Purple prose

Purple prose - literary works written in a language that is overly extravagant and ornate.

As the chief editor of the blog enjoys his sabbatical, I decided to dedicate a post here on his style of writing ;DD

In ancient days, purple dye was the rarest and most expensive thereby making it the color of choice for the royalty. One reason why purple robes came to be associated with European royalty. It is known that during Roman Republic, social climbers used to sew a patch of royal fabric on an ordinary cloth for the pretension of wealth. Roman poet, Horace in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) used the phrase in allusion to ornate literary works.

Trivia:
Some of the examples of purple-prose that Wikipedia refers to are outrageously hilarious, to wit: "a somnambular accommodation" (a bedroom), "a nectarian beverage" (wine).

A sample of the recent contribution by the Chief himself:

"Thus was implanted a peeve towards European geo-political illiteracy. This post is a self gratiating attempt towards assuaging that peeve. Hark, self gratiating."

:)

Source: Wikipedia

Mad as a hatter

Mad as a hatter - Crazy, demented

Reminds you of Alice's companion in her wonderland? I used to think the expression was Lewis Carroll's gift to the language just as jabberwocky is. Turns out the phrase was popular well before Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" was published. "Mad hatter syndrome" was actually a medical affliction in Carroll's times.In the mid-1800s, hat makers used hot solutions of mercuric nitrate to shape wool felt hats and prolonged exposure to mercury vapors caused severe neurological damage ranging from uncontrollable muscular twitching (known as "hatter's shakes") to dementia. Hatters working in poorly ventilated workshops would breathe in (elemental) mercury vapor and in advanced cases, developed hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms.

Source: http://www.word-detective.com
Pic : www.rjohnwright.com

Beyond the pale

Beyond the pale - Unacceptable, Outside the bounds of morality, good behavior or judgment

Ironic (perhaps not), but I’m still to see a society which is not segregated, subtly or emphatically so. When will equal be equal enough, is anyone’s guess. George Orwell had a reason when he wrote,"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Brings me to the phrase that has its roots in the same grounds as Ghetto .

"Pale" here refers to the archaic sense of the word when it meant wooden strips that are set in series to form a fence. An area enclosed by them was also referred to as pale. So, to be 'beyond the pale' was to be outside the area that's marked as "territory" or "home". Catherine II created a 'Pale of Settlement' in Russia in 1791. This was a western border region of the country in which Jews were allowed to live. The motivation behind this was to restrict trade between Russian Jews and native Russians. Some Jews were allowed to live, as a concession, beyond the pale. More can be read here .

Pales were enforced in various other European countries for similar political reasons, notably in Ireland (the Pale of Dublin) : that part of the country over which England had direct jurisdiction.

The first printed reference comes from 1657 in John Harington's poem "The History of Polindor and Flostella"

Sources: http://www.phrases.org.uk/, www.answers.com

Pic: Map of "The Pale of Settlement" from http://www.friends-partners.org

(Don't) Make like a Tree

This one started off as an expression that pissed me off- which, if you do not exist solely on sheets of cellulose and/or silicon, is not a very wholesome thing to do. But I digress.

The expression really means 'to leave' and usually, pretty quickly. (I know! I felt cheated too. How can you make like a tree and do something that a tree never does: to wit, leave?) A bit of googling, done a long time ago (which is why I cannot remember my sources) revealed that the expression was the result of a (rather sorry, in my opinion) pun on the phenomenon of leaving in deciduous trees, whereby they shed their leaves in "fall" (which is called so because leaves fall off trees in that season).

Therefore, you can make like a tree and leave. Though I still think it is kind of insensitive, given that trees stay 'rooted' to one place all the time. Wait till Arundhati Roy figures that one out...

Sources: Google

Hoity-toity

This phrase made the rounds during my school days applied in particular to a fellow student who is now a well known Bollywood actress and supermodel. One of the girls discovered it in an old obscure book filled with such deliciously old fashioned terms and anybody with a slightly supercilious air would get tagged with it.

Hoity-toity means someone who is pompous,haughty or pretentiously self important. On a milder note it also means given to frivolity, silliness or riotousness. This being the original meaning of the term which later metamorphosed into what it is now.

The frivolousness/riotousness meaning was first recorded in Sir Roger L'Estrange's 1668 translation of The visions of Don Francisco de Quevedo Villegas:
"The Widows I observ'd ... Chanting and Jigging to every Tune they heard, and all upon the Hoyty-Toyty, like mad Wenches of Fifteen."

The later meaning isn't seen until around mid to late 18th century and is recorded in O'Keefe's Fontainebleau in 1784:
"My mother ... was a fine lady, all upon the hoity-toities, and so, good for nothing."

