July 24, 2018--Pussyfoot

Recently I have been having dreams that take place at my last employer, the Ford Foundation.

Night after night I am being drawn back to the building on 43rd Street, mainly to meetings for which I am embarrassingly unprepared. Sometimes, to humiliate myself further, I show up for these meetings in my pajamas, or less.

In a dream from late last week, I was again at a meeting, this one I initiated and at it were the foundation's president and her most senior Vice President and my favorite colleague, Barry Gaberman. Unusually, this time I was fully dressed and I thought, for once, in command of the situation.

Knowing I was eager to share some insights about the foundation's function and was having difficulty gathering my thoughts and forming my words, to be helpful, calmly, Barry said--

"You're beating around the bush.
Get it off your chest.

Say what's on your mind.
No need to pussyfoot."

In spite of his help and, I never did manage to share my ideas coherently, but this time Barry did what he could to help me work my way through it. That alone offered some measure of consolation.

After waking, reviewing the dream material in an attempt yet again to understand why I continue to be obsessed with the Ford Foundation, I was struck by the series of idioms as the dream's scriptwriter I assigned to Barry. Wondering about their linguistic history I did a little research--

Beating around the bush seemed obvious--what porters and servants do with sticks to flush out from their hiding places animals hunters hope to shoot. Its first appearance is thought to have been from the Middle Ages.

Get it off your chest is not as vivid but from the 18th century on there have accrued a number of idioms that are derived from physiological sources. Having a lump in one's throat is an example. To get something (a weight) off one's chest first appeared in 1902. And then there is the all-too-familiar having something weighing on one's mind. Clearly, the source of many dreams. Which brings us close to the origin of getting something off one's chest. Again, something heavy. And why not consider to have half a mind to ___ and in the back of one's mind, to be of one mind, and the more recent, psychedelic, blow one's mind.

Most interesting by far of Barry Gaberman's stream of idioms is pussyfooting.

In this Trumpian Stone Age I could only imagine its source but was relieved to learn that it has a benign though unexpected origin.

William Eugene "Pussyfoot" Johnson (1862-1945) was an American Prohibition advocate and law enforcement officer. In the Oklahoma Territory, in pursuit of his campaign to outlaw booze, he went undercover, posing as a habitué of saloons in order to collect information against their owners. And, likely, a shot or two. 

He gained the nickname "Pussyfoot" due to his cat-like stealth while tracking down suspects.

Isn't our language wonderful! At least I'm getting something from all these sleep-depriving dreams.

September 30, 2014--Homographs

I'm the world's worst spella but love word games and langauge oddities.

A longtime favorite is idioms. Not so much what they metaphorically mean but their literal meanings and orijins. From time to time I've written about them here.

But among my favorite language quirks are homographs, words that are spelled the same but have more than one meaning--words such as bear/bear; left/left; and, one of my favrites, skate/skate/skate.

Unlike these, a homograph that is pronounced diferently is a heteronym--words such as wound (meaning wound up) and wound (a cut) that are spelled the same way, but pronounced differently and have different meanings.

I haven't a clue as to why English and a few other langages include homographs. It would be easy to have wound (wound up) and wooned (a cut), but instead we have wound and wound. Maybe it's for the sake of efficiency. Who knows.

Thus learning a language with lots of idioms and homographs is extra hard. What would a native French speaker make of match (to light a cigarette) and match (to make a pair)? Or rock (as in a stone) and rock (as in a cradle) or even rock (as in music)? All are not just homographs but homonyms because they are pronownced the same way. Get it?

And when it comes to learning or understanding idioms what is that same French speeker to make of "Bring home the bacon" or "Hide one's light under a bushel"?

Or, for that matter, what would an English speaker struggling to learn French think about Appeler un chat un chat? Literally, to call a cat a cat, which colloquially means something similar to the English idiom "to call a spade a spade." Or Au pif? Literally, "at the nose," meaning a general estimate.

There are also French homographs. Mainly as a result of words that are graphically the same but have accents in different locations. For example--

arriéré--overdue or backward
arrière--rear or aft

jeune--young
jeûne--fasting

marche--walking 
marché--market

Then, of course, there are the Chinese homographs--

便宜  (pián yi)--which as an adjective means cheap or inexpensive; while as a noun it means something undeserved that you're not supposed to get; and then as a verb it means to benefit.

