A whole post on colloquialism. Lucky you! Have you ever noticed the stupid things we say? Not we as in my friends and I, we as in the human race. The whole human race, that is. Not just Americans. Not just Spaniards. Not just people from Norway. Everyone! In no way am I deprecating this behavior (nor do I aim to terminate this all but surreptitious behavior). I am merely noting its overt presence in our busy lives.Ponder for a moment why we might use these expressions...They're usually extremely colorful or imaginative. They paint a picture that. They half-satiate a unquenchable craving, an instinct almost, for adventure. It's simply blissful perfidy in a cruel world...Some colloquial expressions you have probably heard in everyday speech:
I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!
Could you now? Really? A horse? For breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Do tell.
I'm just pulling your leg.
In Spanish, this phrase is "I'm just taking your hair." Go figure.
This comes from old crime-ridden London where criminals used to trip victims with a wire that pulled on the victim's leg so they could steal from the person while he was on the floor.
Not the sharpest crayon in the box, are we now?
I have yet to say this to someone...I love this expression though
Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.
The most polite way of saying you're wasting my food. And the very opposite of "you're fat."
You eat like a bird.
My sister gets this a lot. Me, not so much...
Hold your horses!
What's with the horses?
You're driving me up a wall!
I got this from my mom a lot when I was younger.
He's lost his marbles.
...and where have they gone?
What's the matter, cat got your tongue?
Ouch. That sounds painful.
Just like two peas in a pod.
You can be eaten? Oh, never mind.
Look what the cat dragged in.
Dude, I think she just called you a mouse!
and to end it off...
Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!
This one actually came from the 1800s when beds were made out of hay and little insects called bed bugs crawled around in the hay and sucked people's blood when they slept. Hope your not reading this before bed!
Anyway, to fix this dilemma and force the human race to cede this cryptic language, I prescribe a large dose of do-absolutely-nothing. Why suggest a moratorium on something that makes our day-to-day life more ebullient? Don't you think they add a little zest to our monotonous routines? I mean, heck, they make us happy as clams! (By the way, clams spend their whole life under sandy muck only to be dug up by human beings and boiled alive. Remind me, if you will,
why clams are so happy?)
**websites used in this post:
http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/phrase-finder/phrase66
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