The Dictionary of Clich�s: A Word Lover's Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes

by Christine Ammer

Overview

The largest, most comprehensive, and most entertaining reference of its kind, The Dictionary of Clichés features more than four thousand unique clichés and common expressions. Author Christine Ammer explores the phrases and terms that enliven our language and uncovers expressions that have long been considered dead. With each entry, she includes a thorough definition, origin of the term, and an insightful example.

Some of the clichés brought into the limelight include:

• Blood is thicker than water
• Monkey see, monkey do
• Brass tacks
• Burn the midnight oil
• Change of heart
• Moral fiber
• By the book

Whether clichés get under your skin or make you happy as a clam, The Dictionary of Clichés goes the extra mile to provide an essential resource for students, teachers, writers, and anyone with a keen interest in language. And that’s food for thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626360112
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	11/06/2013
Pages:	568
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Christine Ammer is a lifelong student of language and author of more than two dozen popular reference books on subjects ranging from classical music to women’s health. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

a

about face, to do an To reverse a decision or change one's opinion. The term comes from the American military command to turn 180 degrees at attention, dating from the mid-nineteenth century, and by 1900 was being used figuratively. A more recent colloquial usage is to do a 180, but it has not yet reached cliché status.

about the size of it An approximately accurate version of a situation, event, or circumstance. It generally is used as a summing up: "That's about the size of it."

absence makes the heart grow fonder A separation enhances love. This counterpart of familiarity breeds contempt first appeared in an anthology of poems published in 1602 (it was the first line of an anonymous poem), but it was more or less ignored until it reappeared in 1850 as the last line of a song, "The Isle of Beauty," by T. Haynes Bayly. Within the next half-century it was used so much that by 1900 it was a threadbare cliché.

"You're a dedicated swallower of fascism You're an accident waiting to happen."

— Billy Bragg

accident waiting to happen, an A recipe for disaster. The phrase is used for such diverse circumstances as a large pothole causing an auto accident, an airplane flight on a collision course, or a small leak that ends in a billion-dollar oil spill like that in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It appears in the lyrics of several popular songs, such as the one quoted above.

according to Hoyle On highest authority, in keeping with established rules. Edmond Hoyle, an Englishman born in 1679 and buried in 1769, wrote short treatises on five different card games (they were bound together in one volume in 1746). Within a year his name appeared on other books published by plagiarists, which also gave rules and advice for playing games. This practice has continued to the present day, and there are rule books about poker and numerous other games, all invoking the authority of Hoyle, who died long before these games were invented.

AC/DC Bisexual, that is, sexually attracted to and/or active with both men and women. Originally an abbreviation for alternating current/direct current, the term has been used jokingly since the mid-1900s. Also the name of the Australian rock band, formed in 1973, that is one of the highest grossing bands of all time.

ace in the hole A hidden advantage. In stud poker the dealer gives each player a card facedown, called a "hole card"; from that point on all other cards are dealt faceup. Should the hole card be an ace, a high card, the player has an advantage unknown to his opponents. Stud poker was first introduced shortly after the Civil War and played mostly in what is now the Midwest but then was the West. In time "ace in the hole" became western slang for a hidden weapon, such as a gun carried in a shoulder holster, and by the early 1920s it was used figuratively for any hidden leverage. The related ace up one's sleeve comes from the practice of dishonest gamblers who would hide a winning card in just this way. See also up one's sleeve.

Achilles' heel A vulnerable or weak spot. The term is derived from the Greek myth of the hero Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel while dipping him into the River Styx to make him immortal. He eventually was killed by an arrow shot into his heel. The term became a literary metaphor about two centuries ago and remains current as a cliché.

acid test, the A conclusive trial to establish the truth or worth of something or someone. The term comes from a test long used to distinguish gold from copper or some other metal. Most corrosive acids do not affect gold, but a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid dissolves the metal. Used literally by jewelers in the late nineteenth century, the term soon was employed figuratively, by U.S. president Woodrow Wilson among others.

across the board Affecting all classes and categories. The term, originally American, comes from horse-racing, where a bet covering all winning possibilities — win (first place), place (second place), or show (third place) — was so described. By about 1950 it was extended to other situations, principally of an economic nature, as in across-the-board wage increases (for all employees), tax reductions (for all brackets), air-fare increases, and the like.

actions speak louder than words What you do is more important than what you say. A proverb appearing in ancient Greek as well as in practically every modern language, this precise wording dates from the nineteenth century. A fifteenth-century version was "A man ought not to be deemed by his wordes, but by his works" (Dictes and Sayenges of the Philosophirs, 1477).

act your age Don't be childish or act foolish. This admonition appears to date from the 1920s. "Be your age" is the caption of a 1925 New Yorker cartoon; "act your age" appears in a 1932 issue of American Speech, a journal that chronicles current usage.