This is about as far as I can take you. For other Chinese homographs you're on your own.

Though I can tell you about the meanings of my newest favorite homograph--minute and minute with the first a measure of time and minute, with the "i" pronounced differently and accent on ute, meaning tiny. I especialy like the relation between the too--in the largher scheme of things, a minute realy is minute.

May 2, 2014--Без муки нет науки

Без муки нет науки in Russian means, "Without torture, no science." But in usage, as an idiom, it means, "Adversity is a good teacher."


How much richer, more vivid the former. The idiomatic meaning. Though it makes little literal sense, emotively it works better.

No one knows how idioms come into usage. How they are transmuted from the literal to the idiomatic. But they do, and most languages are seasoned with many.

How did, "Let's get down to brass tacks"--a fabric salesmen's saying to a customer it's time to measure the length of a piece of cotton so they can complete the transaction--yards and segments of yards were delineated by a series of brass tacks on the cutting table--get to more generally mean "Let's get serious, Let's get it done"?

Many are country or culture specific. Like the ones from American baseball such as--

"Step up to the plate"; "How do I get to first [or third!] third base with you?"; "Ballpark estimate"; "Playing hardball"; or "Grandstanding."

There are hundreds of other American idioms, including--

"Kick the bucket," "Bring home the bacon,""Mum's the word," "Head over heels in love," "Go cold turkey," "Chewing the fat," or "This one is for the birds."

All wonderful, including not always knowing the first usage or how they were absorbed into the language.

Then there are idioms derived from English Cricket--

"To be stumped," (when the bails are knocked off the three cricket stumps and the batter is out); "To be knocked for six," (similar to a home run when a batted ball is hit so far it passes through the entire pitch untouched and yields six runs, which then idiomatically means surprised or overwhelmed); or to encounter a "Sticky wicket," an idiomatic tough situation, which suggests the bails on top of the stumps are not falling and feel as if they are stuck in place).

Or French idioms that I had a devil of a time memorizing in high school--

Arriver comme un chien un jeu de quille. Literally, "To arrive like a dog at a bowling game" and idiomatically, "To turn up unexpectedly."

Le doigts dans le nez. Literally, "Fingers in the nose" and as an idiom, something that is "very easy."

Then, one of my favorites, Avoir le cul borde de nouilles, "To have an ass full of noodles," which idiomatically means, "To be lucky."

And aren't we lucky to have our languages enriched this way.

August 23, 2013--Wonderful Feeling, Wonderful Day!

Rona was reading about the overprescription of antidepressants. How in general one in ten use them, but for women in their 40s and 50s the percentage soars to one in four. And then for patients 65 or older, the number increases to almost half the population, with women again having them prescribed at much higher rates than men.

Perhaps worse, there is clear evidence that doctors are too quick to take out their prescription pads to set patients on the path to drug dependence. Six out of seven of older women who began taking Zoloft or Paxil did not fit the criteria for their use by the psychiatrists' bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

It is claimed that this overuse is in part because of all the ads on TV and in women's magazines pushing these drugs so that when people see their doctors they ask for them. Busy doctors are then too quick and willing to write script so they can race along to the next patient.

Reading this report to me from the New York Times, Rona confessed, "Though I'm not prone to depression I do sometimes wake up on the wrong side of the bed."

"I love that idiom--wrong side of the bed." I wonder where it comes from."

"You and your idioms," she said, "I'm being serious."

"Sorry. I thought I was as well."

"What I wanted to share is how I am, non-medically, trying to deal with my tendency toward morning grumpiness."

"By?"

"By putting a smile on my face." I looked at her skeptically. "Really, I'm finding that by doing this I am orienting myself in a more positive direction. This may sound simplistic, but it seems to be working."

"Putting a smile on your face--which makes sense to me since, as you know, I'm a bit of a behaviorist--comes from that song, doesn't it, It's Almost Like Being in Love?"

"Actually, that's not a bad idea."

