Words of wisdom

Did you know that the idiom "by and large" comes from sailors?

Image: Mick Haupt

The English language is filled to the brim with impactful, deep, and sometimes whimsical imagery: Have you ever stopped to think about how much we rely on a vast array of unusual phrases to relay very common concepts? We are of course talking about idioms, those quirky and eccentric sentences that, if anything, provide a bit of color and variety to our everyday lives. But have you wondered where the idioms we say daily come from? Who was the first person to warn someone not to look into a gifted horse’s mouth? Don’t worry, we got you covered: We have researched the origins of 10 of the most common idioms in the English language. Enjoy!

Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya

The idiom "to fly off the handle" is used to describe someone who is not in full control of their emotions: Someone might fly off the handle if they angrily and suddenly overreact to a minor inconvenience.

You might be inclined to think that the titular handle is one found in an everyday tool like a frying pan or a wok, but it in fact comes from the world of lumberjacks: According to historians, this idiom comes from badly manufactured axes, out of which poorly fastened axe heads would sometimes come off flying. Since this outcome is obviously dangerous, this idiom perfectly describes unpredictable and potentially unpleasant situations.

Image: Ayla Verschueren

This idiom is a bit off-putting, isn’t it? Someone "chewing the fat" is engaged in pleasant yet trivial conversation: Whether it is idle chit-chat or harmless gossip, two (or more) people chewing the fat are usually chatting without a care in the world.

If you are wondering how chewing fat would eventually morph to mean chatting, you might want to take a look at the world of 19th-century sailors. In the days before refrigerators, sailors had to carry food that wouldn’t spoil on their voyages: One of these items was salted pork skin, which largely consisted of fat. In due time, the idle chatter that came from the long time it took to consume this honestly disgusting food became synonymous with the action itself.

Image: Igor

This is one of the idioms on this list that makes the most sense. An astrological blue moon is a rare occurrence in which the second full moon of a month might be seen with a pale blue tint. Blue moons usually occur approximately every 3 years, although some phenomena like volcanic eruptions or forest fires might produce them as well.

Logically, the idiom "once in a blue moon" is used to describe something that happens very rarely. In any case, this idiom does bring a certain mystique to complaining about that friend who is never able to hang out: You can simply say that they come around "once in a blue moon".

Image: Ilyuza Mingazova

No one wants to be on the receiving end of a "cold shoulder": This idiom is used to describe someone who is intentionally unfriendly to someone else. From an angry friend to a disgruntled coworker, if anyone is giving you the cold shoulder, you might want to look into what made them mad in the first place.

You might be inclined to believe that the origin of this idiom comes from the action of literally turning away from someone. However, some historians have a more interesting theory: They believe that it comes from medieval etiquette. According to these linguists, whenever the host of a dinner party in medieval times wanted their guests to leave, they would serve a cold cut of pork or mutton shoulder.

Image: Kylee Alons

Isn’t this idiom adorable? We instantly think about a worried cow waiting for her teenage cows to come home only to scold them for being out past their curfew. In any case, the idiom "till the cows come home" is used to describe something that takes a long and indefinite amount of time.

As you would expect, this idiom comes from the world of farming, and it dates back to at least the 1500s. Since cows were often milked late at night, the last job a farmer would have to do before turning in for the night would be to return the cows to their barns. And, as anyone with an office job will attest, the last task of the day often seems like the longest.

Image: LuAnn Hunt

The idiom "blood is thicker than water" is regularly used to highlight the importance of family, where blood is used as a symbol of family bonds. When someone tells you this idiom, they are trying to remind you that family needs to stick together through thick and thin.

Curiously, some historians believe that the origins of this idiom can be traced back to a mistranslation. According to them, the full adage states: "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb". Therefore, if this theory is to be believed, the meaning of this idiom would be the exact opposite, and bonds of friendship would supersede family bonds.

Image: Ben Wogl

This idiom should be fairly self-explanatory: Unless they are about to go on a delightful walk through the park, cats should never be placed inside bags. Not that this reminder will do anyone any good: As every single cat owner can attest, cats can (and will) go inside any object they find even slightly suitable.

