Idioms, sayings, etc. and what they mean

Cortina_MK_IV

Chuchote wrote: »

What I've always heard is that it's from the O and X marks made on forms, crates, etc back in the day to indicate that inspection had been done and the job was complete.

I heard pretty much the same for "Kilroy was here." It was supposed to be a supervisor in a Scottish shipyard that daubed "Kilroy was here" on the ships to indicate he had inspected them. (Subject to verification and all that.)

Chuchote

Another one: toe the line. Comes from army training when a line (a rope) was put down and all soldiers had to put the tips of their toes to it to make a correct-looking row of troops, or so I've heard. Or maybe not

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/toe-the-line.html

Heroditas

"The penny dropped" comes from Thomas Edison's days. He used to find his best ideas came when he was in a deep meditation/light sleep and would have dreams of ideas. When he woke up he would always forget though so he put a penny between his knees. Whenever he was about to fall asleep, the penny would hit the floor and the noise would wake him and he'd recall the idea, hence "the penny dropped"

me_right_one

^^^Toe the line is exactly that.

The english word "smashing", which means brilliant / deadly / excellent, is really the Irish phrase "Is maith é sin" said too fast.

denismc

" One foot in the grave"
Apparently a British general had his foot blown off during the Napoleonic wars.
He had the foot buried with full military honours, hence " One foot in the grave"

kittensmittens

GerB40 wrote: »

That's actually not true. Although one judge did admonish a man for beating his wife with a stick wider than his thumb, he was pilloried for it and became a laughing stock. It's a carpentry term that I can't remember the origin of right now..

Dogs Bollox is a bastardisation if box deluxe, same with box (bog) standard.

Although not a phrase, a soldiers salute comes from the days when knights would joust. As they passed each other they would lift their face visors and that has continued to this day.

Is that not from Mechanno sets?
I remember hearing that there were 2 sets made by the company initially.
The "Box Deluxe" and the "Box Standard"
Kids all wanted the deluxe set naturally.
One was the "Dogs bollox" and the other became "Bog standard"
If you got the deluxe one, it was the Dogs bollox

Chuchote

Interesting piece on 'rule of thumb' http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-04-17/news/1998107056_1_rule-of-thumb-phrase-rule-false-etymology

I somehow imagine it may also have come from the way carpenters will squint and hold up a thumb to make a rough measurement on a house, and then scale it up in a rough drawing, before finally doing a more accurate measurement - but they may use that first thumb-based measure for buying timber and nails.