Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 9)

Introduction: In this article (Part 9), Jessica Edwards continues her discussion of the meanings and origins of idioms (figurative phrases) that our ancestors used, focusing on idioms from the 1900s. Jessica has had a lifelong interest in her family’s history – especially on her father’s side, which goes back to the first settlers in Pennsylvania, Jamestown and New England – and has documented and added more than 21,000 people to her family tree!

Idioms (figurative phrases) have been used throughout the centuries and may appear in what was said or written by our ancestors. Understanding these expressions will help you better understand what your ancestors were saying – and finding out the history of these sayings can be quite entertaining!

I hope you enjoy this series, and perhaps it will allow you to better understand what your ancestors may have meant in their letters and diaries, or in newspaper articles written about them – as well as increase your knowledge and vocabulary.

Today I’m going to discuss some idioms from the 1900s.

• Back to the drawing board: came from a cartoon in the New Yorker in 1941. The cartoon, drawn by Peter Arno, consisted of a crashed plane in the background, with a man dressed in a suit walking away from the crash site and saying: “Well, back to the drawing board.” The suit-wearing man in the cartoon looks like he is carrying some blueprints, implying he designed the airplane.

• Get the hook: an idiom coming from vaudeville, used to describe an act that was terrible. It was said that the managers kept a long hook in the wings to drag off incompetent but stubbornly persistent performers.

• Go down in flames: means to fail in a spectacular fashion. This idiom came from pilots in WWII; planes that were shot and plunging out of the sky would frequently burst into flames as they went down.

• Go the whole nine yards: means to give something your best effort. Another idiom from pilots in WWII; this came from the fact that fighter pilots had nine yards’ worth of ammunition loaded onto their planes. When they gave their all to the battle and shot all of their bullets, they would run out of this whole nine yards of ammunition.

• Hang in there: means to tell someone to stick with it; don’t give up. This idiom originated with a popular poster in the 1970s that showed a kitten hanging onto the branch of a tree.

• Have a crush on someone: means you are attracted to someone who may or may not feel the same way about you. This idiom began as a slang term in the U.S. around 1914, and became widely popular thanks to the 1928 song by George and Ira Gershwin, “I’ve Got a Crush on You.”

• If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen: this popular idiom was introduced to society by President Harry S. Truman, who used it in 1942 before he became president to say: if you can’t handle everything involved with the job, then you should leave the job. It was cited in the newspaper the Soda Springs Sun, from July that year: “Favorite rejoinder of Senator Harry S. Truman, when a member of his war contracts investigating committee objects to his strenuous pace: ‘If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen.’”

• It takes two to tango: used to emphasize that both people involved in a situation, especially a confrontation, must accept the blame. This idiom originated in a 1952 song “Takes Two to Tango” that was written and composed by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning. Pearl Bailey sang the song, helping to make its lyrics and melody popular.

• Jump the gun: doing something before the allotted time. This idiom originated from track and field races and has been used since the early 1900s. It refers to athletes starting the race before the gun was fired (which was used to signal to start of the race). This phrase was preceded in America by “beat the gun.”

• Let’s cut a rug: this idiom refers to dancing, especially doing the jitterbug – a popular dance during the “swing era” in 1930s America. This dance was vigorous, and when done right and continuously in one area the carpet appeared as though it were cut up.

• Low man on the totem pole: used to describe the person in the lowest rank of a group. The humorist H. Allen Smith used “Low Man on the Totem Pole” as the title of a book in 1941, after the radio comedian Fred Allen had used the term to describe Smith in an earlier book’s introduction. The position on an actual totem pole, by the way, has no such significance. Nevertheless, the term caught on quickly.

• Playing it close to the vest: describes someone keeping their plans or intentions secret from others. This idiom first appeared, in its original form (“close to the vest buttons”), in William Allen White’s biography of Joseph W. Folk, the governor of Missouri. White, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt (who stayed at White’s home in Missouri twice), would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1923.

• Top banana: refers to the most powerful or important person in a group. This idiom originated in the era of flappers during the “jazz age” in 1920s America. Originally, it referred to the leading comic in a burlesque entertainment. More broadly, “banana” (preceded by a word indicating the ranking), denoted a stage comedian having a specified position within a team or act.

• Wrap my head around it: this phrase has been in common use on the U.S. East Coast for at least 20 years to infer that you just don’t understand something and need to think about it more. But the variant, “can’t get my head around it,” can be traced back to at least the 1970s, when singer Jim Croce recorded the song “I Can’t Get My Head Around It.”

More to come!

Note on the header image: “Genealogy” logo designed and copyrighted by Mary Harrell-Sesniak.

Related Articles:

• ‘Curiosity Killed the Cat’ or What Your Ancestor Really Meant
• Genealogy Tip: Idioms through the Ages
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 1)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 2)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 3)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 4)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 5)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 6)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 7)
• Do You Know These Expressions Your Ancestors Used? (Part 8)