MEANING: someone who is hypocritical, or shares one view with one person then a conflicting view with another
IN CONTEXT: Sue is so two-faced. She’s nice to me one minute, then criticizes me behind my back the next.
Two-faced has its origins in Roman mythology. Janus was the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, and consequently gates, doors, and passages. He was responsible for the gates of Heaven and was depicted as having two faces, one at the front of his head and one at the back. This gave him the ability to look to the future and into the past and to see both directions at once. The legend of Janus led Romans to believe that anyone who held opposing views simultaneously was also two-faced.
MEANING: said if someone is in a bad mood
IN CONTEXT: Roger was so grumpy this morning. He must have got out of the wrong side of the bed.
Getting out of the wrong side of the bed is an expression that began in ancient Rome. Like in the saying “set off on the wrong foot,” (page 90) the Romans believed that the left side of anything, including the bed, was evil. They had a very real superstition that nefarious spirits lay on the left-hand side of the bed during the night. If someone was to get out of bed on that side, they would be forced to pass through those spirits, whose sinister ways would influence the person during the day, affecting their judgment and putting them in a bad mood. This negative influence would continue until the next morning, when the person got out of bed on the right.
MEANING: a complete and unexpected surprise
IN CONTEXT: I hadn’t heard from her for years, then out of the blue she sent me an e-mail asking to meet up.
Out of the blue is a variation of the expression a bolt from the blue. The ancient Romans called a flash of lightning on a clear day a “thunderbolt from the blue.” The blue in the phrase related to the blue of the sky. Lightning on a sunny day was obviously very rare, and the Romans began to use the saying to refer to any sudden surprise. It was first used in writing by Thomas Carlyle in his historical 1837 book The French Revolution, when he wrote, “Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the blue, has hit strange victims.”
MEANING: to be very jealous; envious
IN CONTEXT: All my friends were green with envy when they saw my new car.
Green with envy began in ancient Greece. The Greeks believed that various illnesses and restless emotions, such as jealousy, were accompanied by an overproduction of bile, which lent a pallid green color to a person’s complexion. In the 7th century, the Greek poet Sappho described a stricken lover as being green. But it was Shakespeare who popularized the expression in his 1603 play Othello, when he wrote, “Beware my lord of jealously. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
MEANING: a weakness or vulnerability
IN CONTEXT: He was always so disciplined, except where alcohol was involved—that was his Achilles’ heel.
Achilles’ heel has its origins in an ancient Greek legend. Achilles was dipped into the river Styx by his mother Thetis in order to give him a skin of armor and make him invulnerable. But she held him by the heel, which did not get covered by water and thus remained a weak point. Achilles became a formidable warrior, but his arch enemy, Paris, discovered his weakness and killed him by shooting an arrow through Achilles’ heel. This story was recounted by Homer in The Iliad in the 8th century BC, although it wasn’t until the early 19th century that the phase came to mean what it does today.
MEANING: to speak bluntly and describe something as it is
IN CONTEXT: I hated my friend’s new book, so I decided to call a spade a spade and tell him up front.
Call a spade a spade originated with the ancient Greeks. The expression began with the comic playwright Menander when he wrote, “I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.” Some time later, the philosopher Plutarch wrote that the Macedonians were “a rude and clownish people who call a spade a spade.” The phrase didn’t enter the English language until 1542, when Nicholas Udall, the English playwright, translated part of the Apophthegmatum opus by Erasmus. The Greek word for “bowl” is similar to that of “spade,” and it is now thought that the phrase may have been mistranslated and should actually be “call a bowl a bowl.”
MEANING: to agree with the majority or do what the majority is doing
IN CONTEXT: I really didn’t want to go to the nightclub but everyone else did, so I decided to go with the flow.
Despite popular belief, go with the flow did not begin in America during the free-spirited days of the late 1960s. Its origins lie in ancient Rome with the 2nd century emperor Marcus Aurelius. His reign was marked by much bloodshed—he defeated the Parthian Empire and won the Marcomannic Wars. But it was his intellectual thought and philosophical writings that defined him. His tome Meditations, which was written while expanding the Empire, describes how to find peace amid conflict by following nature as a source of inspiration and guidance. He likened time to a river of passing events that cannot be stopped, and suggested it was better to go with the flow than to fight against a strong current.
