Why Do We Say That?

Are you an expression-curious person? Curious about words and phrases you might use all the time, but have no idea why we say them or where they come from? I have always loved to investigate wacky etymologies. Etymologies–now there’s a word!

Etymology is the study of the origins of words. Most words that end in -ology mean “the study of.” Etym comes from the Greek word for, well, “word.” I looked this up in a dictionary I have had since I was a freshman in college, Webster’s New World Dictionary. I still use it today.

Here are a few more mysterious words and how we came to write and say them:

When pigs fly means pretty much never, because pigs don’t fly. It is called an adynaton, or a way of saying something that won’t happen. The phrase has been around since the 1600s and is an early form of sarcasm. It was spoken by the Duchess in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Keep your eyes peeled means to keep a close lookout. Peeled in this sense means to keep your eyelids wide open. The phrase used to be, “keep your eyes skinned,” but I think it sounded too gross to keep saying.

I call dibs! My old dictionary says that a dib is another word for a dibble, a small pointed tool to make a hole in soil to plant seeds. Children in the 19^th century played a game called dibstones using dibbles, and to call “dibs” meant they went first in the game.

Raining cats and dogs is a very old term for heavy rain. It’s not clear how it started, but it might have to do with Norse mythology, ancient superstitions, or clever writers in the 17^th century. A famous writer, Jonathan Swift, used it in his satirical writings (satirical means writing that calls attention to silly or pompous people in a funny way).

Hold your horses means you are doing something too fast, so slow down. There are lots of ideas about how this phrase started, all the way from Greek times to the 19^th century when men worked on the Erie Canal hauling freight using horses. It was a common phrase when horses were used in all kinds of jobs and making sure they were under control was very important.

Don’t be afraid to look up words that you find intriguing, funny, odd, or nonsensical. It’s a fun game to find out where they came from.