We all spout out cliches on a daily basis (especially if we are sports coaches), but we rarely put any thought into where the terms come from. Here are a few common cliches and a bit of a background on where they originated. Got a lot of help from this excellent website, which is a lot of fun. This is pretty interesting stuff:

Barking Up the Wrong Tree. Going after the wrong person or thing. In foxhunting, dogs often chase the fox into hollow trees. If the fox outsmarts the dog, however, the dog will be barking up the wrong tee.

Loose Cannon. Someone who is out of control. You would most likely have found loose cannons on sailing ships. Naturally, if one came loose, it could roll out of control and cause a lot of damage.

Bite the bullet. Do an unpleasant thing. This phrase, first recorded in print in an 1891 Kipling story, has to do with the surgery in the days before anesthesia. Needless to say, there was a lot of surgery being done on battlefields, and bullets were used to give the patient something to concentrate on and to stifle the screaming. Bullets are malleable, unlike rocks, so they wouldn’t damage your teeth. (Of course, they also didn’t have antibiotics , so most people who bit the bullet died anyway.)

Bought the Farm. To die. Though this one is speculative, it is believed that it came from WWI. When a soldier would die, his family would get enough money to pay off their mortgages, thus “buying the farm”.

Under the Weather. Sick. Passengers on ships often get sick when the weather turns bad. They usually then go below deck because the ship sways less down there and they can avoid the elements. Thus, they are “under the weather”.

Son of a Gun. A rough and tumble guy. Though this is somewhat disputed, the most commonly found etymology is this one: The British army would often let prostitutes go on trips to keep spirits up. Sometimes, these women would become pregnant. Since no-one knew who the father was, these children were entered in the ships log as a Son of a Gun, since the beds were near the cannons.

His name is Mud. He is very unpopular, his name is worthless. The rumors you have heard are not true! This does not come from Samuel Mudd, the surgeon who operated on John Wilkes Booth’s leg after Booth killed Lincoln.A slang dictionary written in 1823 states that mud is a slang term for a “stupid twaddling fellow”.

Having a chip on one’s shoulder. Having an attitude, born of insecurity, and quick to take offense. This from an 1830 article in the Long Island Telegraph: “When two churlish boys were determined to fight, a chip would be placed on the shoulder of one, and the other demanded to knock it off at his peril.”

Long in the tooth. Old. This comes from horses, whose teeth continue to grow with age. You can tell an old horse because it has long teeth.

Pardon my French. Excuse my foul language. It is believed that it comes from the French-hating English, who would excuse themselves for behaving in such a vulgar, french like fashion.

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