add fuel to the fire/flames, to To exacerbate an already inflammatory situation, increasing anger or hostility. The Roman historian Livy used this turn of phrase (in Latin) nearly two thousand years ago, and it was repeated (in English) by numerous writers thereafter, among them John Milton (Samson Agonistes, 1671): "He's gone, and who knows how he may report thy words by adding fuel to the flame."

add insult to injury, to To make harm worse by adding humiliation. The phrase has been traced to a Greek fable about a bald man. Trying to kill a fly on his head, he misses and hits himself very hard, and the fly replies, "You wanted to kill me for merely landing on you; what will you do to yourself now that you have added insult to injury?" It has since been applied to countless situations by as many writers, and has long been a cliché.

a dog's age A long time. An American slang term dating from about 1830, this expression doesn't make a great deal of sense, since the average dog is not especially long-lived. It appeared in print in 1836: "That blamed line gale has kept me in bilboes such a dog's age" (Knickerbocker magazine).

a dog's life Miserable circumstances. The term has been traced to Erasmus, who pointed out the wretched subservient existence of dogs in the mid-sixteenth century, as well as to the seventeenth-century proverb, "It's a dog's life, hunger and ease." It was certainly a cliché by the time Rudyard Kipling (A Diversity of Creatures, 1899) wrote, "Politics are not my concern. ... They impressed me as a dog's life without a dog's decencies." See also die like a dog.

afraid of one's own shadow Extremely timid, excessively fearful. In Richard III (ca. 1513), Sir Thomas More wrote, "Who may lette her feare her owne shadowe," although a few years later Erasmus cited Plato as having said the same thing in Greek hundreds of years before. Henry David Thoreau used the phrase to describe the timidity of Concord's town selectmen in refusing to toll the parish bell at John Brown's hanging (1859), and by then it had been in use for at least two centuries.

after one's own heart Precisely to one's liking. Considered a cliché since the late nineteenth century, this phrase appears in the Old Testament's first Book of Samuel (13:14): "The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people."

against the grain, to go "There was something about Prohibition that went against the American grain," a high school history teacher once said, quite innocent of her pun on this phrase, which means contrary to expectations, custom, or common sense. The literal meaning, against the natural direction of the fibers in a piece of wood, was turned figurative by Shakespeare in Coriolanus ("Preoccupied with what you rather must do than what you should, made you against the grain to voice him consul"). By the time Dickens used it in Edwin Drood (1870) it probably was already a cliché.

age before beauty Defer to the older person. This phrase is traditionally used when inviting another individual to pass through a doorway before one. Eric Partridge described it as a mock courtesy uttered by a young woman to an older man. Currently it is used only ironically or sarcastically. According to an old story, it was said rather snidely by Clare Boothe Luce when ushering Dorothy Parker through a doorway, and Parker replied, "Pearls before swine." A related cliché is after you, Alphonse — no, after you, Gaston, repeated a number of times (in Britain, after you, Claude — no, after you, Cecil). The American version is based on a comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper, Alphonse and Gaston, which was popular in the early 1900s, and pokes fun at exaggerated politeness.

ahead of the curve Anticipating events, circumstances, problems. Similar to ahead of the pack, it may apply to knowing beforehand what election polls will indicate, or what the stock market will do. Philip Delves Broughton used it in the title of his book, Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School (2008). See also behind the curve.

ahead of the pack In advance of the rest of a group, doing better than the others. The noun pack has been used for a group of persons since the 1400s, although for about 400 years it had a derogatory connotation, as in "a pack of thieves." That sense is not implied in the cliché. The act of advancing beyond the others is called breaking out of the pack.

A related phrase is ahead of the game, meaning in a position of advantage, usually financial advantage. The game here alludes to gambling, but the term is applied to any endeavor.

aid and abet, to To assist and promote or encourage something or someone. The pairing of these nearly synonymous verbs, always in this order, comes from criminal law, where it denotes helping, facilitating and promoting the commission of a crime. The verbs themselves are quite old, aid dating from about 1400 and abet from about 1300. Although the term still is principally used in relation to criminal actions, it gradually crept into more general speech, as in "The influx of Canada geese on the golf course, aided and abetted by people feeding them ..."

ain't it the truth That's definitely so. This slangy phrase dates from about 1900. It is often put regretfully — That's so but I wish it weren't — as in "'I'll have to lower the price if I want to sell it fast.' — 'Ain't it the truth.'"

albatross around one's neck, an A burden or curse. The figurative meaning comes straight from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798), a narrative poem in which a young sailor who shot an albatross, considered an extremely unlucky action, was punished by having the dead bird hung around his neck.

