An Axe To Grind Meaning

'An Axe to Grind': 10 Idioms and their Manly Origins

If you accept ever tried to learn a foreign linguistic communication or have talked to someone who has had to learn English, you are reminded of how much figurative speech makes up a language. I suppose that in some sense all speech is figurative. Having an agreement of some common phrases not merely makes you smarter just also helps connect the past with the present and tin requite us some insight into the lives of those who came before u.s..

Note: Most idioms have been around for then long it is difficult to trace the verbal origins. Below are a few from my readings and retentivity but there are alternative origin stories on some of them. If you have any corrections or additions please permit me know!

10 Common Idioms & Their Origins

1. "An Axe to Grind"

Nowadays Meaning: If you believe you have been slighted or wronged by someone y'all would have an "Axe to grind" with them, significant you are carrying a grudge or you have some harsh words for them.

Original Meaning: You were going to grind (acuminate) your axe to prepare information technology for vengeance. Probable this was used in jest but could refer to beheadings.

2. "By Hook or by Crook"

Nowadays Meaning: Accomplishing something anyhow possible.

Original Meaning: In early America forest was very valuable. Tenants of leased land were often told they could only apply the forest on the holding that could be taken by "hook or by crook". This meant they could non cutting downwardly a tree for firewood or other such use. The claw referred to a billhook, which is a machete like tool, and could be used against small limbs and brush, and the cheat was likely a shepherd'due south cheat (or staff) that could be used to get together fallen branches.

iii. "Pass the Cadet"

Present Pregnant: To forego a responsibility leaving it for someone else to handle or, in strictly financial terms, to not pay for something leaving someone else responsible.

Original Meaning: In poker the 'buck' is a token used to marking the electric current dealer. In the old days, it was idea that a pocketknife, ordinarily outfitted with deer antler (buck antler) or sheathed in buckskin was used every bit the marker. The phrase "laissez passer the buck" was built-in. Latter a $1 coin was used to marking the dealer but the phrase stuck. This is why we phone call a dollar a buck!

four. Playing it "Fast and Loose"

Present Meaning: To exercise something with trivial care for the consequences or slyly avoiding the consequences.

Original Meaning: When archers were at full draw and you wanted them to halt and not shoot you would shout "Fast!". Archers besides 'Loosed' their arrows. So, to do something "fast and loose" meant to do ii things that contradicted each other. Merely like with archery, playing information technology fast and loose in life is going to cause trouble.

5. "Go to Pot"

Present Meaning: When something has gone across all usefulness. For example, our government has "Gone to Pot"

Original Meaning: When a farm animal had outlived its usefulness information technology was killed and "went to pot". Litterally…to be eaten!

six. "Spick and Span"

Present Meaning: Something is shiny and new.

Original Meaning: Originally it was "Spick and Span New!" A span was a wood shaving. If something was newly built it would have tell-tale wood chips so information technology was 'span new'. Spick is an old word for a boom. New spicks (nails) would be shiny therefore "spick and bridge" referred to a new house or other structure.

seven. "A Hack"

Nowadays Meaning: A person who doesn't know what they are doing or does their work in a shoddy mode.

Original Meaning: In the Civil State of war and prior, earlier anesthesia, doctors would literally hack the limbs off soldiers and patients to prevent the spread of infection, folding a flap of peel over the wound. As anesthesia and meliorate practices became more pop it took a while for this barbaric exercise to phase out. These doctors were referred to every bit "Hacks" past the up and coming medical community.

viii. "Chip on Your Shoulder"

Nowadays Significant: To carry a grudge.

Original Meaning: The scrap refers to a literal woods chip that was placed on the shoulder past someone interested in picking up a fight. The challenger would come up along and knock the chip off, brushing the cheek as he did so, as a means of accepting the challenge. The two would then go and brawl like boxers. The history of where this custom came from is pretty interesting. You can read the full business relationship here.

9. "Loose Cannon"

Present Meaning: Someone who is unpredictable, out of control.

Original Meaning: Like well-nigh things on a transport, a cannon had to be secured to the deck. A "loose cannon" would exist an uncontrollable danger in the consequence of a storm or strong waves. Theodore Roosevelt may have saved this term from obscurity when he said: "I don't desire to be the old cannon, loose on the deck in the storm."

x. "Get the Hang of It"

Present Meaning: Ability to do something new. For example, if you tried to learn piano but couldn't quite "become the hang of it."

Original Meaning: Another axe related idiom. Back when axes were the kings of tools, the fit of the head (blade) to the handle was a particular thing based on the person's height, preference, and tool usage. This was called the "hang" of the axe head or hanging an axe caput. See the flick below for an illustration.

Hanging an Axe Head

Hanging an Axe Head

Language and History

I beloved learning virtually history and as I do the authors of books will signal out where some of these idioms may take originated. Understanding the roots of these gives me something of a picture to my voice communication and makes these common statements more significant and allows me to use them in a better context.

If you have any to share please do!