Say What?

Have you ever imagined that you were an immigrant to the United States, and you were having to learn English as a second language?

I'm not multilingual and have no idea the idioms that are found in other languages, but speaking the American version of English, I can believe the difficulty for one learning the language to understand what we Americans are sometimes saying.

Being an English teacher of some years ago, I am facinated by our use of the language and how so many idioms have found their way into our speech. A case in point -- "knock on wood, but I think I've got my mojo working if I don't go to hell in a handbasket, but I could be in like Flynn or get caught with my pants down." Say what? Normally one would not string a whole bunch of these idioms together, but you see what happens when one does.

I started thinking about this idiom business as I was reading about George Bush being a "lame duck" President. That actually came from 18th century England and referred to a stockbroker who defaulted on his debts. Quite a stretch, but it was first used in the U.S. to describe President James Buchanan's lack of action in the Confederate States' secession.

Buchanan was probably not "sharp as a tack" nor "smart as a whip." He just wanted to "let sleeping dogs lie."

How about "don't try to teach your grandma to suck eggs" -- got any idea what that means?

Of course we have all heard of "flip the bird"-- "cute as a bug's ear"-- "clean as a whistle"-- "three sheets to the wind"-- "apple of my eye"-- "close but no cigar"-- "excuse my French"-- "getting down to brass tacks"-- "high on the hog" and the list goes on and on. We can scarcely speak a dozen sentences without introducing one or more idioms, but it does make our language much more interesting.

Well I'm going "back to square one" with this "cock and bull story" and see if I can "get my s... together." Now that is colorful language.