Superstitious speech

The eerie belief behind saying "bless you" after a sneeze

We use phrases like "bless you" or "break a leg" every day, but have you ever stopped to wonder where they actually came from? Many of our favorite figures of speech are rooted in the old superstitions of our ancestors: fears, beliefs, and traditions that haven't quite faded away. Let’s uncover the fascinating, sometimes eerie, backstories behind 10 idioms we use all the time.

When someone sneezes, "bless you" is the automatic response. This tradition began in the 6th century, primarily thanks to Pope Gregory the Great, who ordered the saying of "God bless you" to protect people from the plague, as sneezing was considered an early symptom of sickness.

Some also trace it back to an ancient belief, shared across Europe and Asia, that a sneeze was the body's way of driving out evil spirits, or even the soul briefly trying to escape. According to the legend, saying "God bless you" was a quick, necessary prayer to protect the sneezer’s soul from being snatched by the devil before it settled back in.

"Cross your fingers" is a widely recognized way of wishing for a positive outcome. It originated in the 16th-century Christian practice of physically crossing one's fingers to signify the cross and invoke divine protection.

Over time, the hand gesture evolved from a silent, pious prayer into a casual expression. Now, we use it in everyday conversation to show support for a friend or to signal that we are banking on a specific, desired result during a stressful situation.

We use this expression when we wish someone good luck before they step on stage, or, more broadly, before any high-pressure moment.

The origins are surprisingly murky for such a well-known phrase. The most widely accepted theory traces it back to the competitive world of American vaudeville and Broadway in the early 20th century, where wishing someone good luck directly would actually invite bad luck. Saying the opposite was a way of outsmarting fate.

"Speak of the devil" is one of those phrases we use almost automatically. The moment someone walks into a room right after being mentioned in conversation, someone inevitably says it.

The expression is a shortening of a traditional English proverb, 'speak of the devil, and he shall appear,' which dates back to at least the 1500s-1600s. The original meaning was far less casual: it was a genuine warning rooted in the medieval Christian belief that speaking of evil, even in passing, was thought to invite it into your presence.

Imagine your boss is about to call on you to present a report you completely forgot to prepare, but just as he turns to you, an urgent call comes in, and the meeting gets cancelled. Being saved by the bell means to be rescued from a difficult situation at the very last second.

Due to a 19th-century custom, bells were attached to coffins to alert people in case someone woke up, reflecting the widespread fear at the time of being buried alive. It is a perfect example of a dark, historical anxiety morphing into a lighthearted, everyday piece of office humor.

There's no single definitive origin story or specific text where this expression first appeared. It likely evolved organically from the general cultural association between wind and chaos. Today, the expression means to act recklessly or boldly, ignoring risks.

The phrase draws from a long tradition of wind-related idioms in English that associate wind with unpredictability and lack of control ("gone with the wind," "which way the wind blows," etc.).

In seafaring culture, "throwing caution to the wind" may also connect to the idea of sailing recklessly by putting up too much sail despite dangerous conditions: essentially letting the wind take over rather than navigating carefully.

The phrase "it must be a Friday the 13th" has become an idiomatic way to complain about a day when everything goes wrong. It draws on the combined superstitions surrounding the number 13, often linked to the 13 guests at the Last Supper (1st century AD), and the perceived misfortune of Friday, the day of the Crucifixion. When we use this expression, we aren't necessarily expressing deep fear; we are simply using a culturally shared shorthand to describe a series of unfortunate, coincidental events.

We often use the idiom "like walking through a minefield" to describe a social situation that is incredibly tense and fraught with hidden dangers. While it sounds like a literal warning, it has become a common expression for navigating tricky interpersonal politics. The phrase originated in the early 20th century, specifically around World War I (circa 1915), when the use of landmines became a terrifying new reality of modern warfare. It quickly shifted from a military term to a popular metaphor.

"Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck" is an idiomatic rhyme that turns a mundane discovery into a superstitious event. The underlying belief likely traces back to ancient societies across Europe and Asia, who saw metal as a sacred gift from the gods, forged from the earth itself. Finding a piece of it was no accident; it was a sign of divine favor. By the early 20th century, it evolved to include the penny. Today, reciting this idiom acknowledges our enduring, playful hope for a little extra luck.

When we say "knock on wood," we express an idiom to express a desire for continued good fortune or to ward off bad luck after boasting. It’s just a reflexive, superstitious way to keep the bad luck at bay, even if we’re only knocking on a laminated desk.