Hoity toity is a reduplicated phrase where one word carries an existing meaning and the other is present for emphasis. In this case the earlier meaning of the term came from the word hoit. This is a now defunct verb meaning to indulge in riotous, noisy mirth. That in turn was formed from hoyden - a boorish clown or rude boisterous girl. The change from one meaning to the other seems to be due to the pronunciation of hoity as heighty and the subsequent allusion to highness or haughtiness.


Dictionary Definitions:
There are intermediate definitions given for this term in two 18th century dictionaries

A new dictionary of the terms ancient and modern of the canting crew says:
"Hightetity, a Ramp or Rude Girl."

A classical of the vulgar tongue by Francis Grose says:
"Heighty toity, a hoydon, or romping girl."

Sources:http://www.phrases.org.uk/

The Full Monty

One of the most peculiar things about languages is that over a period of time their grammar and semantics become surrogate to public opinion. Hence, it doesn't matter what your English teacher thought about that composition you wrote way back in the sixth standard. Chances are, if she revisits it today, she might award you a few more marks than she did last time.

Now changes can be orthogonal, in that a word or phrase may come to mean something completely unrelated to its original meaning. "Presently" being a case in point. When I was a young kid, it used to mean, "soon", or if you were into Wodehouse, "anon". Now it seems, it is generally accepted to mean "at present" or "currently". Then there are some whose meanings do a volte-face and become their own antonym. Which brings us to the topic under discussion, "the full Monty".

Popular opinion, courtesy of a movie of the same name, interprets this phrase to mean completely uncovered, or naked, or without embellishment. Here's the story behind its origin:

The most often-repeated derivation is from the tailoring business of Sir Montague Burton. A complete three-piece suit, i.e. one with a waistcoat, for a wedding etc, would be the Full Monty. There is plausible hearsay evidence from staff who worked in Burton's shops who confirm that customers were familiar with the term and often asked for 'the full monty' by name.

So, the next time you get invited to a formal do, you might want to go the full monty, without fear of being arrested on grounds of indecent exposure ;-).

Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/ and my meandering experience.

Hobson's Choice

Hobson's Choice - An apparently free choice that actually offers no alternative or is no choice at all. In other words, the choice of taking what is offered or nothing at all.

How some people get immortalized by just being plain eccentric is proved by the origin of this phrase. Thomas Hobson (1544-1630) was the keeper of a livery stable who ran a thriving carrier and horse rental business in Cambridge, England and in order to rotate the use of his horses, allowed customers to take only the horse nearest the stable door. It's like, the horse nearest the stable door or none. Take it or leave it???

The first known written usage of this phrase is in Joseph Addison's paper "The Spectator" (1712) though it also appears in Thomas Ward's 1688 poem "England's Reformation", not published until after Ward's death (1708). Ward wrote,
"Where to elect there is but one,
'tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none."

Trivia: Henry Ford was said to have sold the Ford Model T with the famous Hobson's choice of "... any colour ... so long as it is black"

Sources: www.answers.com, http://www.phrases.org.uk/

Banana Republic

Banana Republic : A small country (especially in Central America) that is politically unstable and whose economy is dominated by foreign companies and depends on one export (such as bananas)

The perjorative term now used to describe a generally unstable or "backward" dictatorial regime, especially one where elections are often fraudulent and corruption is rife was coined by O. Henry (the American author of much loved short stories like "The gift of Magi", "The last leaf" and others) in reference to Honduras, a Central American nation. "Republic" in his time was often a euphemism for a dictatorship, while "banana" implied an easy reliance on basic agriculture and backwardness in the development of modern industrial technology.

Why bananas? Read on.....

Banana production first began in the Caribbean by smaller banana companies; until 1870 the bananas grown in the region were produced for local consumption. Once bananas hit the U.S. market they exploded in popularity and soon passed from being an exotic novelty to join apples, grapes, as the standard in U.S. fruit baskets. With the formation of the United Fruit Company by Keith Minor in 1900; banana growing was moved to Central America. United Fruit made several of these Central American nations into “banana republics”, countries that served as production platforms for the banana-exporting enterprise. The United Fruit Company became known throughout Latin America as “el pulpo” (the octopus) because of its far-reaching hand in economic power and political arrangements in its host country. The United fruit kept elected officials in their corporate pockets; they were able to acquire vast amounts of land and establish a banana monopoly.

Why Honduras? Read further.......

In Honduras the United Fruit company dominated the country's key banana export sector and support sectors such as railways. Sam Zemurray, a Russian by birth and later an American businessman (his parents emigrated to US when he was 14) entered the banana trade at the age of 18. By the age of 21, he had amassed considerable wealth but soon found himself in heavy debts. He left for Honduras when the country was working to reschedule its national debts. When US tax authorities did not help Zemurray, he smuggled the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Bonilla from US back to Honduras and a revolution was fought in 1910 that led to Bonilla's return to power. Bonilla granted Zemurray land concessions and low taxes that saved his business. Later, in 1933, Zemurray will take over United Fruit in a hostile bid .