In any case, what’s the origin of the idiom "to let the cat out of the bag"? Well, the answer might lie in Medieval markets, of all places. According to one theory, some unscrupulous merchants might trick patrons into buying small kittens, passing them as piglets sold inside a bag. Once the titular cat was "let out of the cat", the enraged patron would realize they were bamboozled, at which point it would probably be too late.

Image: Ekaterina Grosheva

"By and large" is an idiom used to describe a situation in general: For instance, you might be complaining about your job, only to end your sentence by saying "But by and large, I think it is a good workplace".

As with many other English idioms, "by and large" comes from sailor slang. In the old days, sailors would use the nautical term "full and by" to refer to traveling into the wind, while "large" was used to describe the exact opposite: Wind coming from behind. In that sense, the term "by and large" emerged to describe a situation in which the wind was coming from all directions.

Image: Simon Hurry

The idiom "white elephant" is used to describe something lavish and expensive that however doesn’t seem to serve any function whatsoever, rendering it burdensome. This phrase might seem nonsensical, but it does make perfect sense when you think about it: Would you like to receive a costly elephant as a birthday present?

You might think we are joking, but this is actually the historical basis behind this idiom: According to historians, rulers of the Kingdom of Siam (now present-day Thailand) would gift white elephants as gifts. However, you might be surprised to learn that these outlandish gifts were actually punishment: Since the elephants were extremely costly to keep, they would often become financial burdens to their owners.

Image: Julia Kwiek

We’ll end this article with one of the most baffling idioms we were able to find. The idiom "cat got your tongue" is used to describe someone rendered speechless after learning a particularly shocking piece of information. However, why these adorable pets are associated with losing the ability to speak is a mystery we can’t stop thinking about.

And while we can’t provide you with a definitive answer, here are some plausible theories: Some believe that it refers to Medieval times, in which blasphemers would be punished by forcefully removing their tongues and feeding them to street cats and other vermin. Others believe that it comes from the fear of witches, who would supposedly command their cat familiars to hex and curse their victims, rendering them speechless and catatonic.

Translation and interpretation

Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? 10 Bible surprises

What if some of the Bible stories you grew up with aren't exactly what the Bible says? Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? Were there actually three Wise Men? Did "God helps those who help themselves" really come from the Bible? Over centuries, translations, traditions, and famous works of art have added details that became so familiar, we stopped questioning them. But go back to the texts, and some of these stories look surprisingly different. From Eve's "apple" to the date of Jesus' birth, here are 10 familiar parts of the Bible that may not be quite what we remember.

When you picture the Garden of Eden, what fruit comes to mind? Most people imagine an apple, but there's just one problem: the Bible never says it was an apple.

In the Book of Genesis, the fruit is simply called "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The original Hebrew text uses the word peri, which simply means "fruit." The apple connection came centuries later, largely through the Latin translation. The Latin word malum can mean both "apple" and "evil," making it an especially fitting symbol for the story. Over time, that association spread through Christian art and literature. Famous works such as Albrecht Dürer’s 1504 engraving Adam and Eve (also known as The Fall of Man) helped cement the image of Eve holding an apple. Today, it's one of the most famous scenes in history, even though the original biblical text doesn’t identify the fruit as an apple at all.

The story of Jesus' birth is so famous that most of us picture the Three Wise Men, sometimes called the Three Kings, standing beside the manger. But the thing is, over the centuries, the story picked up a few details that aren't actually in the Bible.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the only Gospel that mentions these visitors, they are described simply as Magi from the East. The original Greek word, magoi, referred to learned scholars, astrologers, or priests from Persia or Babylon, not kings. But where did the number three come from? Matthew lists three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but never says how many visitors brought them. Over the centuries, people naturally assumed there must have been three Magi, one for each gift. Even their familiar names, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar, were added later by Christian tradition. So, neither the number of visitors nor their names appears anywhere in the biblical text.

Whether it's used to motivate a friend, encourage a family member, or push yourself to finally make a difficult decision, "God helps those who help themselves" is one of the most familiar religious sayings in America. But here's the surprise: those words never appear in the Bible.

The idea can be traced to ancient Greek sources, including Aesop’s Fables, where the saying appears in an earlier form: "The gods help them that help themselves." The exact modern wording was written by English politician Algernon Sidney in 1698, but it was Benjamin Franklin who helped make it part of American culture when he included it in his 1736 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

Many teenagers have heard "Cleanliness is next to godliness" when it was time to clean their rooms. But despite sounding like a Bible verse, the phrase never appears in Scripture.