One popular theory traces it to ancient pagan cultures, particularly those that regarded trees as sacred or inhabited by spirits — a belief found across pre-Christian Europe, from Norse to Celtic traditions. By knocking on the trunk, people hoped to awaken these benevolent spirits to request protection, or sometimes to distract malicious ones from spoiling their good fortune. However, folklorists note there is little concrete evidence for this, and the true origin remains uncertain.

Tango, Bravo

Codewords decoded: How many did you know?

In situations where clear communication is paramount, especially when lives are at stake, professionals often rely on standardized codewords and phonetic alphabets designed to prevent confusion. Either from movies or from personal experience, it's probable that you've heard at least some of these before, and many have found their way into everyday conversation. Let's find out how many of these code expressions you can recognize.

Mayday is the international distress call used when the sender is in immediate, life-threatening danger. Pilots and mariners use it to signal that they require urgent assistance due to situations such as engine failure, fire, flooding, or medical emergencies.

The word was introduced in 1923 by British radio officer Frederick Stanley Mockford, who based it on the French phrase m'aider, meaning "help me," in an attempt to make it internationally recognizable. Hearing this transmission immediately alerts emergency responders that every second counts.

Not every emergency is severe enough to warrant a mayday call. When a crew faces a problem that is urgent but not immediately life-threatening, the appropriate codeword is Pan-Pan.

Like mayday, it comes from French: it derives from panne, meaning a breakdown or mechanical failure. A Pan-Pan call might be used if an aircraft loses an engine but can still fly safely, or if a ship experiences equipment problems while remaining under control. It tells responders that assistance is needed, but that the situation has not yet become critical.

Few emergency signals are as universally recognizable as SOS. Contrary to popular belief, the letters do not officially stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls." It was adopted in 1906 because SOS is an extremely simple, easy-to-transmit, and unmistakable pattern in Morse code.

SOS remains one of the world's most enduring distress signals, and it's still recognized by rescue organizations all around the globe.

In the NATO phonetic alphabet, each letter is assigned a unique word to eliminate confusion when radio transmissions are distorted by noise or poor reception. If you've ever heard someone spell a name as "Mike Alpha Romeo Yankee," you've encountered the NATO phonetic alphabet.

The system was officially adopted by NATO in the 1950s and is now widely used by militaries, airlines, emergency responders, and many police departments worldwide. Using it greatly reduces the chance of misunderstanding important information over radio.

Roger dates back to the early days of radio communication, when the letter R stood for "received." Before the adoption of the NATO alphabet, the US military used Roger instead of Romeo to represent that letter_._

Although modern communications systems have changed and the US military has fully embraced the use of the NATO alphabet, Roger remains standard aviation terminology, and it's one of the best-known radio acknowledgments in the world. It conveys a very simple but important meaning: "I have received and understood your message."

Although many people assume Roger and Wilco mean the same thing, they actually convey different messages. Wilco is short for "will comply." In other words, it tells the sender not only that the message was received and understood, but that the instruction will be carried out.

Saying both Roger and Wilco is technically redundant in proper radio communication, since complying necessarily implies understanding, but the combination is often heard in movies and television.

In the NATO phonetic alphabet, Tango simply represents the letter T. However, US military personnel have also adopted it as a shorthand when referring to a target or a hostile.

This secondary meaning became widely known through military operations in the twentieth century and has since appeared in countless books, films, and video games in phrases like "We've got one Tango moving north."

Oscar Mike, NATO for the letters O and M, is military shorthand for "On the Move." It's a quick way of reporting that a unit has begun moving toward its objective.

The expression is especially common in the US military and has become more familiar to the general public through documentaries, memoirs, and films. It's finding its way into civilian life, meaning simply "I'm heading out."

Ten-codes were developed during the 1930s to allow for brevity and standardization of message traffic in radio communications. They were widely adopted by US public safety departments and by radio enthusiasts.

While the system is being slowly phased out in favor of plain language communications, many local police, fire, and sheriff departments keep using it, and it is still strongly associated with radio culture by the general public. One of the most famous ten-codes is 10-4, meaning "received and understood."

Hospitals around the world use color-coded announcements to communicate emergencies without causing unnecessary panic among patients and visitors. Perhaps the best known is Code Blue, indicating that a patient is experiencing cardiac or respiratory arrest and requires immediate medical assistance.

While some hospitals use their own custom color codes, Code Blue has become so widely recognized that it now appears frequently in television dramas and everyday conversation whenever someone refers to a life-threatening medical emergency.