Behind popular wisdom

12 common sayings that don’t mean what you think

Image: Alexandra Fuller

We hear them daily and rarely question their meaning, but many popular sayings come from surprising origins—or mean something entirely different than we think. Some of these discrepancies are rooted in history, others in mistranslation, and more than a few in good old-fashioned misunderstanding. Here are 12 familiar phrases decoded and laid bare with real facts.

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The original version, a 12th-century German proverb—_"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"_—suggests chosen bonds (like friendship or military brotherhood) are stronger than family ties, the opposite of how it’s used today. This shift in meaning likely occurred in later times, as the abbreviated form entered popular speech.

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The full phrase is "Great minds think alike… and fools seldom differ." With the full version, the meaning turns ironic—it suggests that both geniuses and fools can agree just as easily, likely a warning against groupthink.

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This proverb is often used to warn against dangerous inquisitiveness, but the full version—_"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back"_—adds nuance. It suggests that the reward of knowing can outweigh the risks of curiosity.

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The full phrase is "Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than master of one." Originally, it praised versatility, not criticized it. The missing line completely flips the meaning, suggesting it’s often better to be well-rounded than narrowly skilled.

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This phrase meant an impossible task—just like lifting yourself by your own shoelaces. First recorded in the 1800s, it mocked absurd self-starting efforts. But by the 20th century, American individualism had flipped its meaning into a motivational mantra.

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The original phrase is "The proof of the pudding is in the eating," meaning you have to try something to know if it’s good. The modern shorthand makes little sense by itself and loses clarity but still hints at the original idea: results matter more than appearances.

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There are competing theories about this phrase’s origin. The most common links it to boxing radio commentary, where a losing fighter is "saved by the bell" at the end of a round. Others trace it to 18th-century burial customs, when the fear of being buried alive led to coffins being rigged with strings tied to bells aboveground.

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A popular myth claims the phrase "rule of thumb" stems from a law allowing men to beat their wives with sticks no thicker than a thumb. Fortunately, no such law ever existed. The phrase dates back to the 17th century and likely originated in trades where measurements were estimated using the thumb’s width or length.

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One theory about the origin of "cold turkey" links it to the clammy, pale skin that some people experience during withdrawal, said to resemble cold turkey meat. However, a more likely explanation is that it combines the earlier idiom "talking turkey" (meaning to speak plainly) with "cold," used to describe something abrupt or blunt.

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This phrase isn’t about feeling cozy—it refers to rope-strung beds from the 18th century. Back then, mattresses rested on a web of ropes that needed regular tightening. "Tight" meant the ropes were pulled firm to prevent the mattress from sagging.

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Though it sounds mythological, this phrase comes from early 1700s theater. Playwright John Dennis invented a new thunder sound effect for his play. After the show flopped, another theater used the effect without credit. Dennis famously complained, "They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder."

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Before modern transportation, trade ships often got stuck in winter ice. So, smaller vessels were sent to break the ice and clear a path. Used since at least the 16th century, the original nautical context made it a natural metaphor for overcoming barriers.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING

The Matilda Effect: 10 Innovations By Women That Were Attributed To Men

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Did you know that women made many scientific contributions, but their names were hidden and their discoveries attributed to men? This phenomenon is so common that it even has a name: the Matilda Effect. American historian of science Margaret W. Rossiter coined the term in 1993 in honor of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a prominent suffragist and abolitionist who had highlighted the importance of women inventors almost a century earlier. In an attempt to give them back at least some of the recognition they deserve, in this article, we have selected 10 women who changed the history of humanity.

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Probably one of the best examples of the Matilda effect is the story of British scientist Rosalind Franklin. While doing research at King's College in London in 1951, Rosalind discovered that the molecule of DNA existed in a helical conformation when she was taking X-ray photographs of the structure. She presented her findings, which included a picture of the double helix, at a conference attended by the American molecular biologist James Watson.

Later, this important finding was the basis for Watson and Francis Crick's research on the subject. In 1953 the scientists published a study attaching the photograph taken by Rosalind without giving her credit for it. Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Rosalind had died four years earlier without ever receiving recognition for her work.

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In 1967, British scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell was studying for her PhD at Cambridge when she noticed signals repeating at regular intervals through the radio telescope she was working on. It was the first step in the discovery of pulsars, stars that emit very small radiation.

The findings appeared in scientific journals signed by her advisor, the astrophysicist Antony Hewish, as first author. For this reason, it was only Hewish who received the Nobel Prize in 1974. At the time, the academy ignored her altogether, although now the entire scientific community accepts that it was Jocelyn Bell Burnell who first made the observation.

