You say these phrases all the time, but do you know their grim origins?

We toss around old sayings all the time—some without thinking twice. But have you ever wondered where these phrases actually came from? You might be surprised (and a little unsettled) to find out that many of them have pretty grim backstories. Even if we’re keeping things light and curious, you’ll never look at everyday expressions the same way again!

Image: Jonathan Larson

The Mad Hatter may have been lovable and quirky in Alice in Wonderland, but the origin of the phrase isn’t nearly as charming. In the 18th and 19th centuries, hat-makers, especially in England, used mercury in the felt-making process. Long-term exposure to the toxic substance led to tremors, confusion, hallucinations, and even full-blown insanity. So, when someone was "mad as a hatter," it wasn’t a joke, it was actually a tragic side effect of their trade.

Image: Markus Winkler

These days, "deadline" means you’re rushing to finish your taxes or meet your grandson’s birthday RSVP. But during the Civil War, it was a deadly serious term. Prison camps had an actual line drawn in the dirt—step past it, and guards had permission to shoot without warning.

Image: Greg Rosenke

If your grandkids ever run through your living room like a tornado, you’ve probably said they were "running amok." Originally, this referred to sudden, violent rampages by certain warriors in Southeast Asia. European colonizers didn’t understand it and blamed the devil, but it was likely tied to deep psychological distress. Over time, the phrase softened, but its origins are quite dark, don’t you think?

Image: wilsan u

It might sound like gentle teasing today, but "pulling someone’s leg" used to mean something far more sinister. In the crowded, foggy streets of old London, thieves would trip unsuspecting victims by yanking their legs from behind—either to rob them or help an accomplice mug them more easily. So next time someone says they’re "just pulling your leg," be glad it’s only a joke.

Image: Alin Meceanu

You’ve probably said you were "taken aback" when someone shocked you with unexpected news, right? Did you know this phrase has nautical roots? On a sailing ship, if the wind hit the sails from the front, it could stop the boat dead in the water, or even pull it backwards. That "aback" feeling was equally surprising as it was alarming!

Image: Tom Pumford

We call fake emotions "crocodile tears," but the story behind it is a bit strange. People once believed crocodiles cried while eating their victims, like they were able to show some kind of twisted remorse. Of course, science has since debunked this theory, but the legend stuck around. So when someone puts on a sad face to get out of chores, just remember: even reptiles have better excuses.

Image: Aarón Blanco Tejedor

Before painkillers and numbing gels, wounded soldiers had one brutal option during surgery. Can you guess what it was? That’s right, bite the bullet. Literally. On the battlefield, doctors had to work fast and without anesthesia. A bullet between the teeth gave patients something to focus on while wounds were stitched (or worse!)

Image: Alvaro Reyes

We know that Shakespeare loved creating new words and phrases, and "the be-all and end-all" is one of his most dramatic. It first appeared in Macbeth when the title character thinks of ending the king’s life as a final, all-important solution. These days, we use it for less murderous things—like the ultimate plane has for some things.

Image: Ben White

Saying "God bless you" after a sneeze might seem polite, but it stems from a much darker place. In the time of the bubonic plague, a sneeze could be an early symptom, and people feared it meant death was close. Saying "God bless you" was like a quick prayer that you’d survive. Other theories suggest it was meant to keep your soul from escaping. Whatever the origin, it was more panic than politeness.

Image: Brett Jordan

We say someone’s "wreaking havoc" when they’re causing trouble. But centuries ago, it was an actual military command. Once a battle was won, officers might yell "Havoc!" and soldiers were free to do and destroy whatever they wanted. As you can imagine, the chaos was so brutal that King Richard II officially banned the cry in the 14th century.

TRANSLATION BLUNDERS

7 translation mistakes that almost ruined everything

Image: Afif Ramdhasuma

Amateurish translations can be a recipe for disaster, especially when international politics or your business future are at stake! Traduttore, traditore! is an old Italian saying that roughly means "translators are traitors." However this saying has nothing to do with wartime propaganda or chauvinistic sentiments, and it’s instead a rather lighthearted take on the inherent difficulty of a translator’s line of work.

You might wonder, how bad can you make things with a bad translation? Well, there’s no need to wonder, the profession is full of hysterical stories about the craziest translation blunders that almost managed to ruin whole thriving businesses and reputations.

Image: Tim Mossholder

Around the 1960s, Pepsi decided to expand its business to China only to find a literal linguistic barrier that almost ruined the whole venture. At the time, Pepsi’s slogan in English-speaking countries was "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation." However, when directly translated into Chinese, the slogan read something like "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead," turning the favorite cola of millions into a powerful dark magic concoction that—as one could expect—wasn’t very well received by the Chinese population, who just happen to hold their deceased ancestors in great esteem.

Image: Enq 1998

When Napoleon’s brother was crowned king of Holland in 1806, he was eager to please the local populace and quickly decided to change his name to something more fitting, from Ludovic to Lodewijk. However, he was such a bad speaker of Dutch that, during the coronation ceremony, he ended up declaring himself the "Rabbit of 'Olland," instead of "King of Holland."

Image: Aaron Burden

This one is absolutely hilarious, and just like the Pepsi gaffe, it shows the dangers of localizing new products when you aren’t fully aware of the language. When Parker Pens decided to expand its business into Mexico, it mistranslated the company’s current slogan "It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you"— surprising by itself, since you would expect that to be the bare minimum in order to have a working pen— into "It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant," due to a confusion with the similarity between the false cognates "embarazar" (get pregnant) in Spanish and "embarrass" in English.

Image: Tuntematon, Valkoisen talon valokuvaajat (01/20/1977 - 01/20/1981), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1977, during a trip to Poland, U.S. President Jimmy Carter took an involuntary part in a series of incredibly funny translation fails. His amateur interpreter was terribly bad at speaking Polish—and even understanding English apparently—because when the president mentioned that he had left the U.S. that morning, the interpreter said to the Polish audience that "he had left his country, never to return." To make matters even worse, Carter’s enthusiastic appeal to the Polish people was mistranslated again and the interpreter said that the president wanted to "get to know the Poles carnally."

Image: Jen Theodore

When beer brand Coors tried to get into the Spanish market, it failed to hire a decent translator, since the company’s tagline "Turn It Loose" was translated into something akin to "Suffer From Diarrhea," something you definitely don’t want to see in a beer can from overseas.

Image: Thomas Kelley

When General Electric released a new partnership brand in France under the acronym GPT, no one realized that, in French, this acronym can be read as "J’ai pété," or "I farted." You can imagine that if they just hired a French teenager, they would have discovered their mistake soon enough, saving themselves a lot of time and money.

Image: Miika Laaksonen

A Swedish non-prescription drug used to alleviate stomach pains called Samarin wanted to market its product to Arabic countries with a text-free three-panel comic strip that showed a man with a hurting stomach in its first picture, the same man drinking Samarin in the second, and a happy and healthy man in the last one. But they forgot to take into account that in the Arab world people read both books and comic strips from the right to the left! So, not even avoiding text whatsoever saved them from screwing up their new business expansion.