Sea Lawyer: A shark (Yes, really! This reminds me of an anecdote that I posted about a while back. Who knew lawyer jokes had such a long and distinguished history? )
Coming!
So is Christmas: Said of a
person who has long been called, and at length answers, Coming! (We use
this all the time in my family, so it totally tickled me to find it here.)
Birth-day Suit: He was in his birth-day suit, that is, stark naked. (Okay, this
one totally surprised me—it just doesn’t sound old, does it?)
Black and White: In writing. I have it in black and white; I have written evidence.
(Another very modern-sounding expression—maybe because we have a picture in our
21st century heads of 19th century paper being brownish
rather than white?)
Kick the bucket: To die. He kicked the bucket one day; he died one day. (I did a
little research on the origin of this phrase; the Oxford English Dictionary
favors the one which involves pigs to be slaughtered being hung from a beam to
allow the blood to drain from the carcass, the beam in question being a trébuchet
or buque in French (so presumably a Norman borrowing?)
Bears and Bulls: A bear is one who contracts to deliver a certain quantity or sum of
stock in the publics funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other
words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the
bear’s skin before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he is not
possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in
case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives
the difference. (Wow, who knew? It
looks like the terms date from as much as a century before, tied up with the
South Sea Bubble incident of ca. 1717.)
All right!: A favourite expression among thieves, to signify that all is as they
wish, or proper for their purpose.
Happy reading!
9 comments:
I share your amazement at the age of some of these, which sound so modern. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
OOOh - I love Cranford - haven't read it in awhile. I'm looking forward to the discussion!
Yay! I hope you'll join in, Julie.
I always imagined kick the bucket as referring to some one being hanged and having the bucket kicked out from under his feet. I have no basis for this-- it was just my idea of the origin.
The selected sayings have had a long life. Sometimes one wonders why for it is just as easy to say "he died" as "he kicked the bucket."
Fun post, thanks. Is that where the PBS Masterpiece series Cranford came from?
Yup! But from what I understand--I haven't yet watched the PBS version yet--they don't particularly bear much resemblance to each other.
Interesting-I may need to read the book, then. :-)
The Cranford series is based on several Gaskell stories: Cranford, Mr. Harrison Confesses, My Lady Ludlow and some others I think. The two seasons of the series are well worth watching. They feature an all star cast of British actors of the stage and screen. The only lady NOT in Cranford is Maggie Smith! Right off the bat ten pages into the book I can identify scenes used in the series. Like Lark Rise to Candleford, they took what appears on the page as a brief incident mentioned and turned it into a fleshed out episode.
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