Incredible Idioms 8

Losing One's Marbles

I came across this idiom in a book Compulsively Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth was losing her marbles when being around this über hot OCD CEO man Mr. Darcy. Not sure what she meant by that? Well, here is the thing. If you lose your marbles, you are going a bit crazy. It can be because of stress from school - for example I was definitelly losing my marbles because of my Old English lessons. It can be because of some irritating people - aren't  you losing your marbles when trapped in a train with an annoying friend from high-school? I know I was when he kept talking rude bullshit about everyone and everything and thought he was being funny. But Elizabeth is simply losing her marbles around Mr. Darcy because he is SO attractive and she is being overwhelmed by his manly sexiness. Or sexy manliness. Or whatever, you can imagine, I guess.

As for the origine of the phrase, it seems it is not agreed upon. I have found two different opinions - one ascribes the origin of the phrase to a play from 1902, where marbles, little marble balls that children used to play with, were used idiomatically to express anger. As you would be angry to losing your marbles to your competitor in a game, this connection makes sense. The meaning of the phrase has evolved in time, from meaning mad in its angry (American) sense to mad in its crazy (British) sense.

The other source provides a different explanation. Apparently, marbles were thought quite important for people, as their wits are. So losing one's marbles was seen as losing something vital and the connection to one's sanity was at hand. 

So, what about you? 

When do you tend to lose your marbles?

And what explanation of the origin of the phrase sounds more appealing to you?

And - most importantly - did you use to play marbles when you were children?

Let us know in the comments below!

Provoking Phrasal Verbs 1

To Piece Together

Hello everyone! Now it's my turn to post something. As you may have noticed, we've started a new category - Phrasal verbs. Non-native speakers of English tend to hate them at first, because they are so illogical most of the time. But I, for instance, grew fond of them because they make English such a fascinating language.

Phrasal verbs might not be as incredible or splendid as idioms and similes, but if you want to speak English very well, or pass as a native speaker, you really need to learn and use them. I will be posting phrasal verbs every Wednesday (or Thursday) so hopefully you will start to like them after a while.

This week post is about one nice phrasal verb to piece something together. When you piece something together you learn the truth about something by considering all the separate bits of information you have. For example, police or any law enforcement agency usually learn the truth by piecing together all the information they have in order to catch a killer or a thief, etc. There are many great series about law enforcement agencies and agents where you can come across this lovely phrasal verb such as NCIS, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles and so on. If you are not a fan of violence, but you love solving crimes then I reccomend very witty, smart and funny show White Collar.

So this is it for today and have a nice rest of the week!

Splendid Similes 8

As Thick As Thieves

Hi y'all! Long time no see. At the beginning of this post I would like to thank our dear Freya for keeping this blog alive (and also for suggesting this simile!), and state that we are now planning to post regularly! Yaay! Of course it would not be me if I didn't start this by posting my article a day later than planned. But we hope that we'll push ourselves and won't give up so easily :)

The simile I'd like to talk about today is "as thick as thieves". If you know the one that says "as thick as two short planks," this might confuse you a little, because the meaning is in no way similar. Whereas "as thick as two short planks" means really stupid (something Douglas from Cabin Pressure might say about Arthur), "as thick as thieves" means being very friendly - in a sort of secretive, sneaky, surreptitious way. (Don't you love alliteration?)

The simile, as this article marvellously illustrates, has its origin in the behaviour of thieves and other people living on the edge of society. They were (and still are, I suppose) always plotting something together, conspiring and having secrets - which is exactly what two good friends do together. Sometimes it might even seem that two best friends have a secret code language when they speak to each other (as thieves also did). One example of such thickness could be Hamlet and Horatio - or,  Miranda and Stevie! If you watch Miranda, you know they are exactly the sort of friends you would describe as being as thick as thieves. And if you haven't watched it, I strongly recommend you do so right now! Because it's ......

(Oh and yes, I have gone crazy about gifs, thank you sir very much sir best wishes kind regards!)

Incredible Idioms 7

To bounce off the walls

So normally, when we see or hear that something is bouncing off the walls, we imagine this:

But it is also an idiom. To say that somebody is bouncing off the walls means that somebody is very excited about something. Like me and a bunch of my friends before this amazing Bran concert. Well, and also afterwards. We are still talking about it. And swooning over them.

You can watch and listen to two of their songs here:

The whole Bran concert experience actually started a very lovely conversation with an excessive usage of gifs. It was SUCH FUN!

I haven’t found anything on the history of this idiom, but one can guess that a ball bouncing off the walls kind of resembles a very excited person. Maybe it’s not your case, but when I get very excited I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I walk or in a way jump and really look like some ball weirdly bouncing off the walls.

My creativity is at the end. I hope I didn’t bore you very much.

