Crow

Why are there so many idioms and phrases including 'crow'? While crows, indeed all the corvid family, are known for their intelligence, it would seem more likely that these creatures are associated with all manner of myths and superstitions which has resulted in them being found in so many idioms.

Eat crow is an American phrase used to suggest one should put up with it. This is born of the idea that the flesh of the bird is edible, albeit probably not desirable. The phrase is found from the 1870s, and in the early years as often seen as ‘eat boiled crow’.

Crow’s feet, the lines at corner of the eye, have been described as such since 1385 when they appear in the writings of no less a literary giant than Chaucer.

To crow, as in to boast, today is seen as the sound made by a rooster, but originally this referred to the sound of a crow and continued to do so until at least the 16th century.

Scarecrows, the name self-explanatory, have been known as such since the 1550s but then it was an actual human employed to do the job. The straw figure came into use around the end of the 16th century. Earlier the same figure was referred to as a ‘shewel’, also found are fray-boggard, skerel, and shoy-hoy.

Crowsnest, the look-out high on a mast of a ship, is not found until 1818 – probably used beforehand but beware history authors putting them into their works set in the 18th century and earlier.

Pilcrow is a now obsolete term, but will be found in documents used to refer to a paragraph mark or an asterisk.

Crowbars have been named as such since at least 1748, although prior to that it was simply known as a crow.

As mentioned the amount of folklore associated with the crow family is remarkable. Magpies carry a drop of the devil’s blood under their tongue; a crow over a house foretells a death within that home; three magpies seen together is seen as unlucky (or death); five crows together promises sickness; crows in a churchyard are a bad omen; two crows flying from the left is bad luck (just face the other way!); the French once believed evil priests became crows and bad nuns were turned into magpies; Go to crows was used instead of Go to hell by the Greeks; I have a bone to pick with you used to be I have a crow to pick with you; the Irish expression ‘You’ll follow the crows for it’ meant a person would miss something when it’s gone; in Somerset folk would carry an onion to ward off the ills of crows and magpies; in Wales it was unlucky to have a crow cross your path; and when crows were quiet during their summer moult, it was believed they were preparing their plumage to meet the devil.

And finally, why do we say….. ?

Curiosity killed the cat – a warning not to be nosey – appears in an Irish newspaper in 1868, although some sources cite 16th works by William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson.

One bad apple – doesn’t take many to ruin something – is certainly in use in the 18th century, but is also found as ‘a rotten apple quickly infects its neighbour’ as early as 1340.

Come rain or shine – to succeed no matter what - is certainly in use in 1905, but there are variations on the theme dating back to the 17th century.

A penny for your thoughts – what are you thinking – is from the 16th century, popularized by John Heywood in 1547 in The Proverbs and Epigrams of John Heywood, but first appearing in 1522 and Sir Thomas More’s Four Last Things.

Add insult to injury – something adding to the punishment, an unnecessarily – derives from the fables of Phaerus in the first century.

Don’t give up your day job – you’re not very good at this – originated in the theatre, where would-be actors tried their hand during evening performances.

Birds of a feather flock together – those with similar likes tend to gather – comes from William Turner’s 1545 satire The Rescuing of Romish Fox.

Comparing apples to oranges – making unfair comparisons – began in 1670 with John Ray’s proverb collection, although the term then was ‘apples and oysters’.

Cold feet – exhibiting a significant change of opinion – appears in English for the first time in 1878 with the translation of the German novel Seedtime and Harvest when a character’s luck at the poker table takes a significant downturn and he leaves the game.

Kill two birds with one stone – get two jobs done with one action – does appear in 1656 in the works of Thomas Hobbes, but almost certainly came from the Greek tale of Daedalus and Icarus.

Cold Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘snow’ and now look at ‘cold’. Note nobody suffered from a ‘cold’ until the 1530s.

Left out in the cold is not used prior to 1861.

Cold has been used as in ‘unmoved by strong feeling’ since the late 11th century.

Cold as a synonym for ‘dead’ is first used in the 14th century.

Cold is used in the sense of a lost trail, as when hunting, is seen from the 1590s.

Cold is used when speaking of games as in hide and seek since 1864.

Cold fronts have been on the weather map since 1921.

Cold sweats have been around since the 1630s.

Cold calls have been made since 1964.

Cold comfort is first seen in the 1650s.

Nobody threw cold water on anything in the figurative sense until 1808.

Cold cream, as a cosmetic, has been around since 1709 – this a translation of the Latin ceratum refrigerans and a preparation of oil, wax, and water which was first used by the Greeks in the second century by the physician Galen.

People have been cold-blooded since the 1590s, but was not applied to creatures relying on the sun to heat their bodies until 1828.

Nobody was given the cold shoulder until 1816, this in the writings of Sir Walter Scott.

In the 19th century, cold pig was a term used to describe throwing cold water on one sleeping to wake them up.

Cold wars were first fought in 1945, when it appeared in the writing of George Orwell.

Cold turkey, as in withdrawal symptoms, appears in 1910.

Nobody had cold feet before 1893.

Cold-hearted is first seen in the early 17th century.

Feet Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. 'Spring' being an example, and seen in expressions such as 'spring fever', 'spring upon', 'spring chicken', 'spring cleaning', etc. This etymologist thought about looking at some of these and see what usage, origin, and beginnings can reveal. This time we start with 'foot'.

On foot is the earliest, at around 1300.

Hot foot is first seen in English around the same period of the early 14th century, but received a boost as American slang in 1896 to mean 'hastily', and saw a third revival around 1934 as a prank involving matches.

Put one's foot in it dates from 1823.

One foot in the grave is first seen in 1844.

We put our best foot forward for the first time in 1849, although Shakespeare did speak of 'the better foot before' in 1596.

Cold feet, for it is only used in the plural, first appears in 1893 and some sources suggest this is a bad rendition of an Italian phrase, avegh minga frecc i pee meaning 'to have no money', although this seems somewhat contrived.

Got off on the wrong foot is first seen in print in 1905, two years earlier than anyone ever got off on the right foot.

My foot, an expression of contempt, is first seen in 1923.

Put one's foot in one's mouth is not seen in writing until 1942.

One no longer used is 'foot' meaning 'a person' and thus 'non-foot' meant 'nobody'.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: L

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

L is for left, which could be the past tense of 'leave' or the opposite of 'right'. In order, the verb 'to leave' has a clear etymology traceable through Old English laefan, Proto-Germanic laibjanan, and Proto-Indo-European leip, all having the general meaning of 'allow to remain as it is'.

When it comes to the opposite of 'right', many parents will have taught their children (as the majority were right-handed) the way to remember which was which was to think the hand you write with as your right and the one which is left is your left. Assuming the child was not left-handed (or did not have three hands) this would work. This idea of the right hand being the correct hand is also known (and famously so) in the term 'sinister' which was also once used for left-handedness, itself seen as unlucky or suspicious for much of history. This must be a very old idea as so many languages see 'left' as bad, including the root of all those in European and to the east, where Proto-Indo-European laiwo meant 'considered suspicious'.

The political left-wing is not used in 1871, but it had been used in a military sense since 1530. Having two left feet is first recorded in 1902, while the left bank of a river, first recorded in the 13th century, is that side which is on the observer's left when facing downstream.