MEANING: divulge a secret or confess
IN CONTEXT: The witness was questioned extensively, and in the end he spilled the beans and told the court everything.
Spill the beans has its origins in ancient Greece. When an election was conducted for a new member to enter a secret society or private club, the existing members would vote. The members were given white and brown beans, and each member could only place one in a jar to cast his vote. A white bean meant “yes,” and a brown bean meant “no.” Nobody apart from the vote counters knew how many of each bean was in each jar, so the new member would never know just how popular or unpopular he was—unless, of course, the jar was knocked over. In that case, the beans would spill, and the votes would be divulged.
MEANING: a period of notable success or good fortune
IN CONTEXT: Ryan had scored five touchdowns in his last three games; he was in a real purple patch.
Purple patch is an expression that stems from ancient Rome. At the height of the Roman Empire, purple (known as Tyrian or imperial purple) was a revered color and was reserved for emperors and other distinguished statesmen. This is because the purple dye was greatly prized and rare; it was obtained from the mucous secretions of predatory sea snails found in the Mediterranean Sea and it did not easily fade, but became brighter with weathering and sunlight. The Roman noblemen wore purple togas, and because they were considered exceptional people to whom all was provided, purple patch later became associated with success. During the 18th century it was often used in relation to overly florid literature, but by the 20th century it was applied to mean a period of good fortune.
MEANING: unable to understand something; something doesn’t make any sense
IN CONTEXT: Darren studied the math text for hours but he couldn’t make any sense of it. It was all Greek to him.
It’s all Greek to me originates from the medieval Latin proverb “Graecum est, non potest legi,” which means “It is Greek, it cannot be read.” The phrase was used by monk scribes at the time as they copied manuscripts in monastic libraries. Knowledge of the Greek language was dwindling and very few people could properly read it. The expression is yet another one that was brought into widespread usage by Shakespeare. His 1599 play Julius Caesar contains the line, “But, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.”
MEANING: one is being spoken about by people elsewhere
IN CONTEXT: When I walked into the room, Julia said, “Your ears must have been burning; we were just talking about you.”
Often said as a person’s ears are burning, this idiom originated with the ancient Romans. The Romans were very superstitious, and believed that different feelings in the body were signs of current or future events. It was said that a tingling, ringing, or burning feeling in the ears meant that the person was being talked about. The philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in his book Naturalis Historia in AD 77, “It is acknowledged that the absent feel a presentiment of remarks about themselves by the ringing of their ears.” The Romans also believed that everything on the left signified evil and the right signified good. It was held that if the left ear was burning, the speakers had malicious intent, and if the right ear was burning, the person was being praised.
MEANING: an invaluable or indispensable assistant; second in command
IN CONTEXT: I’ll give the job to Pete. He’s my right-hand man.
Right-hand man has its origins in ancient Rome and Greece. In those times, leaders were often under threat of attack or assassination. Most people were right-handed, and so carried their swords on the right. It was from the right that an enemy could disable a man by grabbing his right arm (his sword arm), leaving him vulnerable to attack. With a trusted ally sitting on his right, the leader would be protected. The right-hand man was also in a position to disable the leader, so placing the man there was a great gesture of trust.
MEANING: to be satisfied with one’s past performance so as to think any future effort is unnecessary
IN CONTEXT: Stuart got straight As last year, so he thinks he doesn’t have to study at all. He’s really resting on his laurels.
To rest on one’s laurels harks back to ancient Greece. Apollo, the famous Greek god, was usually depicted with a crown of laurel leaves around his head. A wreath of laurels became a symbol of status and achievement, and these wreaths were presented to winning athletes at the Pythian Games, which were held every four years from the 6th century BC. The Romans then embraced the laurel as a status symbol and would present wreaths to victorious generals. Those who were presented with such wreaths became known as “laureates,” a term that is used to this day. Because they were then so respected, laureates were able to bask in the glory of their achievements and rest on their laurels. It was only later that the phrase developed negative connotations.