Incredible Idioms 6

Wear One’s Heart on One’s Sleeve

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome on board this flight from Incredible Idioms 5 to Incredible Idioms 6. You may have noticed that once again we borrowed something from Cabin Pressure, but to our defense – we love Cabin Pressure series. These past few days I’ve been doing nothing creative, so I decided to put an end to it and write something. Go me!
                As the title suggest, I am going to write about the idiom wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve. Why this one? Because while watching several interviews with Tom Hiddleston I stumbled upon one that was truly inspiring. In that particular interview he says: “Never stop. Never stop fighting. Never stop dreaming. And don’t be afraid of wearing your heart on your sleeve - in declaring the films that you love, the films that you want to make, the life that you’ve had, and the lives you can help reflect in cinema. For myself, for a long time… maybe I felt inauthentic or something, I felt like my voice wasn’t worth hearing, and I think everyone’s voice is worth hearing. So if you’ve got something to say, say it from the rooftops.” 

In this great message he manages to use the incredible idiom wear your heart on your sleeve. All dictionaries agree that it means to show and declare one’s feelings and emotions openly. And to follow Tom’s advice I am declaring that I love him!

What interests me more is the origin of this idiom. During my research I found out that it may derive from the custom of the middle age. And you can guess which one. Yeah, jousting matches. You know when knights used to wear the ribbons or some cloth tied to their sleeves. The ribbons from their ladies. Just like Guinevere gives one to prince Arthur in this video:

But what is even more interesting is that this idiom was first used by Shakespeare in the play Othello.
Iago:
It is sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, 'tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

So this is it from me today. I think this is more than enough. I sincerely that from now on I will be posting more often. Till the next time...

Incredible Idioms 5

To Give St/Sb a Rain Check

Hey guys! So, before you ask... No, we're not dead yet. But we've been very naughty bloggers lately (this, my dear friends, is called understatement), especially me, since this post marks a full half a year of me not writing one single post. I am so ashamed. Today I'm trying to make this right a bit, with an Incredible Idioms post, although I usually write about similes. Please, do enjoy your flight, but first, let me show you a video, whose song has been my inspiration source :) also, it Is a lovely video.

You can find the lyrics here (although there are several versions, none of them apparently an official one, I tend to like this one best, and I'm very much interested if I've chosen the right one... we'll see). As you can see, the narrator is giving the academy/commodities a rain check. When I was preparing this song as a listening exercise for an English lesson, I was very much intriqued by this phrase. What does it mean? After several moments of fascinated googling, I am able to bring you the solution to this not-so-metaphysical conundrum (I do profoudly apologize for these Cabin Pressure inserts, I just can't help it right now).

This phrase originates from, in the British Isles undoubtedly not-so-scarce, occasions, where a sports match or an outdoor performance of some sort had to be cancelled, or rather postponed, due to bad weather. The visitors would then get this rain check, which was a ticket that enabled them to come to the postponed performance without loosing their money.

Later, rain check gained its metaphorical meaning. For example, when you promised your friend to come to their house but something came up and you had to cancel your visit, you could say: "Can I take a rain check?", meaning that you aren't cancelling the visit, just postponing it until next time. It seems that it doesn't matter which side gets the rain check, because you can be giving it to something or somebody, or taking it, and still be the one who is postponing something.

And lastly, what I like most about this phrase being used in the song, is that you're not giving out rain checks because of procrastinating and sudden inconvenieces coming your way, making you postpone the things that you would like to do. The song is all about new beginnings, leaving the old you behind to make a fresh start and giving rain check to things that no longer work for you to make room for new and exciting stuff. At least this is how I feel about the song :) Ready to give something a rain check and take up something new? :)

Rhymey Whimmey or What Makes English So AWESOME

There are two aspects of English that I really love - rhymes and alliteration. I bet you know well what rhymes are, so I won't waste time in explaining it, I'll just give a lovely example from my favourite radio series Cabin Pressure (you'll be hearing more about this one soon enough) - from Cork to York. Easy, effective and ear-pleasing, I'd say. They even based a whole slang on it, no kidding! Guess in what accent you can "give a hook out of the window"? The word "hook" subsittues another very similar word that rhymes with it - "look". Now it makes sense, doesn't it? You can see many more examples of this language playfulness in Cockney Rhyming Slang (a slang originally used by the inhabitants in Cheapside, London). Lovely, right?

Alliteration is another thing that helps you make your statement more audially appealing. It's the simple act of starting words in a phrase or sentence with the same letter. In a sentence, I suggest you don't use alliteration for all the words in it, but only for the key terms. Alliteration is fun and can be part of a daily conversation too. Soon enough you'll train youre ears (and eyes) to spot alliteration in every speech and text you encounter. Just like today - I asked my friend a simple question "Where were we?" and suddenly the complete awsomeness of this sentence struck me. It just sounds SO great, doesn't it?

And what more, the British like to use these two great artistic features in advertisment and public announcements. Unfortunatelly I cannot recall any alliterative announcement, but maybe my dear Trollkona or even you, our dear readers, could help me with it. So look at some splendid examples of how playfully the British can use their mother tongue:

 

Source

Source

Source

Guess what product is thusly advertised!
Source