Category Archives: Words, phrases & expressions

Bodily expressions IV: Necks, throats & shoulders

Wikimedia Commons

Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.

We’ve gathered all the phrases and expressions we can possibly think of that make use of bodily parts in all their glory — and divided them into ten broad categories* descending from head to toe (and then some …). We’ve left out one- and two-word euphemistic adjectives and tried to avoid expressions that refer too literally to our actual limbs, organs or orifices; what follows are phrases that tend towards the metaphorical and poetic, even though some can also be taken more literally.

Here we have phrases using necks, throats and shoulders — those crucial structures that support our heads on our bodies. Coming next: idioms involving chests, breasts, and the heart. Continue reading →

Bodily expressions III: Faces, noses & mouths; teeth, cheeks & chins

Wikimedia Commons

Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.

Here we have phrases using faces, noses, mouths (and the mouth’s various constituent parts), cheeks and chins. Coming up next: necks, throats and shoulders. Continue reading →

Bodily expressions II: Eyes and ears

Anatomical illustrations showing muscles of the eyes & ears; photo from Wellcome Images

Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.

Here we have phrases using eyes and ears — those poetic gateways to the sights and sounds of our daily lives. And coming up next: faces, noses & mouths; teeth, cheeks & chins …

Continue reading →

Bodily expressions I: Hair, heads and brains

If the mere mention of body parts makes you squeamish, you might want to avoid reading Glossophilia over the next few days. We’ve gathered all the phrases and idioms we can possibly think of that make use of bodily parts in all their glory — and divided them into ten broad categories* descending from head to toe (and then some …). We’ve left out one- and two-word euphemistic adjectives and tried to avoid expressions that refer too literally to our actual limbs, organs or orifices (yes, you were warned); what follows are phrases that tend towards the metaphorical and poetic, even though some can also be taken more literally. Continue reading →

Netflix and chill

If you’re of a certain age (as I am) and not managing to keep up with all the fast-paced changes in our lingo (as I’m not), you might be surprised to learn about a racy new turn-of-phrase that’s hit the big time. The next time a new buddy — or even an old one, for that matter — suggests that the two of you get together for “Netflix and chill,” please know that they’re probably not thinking rom-coms and relaxation, PJs and popcorn. Nope: they have other, more exotic intentions; they’re ready to put the x in your stream, baby, and getting touchy-feely doesn’t mean fishing for the remote in the cushion cracks. As of late last year, those three seemingly innocuous words have come to describe a completely different kind of shared experience — one that definitely won’t involve nachos, subtitles or the company of elderly relatives. Continue reading →

Were Stoics stoical?

“She endured cancer in ‘A Wedding invitation,’ as well as amnesia and a brain tumor in ‘The Stolen Years,’ with stoical ebullience.” So reported Variety in a recent film review, using a commonly used and well-understood word that the OED defines as ‘enduring pain and hardship without showing one’s feelings or complaining.” There’s little ambiguity in stoicism‘s sense of calm, grim endurance. But does this stiff-upper-lip adjective retain any of the meaning of its origins — in an Ancient Greek school of thought born in the shade of an Athens portico? Continue reading →

Yogiisms

“I really didn’t say everything I said.”

Yogi Berra, one of America’s most famous baseball players, died yesterday. He will go down in history not just for his famous catches, but also for his catchy phrases, which came to be known as “Yogiisms”. His nonsensical witticisms took the form of obvious tautologies* or paradoxical contradictions.

Some famous Yogiisms: Continue reading →

The definition and etymology of Trump

From the Oxford English Dictionary:
Trump: vt. slang break wind audibly

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
Trump (v.): “fabricate, devise,” 1690s, from trump “deceive, cheat” (1510s), from Middle English trumpen (late 14c.), from Old French tromper “to deceive,” of uncertain origin. Apparently from se tromper de “to mock,” from Old French tromper “to blow a trumpet.” Brachet explains this as “to play the horn, alluding to quacks and mountebanks, who attracted the public by blowing a horn, and then cheated them into buying ….” The Hindley Old French dictionary has baillier la trompe “blow the trumpet” as “act the fool,” and Donkin connects it rather to trombe “waterspout,” on the notion of turning (someone) around. … Trumped up “false, concocted” first recorded 1728.

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The power of opposites in rhetoric

When Neil Armstrong climbed down a ladder from Apollo 11 in 1969 and set his foot down on the surface of the moon, he declared famously: “That’s one small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.” That statement became almost as iconic as the moon-landing itself, capturing as it did so poignantly how a relatively mundane action could be so vast and historic in its significance. And what made that sentence work so well? It was in its use of antithesis — the bold juxtaposition of contrasting concepts placed next to each other for dramatic or rhetorical effect and carefully balanced within the structure of the sentence. Continue reading →

20 words that haven’t crossed the pond (actually 21)

Update 9/16/15: I’ve just come across another one: pantywaist. See below for definition and origin.

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We all know that Brits and Americans have different names for many different things — from diapers, erasers and elevators to flats, dummies and lorries. The web is bursting at the seams with trans-Atlantic dictionaries. But there’s another category of words that separate us from our English-speaking cousins: those that just don’t translate on the other side of the pond, and haven’t made the journey themselves. You’ll be hard-pressed to come up with close equivalents of these 20 words when you’re not in their native lands — and you might find yourself wondering why some of these quite useful pieces of vocabulary* haven’t been snapped up by your friends across the ocean, whether you’re American or British. And can you think of any others? Continue reading →