MEANING: to mold something or someone to suit a situation
IN CONTEXT: The fight was only four weeks away and the boxer was unfit, so his coach had to lick him into shape.
To lick it into shape derives from the ancient Roman belief that animals were born formless and their mothers had to lick them into the required shape. This idea probably arose because all mammals are born covered with thick afterbirth, which can make them unrecognizable. The mother then licks that off and the properly formed animal “appears.” Bear cubs, in particular, are born in a seemingly shapeless form and receive a lot of attention from their mothers, so this would have also lent weight to the Romans’ belief.
MEANING: a feeling of hoarseness; a lump in one’s throat, especially through fear
IN CONTEXT: I always get a frog in my throat when I’m about to do a speech.
To have a frog in your throat began in ancient times. Many years ago, clean drinking water was not readily available and people drank water gathered from ponds or streams. A superstition (and in some cases a genuine fear) arose, that accidentally swallowing the eggs of a frog would lead to tadpoles hatching in the stomach. A tadpole would then form into a frog, which would try to escape through the person’s mouth, producing a choking feeling as it did. The expression was being used figuratively in America by the mid-1800s.
MEANING: to fend off or keep at a distance
IN CONTEXT: I felt like I was about to get a cold but I took some extra vitamins, which seemed to keep it at bay.
Many believe that to keep something at bay derives from the idea of holding off baying hounds from a fox. However, this origin only dates back to the 1300s, while the phrase actually began with the ancient Romans and Greeks. They believed that the bay tree had protective powers because it never seemed to be struck by lightning. Because of this, people at the time would take shelter under the trees during storms. Soldiers also started wearing bay leaves on their heads as protection during thunderstorms. They believed the leaves would keep the lightning at bay and would also shield them from the enemy. The supposed power of the bay leaf spread, and during the Great Plague of London in 1665, many citizens wore bay leaves in an attempt to keep the disease at bay.
MEANING: an important or significant day
IN CONTEXT: Winning the trophy for the first time was a real red-letter day for our team.
Red-letter day originates in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, which began in 509 BC, important days were indicated in red on calendars. By the 15th century, medieval church calendars also had religious holidays, saints’ days, and festivals in red ink, while the other days were written in black. These days became known as red-letter days, and many calendars today still use the practice. In a number of countries, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and South Korea, a public holiday is called a “red day” for this reason.
MEANING: with a healthy dose of suspicion or caution
IN CONTEXT: Dianne has been known to stretch the truth at times. Take what she says with a pinch of salt.
Also said as a “grain” of salt, taken with a pinch of salt owes its origins to ancient Rome. The philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote the story of King Mithridates VI of Pontus in his book Naturalis Historia in AD 77. The King had built up his immunity to poison by regularly ingesting small doses of a poison recipe—two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue, all ground together. Addito salis grano, Pliny recounted, “add a grain of salt,” to make the mixture more palatable and easier to swallow. It is not known when the expression changed to mean what it does today.
MEANING: something is ready to fall apart or could change in an instant
IN CONTEXT: The President was facing a vote of no confidence, and his leadership was really hanging by a thread.
Hanging by a thread originated from a banquet held in 400 BC by Dionysius the Elder, the tyrant King of ancient Syracuse, for Damocles, one of his courtiers. King Dionysius had become annoyed with Damocles’ constant flattery and invited him to the banquet. A sword was hung by the ceiling, suspended by a single hair. Damocles was required to sit beneath it to remind him of his tenuous position in the court. Both the sword, and Damocles’ life, were hanging by a thread.
MEANING: to give acceptance or approval of something
IN CONTEXT: The film was excellent and we all gave it the thumbs up.
Used throughout the world as a gesture of approval, give the thumbs up dates back to the gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome. In the amphitheaters of Rome 2,000 years ago, a victorious gladiator would look to the emperor to determine whether to spare his opponent. If the crowd were shouting “mitte, mitte” (meaning “let him go free”) in appreciation of the loser’s fighting skills and bravery, the emperor would give a thumbs up gesture and the defeated man would be spared. But if the crowd shouted “lugula” and the emperor gave a thumbs down signal, he would be killed. The expression became widespread in 1872 with Pollice Verso, a painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, which depicts the “thumbs down” gesture at the end of a Colosseum battle.
