Words and their Stories (A-Okay)

Сегодня я решил начать публикацию серии эссе, написанных для радиостанции Voice of America, посвященных истории происхождения некоторых английских идиом.

Данный выпуск посвящен выражению A-Okay.

No one really knows when many of our expressions became popular. But others can be easily dated. One such expression is A-Okay. It means the situation is fine; there is no cause for worry.
A-Okay is a space-age expression. It was used in 1961 during the flight of an American astronaut. John Powers, a spokesman for NASA, the national space agency, used "A-Okay" to tell the world that everything on the space flight was operating perfectly.
Some experts say the expression did not begin with the space age. One story is that it was first used during the early days of the telephone, to tell an operator that his message had been received. The sound of the O in Okay often was lost in the noise on the telephone line. So the sharper sounding "A" was added to the expression, making a more easily understood "A-Okay."
A-Okay is one of several expressions that may have come into the language earlier but became popular only when they were used in the space progam. These expressions quickly became part of everyday speech. This happened because most people had television, and could see and hear all the major events of a space flight. People spent hours watching special TV reports of every space flight.
They could hear the astronauts talk with NASA scientists and engineers. In the first days of space flight, the astronauts seemed to be speaking a new language. But soon, the public accepted and began to use many expressions of this space language.
One such expression is "all systems go." It means everything is ready, let us begin. NASA uses it to mean that all the systems on a spacecraft have been examined and are working correctly. All systems go means the decision has been made to continue with the launch of the spacecraft. It is also used outside the space program to tell someone that you are ready to start a job or activity.
Countdown became a popular word of the space age.
Space scientists would count down the seconds until launch. They counted backwards from 10 seconds, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3, 2, 1 and liftoff. Some language experts say the American people first heard countdowns in the late 1940's during broadcasts of atomic bomb tests in Nevada and on some islands in the Pacific. But countdown did not become a common expression until the space flights of the 1960's.
Another space expression that has become common in recent years is "burnout." It meant that a launch rocket had used all its fuel. Space ships were launched by more than one rocket. The first rocket would lift the ship high above the earth. Then it would "burn out" and a second rocket would fire to carry the vehicle into earth orbit.
Soon, people began to use burnout to describe what happens to a person who works too hard under too much stress for too long. Such a "burned out" person is like a rocket with no more fuel. He has no energy or desire to continue.

Words and their Stories - ACE IN THE HOLE

It is surprising how many expressions that people use every day came from the card game poker.
For example, you hear the expression "ace in the hole" used by many who would never think of going near a poker table. An ace in the hole is any argument, plan or thing kept hidden until needed, especially when it can turn failure into success.
In poker and most card games, the ace is the highest and most valuable card. It is often a winning card. In one kind of poker game, the first card to each player is dealt face down. A player does not show this card to the other players. The other cards are dealt face up with the players betting money each time they receive another card. No one knows until the end of the game whose hidden card is the winner. Often, the "ace in the hole" wins the game.
Smart card players, especially those who play for large amounts of money, closely watch the person who deals the cards. They are watching to make sure he is dealing honestly, that he is not dealing off the bottom of the stack of cards. A dealer who is doing that has "stacked the deck." He has fixed the cards so that he will get higher cards and you will lose.
The expression, "dealing off the bottom," now means cheating in business, as well as in cards. And when someone tells you that "the cards are stacked" against you, he is saying you do not have a chance to succeed.
In a poker game you do not want to let your opponents know if your cards are good or bad. So having a "poker face" is important. A poker face never shows any emotion, never expresses either good or bad feelings. No one can learn, by looking at your face, if your cards are good or bad. People now use "poker face" in everyday speech to describe someone who shows no emotion.
Someone who has a "poker face" usually is good at "bluffing." Bluffing is trying to trick a person into believing something about you that is not true. In poker, you bluff when you bet heavily on a poor hand. The idea is to make the other players believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you, they are likely to drop out of the game, leaving to you the money they have bet.
You can do a better job of bluffing if you "hold your cards close to your vest." You hold your cards close to you so no one else can see what you have. In every day speech, holding your cards close to your vest means not letting others know what you are doing or thinking. You are keeping your plans secret.

(c) Voice of America

Words and their Stories - Baloney

Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often, usually in a sandwich. The word also has another meaning in English that is very different. It is used to describe something, usually something someone says, that is false or wrong or foolish.
Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But Bologna sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone.
Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression "baloney." Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth, in the same way that bologna sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.
Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents. A few years ago, during a campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Senator Gary Hart described himself as a leader of the future. He called his opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, a candidate of the past. "Baloney," answered Mr. Mondale.
The expression has been used for years. Fifty years ago, a former Governor of New York state, Alfred Smith, criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Mr. Smith said, "No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney."
A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about 1600. The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And he made them sound like very good excuses. Finally Queen Elizabeth said, of the latest of his excuses, "This is just more of the same blarney."
The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know they are false.
A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, "Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is praise so thin we like it."
Another expression is "pulling the wool over someone's eyes." It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair or wigs similar to those worn by judges today in British courts. The word wool was a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man's wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you "pull the wool over someone's eyes," he cannot see the truth.