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The prehistory of computer science was blessed with the invaluable contribution of Ada Lovelace, one of the most exciting characters of the 19th century, not only because of her lineage —she was the daughter of the great poet Lord Byron— but also because she was a pioneer in computer programming.

Her excellent notes to mathematician Charles Babbage's work on the "analytical machine" are

considered the first approaches to computer algorithms. Although Babbage himself acknowledged Lovelace's merit, his contemporaries tried to minimize her contribution based on Ada's eccentric nature and, above all, for being a woman. Fortunately, today her achievements are vindicated: Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated every second Tuesday in October as a way of honoring women's contributions to science and technology.

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This Chinese scientist is one of those women who deserve an extensive biopic for having dedicated almost her entire life to working passionately on the development of science. Emigrated to the United States before World War II, Chien-Shiung Wu was part of the team that worked on the Manhattan Project and the birth of the atomic bomb.

After the war, scientists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang formulated the theory that the principle of conservation of parity was not valid and asked Chien-Shiung Wu to join in proving the ineffectiveness of this then-commonly accepted law. Although it was her work that finally disproved the theory, only Lee and Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Be as it may, her legacy is not entirely invisible: she is now known as the "First Lady of Physics" or "the Chinese Madame Curie" for her contributions to experimental physics.

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Hollywood star by day, researcher by night, Austrian-American actress Hedy Lamarr was not only a beauty icon of the 1940s but also responsible for developing a secure communications system called "frequency hopping."

Lamarr patented her invention in 1942, but unfortunately, at the time she was not given any credit due to the widespread belief that women could not be scientists or inventors and the fact that she was an actress. It wasn't until many years later that her work was finally recognized and became the basis for the development of technologies we use every day, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. So now you know, it’s thanks to Hedy Lamarr's groundbreaking invention that today we can send messages, make calls, and connect to the internet without any wires.

Image: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Unfortunately, the story of Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg is very common, not only in science but also in other disciplines such as art and philosophy. Lederberg was a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University and did pioneering work in genetics, yet it was her husband who took all the credit.

Esther and Joshua Lederberg specialized in research on bacterial colony transfer. It was she who, in 1951, discovered a virus that infects bacteria. Together they developed a transfer technique, called the Lederberg Method, which is still used today. But in 1958, her husband received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and during the award ceremony, he didn’t mention Esther, even though the work had been done in collaboration.

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You've probably heard of Katherine Johnson thanks to the 2016 three-time Academy Award- nominee Hidden Figures. But before her film fame, Johnson was only known at NASA, where she worked for 35 years in the Space Task Group.

Her journey, however, was not an easy one. Her accomplishments often went unrecognized by her male co-workers, and she faced double discrimination: as a woman and as an African-American. Despite this, and thanks to her brilliant mathematical skills, Johnson gradually earned a place on the teams that worked on the first spacecraft launch in 1961 and her tireless work ultimately helped send astronauts to the moon in 1969.

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In 1938, Austrian physicist Lise Meitner had to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish. Settled in Sweden, she embarked on a research on uranium with her laboratory partner, the German chemist Otto Hahn. Shortly thereafter, they discovered that the act of splitting atomic nuclei during "fission" releases enormous amounts of energy.

Although it was Meitner herself who wrote the first theoretical explanation of the process after the discovery, it was only Hahn who received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1944. Well, not everything is lost, although she wasn’t awarded, she has an element of the periodic table named after her, meitnerium.

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American biologist and geneticist Nettie Stevens had the misfortune of discovering the XY chromosomes at exactly the same time as another —male— scientist in 1905. After receiving a master's degree from Stanford and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr, Stevens set out to revive and explain the genetic research of Austrian-Czech biologist Gregor Johann Mendel.

But Edmund Beecher Wilson also published his findings about the chromosomal XY sex-determination system and was widely praised as the sole discoverer. Interestingly, the two reports differed slightly: Wilson claimed that environmental factors determined sex, while Stevens thought it was only genetic. Lo and behold, time has proven that Nettie Stevens was right.

Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Vera Rubin was a pioneering and brilliant American scientist. Through her research, she managed to convince the scientific community of the existence of dark matter, considered a scientific milestone and one of the great persistent mysteries of the universe.

Her work was also a forerunner in the study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. However, despite being one of the most influential astronomers of her time, Vera Rubin was not awarded the Nobel Prize nor did she receive the same recognition as some of her male colleagues. Perhaps this is why Vera dedicated her life to relentlessly advocating for the advancement of women in science, inviting them to important conferences and awarding them prizes in fields that historically were exclusive to men.