Sources : http://www.answers.com/ , http://www.wikipedia.org/, http://dictionary.reference.com/

Steal my thunder

Steal my thunder: Using someone else' ideas or inventions to one's own advantage.

A few days back a very amusing thing happened. I did a post on 'Mark Twain' to honor the attention he was generating. A fellow team member got perturbed cause I had stolen her thunder. More on stealing thunder...

John Dennis, English critic and playwright, invented a new way of simulating the sound of thunder on stage and used the method in one of his plays, Appius and Virginia. Dennis "made" thunder by using "troughs of wood with stops in them" instead of the large mustard bowls usually employed. The thunder was a great success, but Dennis's play was a dismal failure. The manager at Drury Lane, where the play was performed, canceled its run after only a few performances. A short time later, Dennis returned to Drury Lane to see Shakespeare's Macbeth. As he sat in the pit, he was horrified to discover that his method of making thunder was being used. Jumping to his feet, Dennis screamed at the audience, "That's my thunder, by God! The villians will not play my play but they steal my thunder."

Source: www.phrases.co.uk, www.trivia-library.com

The Seven-year Itch

The inclination to become unfaithful after seven years of marriage.

Remember Marilyn Monroe's dress blowing in the wind over a subway grating? One of the most enduring images from Hollywood, the scene was from the movie, The seven-year itch. The expression was used to indicate the urge for infidelity after seven years of marriage. Though today it has gained wider acceptance in terms of its scope: it now refers to an urge to move on from any existing situation, and not even limited to those of seven years' period.

The original seven-year itch wasn't a condition that supposedly began after seven years, but one that supposedly lasted for seven years. Seven-year itch had been known in the USA since the early 19th century as the name of a particularly irritating and contagious skin complaint (don't ask me which one, coz despite thorough search I could not find the answer to that: it could be scabies or poison-ivy itch (very unlikely though) ) that led to highly irritating red pimples on the face and body.

The term was virtually forgotten after the cure for the complaint was found till the 1955 film revived it.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/ , http://www.phrases.org.uk/,

Update: (05/05/07) by 666

The follow-up research to Moi’s post was incredibly fascinating. I came across numerous citations (mentioned below) explaining some sort of link between ‘seven year itch’ and scabies.

The 'seven year itch' has its origins with a microbe known as Sarcoptes scabiei, more commonly called 'scabies.' The bug produces an itching skin irritation that before modern drugs lasted, on average seven years.
"Why seven years, not six or eight? Because seven years has a historical basis: In Genesis, Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream of 'seven years of great plenty' followed by 'seven years of famine.'." And so forth. – (1)

However, the medico’s have a slightly different version. Scabies is known as "The Seven Year Itch," because its incidence rises and falls as regularly as the tides, or the sunspots, turning up in abundance every seven years. – (2)

Read in detail about scabies here and here.

Sources
(1) - http://www.phrases.org.uk
(2) - http://www.ralphmag.org/DI/scabies1.html

Red-Letter Day

Red-Letter Day - a memorably happy or noteworthy day

It's a red letter day for Semantica. Memorable enough for our Chief to greet the readers with the monthly update :D

The expression, by the way, comes from Medieval church calendars in 1325 when saint's days, feasts, and other holy days, which came to be printed on church calendars in red. The term came into wider usage with the appearance in 1549 of the first Book of Common Prayer in which calendar showed special holy days in red ink.

Sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/
Pic : Google Images

ankle biter

-A small child. Also applied to small dogs.

I first came across this phrase in an episode of full house uttered by the extremely delectable john stamos in reference to his on screen neice. Decided to do a little research on this phrase and came up with this :

Though this phrase has a contemporary feel, it was first recorded in the mid-19th century.

Harper's Magazine, September 1850, had the sentence:
"And how are you, John? and how's Molly, and all the little ankle-biters?"

The phrase then seemed to have disappeared from sight for over 100 years. It isn't clear whether the Harper's citation was a one-off usage and the phrase originated later independently. It's possible that it stayed alive as un-recorded slang but, even if it did stay in the language from 1850 onward, printed citations appear to be in limbo until Iona and Peter Opie's The lore and language of schoolchildren, 1959:

"A chap who has got duck's disease is most often labelled 'Tich’ in a friendly manner, or '‘squirt’ or 'little squirt’ in a less friendly manner. Alternatively: ankle biter, dolly mixture [etc.]."

Its said to be of Australian origin in many phrase lists, due to the way it sounds despite not having any citations in print.

The term ankle biter also seems to have some relevance in the stock market. It means stock issues that have market capitalization less than 500 million also known as "small cap" stocks.