The Bible, particularly Leviticus, does contain extensive laws requiring people to wash their bodies and clothes in certain circumstances, especially before religious rituals. But the famous saying itself came much later. In 1605, Francis Bacon wrote in The Advancement of Learning that "cleanness of body" was connected to reverence for God. Then, in 1786, it was Methodist leader John Wesley who used the wording we recognize today in a sermon: "Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness." Over time, the phrase became a familiar saying that many people simply assumed came from the Bible.

When it comes to famous dates, December 25 may be the most recognizable of all, universally associated with Christmas. But here's the surprising part: the Bible never gives any specific date for Jesus' birth.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke describe the Nativity but never provide a calendar date, so how did December 25 become Christmas? There are two leading theories. The first is that the Roman Church was celebrating Christmas on December 25 by 336 AD, during Constantine's reign, possibly choosing the date to coincide with existing Roman winter festivals and make it easier to convert the empire to Christianity. The second points to an early Christian tradition that calculated Jesus' birth date from the supposed date of his crucifixion, eventually arriving at December 25.

The story of Jonah and the Whale is so famous that it has appeared literally or symbolically in innumerable works of art and literature, from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512) to Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. But there's a small problem with the title we've given it: the Bible doesn’t actually say it was a whale.

In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew text of Jonah 1:17 uses the words dag gadol, meaning "great fish" or "large fish"; it doesn't identify the creature as a whale, or even specify what kind of fish it was. Most modern English translations therefore stick with "great fish," but the familiar "whale" interpretation developed through older translations and later European tradition, eventually becoming so widespread that "Jonah and the Whale" became the name almost everyone recognizes.

Just as we've always pictured the forbidden fruit as an apple, many of us also assume the serpent in the Garden of Eden is the devil himself. But the original story is a little more complicated.

A plain reading of Genesis depicts the creature simply as a serpent or snake, using the Hebrew word nachash. It describes the serpent as clever and crafty, but it never calls it Satan or explicitly identifies it as the devil. So where did the connection come from? The answer comes from later parts of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. In Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, Satan is called "the ancient serpent" (ho ophis ho archaios in Greek), connecting him to the snake of Eden. Over time, Christian tradition applied that later connection back to Genesis, leading to the familiar belief that the serpent was Satan himself.

Many of us remember Samson for his legendary strength and the long hair that was said to be the source of his power. His story with Delilah is one of the Bible's most famous tales of betrayal, but there's one detail some people may have gotten wrong: Delilah didn't actually cut his long hair.

In Judges 16:19, Delilah has Samson's hair shaved while he sleeps on her lap. The text says she called for a man to do the shaving; it never says she did it herself. Yet paintings, films, and other retellings have often shown Delilah wielding the scissors herself, cementing that image in popular culture. It can be considered a small detail, but it’s a great example of how easily familiar Bible stories can pick up elements that aren't actually in the original text.

Many of us think of the Bible as a single book, written at one particular time by one author, or perhaps a handful of them. After all, that's how it looks when you pick one up in a hotel room, but its history is far more complicated.

The Bible is actually a collection of books written by over 40 authors over roughly 1,500 years, from about 1400 BC to AD 100. The exact number of books varies by religious tradition: Protestant Bibles contain 66 books, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions include additional books. Across these different traditions, the writings were produced by kings, prophets, fishermen, and scholars in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They also span a tremendous range of literary styles, including history, poetry, songs, laws, letters, and prophecy. So while we hold it as one book today, the Bible is actually a collection of many different writings produced across centuries.

Many people assume that at least a few original fragments of the Bible must still exist somewhere. It would be incredible if they did, but none of the original manuscripts, known as autographs, have survived.

The earliest biblical texts were written on fragile materials such as papyrus and animal skins, which could deteriorate through humidity, heat, handling, and simple age. Wars, fires, and other destruction also contributed to their disappearance. So how do we know what the originals said? Through a technique called textual criticism: expert scholars compare thousands of handwritten copies, ancient translations, and quotations from early Christian writers. When they find passages that match across different sources, or differences that reveal how a text changed over time, they can work backward to determine what the original most likely said, even though the original manuscripts themselves are gone.