Well, they dug them up, Dad!

I think it was that..

They dug them up back then to get the bones, to sell the bones to the doctors and everything. That was the whole grave robber thing, right. From from, um, you know, 18th and 19th century England. They were digging up all the bones,

Digging up bodies.

And so you would find someone who obviously had, you know, scratched the, um, inside of the coffin or, you know, there'd be evidence in there, you would imagine. But, yeah, Great. That's morbid.

I know.

You gotta imagine that there's been a mistake. All right, number nine, "steal someone's thunder".

It's to tell a story or let out the truth before somebody has the opportunity of saying it themselves.

Yeah, I guess it's like someone's trying to do something or achieve something, and you take it from them.

Yeah, or you're telling a joke and I give the punchline.

Yeah. God damn it, Dad, every time.

Every time.

Damn it!

Yeah.

We got three out of nine.

Where do you reckon this one's from?

Um, no. Well, "stealing your thunder". I don't know. Well, "stealing your thunder" would be introducing a storm before the. You know, you see the lightning and you go. There's a storm coming before you actually hear the thunder. That's the scientific explanation of it.

Yeah. A playwright named John Dennis invented a technique for simulating thunder in 1709. When others copied his idea after rejecting his play, he claimed he exclaimed that they had "stolen his thunder".

Ah, that's a good one.

Yeah. So there you go. I reckon I wonder if that was the, um.

The wobbling..

The wobbling metal sheet or whatever to make it sound like it. All right, so you're three for nine so far.

Well, that one I didn't get two for eight. Two for nine. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Ten. "To kick the bucket".

To die.

Yep. So, He "kicked the bucket". I wonder if this. I haven't looked at the thing yet. I wonder if this is related to, like, hanging and using a bucket to stand on the bucket to be hanged, and then you literally kick it out from under someone's feet to kill them.

Yeah.

All right. One theory suggests that it comes from slaughterhouses, where animals were hung from a wooden beam in brackets. A bucket, so the wooden beam is called a bucket before being killed.

No?! That's ridiculous.

Maybe that's wrong.

Now, how do you kick a wooden beam that's above you?

No you don't. Yeah, well, I don't know. Maybe they're kicking it. They're kicking up, I don't know.

I don't know.

Another suggests it refers to suicide by standing on a bucket and kicking it away.

That one makes sense.

Yeah.

Which is what we said. So.

Maybe that's, maybe that's what..

Of course it makes sense because it agrees with mine.

Yeah,

Yeah.

Three out of ten. Didn't do very well there.

Three out of 10 or 2 out of 10?

No, we got that one. We got the "kick the bucket".

Yeah. All right. Yeah. So hopefully you guys enjoyed that episode. You'll have to let us know if you want us to do more of these sorts of things.

Yeah.

They're fun. There's definitely loads of expressions that just have really weird origins and meanings.

Hang out for the next one. We will talk about some Australian expressions.

Yeah, we'll do some slang.

Which don't necessarily have origins, they just are silly.

Well, the origins are just garbage. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. See you guys.

Bye!