Car Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘bag’ and now look at ‘car’.

Streetcar is seen from 1862 in the US, the same year as tramcar in the UK.

Car bomb is seen from 1972.

Car parks were unheard of before 1926.

Nobody used a car wash until 1924.

Carpool is seen from 1942, but only used as a verb from 1962.

Car sickness is first recorded in 1908.

Stock-car racing is first noted in 1914 as a race, prior to that it was a rail vehicle used to transport livestock.

Autocar, as opposed to automobile, first appears in 1895.

The first carports are recorded as early as 1939.

Motorcar appears, as above, in 1895.

Bag Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘storm’ and now look at ‘bag’.

In the bag has been seen since 1922, it is used to describe something assured.

Left holding the bag, meaning ‘cheated, swindled’, is seen as early as 1793.

Let the cat out of the bag is seen from 1760, and likely comes from the French Acheter chat en poche or ‘buy a cat in a bag’.

Moneybags, to describe a rich person, is seen from 1818.

Grab-bag, used to describe a miscellaneous mixture, is first recorded in 1854.

Beanbag is first seen in 1871, but this was something used in children’s games and nobody had the larger version to sit on until 1969.

Airbags, the vehicle safety feature, is seen from 1970 and as a device for raising sunken vessels from 1836.

Bodybags have been around for the deceased since 1967, prior to that the same term described a kind of sleeping bag.

Mailbags have only ever been used to carry the mail, first described as such in 1794.

Bagpipes have been known as such since the 14th century, although a better description came in 1912 when a English Army officers referred to them as ‘agony bags’.

Nosebag, the way to feed a horse, is seen from 1796.

Nobody carried a handbag before 1854.

Storm Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘rain’ and now look at ‘storm’.

Taking something by storm comes from military terminology, first seen around 1680.

Doing something up a storm dates from 1946.

Storm doors are not recorded before 1872.

Storm-tossed, a term normally only used by writers, is seen in print for the first time in 1610.

Storm-bird is seen from 1752, today we refer to it as a petrel.

Storm clouds are unrecorded before 1822.

Dust storms are not described as such until 1838.

Storm troopers are first recorded in 1933, however this had nothing to do with a galaxy far, far away, these were members of the Nazi Sturmabteiling or earlier the German military sturmtruppen during the First World War.

Barnstorming began in 1815, and referred specifically to short theatrical performances of a smutty or vulgar kind. So-called because they were performed in barns in upstate New York. By 1896 the term had started to be used to refer to electioneering tours; and in 1928 to pilots who performed stunts at fairs and during air races. Thunderstorms were not known until 1560.

Snowstorms have been known as such since 1771.

Hailstorms come between the above two, seen since 1690.

Rainstorms are, considering the previous three examples, quite recent in only appearing in writing since 1804.

Brainstorm is a term used since 1861, when it referred to a fit of delirious malaria or sudden loss of the ability to reason. Prior to that, and also as a noun, it was a symptom of a disease seen to be increasing in strength or repetitiveness. The modern use of ‘a concerted attack on a problem’ comes from 1947; while another sense of ‘a brilliant idea’ was around from 1934.

Firestorms have been around since the 1580.

Windstorms have been known since the late 14th century.

Rain Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘sun’ and now look at ‘rain’.

Rain dance is seen from 1867, although surely such rituals were performed for centuries or even millennia.

Rain date is first found in 1948, probably more commonly used in the USA, it refers to an alternative date for outdoor events interrupted by rain.

Amazingly the quite complex phrase, always used as an insult, “doesn’t know enough to come in out of the rain’ is recorded as early as 1590.

Rain gauge, that instrument which measures rainfall at a specific point and which you probably haven’t heard of since your school days, is found from 1769.

Nobody ‘rained on another’s parade’ until 1941.

It has been raining cats and dogs since 1738 – and earlier still, from around 1650, it rained dogs and polecats. (Well it would, of course!)

Nobody spoke of a rain cloud until around the end of the 18th century – which begs the question as to where they thought the rain came from?

Nothing was described as rainproof until 1788.

The rain forest is unrecorded before 1899, when it is deemed to have been a translation from the German Regenwald mentioned in A.F.Schimper’s work Pflanzengeographic.

Rainbows have been known since before the beginning of Old English, hence at least two millennia. The Saxons, who spoke Old English, also had the term scurboga or ‘showerbow’.

Rainbow trout are first recorded as such in 1876.

Raincoats are first seen in 1821…..

…. which is 37 years before anyone wrote down ‘rainfall’….

…. and 17 years after ‘rainstorm’ is first recorded.

Rain check was first seen in 1884 and described a ticket given to a spectator who could claim a refund or admission to a replayed game postponed through rain.

Sun Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘cloud’ and now look at ‘sun’.

Under the sun – as in anywhere in the world – is first seen as early as the late 12th century.

The sun never sets is a Spanish phrase quickly translated to English and both dating from around the 1630s.

Having one’s ‘place in the sun’ first appears in English in the translation of Pascal’s Pensees.

The ‘sun is over the foreyard’ (note not the yard arm) is first seen in the 17th century, it marking the time it is traditionally acceptable to have the first alcoholic drink of the day – roughly corresponds to noon.

While ‘basking in the sun’ is found from the middle of the 15th century ….

….. it took until 1821 for suntan to become a verb, and until 1888 as a noun.

