ONLY A PHRASE !

If, like me you have a fascination with the origin of words and phrases then you should enjoy this latest addition to the Dew stable , ‘Sayings'. The material for this is taken from a little gem of a book that I bought many years ago called ‘Lock, Stock & Barrel ! - Familiar sayings And Their Meanings’.From time to time we’ll put a few of the more interesting entries on the Dew blog for all our silver-tongued readers.

YOU DON'T SAY !

Above Board…To be ‘above board’ is to be honest and open to view ; the opposite is to be secretive, hidden from sight and by association fraudulent. The term comes from the card table (the board) at which cheats would drop their hands below the table, in order to change their cards to form a more favourable hand. When all play is ‘above board’ there can be no suspicion of trickery

Namby - Pamby…Ambrose Phillips was a poet who died in 1749 and whose verse was ridiculed by more accomplished poets, like Alexander Pope, for what they regarded as its childish sentimentality. Pope was one of the poets who coined the name ‘Namby-Pamby on Ambrose Philip’s name and the nickname has stuck in the language as an adjective describing anything weakly sentimental and insipid.

Pouring Oil On Troubled Waters…Seafarers have known for centuries that oil poured onto the surface of the sea will reduce the violence of the waves. The term acquired its metaphorical use in the middle of the nineteenth century when it was first used to describe the use of calming words and behaviour to restore harmony after argument or an outburst of anger.

Running The Gauntlet…Those who ‘run the gauntlet’ are assailed or criticized on all sides. When the expression was first used in the seventeenth century it took the form of ‘running the gantlope’, gantlope being a word ed from two Swedish words gata meaning a ‘passage’ and lop a ‘course’. ‘Running the gauntlet’ was initially a form of punishment used in the Swedish armed forces. Two lines of men were drawn up facing each other and each man was equipped with a truncheon or rope’s end with which he had to beat the man being punished, who was made to run down the narrow passage between them. In time gantlope changed its spelling and adopted the form of ‘gauntlet’, which of course is a type of glove.

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