alive (live) and kicking (well) Very much alive and alert; still surviving. The term originated with fishmongers who thus described their wares, meaning that they were extremely fresh. By the mid-nineteenth century it was considered a cliché. A more recent version is alive and well, which originated as a denial to a false report of someone's death. It was given a boost by the French singer Jacques Brel, whose show and recording, translated as Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, became immensely popular in the 1970s.

all and sundry Everyone, both collectively and individually. The term dates from at least the fourteenth century and is tautological — that is, it needlessly repeats the same thing, just as the related each and every does.

all bets are off The agreement is canceled, because the relevant conditions have changed. This phrase comes from gambling, such as betting on a horse race, where it indicates that wagers are withdrawn. It is much more widely applied, as in "They say the wedding's scheduled for December, but to tell you the truth, all bets are off."

all cats are gray after dark/at night Without sufficient knowledge one cannot distinguish between alternatives. This assertion appeared in numerous proverb collections, beginning with John Heywood's of 1546, where it was put, "When all candels be out, all cats be grey." A still older version, dating back some 2,000 years and stated by the Roman writers Ovid and Plutarch as well as by later writers, had it that all women are the same in the dark, a view now disputed by all but the most hardened misogynists.

all ears, to be To pay close attention to what is said. The term may have originated in John Milton's Comus (1634): "I am all ear and took in strains that might create a soul under the ribs of death." It has been used again and again, by Anthony Trollope and others, to the present day.

all for naught Everything done has been in vain. Today a poetic word for "nothing," naught formerly meant "morally bad" or "worthless." Thus the King James version of the first Book of Kings (2:19) says, "The water is naught and the ground barren."

all hell breaks loose Chaos prevails. The expression crops up often in Elizabethan poetry (Robert Greene, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare) and continued to be used by an amazing number of fine poets (Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Browning, among others).

all intents and purposes, for (to) In practical terms; virtually. Since intent and purpose mean the same thing, the term is a tautology. According to Eric Partridge, it has been a cliché since the mid-nineteenth century. It originated in English law in the 1500s, when it was even more long-windedly phrased, to all intents, constructions and purposes.

all in the/a day's work To be considered a normal part of one's job or routine. Traced back to the eighteenth century, the expression occurred with considerable frequency and was used both seriously and ironically: "As the huntsman said when the lion ate him" (Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, 1855).

all in the same boat See in the same boat as.

all one's ducks in a row, get/have Be completely prepared and well organized. This colloquialism from the second half of the 1900s alludes to lining up target ducks in a shooting gallery. Sue Grafton used it in R Is for Ricochet (2004): "The trick is not to alert him until we have all our ducks in a row."

all other things (else) being equal Given the same circumstances. This term began as the Latin phrase ceteris paribus; sometimes the word all is omitted, and else is substituted for other things. Eric Partridge held that the Latin form was already a cliché in the eighteenth century, and the English form became one in the late nineteenth century. Thomas Babington Macaulay was among the many learned writers who used it (although slightly differently) in his History of England (1849 — 61): "All other circumstances being supposed equal ..."

all over but the shouting, it's The outcome is certain, though it may not yet be widely known. Probably originating in the mid-nineteenth century, the phrase was first used for the outcome of sporting events, elections, and similar competitive undertakings, and still is.

all over creation Everywhere. This homespun cliché uses creation in the sense of everything in the world that, by implication, God created.

all present and accounted for Everyone (or everything) is here. This cliché originated in the military as a response to roll call and actually is redundant — if one is present one is also accounted for. The British version, all present and correct, where correct means "in order," makes more sense but did not cross the Atlantic.

all roads lead to Rome Any of several choices will lead to the same result. The metaphor is based on the ancient empire's system of roads, which radiated from the capital like the spokes of a wheel. As a figure of speech it appeared as early as the twelfth century. It was used by Chaucer, and occurs in numerous other languages as well.

all's fair in love and war Any tactic or strategy is permissible. The idea was expressed for centuries by numerous writers, from Chaucer (Troilus and Criseyde) to Maxwell Anderson (What Price Glory?). Modern versions sometimes add or substitute another enterprise, such as "in love and war and politics" (George Ade), or "in love and tennis (or any other competitive sport)."

all systems go Everything is ready for action. The term is relatively new, originating in the space launches of the 1960s, and became well known through widespread television coverage of these events. John Powers, the public information officer for the United States space program from 1959 to 1964, would announce, "All systems go. Everything is A-OK." The phrase soon was extended to other endeavors.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Dictionary of Clichés"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Christine Ammer.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition,
Author's Note,
a,
b,
c,
d,
e,
f,
g,
h,
i,
j,
k,
l,
m,
n,
o,
p,
q,
r,
s,
t,
u,
v,
w,
x, y,
Index,