MEANING: something is past the point of no return; an irrevocable choice has been made
IN CONTEXT: The senator’s speech about health-care reform meant there was no turning back on the issue. The die had been cast.
The die is cast is another expression that originated in ancient Greece and Rome. A die is one of a pair of playing dice, and to cast means to throw. The phrase actually began in around 300 BC with the Greek dramatist Menander. It was a proverb that was discovered in his play Arrhephoros, used in relation to a game of dice and meaning that once the die was cast, the players had no choice but to accept the outcome. The expression was made famous by Julius Caesar in 49 BC. “Let the die be cast,” he said as he led his army across the Rubicon River into Rome, committing them to a civil war.
MEANING: to make every possible effort
IN CONTEXT: The detective promised to leave no stone unturned in his hunt for the killer.
Arguably the oldest expression that we have, no stone unturned comes from ancient Greece. In 477 BC the Greeks, led by Polycrates, defeated the Persians in the Battle of Plataea. It was rumored at the time that Mardonius, the Persian general, had buried a large treasure in his tent after the defeat. Unable to find the treasure, Polycrates consulted the Oracle of Delphi, who advised him to “move every stone” in his search. Polycrates redoubled his efforts and found the treasure. The phrase was popularized when the Greek playwright Euripides wrote it as “leave no stone unturned.”
MEANING: to be ineffective or not deserving of one’s pay
IN CONTEXT: Mark’s a very lazy man and has no stamina. He’s really not worth his salt.
Not worth his salt derives from Roman times. Before the invention of canned goods and refrigeration, salt was a valuable commodity in the preservation of food. Roman soldiers received some of their wages as an allowance of salt. This was known as a “salarium”, which takes its root from sal, the Latin word for “salt”—our modern word “salary” actually derives from it. If a soldier did not perform well and was not up to scratch, it was said that he was not worth his salt.
MEANING: a hot afternoon that makes a person lazy
IN CONTEXT: It was a dog day afternoon, so we just lazed in the pool.
Dog day afternoon owes its origins to ancient Roman astronomy. The Romans called the days between July 3 and August 11 the Canicularis Dies, or Dog Days. This is when Sirius, the dog star, rises and sets in line with the sun in the northern hemisphere. These were usually the hottest days of the year, and the Romans believed that this was caused by the combined heat of the dog star and the sun.
MEANING: a coward or cowardly behavior
IN CONTEXT: The young boy ran away from the bully who accused him of being a lily livered coward.
Lily livered is yet another expression that we owe to the ancient Greeks. They believed that the liver was the organ that created blood, and that a poorly functioning liver resulted in physical and mental weakness. In line with this belief, they though that a pale, lily-colored complexion indicated a cowardly person, while rosy cheeks would be found on a strong man in good health. The Greeks also had the custom of sacrificing an animal before each battle. They looked to the animal’s liver as an omen—a liver full of blood was a good sign, but a pale liver did not augur well. Shakespeare brought the phrase to the mainstream when he used it in his 1606 play Macbeth.
MEANING: to put yourself in a position from which there is no return
IN CONTEXT: Luke left his job on good terms, as he didn’t want to burn his bridges.
Often used in the negative form with “don’t,” burn your bridges dates back to ancient Roman times. When Roman armies crossed a river to invade a new territory, the general in command would order the bridge they had crossed to be burned. This ensured the soldiers couldn’t have second thoughts and retreat. They were forced to fight for their lives. The territories being invaded sometimes used the same technique, burning their bridges as they retreated so that the Romans could not follow. They were even known to burn their own towns so the Romans had no shelter or food when they arrived.
MEANING: to make a bad start to a relationship or project
IN CONTEXT: We set off on the wrong foot and failed to get approval for the project.
