I was thinking about the phrase ‘The pot calling the kettle black’. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)
What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?
I love head over heels as, in love.
It’s vice versa that makes actual sense, but that was considered too obviously risqué in the age the phrase was coined.
I don’t think it’s the char/open fire but rather that both pot a d kettle would be made of the same black cast iron
Ass over teakettle.
I don’t think there is a modern equivalent idiom for taking a sloppy fall
Ass over tit, I have heard.
Which I expect ass over teakettle is actually a polite euphemism for
No it’s not a euphemism. It’s literally walking down the stairs with a teapot and falling and … Well
Arse over tit is in an identical British expression for the same thing
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ass_over_teakettle
It’s the same as ‘head over heels’ in that the bottom part of your body (your ass) and the top part of your body (your breast/chest) switch places.
I feel like we have to assume the description of how your body moves is the prime definition (head over heels, or any variation) and any substitution of words like ass over teakettle is a playful alteration which works and is understood primarily because people are familiar with the original and understand the alteration through context of use.
Oh, man, when it comes to nautical idioms, I could go on all day. There are so many, and they’ve lost their literal connections so thoroughly, you probably don’t even think of some of them as idioms. A few that occur to me immediately:
- taken aback (wind on the wrong side of the sails)
- give a wide berth (extra space for a vessel to maneuver)
- leeway (unwanted downwind slippage of the vessel when in motion)
- above board (on deck, the board being the section of the hull running fore and aft just above the water line)
- onboard (to load onto the deck of the ship)
- go by the board (to fall off of the ship into the water, passing the board on the way)
- hand over fist (two-handed motion to pull in sails, ropes, etc. as quickly as possible)
- high and dry (above the tide line)
- loose cannon (a gun insufficiently secured would cause havoc on a warship when fired, or as the ship rolled in waves)
Honestly, I’m not sure that I want modern equivalents, since many are so rich in imagery.
Also today I was literally at the bitter end anchoring a boat with almost all of the available chain.
Not quite updating, but in my house we say “like sweeping the yard” to indicate that something is pointless and wasting time.
“Boss has us doing obviously pointless busy work today”
“Yeah, next he’ll be having us sweep the yard!”
Or derogatorily:
“I want you to go do that thing.”
“Sure, you want me sweep the yard when I’m done?”
I always thought of that idiom as the pot (something generally cast iron and not polished) calling the kettle (something that is polished and therefore reflective) black.
Being that the pot sees itself in the reflection, but calls the kettle that as a derogatory thing, unknowing of it’s personal alignment.
I assumed the idiom was from a time when all cookware was made of cast iron.
whats the point of a modern replacement? idioms connect us across time and when they really have not modern sense (which there is enough understanding of cookware I don’t think we hit that with pot and kettle) then it becomes an interesting backstory.
To be funny is why.
No real reason, just something to talk about while we all wait around to die really 🤷. I agree with your sentiment - the stories and imagery behind old idioms actually make them more interesting, I dont think they’ll be going anywhere soon!
All the horse ones because we don’t use horses anymore. There a ton of them.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Who tf gets a gift horse?
Saddle up. Who tf has a saddle?
Hold your horses. Who tf has horses to hold?
Get off your high horse. Who tf has a high horse?
Beat a dead horse. WTF.
Great examples! ‘champing at the bit’ also comes to mind. I think cars fill in pretty nicely as a horse substitute. ‘Saddle up’ has ‘buckle up’. Hold your horses has ‘Hit your brakes’. As for gift horses… ‘Don’t look a gift car under the hood?’ Hmm doesn’t quite work
“Don’t check the resale value of a gift car” maybe
I dunno. Yamiks still beats on horses… In both ways.
Quit horsing around. You’re really putting the cart before the horse.
Edit: sorry, gotta go. I need to see a man about a horse.
I’m sure there’s something there with e-scooters. Get off your segway max extreme and get down here. Don’t look at the speed regulator of a free scooter. Hold onto your brakes? Idk I’m just spitballing here
“One bad apple will spoil the whole barrel” desperately needs to be replaced because nobody has experience with storing apples in barrels so when Michael Jackson subverted it they took it unironically and now many people think it means the opposite.
I’m not techy but something about one line of bad code can jank the whole program?
“A bad link breaks the chain” maybe. Or “one bug causes an infestation” for the idea that you can’t just solve the initial problem once it gets bad, it spreads if not dealth with
Maybe if we just apply “you find one cockroach, there’s a million in the walls” to the same problems like bent police and corrupt politicians…
“Avoiding things like the plague” because people did not actually seem to want to avoid the plague last time around.
Too soon.
Or not, really.
We’re the ones who survived, we’re allowed to joke about it
Oh, I didn’t say not to joke about it. I just really miss Herman Cain, OK?
/s you animals.
Avoid things like the crypto xD or the AI slop to make it super modern
To be honest, I was never prepared to know what “hoisted by one’s own pitard” meant, and knowing today, I still have no clue how this was ever relevant to any time period.
A pitard is a timed bomb used to to blow down a door or wall. The idiom is about blowing yourself up mistakenly instead. Were people using these routinely at some point?
Blowing up or at least weakening a portion of a castle wall during a siege would be useful to the besiegers. Even a small petard could break into a building for nefarious purposes. And being a sapper is notoriously dangerous even now.
Of course Shakespeare could have used the name of a larger bomb, or “speared with his own sword” or something. But Shakespeare’s audience would also have clocked the fact that pétard is a French pun from péter which makes it a fart joke. And he never missed a chance for a fart joke.
So is “hoisted” in this case the equivalent of “yeeted”?
Ain’t no two ways about it
They don’t need to have been used routinely, just knowledge of their use had to be common. In the same way that “shooting yourself in the foot” makes sense even to people who have never used a gun. It was enough to know what “hoist” and “petard” meant to piece together the intent of the phrase. Then once the phrase itself became common the specific knowledge was no longer necessary.
before the invention of doorknobs, doors were indeed single use. they would be blown open with every use. this is why we invented chamber pots. midnight bathroom breaks were very loud, before people had pots.
I would like to subscribe to your history newsletter.
Yup.
Like that one scene in The Two Towers when Legolas suddenly became unable to shoot his bow.
Britta will explain: https://youtu.be/KuuafUtVte0
Threshhold
from the time we spread threshes on the floor inside homes and a lip was needed to keep them spilling out.
Modern version?
Ohdear. Cause you yell something along that line when you hit it with your toe.
I think that many historic trades have been automated to the extent their old terminology is obscure but lives on in idioms.
“To the bitter end” (bitter end meaning the lose end of a rope, from rope-working - not entirely extinct but obscure). Perhaps that one could be “To the edge node”!
“Strike while the iron is hot” (from blacksmithing, again not entirely an extinct craft but largely replaced by automation). Maybe “Cross while the light is green?”
Drinks like coffee and tea can become bitter when you get down to the dregs. That’s what the first saying makes me think of.
Same with distillation, you get the heavies that you don’t really want in your drink so you end the process. Ie the bitter end.
That’s very good.
Wow, great examples! I never realised that first one had a historical meaning. I suppose even without the context it still makes sense because of the adjective ‘bitter’.
I wonder if any common sayings nowadays will catch on and become long lived idioms in the future?
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Don’t submit your post before you write it.This comment is about to be legen-
pation
RIP Timmy
Wait for it …
“Keep the carriage in the wake of the mare.”
Don’t buy crypto before it’s settled lol
