Apparently quite a few people really enjoyed reading my disjointed thoughts on random and odd sayings that English speakers use. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it- in fact, I was giggling the entire time and I believe other people found it humorous so I decided to continue this. I have been collecting a few more. Without further ado...
Let's start with "Needle in a haystack". Really? A needle in a haystack. You mean to tell me you were sitting on a haystack sewing a shirt and you lost the needle. You sat on a haystack where snakes, varmints, and other living organisms stay and you were sewing something together. Furthermore, haystacks are generally in fields or far away from houses. So you walked out to the haystack in the summer (because hay can only be cut and stacked in the summer) and you sewed for a while. You lost the needle and felt like looking through a ton of hay to find a microscopic needle instead of simply picking up another one.... seems plausible to me.
It "cost an arm and a leg". Did it really? Because I counted and you still have two arms and two legs. So unless you were using fake arms and legs or dare I even think other arms and legs, choose another analogy to explain how expensive your new purchase is. Where did this come from anyways?
"Oh, it's deader than a door nail".What could be deader than a door nail anyways. That poor door nail. It got slammed into the door and it gets put to work every day but dead. Deader than a door nail. Who came up with it? Who decided that comparing an inanimate object ( a door nail) to death would make sense?
"Talk to the hand." In all honesty, I understand the thought of this. A person is frustrated and showing respect would be to look at someone's face or into their eyes. So talking to the hand would be considered disrespectful or even a sign that you don't care. But can we just think about this a moment! A hand has many functions. Many, many functions but that does not include ears that can hear, a brain that can comprehend what is being said, and eyes to look at the person speaking. Talking to the hand doesn't work besides the fact it's highly disrespectful.
"Low man on the totem pole"- People mean this as being offensive, like the person is insignificant. But originally, the lowest man on the totem pole was a person that had high standing in the community so being the "low man on the totem pole" was an honor not a bummer. So now you know the rest of the story.
"Break a leg"- This is meant as a "Go and get it" or "You'll do fantastic" but what is so good about breaking a leg? Oh I can answer that. Nothing. There is nothing good that comes out of breaking a leg. Pain, therapy, casts, not being able to move around... the list goes on. I think this saying is a little ridiculous when wishing someone the best and the best you can wish them is to break a leg.
"Best foot forward"- Shockingly, I did not know I had one good foot and one best foot. I am still figuring out which foot is best and if anyone can answer that for me, it would be really superb! If anyone has figured out what their best foot is or even if there has been a study on what foot is the best, let me know! I would love to know. Anyways, to me, it seems like a silly expression. Regardless of what I think, people still use the expression and will continue to put their best foot forward.
I have been especially attentive this week in listening for odd sayings so that I can continue to blog about my thoughts on these. If you have any odd sayings you have heard, let me know! I will write about it. Thanks for reading and have a great week!
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