Words and their Stories - BEHIND THE EIGHT-BALL

When someone is "behind the eight-ball" he is in a difficult, if not impossible situation.
The expression comes from the game of Kelly pool. Pool or pocket billiards, is a table game played with fifteen numbered balls and a cue ball. Players strike the cue ball with the end of a cue, or stick, sending it into one or more of the numbered balls. The idea is knock each of the numbered balls into one of the six pockets around the edge of the pool table.
In one kind of pool game called eight-ball, players try to put the numbered balls into the pockets, with the eight-ball the last to go in. A player loses if he sinks the eight-ball before all the other balls are in the pockets. A player can put his opponent in poor position by leaving the cue ball behind the eight ball. The eight ball blocks his opponent from a shot at any of the other balls.
So, if you are behind the eight-ball, your position is bad. There is almost no way out of the situation. You are in trouble.
A New York newspaper, in a report on a new book, used the expression this way: "An attempt to describe what makes the drawings funny lands you behind the eight-ball." In other words, trying to describe why the drawings are funny may be impossible and you may seem foolish to try.
Someone who is "behind the eight-ball" is usually "in a pickle," or "a pretty pickle." "In a pickle" is another expression that means you are in a difficult or unpleasant situation.
Some experts say this expression comes from an old Dutch saying, "sitting in pickle juice." Sitting in pickle juice indeed would be unpleasant. Pickling was a very common way to keep food from spoiling before days of ice boxes or electric refrigerators. When food is pickled, it is kept in a pickle juice made of salt, vinegar and spices.
There is still another expression in English that means you are in trouble. You are in a "fine kettle of fish." This expression was first used 200 years ago by British writers. One story says that it comes from an early British custom of cooking fish in huge pots or kettles. The cooked fish were served at parties along the river. As the story goes, a cook did something wrong, producing a kettle of fish that no one could eat. That cook was surely in trouble for his "fine kettle of fish."
We still use all these expressions today. In fact, I will be in a "fine kettle of fish," or "in a pretty pickle," and probably "behind the eight-ball" if I don't end this story now.

(c) VoA

Words and their Stories - BESIDE ONESELF

Many expressions may be used to describe someone who is excited.
One such expression is to be "beside yourself." You can be beside yourself with anger or beside yourself with happiness, although usually not both at the same time. If you are beside yourself, you are in an extremely emotional condition. You are filled with excitement.
The dictionary tells us that "beside" means next to, or at the side of. So the expression "beside oneself" describes something that really is not possible. You cannot be next to yourself. Some language experts, however, think the expression probably comes from an old belief that through magic, you could indeed be next to yourself. Spirits were believed to have the magic power to do anything. So it was possible to have two of the same person appear, especially if that person was excited.
Today, you might hear a husband say, "When my wife told me we were going to have a baby, I was beside myself with joy." Or someone might tell you he was beside himself with anger because he had just lost his job.
When you are full of joy or are extremely excited about something you may do something else that is strange. You may "flip your lid." A lid is the cover that prevents something from escaping from a container. A lid on a cooking pot, for example, keeps the heat from escaping. To flip something is to turn it over. So, when you "flip your lid," you become so excited that your self-control escapes.
You can "flip your lid" over something you like very much. A young man, for example, might flip his lid over a pretty, young woman. Or you can "flip your lid" if something makes you very angry. If someone hit your new car, it might make you flip your lid.
In recent years, the word "flip" itself has come to mean the same thing as flip your lid. It is common to hear a girl say she "flipped" over a new boyfriend.
An expression that means something quite similar is to "lose your head." The head is believed to be connected to reason and careful thought. Thus to "lose one's head" is to act without thinking, to be out of control.

(c) VoA

Words and their Stories - BIGWIG

Some expressions describe people who are important, or at least who think they are.
One such expression is bigwig. In the 17th century, important men in Europe began to wear hair pieces, called wigs. As years passed, wigs began to get bigger. The size of a man's wig depended on how important he was. The more important he was, or thought he was, the bigger the wig he wore. Some wigs were so large that they covered a man's shoulders or back.
Today the expression "bigwig" is used to make fun of a person who feels important. People never tell someone he is a bigwig. The only use the expression behind his back.
"Big wheel" is another way to describe an important person. A big wheel may be head of a company, a political leader, a famous doctor. They are big wheels because they are powerful. What they do affects many persons. Big wheels give the orders. Other people obey them. As in many machines, a big wheel makes the little wheels turn.
"Big wheel" became a popular expression after World War Two. It probably comes from an expression used for many years by people who fix the mechanical parts of cars and trucks. They said a person "rolled a big wheel" if he was important and had influence.
The top of something is the highest part. So it is not surprising that top is part of another expression that describes an important person.
The expression is "top banana." A "top banana" is the leading person in a comedy show. The best comedian is called the top banana, the next is second banana and so on down. Why a banana? A comedy act in earlier days often included a part where one of the comedians would hit the others over the head with a soft object shaped liked a banana fruit.
"Top banana" still is used mainly in show business. But the expression also can be used to describe the top person in any field.
A "kingpin" is another word for an important person. The expression comes from the game of bowling. The kingpin is the number one pin. If hit correctly with the bowling ball, the kingpin will make all the other nine pins fall. And that is the object of the game.
So, the most important person in a project or business is the "kingpin." If the kingpin is removed, the business or project will likely fail.
Kingpin is often used to describe an important criminal, or the leader of a criminal gang. A newspaper may report, for example, that police have arrested the suspected kingpin of a car-stealing operation.

(c) VoA