Origin of phrases

[Warpt762x39]

I was discussing the origin of certain phrases in use today. Some origins are kind of surprising as to their original use.

Let's start with the phrase, balls to the wall. Now most people seem to think it has something to do with a certain part of the male anatomy.

Actually it has nothing to do with that. It's a term used by WWII fighter pilots. The throttle sticks in their planes had red rubber balls on the top to grasp. When they got into a dogfight, they would push the throttle all the way forward to the firewall.

They were pushing the red rubber balls to the firewall. Hence the phrase.

Another one that I went years without knowing its meaning was, the whole nine yards. Normally you'd think football when you hear about going any number of yards. It's what I thought for a long time.

But I could never figure out why it was only 9 yards instead of 10. Wasn't part of football to go 10 yards to get a first down?

This one again comes from WWII. Fighter planes (not sure if they all did) carried 27 feet of ammunition belts for each gun. 27 feet being 9 yards.

Giving an enemy the whole 9 yards meant firing every round in your guns at them. So much for that football theory huh?

The next one is actually just a word. It's used as a racist word but it originally had an official usage. I'm guessing you have heard people using the term WOP before?

Now before you start giving me grief about using a racist word, let me tell you where it started. It actually started on Ellis Island. When immigrants came to America they were supposed to bring their identification papers.

If you had your papers, you went through one line. If you did not have any papers, they wrote the letters WOP on your shirt and sent you to a different line. WOP simply meant With Out Papers.

It was just a way of identifying immigrants that needed to answer more questions from officials before they could come into the country.

Anybody else have any origins of commonly used phrases?

[MrBi11]

It took me quite a long time to find out why there was an apostrophe in the word O'clock. I went to the extent of calling the heads of English departments of universities, no one knew.

*It is a conjunction for "Of the Clock"

strike while the iron is hot, to many irons in the fire, both blacksmithing

[CerealKiller]

I'm guessing you have heard people using the term WOP before?

Now before you start giving me grief about using a racist word, let me tell you where it started. It actually started on Ellis Island. When immigrants came to America they were supposed to bring their identification papers.

If you had your papers, you went through one line. If you did not have any papers, they wrote the letters WOP on your shirt and sent you to a different line. WOP simply meant With Out Papers.

It was just a way of identifying immigrants that needed to answer more questions from officials before they could come into the country.

I don't know if there's any truth to this, but I've been told that's why so many italians are named Tony. Something about because most of them didn't speak english the people at Ellis Island just stamped TO NY on their papers (To new york).

[greasy]

I don't know if there's any truth to this, but I've been told that's why so many italians are named Tony. Something about because most of them didn't speak english the people at Ellis Island just stamped TO NY on their papers (To new york).

Antonio, Arturo, etc. are all popular Italian names. Hence why a lot of Italian-Americans go by "Art" and "Tony."

My last name is VERY Italian. When my ancestors came through Ellis Island, several of the letters got changed. For example from C to G. This is because in Italian, C is pronounced "chi." Which makes it sound sort of like a G to someone that doesn't know.

[MuzzleFlash]

This is probably full of errors, but here's what I heard about "It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey." Apparently the "brass monkey" was the dimpled bass plate under a stack of cannon balls on a battleship or a fort. When it got too cold, the dimples that the bottom row of balls were sitting in would contract and pop them out, causing the whole pyramid to fall apart.

"Any man worth his salt" came from the slave trade when they traded men for salt.

It's not a saying, but I thought it was interesting the word existed thousands of years before the technology. Cam, short for camera, comes from "camera obscura" which translates from Latin as "dark room" which is where film was developed.

[MrBi11]

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp

[spabula]

Rule of thumb. *runs and ducks for cover*

[RocketFoot]

Mind your P's and Q's!

Old English Taverns served ale in Pins and Quarts. When ever a fight would break out, the tavern owner would tell the rest of the patrons to mind their pints and quarts...later shortened to P's and Q's.

The term "Toast" was coined from the bartender putting a piece of toast in your ale in order to keep the excessive dirt and settlement, left behind from the brewing process, at the bottom of you pint or quart!

[ricky_awesome]

Rule of thumb. *runs and ducks for cover*

hee hee

[ricky_awesome]

i'll pitch in because im sometimes three sheets to the wind.



origin: sheets actually refer to the ropes that are used to secure a ship's sail. If the 3 ropes used were loose in the wind, the sail would flop around, causing the ship to wobble around, much like a drunk.