"What's that?"

"Maybe singing an uplifting song mornings, not just trying to smile."

"Sort of the Power of Positive Singing?"

"Exactly! I'm not wanting to compare myself to people who have bigger problems than waking up not feeling good. There are many who are deeply troubled and can be helped with the proper use of meds. But for those of us fortunately less afflicted, maybe singing a simple song of a certain kind during the day could be helpful."

"Perhaps Zip-a Dee-Doo-Dah," I said, "from Disney's Song of the South would qualify?"

With that, we both began to sing--

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah by Song Of The South
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Mister Bluebird on my shoulder
It's the truth, it's actch'll
Ev'rything is satisfactch'll
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

This did put smiles on our faces and made us feel lighter-spirited.

"It worked for me," I gushed. "And before going to bed?" which would be in an hour or so, "What might we sing then to insure happy dreams?"

"How about this from the Beatles?" 

Sweetly Rona sang--

Now it's time to say good night
Good night, sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you 

Close your eyes and I'll close mine
Good night, sleep tight
Now the moon begins to shine
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you

Close your eyes and I'll close mine
Good night, sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night, sleep tight

Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you

Good night
Good night everybody
Everybody everywhere good night

"By the way," I said, yawning, "The wrong side of the bed is the left side because in Roman times, the left, or sinister side was considered to be dangerous and even evil."

"This is not an example of the power of positive anything." 

Rona was right--it was getting late. 

With a shy look I asked, "Can we go to bed now?"

August 13, 2103--A Handful of Idioms

Idioms enrich every language. That in itself is remarkable and says something profound about collective human inventiveness--the creation and constant reshaping of the world's nearly 7,000 remaining languages. 

But understood literally, idioms make no sense whatsoever. 

Let's get down to brass tacks. Brass tacks? What does this refer to? Though we know its non-literal, idiomatic meaning is that it's time to conclude things, "Enough back and forth. Enough indecision. It's time to get down to brass tacks."

How did that transmogrification from the literal to the idiomatic occur? We can look up the source and the first usage but we can't distill the figurative alchemy involved in that linguistic redirection. Or figure out why, somehow, the idiom is so much more powerful than, in this case, "OK, enough. Let's conclude matters." 

Boring.

Shoot the breeze. What does this literally mean? Not easy to figure that out. We need Google's help with this Second Amendment puzzle. But we do know from usage that it means hanging out, talking about this and that. Nothing all that serious. 

Again, the gap between literalness and the metaphoric force of the idiomatic meaning is vast, but the essential truth comes crashing through as only a well-chosen idiom assures. And again, unless we study these things, we have no idea whatsoever how this remarkable idiom entered the language and came into such widespread usage. 

Get on one's nerves. This one is easier to figure out. Somehow the literal and non-literal meanings seem close to coalescence. But the idea of being annoyed by someone because he gets on your nerves--on your nerves--which is anatomically incorrect, doesn't matter at all. Again, the non-literal trumps and winds up making visceral, if not literal sense.

To bust one's chops, or, if you will, balls. The figurative meaning of these needs little explanation; but to get to the literal, one would likely think takes us back to the anatomical (the source of a good many of the world's idioms). One would be only half right. 

The chops that are busted are not ribs but rather sideburns--mutton chops--massive ones that were common a few centuries ago; and if one, sporting these then fashionable sideburns got into a tavern brawl and got punched in the side of the head--in the (mutton) chops--things probably wouldn't turn out very well. So thus, having one's chops busted . . .

Busting balls, however, is decidedly anatomical. Painfully so. Though it may, as an idiom, feel fairly benign--having one's balls busted often simply means being annoyingly, perhaps unfairly criticized--but if one were a macho bull about to be changed into a docile castrated steer--the literal source--well, that is something very much else.

Through usage, idioms take on figurative meaning. And in the distinction between their literal and non-literal sides, there is vitality, mystery, at times poetic contraction. And when they are at their best, there is no better way to express oneself. 

One does not have to make a translation from the literal meaning of get a kick out of something to its idiomatic meaning to realize that there is no better way to say that I'm just having a ball. Whatever that literally means.