FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3978, 10 July 1915, Page 2

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

CURIOUS ORIGIN OF SOME FAMILIAR SAYINGS.

To assist iu making expression unmistakable, mankind has kept in store proverbs, phrases, and certain ■specific words that, rightly chosen, given emphasis and perspicuity to our thoughts. These phrases by being welded into the fabric of speech have become almost a part of language itself, and unconsciously and repeatedly we dip into the store, selecting tne must suitable saving without tiie slightest hesitation. The origin of many is shrouded in antiquity, whilst others of. more recent date have had their beginnings in quite trivial incidents. ft has often boon the wit of the time that- has Humiliated the adage which has summed up the situation exactly. Other sayings have come down to us from old customs, long since dead, from the superstition of the mediaeval 1 times, ■ and even of ignorance of common facts, hi some eases phases which were quite legitimate in themselves have been retained, while the circumstances themselves have altered. “STRIKING” A MATCH’. For instance, we are continually speaking of “striking a match.” Burdo we “strike” it? “Do we rub?” A moment’s reflection and we decide that the latter term woilld be more accurate. How, then, has the word “strike” come to lie used in this connexion? Its evident misuse lias been handed down to us from the generations existing previous to the invention of matches as we know them • When it was the practice of striking the steel with the flint to produce the spark necessary to ignite the tinder and sulphur-tipped splint of wood. Superstition is responsible for the phrase “licked into shape.” It was erroneously believed that bear cubs wore born without being properly formed, but the dam’s maternal instinct produced the shapely cub bv a profuse application of the tongue. A decisive defeat is popularly known as a “licking,”, a word which has probably had connexion with this phrase. Nature gives us, through the custom of some birds of the duck tribe of lining their nests with feathers plucked from their own breasts, when deficient in nest-building material, the familiar phrase, “To feather his nest.”

This conveys the idea, so expressively, of the'deiormination, whether worthy of cultivation or not, of gaining personal comfort under adverse circumstance's. “Killed by kindness” has its origin in the sometimes fatal action of the mother ape in bugging her offspring too tightly in her loving embrace

“IN THE SWIAI.” "Not enough room to swing a eat” carries us back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when that domestic pet had but little favor bestowed upon it. Pussy was often the butt ol sport and, as such, was suspended in a sack from the branch of a tree. The sportsmen, so called, endeavored to liberate the poor animal by shooting or striking at the string that suspended the sack. The creature being liberated, the sport degenerated into a cat hunt. Sport, too, is responsible for that common phrase, “In the swim.” Anglers in olden times <lcsig r nated that part, of the river whore fish were wont to congregate as "the swim,” and consequently to he fishing in that spot—the most advantageous position in the stream—was to place oneself in fortune's wav.

The oft-quoted apothegm. :-.Eating luimblo pie,” though allied to the .‘‘port of the time, is an iiistanoo ot corrupted etymology, from which so many of our words and phrases suffer. It refers to the time when deer hunting was a common sport. At the conclusion of the mint a banquet was served to all who had taken part, from the highest noble to the humblest servant. The coarser portions of the door and the entrails were called “numblos” or “umblcs,” and while the lord feasted upon the choicest portions of venison, these were left for the attendants. When baked in a pie, they formed their chief dish, and hence partaking of ‘nimble” pie at the hunting feast signified the degraded position of the servant. “MAD AS A HATTER.” Why madness should he likened To that of a hatter,' if the latter is mad, might puzzle one considerably. Here again is a corrupted etymology. Tbe word “hatter” should be spelled simply “attcr,” which is the Anglo-Saxon word for adder. With this explanation the force of the phrase “as mad as a hatter” becomes more evident, indicating a virulence of temper. /

A similar case -of perversion is shown by “Nine tailors make a man. ' In bygone times it was the custom to toll the funeral bell at the death of a man three times in succession thrice — making nine. Each stroke of the hell was termed a teller, and so arose the phrase “Nino tollers make a man, which lias been changed through course of time into the now familial adage. A love of brevity has given us “Mind your p’s and q's,” which is of French origin. In the time of Louis X!\ r . Court etiquette demanded a very low bow, and the dancing master, when instructing his pupils, would desire a strict attention to the position of the feet and head. “Pied” is the French word for foot, and fashion demanding a queue wig, the injunction “Mind, your pieds and queues” became common. On translation into English it became abbreviated intol the now familiar phrase. —John 1. Saigont, in “Great Thoughts.”