To quote verbatim from the website:

"These issues can appear to be more speculative than stocks with high market capitalization. However, smaller issues often have great growth potential and tend to outperform larger market capitalization stocks. Small cap stocks are often biting at the ankles of the larger cap stocks and will one day - through capitalization growth - move up into the larger market capitalizations, as a child grows into adulthood."

Sources: http://www.phrases.org.uk/ http://www.investopedia.com/

Picture: Google Images

Go Postal

Go postal - Fly into a violent rage, especially when provoked by workplace stress.

The gun-culture in United States might have not contributed to the well-being of the society in any way but it surely has given us a phrase not many would feel comfortable about. The recent hostage and killing drama at NASA reminded moi of the expression we came across in one of our Work Design and Productivity classes: "Go postal".

This originated in the USA in 1990s following a several incidents from 1986 onward, in which individuals working for the United States Postal Service (USPS) shot and killed fellow workers and members of the public. The first event of this kind was in August 1986, when fourteen postal workers were shot dead and six wounded in an Oklahoma post office, by Patrick Sherrill, himself a postal worker, who later shot himself in the forehead. Between that date and 1997 more than 40 people were killed in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage.

The term was first recorded in the Florida newspaper The St. Petersburg Times, December 17, 1993:"The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as 'going postal'."

By 1994, going postal was being applied to crazy or violent outbursts at any workplace.

Sources:http://www.phrases.org.uk/ , http://www.answers.com/

Pic: Memorial of the August 20, 1986 post office killing spree that left 15 dead.

Sourced from wikipedia.org

white elephant

-Something that is more trouble than it is worth.

Was driving around town today when I came across a sign saying "White Elephant Sale", it reminded me of storybook England where the women of genteel birth used to organise these sales to raise funds for various church activities or other worthy causes and also of William, Richmal Crompton's adorably mischievous twelve year old who used to organise such sales in his own indomitable style. This term though mostly in use in western countries has a decidedly oriental descent.

White or albino elephants were regarded as holy in ancient times in Thailand and other Asian countries.To possess a white elephant was regarded as a sign that the monarch was ruling with justice and the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. The tradition derives from tales in the scriptures which associate a white elephant with the birth of Buddha. To keep a white elephant was a very expensive task, since you had to provide the elephant with special food, and provide access for people who wanted to come and worship it. If a Thai King became dissatisfied with a subordinate, he would give him a white elephant. The gift would, in most cases, ruin the recipient.

Sources: http://www.wikipedia.org/ , http://www.phrases.org.uk/

Halcyon days

halcyon days-calm, peaceful days

origin:

Halcyon is a name for a bird of Greek legend which is commonly associated with the kingfisher. The phrase comes from the ancient belief that fourteen days of calm weather were to be expected around the winter solstice - usually 21st or 22nd of December in the Northern Hemisphere. as that was when the halcyon calmed the surface of the sea in order to brood her eggs on a floating nest. The Halcyon days are generally regarded as beginning on the 14th or 15th of December.

Halcyon means calm and tranquil, or 'happy or carefree'. It is rarely used now apart from in the expression halcyon days. The name of the legendary bird was actually alcyon, the 'h' was added in regard to the supposed association with the sea ('hals' in Greek).
The source of the belief in the bird's power to calm the sea originated in a myth recorded by Ovid. The story goes that Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, had a daughter named Alcyone, who was married to Ceyx, the king of Thessaly. Ceyx was drowned at sea and Alcyone threw herself into the sea in grief. Instead of drowning, she was carried to her husband by the wind. The rest of the story is, in a translation of Ovid:

The Gods their shapes to winter-birds translate,

But both obnoxious to their former fate.

Their conjugal affection still is ty'd,

And still the mournful race is multiply'd:

They bill, they tread; Alcyone compress'd,

Sev'n days sits brooding on her floating nest:

A wintry queen: her sire at length is kind,

Calms ev'ry storm, and hushes ev'ry wind;

Prepares his empire for his daughter's ease,

And for his hatching nephews smooths the seas.

The legendary bird is usually identified with the kingfisher. That was also said to nest on the sea and was believed to be able to calm the sea for the seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice.

source:http://www.phrases.org.uk/

Between the devil and the deep blue sea

An addendum to 'true blue' & 'blue stocking' .. 'Devil and the deep blue sea' Let the rhythm & blues chain continue!

Between the devil and the deep blue sea: In difficulty, between two dangerous alternatives

The phrase was originally 'Between the Devil and the deep sea'. The sea turned blue much later and the phrase became well-known via the title of a popular song. 'Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea' was written by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, and recorded by Cab Calloway in 1931, although that version of the phrase may have been circulating earlier

The original phrase is probably of nautical origin. More research may throw some light.

Source: www.phrases.org.uk