Set off on the wrong foot dates back to ancient Rome. The Romans were very superstitious about anything on the left. They believed the left was evil and, in fact, the Latin word for left is sinister. Gaius Petronius was a Roman courtier and adviser to Emperor Nero in the 1st century, and he had a particular aversion to anything left-sided. Petronius made an order that no Roman should enter or leave a building by the left foot. He even had guards placed at the entrances to public buildings to ensure the order was adhered to. But not much enforcement was needed, as most Romans agreed that to go against the ruling was to flirt with disaster. They rarely set off on the wrong foot.
MEANING: to feel sorrow or longing; a good-humored taunt to someone
IN CONTEXT: “Eat your heart out, John,” said Robin. “You had your chance and now I’m seeing someone else.”
Eat your heart out originated in ancient Greece over 2,500 years ago. It stems from Greek mythology and the story of Bellerophon, the great slayer of monsters, who was depicted as eating his heart in grief when the gods Ares and Artemis killed his children. This was described by Homer in his classical text The Iliad. The Greeks believed the heart to be the emotional center of the body, which is the likely reason it would be eaten in times of sorrow. The Greek biographer Diogenes Laertius later credited Pythagoras with saying, “Do not eat your heart,” warning against wasting one’s life by worrying about something.
MEANING: it fits precisely; to be very appropriate
IN CONTEXT: Brad was a strong man, so the digging job fitted him to a T.
The expression fits to a T derives from medieval Latin. The “T” in the phrase stands for tittle, which comes from the Latin word titulus, meaning “tiny.” A tittle is a small stroke or point in writing or printing. Originally “fits to a tittle,” the expression was first used by the English theologian John Wycliffe in the 1300s to refer to the very minor differences in his version of the New Testament.
MEANING: to misunderstand a situation entirely
IN CONTEXT: John was seen walking along with Anita, but his girlfriend got the wrong end of the stick and thought he had been cheating.
The wrong end of the stick began with the toilet habits of ancient Rome. The Romans used communal toilets where people sat side by side and discussed the day’s events. Toilet paper was not yet invented, so to address personal hygiene issues, a cloth or sponge was tied to one end of a short staff, which was passed from person to person. It was important to pay close attention when picking up or being passed the implement, because nobody wanted to get the wrong end of the stick.
MEANING: to exaggerate something out of all proportion
IN CONTEXT: Anna dropped her burger and started crying hysterically. She always makes a mountain out of a molehill.
Mountain out of a molehill owes its origins to ancient Greece. The original expression was “make an elephant out of a fly,” which was an old Latin proverb used at the time. In 1548, Nicholas Udall, the English playwright, did a translation in his work Paraphrase of Erasmus, which included the line “The Sophistes of Greece could through their copiousness make an elephant of a fly and a mountain of a molehill.” Erasmus had included the “elephant of a fly” reference in his original work, but Udall added mountain out of a molehill, and the phrase has continued ever since.
MEANING: to know or memorize something perfectly
IN CONTEXT: I had studied so hard for the exam that I knew the material by heart.
By heart dates back to ancient Greece. In the 4th century BC, the great philosopher Aristotle believed that the heart was the intelligence center of the body. He held that the heart governed human emotions because of the fluttering that people experienced, and that it was also responsible for thinking and memory. If something was studied, it was committed to the heart. The word “record” actually comes from the Latin words re, meaning “again,” and cor, meaning “heart.” So if something was recorded in the memory, it was learned by heart.
MEANING: a situation whose outcome is unclear and can’t be influenced
IN CONTEXT: The doctors have done all they can, so whether he survives or not is in the lap of the gods.
Some say the expression lap of the gods began with the practice of leaving gifts of thanks with statues of gods. While this has occurred for centuries, the phrase derives from The Iliad, Homer’s text from the 8th century BC. In the story, Achilles battles the Trojans and kills Hector’s brother Polydorus. Hector sees this and challenges Achilles, brandishing a spear in his face. “I know you are brave and stronger than me by far,” says Hector to Achilles. “But these things lie in the lap of the gods. Though I’m the weaker man, I’ll take your life.” Achilles survives, and the Trojans are defeated.