Sun tan oil is not seen until 1934.

Sun dress is first recorded in 1937 in an advertisement, prior to that (since 1929) the term had been ‘sun back dress’.

Sundials are first seen in the 1590s – at least the term is – for the technology had been known for centuries. Prior to this they were simply referred to as ‘dials’.

Sun-drying of fruit and vegetables is not a new thing by any means, the term has been in use since the 1630s and the process for millennia.

Sun dance, the movement not the film character, has only been recorded since 1849 – undoubtedly dances to herald and praise the sun must have been around since before recorded history, but not referred to as sun dances.

Sun tanning may be a fairly modern phrase, but sun bathing has been around since 1866 in a cosmetic sense and since 1600 for therapeutic purposes.

Sun wake is the rays of the setting sun glinting on the water. Sailors would claim a narrow wake signaled good weather, with bad weather forecast by a broad wake.

Nobody wore a sun bonnet, that with a projection in front to protect the face and another to protect the neck, until 1837.

Think the sun lamp is a new invention? Nope, first named in 1885.

Sun worship, in the religious sense, is first used to describe such in 1670; but the phrase to refer to one who habitually sun bathes is not seen until 1941.

Sunburn has been described since 1520, at least in the modern sense, prior to that it referred to drying out (usually bricks) under the suns rays.

Sunset is seen from the late 14th century; for the Saxons the word was sunnansetlgong while sunset for them simply meant ‘the west’.

Sunrise is seen from the middle of the 15th century, prior to that it was used to mean ‘the east’.

Ride off into the sunset, the stereotypical ending for a Hollywood Western production, is unheard of before 1963.

Cloud Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘water’ and now look at ‘cloud’. The original word in Old English referred to a hill – a cloud was called a skie - and look at hills in the distance and you’ll see why the two were confused. Having made that point, it is obvious any ‘cloud’ references have to come after the change from ‘hill’.

Under a cloud is first seen at the end of the 15th century.

In the clouds, fanciful or unreal, is seen from the 1640s.

Cloud nine is recorded by 1950, although the term’s origin is disputed. In the 1950s we also find ‘cloud seven’ with the same inference.

Cloud bursts did not happen until 1817.

Rainclouds were unknown until around 1800 – one has to wonder what they thought came from them before this.

Oort cloud was named in 1949 after Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrick Oort, who proposed the idea that comets came from a mass of bodies orbiting outside that of Pluto. Oort was right.

Cloud cuckoo land is an imaginary city in the air first seen in 1830 after the translation of Aristophanes’ Nephelokkygia (The Birds) from 414BCE. Within a decade of the translation ther term had entered the English language for any dreamland region.

Cloudlet, predictably a small cloud, is seen since 1788 – and yet I have never heard the term used.

Cloudscape, another I have never heard of, is found from 1852.

Cloudless has been used since 1590 – this I have heard and it has always struck me as odd. It’s the same as describing the night sky as ‘sunless’.

Clouds have only had a silver lining since 1843. It comes from John Milton’s work Comus.

Becloud is seen since 1590s, but with two decades it had taken on the figurative sense of ‘to obscure’.

Similarly ‘overcloud’ had the obvious meaning before the figurative ‘to cover with gloom’ from the 1590s.

Water Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘sea’ and now look at ‘water’.

Water tower is first recorded at the end of the 13th century.

Watering can is first seen in 1690, although water can had been in use for at least three centuries prior to that.

Water hole is recorded by 1670.

Watering place has been recorded since the middle of the 15th century, but not until 1965 did it take on the meaning of a public house or similar.

Hot water was just that until 1530, when it became used to mean ‘in trouble’.

Hot water bottles became popular from 1813 for stone or earthenware warmers; from 1853 the softer version of vulcanised rubber was introduced.

Waterpipes have been in use for millennia, but not referred to as same until the end of the 14th century.

Water closets are named from 1755, although the flush toilet had been produced two centuries earlier by Sir John Harrington.

As a noun the water ski is recorded from 1931, as a verb it had to wait until 1953 – hence the question is, what were they doing on water skis for more than two decades.

The water table, the level of water underground where the rock/soil is saturated, has only been known as such since 1879.

A water moccasin is a snake found in the southern USA, described as such in 1821.

The water wheel, the means of powering a watermill, is first recorded around the end of the 14th century. Around this time mills were powered by wind as well as water, and thus the mill wheel would have suggested a water-powered construction.

Dish water, that water used to wash the pots and pans, comes from the late 15th century; but the term came to be used for anything overly weak (be it broth, soup, coffee, tea) from 1719.

Watermarks on paper are not made by water, but the term was coined in 1708.

Watershed in the figurative sense has been known since 1878, although today it is rarely used to refer to anything but a cut-off point for broadcasting.

We all know what a waterbed is, although does anyone realize its introduction in the 1970s was a reinventing? In 1844 the same technology was employed for invalids in order to reduce or prevent bed sores; and the original sense was simply a bed on board a ship, used since 1610.

Water colour originally referred to a pigment soluble in water; only since 1854 has it been used in the art world.

The waterline on a vessel has been used since 1620; since 2011 I’m told it also refers to the inner rim of the eyelid when applying makeup.

Nothing was described as waterproof until 1799, although they must have been waterproof or their boats would have sunk.