Dungeon Master Forum

I have no idea what that means

that's the point WZ, it's a secret

Here is one saying that I find myself using and really don't like the phrase at all - keep trying to eliminate it from my vocabulary. My parents used it all the time and I guess once you have heard it often, especially as a child, you find yourself repeating it - geez, I did end up sounding like my father after all

More than one way to skin a cat.

http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewto ... f=5&t=6183

"Harum Scarum" is another favourite of mine. Again... regularly used by my mother when i was a kid.

Saumun , supposed to provide the origins along with the saying

Apologies...

My mother used it to describe anyone that was a bit of a tearaway.
There is a definition in the dictionary, describing it as meaning reckless or irresponsible.

Dictionary.com describes its origins as 1665-75. A rhyming compound, based on an obsolete meaning of the word 'hare'... meaning to harass and stare.

again, it's a dick shone ary, only as a guide, never in stone. other words, don't believe everything we read

True enough...

I was always aware of its meaning, but had never thought to check its origins before... and that was only one site.
There are references in classic literature though. Notably Dickens, Twain, Doyle...

Saumun, I tested , tried and found out too late, no dictionary could have foretold the events that has transpired. the test is complete. for being a craftsman, I'd have you in my party.

Cat got your tongue. I have tried to find the origin, but it seems it is not a known fact where/how it originated.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cat- ... ongue.html

http://www.historyrevealed.com/facts/wh ... e%E2%80%99

I like the french variant. if recorded as being used a long enough time ago, it's entirely possible as an origin, given that it seems like something easy to say without need for any back reference, and the english variant could come easily from it, given regular trade and encounters with french people over the centuries.

In France we don' t refer to cats about silent people, we simply say "You lost your tongue ?".
The cat comes in about riddles. When not found, to ask wether you will give the answer or let more time we say "Do you give your tongue to the cat ?"
BTW The cat on the second link is a Korat a breed from Thaïland. Short blue hair and green eyes.

Been a while, so thought I would post this one.

No comment from the peanut gallery.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ut-gallery

That's not a phrase I've ever heard. Maybe it's an American thing?

My favourite phrase that I use quite a lot these days, especially when I deal with administrative tasks, is "yard arm clearing (exercise)". It comes from the Royal Navy slang and means to give order / make statement that - if anything goes wrong - puts the responsibility / blame on someone else. It's kind of preventive act of washing your hands. I really do a lot of yard arm clearing these days...

http://www.hmsrichmond.org/dict_y.htm

I was wondering how the phrase "Seven shades of s**t" (as in to 'beat seven shades of s**t out of someone') started, but i'm struggling. I can only find two references, which are W. T. Tyler's 1982 novel Rogue's March:- "kick seven shades of s**t", and W. L. Webb's The Bedside Guardian 34:- "Does thou want seven shades of s**t kicked out of thee?".

Very similar to the phrase "Beat seven bells out of", which is apparently a nautical term. It comes from the number of bell strikes each half hour in a four hour watch on a ship, so there are eight bells at the end of a watch.
Therefore, to beat seven bells out of someone is to stop just short of killing them.

This dates as far back as 1854: https://archive.org/stream/namotuorreef ... h_djvu.txt

It seems likely that the former was borne of the latter (due to the number seven and the violence), but where the leap from bells to shades of s**t comes from, i don't know.

I have not heard either of those phrases before.

The "Seven shades" one is very common in the north (England that is).

seven shades? perhaps the colours of a bruise.

Quite possible... I hadn't thought of that.
I associated it with the "Seven Bells" phrase because they're similar, have the number seven, and amount to the same thing.... but it's just as possible that they're nothing to do with each other. I don't know.

After using the common phrase "cottoned on to" (to suddenly understand) in the "Favorite One-Liners" thread, i wondered where it came from/how it started.
A case of a verb springing from the noun (like google), it was first connected to the raising of the nap on cloth, to draw out loose fibres before shearing them off (to give it a cotton like appearance - "to cotton").
Through the sixteenth century, it had (the verb) moved on to mean "to prosper", and then by the turn of the seventeenth century it meant to get on well with someone.
By the nineteenth century, it meant to be drawn or attached to someone/something. This sense of the phrase was most common in Australia and New Zealand, but spread to the US and back to Britain (where it first arose as a verb).
I didn't know this, but apparently in the US, "to cotton on" retains this meaning (to take a liking to)... although it may be confined to certain regions. Could any US members confirm or debunk this?
In the UK the phrase has now took on the meaning "to understand/realise", as mentioned in the first line.

There are quite a number of pages concerning this phrase, with a much better and more detailed description.
Here are a couple:-
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cot1.htm
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cotton-on.html

From the US Midwest....."Take a cotton to" means "To be attracted to".
Especially something that is new in one's experience. Very commonly
on the negative.

The 'Dictionary of American Regional English' says:

An unexplainable dislike that you feel from the first moment you meet a person: "I don't know why, but I just can't ________ him."
... dislike that you feel from the first moment you meet a person: "I don't know why, but I just can't ________ ... ENDURE COTTON TO TAKE TO ..

.

He seems OK but I just can't COTTON TO him.

When a school child makes a special effort to 'get in good' with the teacher in hopes of getting a
better grade: "He's trying to COTTON UP TO THAT TEACHER again."

Or about old jokes people say: "The first time I heard that one I DIDN'T COTTON TO IT."

There are many other uses for the word COTTON but none that I am personally
familiar with.

In one of his 6 Volumes of WWII, Sir Winston Churchill also mentions an interesting difference between US and UK English that led to some misunderstandings between US and UK politicians and staffs during the war - the phrase "to table sth." means "to start / suggest starting a discussion" in UK English but "to delay / postpone a discussion" in US English. So the Americans were always angry when the British wanted to table a significant topic.

PS In Czech we use a similar phrase in the UK sense.

Very interesting... I wasn't aware of that one. So easy, how in all innocence and ignorance, one could cause not only confusion but outright offence in certain situations.
And of course, even if you're aware of some of the differences you may miss some subtleties. In my last post (about "cottoning on"), i had read a couple of documents concerning the difference between the UK and US phrase, but they were brief and so was unaware that it was used more commonly in the negative until Paul S mentioned it.

Go see a man about a horse???

Could you expand on that one CS?
If it has the same meaning i'm thinking of, then where i'm from we use "I have to go and see a man about a dog!". Meaning to get out of a situation, or to avoid talking to someone. I've never gone into the etymology of it though.

Go see a man about a horse

To me it is equivalent to a woman saying she must
"Powder my nose".

Chaos-Shaman wrote:Go see a man about a horse???

This is what I found: http://english.stackexchange.com/questi ... bout-a-dog

Yeah, it can be the same. My mother said it to me, or go play in the middle of the freeway.

I love "Bob's your uncle" but don't know its origins. Any ideas?