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25 phrases Americans say that leave foreigners completely stumped
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Americans often
use idioms that can easily confuse foreigners.
Phrases like "spill the beans," "piece of cake," "cold
turkey," and "table an item" actually have nothing to do with
food.
Similarly, expressions like "cat's out of the bag" and "for
the birds" have nothing to do with animals when
Americans say them.
Whether they're related to food, football, or feline friends,
American
idioms can be colorful - and confusing to people visiting from
abroad.
While phrases like "shoot the breeze" (to talk about unimportant
things for a long time) and "cold turkey" (to abruptly withdraw
from an addictive substance or behavior) have origins in US slang
from centuries past, others such as "put up your dukes" (to hold
your hands up to prepare for a fight) and "throw under a bus" (to
betray someone for your own gain) can be traced across the pond.
Here are 25 phrases Americans say that leave foreigners
completely stumped.
When Americans "shoot the breeze," they talk about unimportant things for a long time.
This phrase pertains to late-19th-century
slang when "breeze" meant "rumor." By the 1910s, the windy
word came to mean "empty chatter."
When a task is easy or straightforward, Americans will say it's a "piece of cake."
The
phrase likely derives from a line in "The
Primrose Path," a 1935 poetry collection by American humorist
Ogden Nash: "Her picture's in the papers now, and life's a piece
of cake."
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A "Monday-morning quarterback" is a person who second-guesses things.
But the expression's
etymology does come from the Great American Pastime. Like a
batter hitting a ball beyond the diamond, a ballpark figure isn't
exact - but it's not so far out of bounds that it's traveled
outside of the metaphorical stadium.
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If someone "sounds like a broken record," they are probably repeating themselves.
If someone is moving extremely fast, they are called "a bat out of hell."
People use "a bat out of hell" when someone or something is
moving especially fast. Since bats typically like the dark
and avoid light, they would fly quickly away from hell that is
presumably lit by flames. The saying became so popular that
American singer Meat Loaf titled one of his most famous songs
"Bat Out of Hell."
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When someone must accept their fate, people in America say, "That's the way the cookie crumbles."
Although there is no known origin for "that's the way the cookie
crumbles," it was made popular in the 2003 Jim Carrey movie
"Bruce Almighty." The saying most likely came
from the French phrase "C'est la vie," which means "such is
life." The French phrase dates back to the 18th century.
When something is easy to understand, they might say "it's not rocket science."
This phrase, which gained popularity in the 1980s towards the end
of the Cold War, refers to when something isn't that difficult to
understand.
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"Break a leg" is a superstitious phrase that originated in the American theater.
People will wish actors a good performance by telling them to
"break a leg" - a phrase that first appeared in print with its
current meaning in a US
newspaper in 1948, according to Phrase Finder.
The phrase possibly comes
from the German saying "Hals- und Beinbruch," which
translates to "neck and leg break" and is a corruption of a
Hebrew blessing, "hatzlakha u-brakha" ("success and blessing").
It likely entered the lexicon via Yiddish, a language spoken by
Jewish immigrants in the American theatrical community.
If something is trivial or worthless, Americans say it's "for the birds."
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To "put up your dukes" means to hold up your fists in preparation for a fight.
The word "forks," slang for "hand" or "fist," became "dukes of
York" in rhyming slang - which, in turn, was shortened to
"dukes."
When Americans say they're "behind the eight ball," it means they're in a difficult position.
Dating to the 1930s, this
Americanism refers to the game of pool. A player positioned
behind the eight ball cannot hit it.
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If "the cat's out of the bag," it means you've revealed a secret.
This idiom first appeared with its current meaning
in a London book review from 1760. Upset about a spoiler
alert, the reviewer wrote, "We could have wished that the author
had not let the cat out of the bag."
Others have speculated that the phrase pertains to the cat o'
nine tails - the infamous whip that members of the Royal Navy
used to punish sailors - or to livestock fraud (merchants, who
apparently sold live piglets in sacks, would swap out the pigs
with cats).
A similar phrase, "spill the beans," means to let out or divulge something.
Folklore has it that this idiom is a reference to a
voting system in ancient Greece in which white beans
indicated a positive vote and black beans a negative one. Since
votes had to be unanimous, if the collector spilled the beans -
hence revealing them - the process needed to be started over.
But in the US, the phrase didn't appear until the early 20th
century. When it was introduced, its meaning had to do with
upsetting a stable situation, political or otherwise.
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"Don't cry over spilt milk," someone might say if you're upset over something you can't fix.
"Don't cry over spilt milk" has appeared in its present form
since the 19th century.
Apparently, it evolved from a
much older idiom. In 1659, historian and writer James Howell
used the expression "No weeping for shed milk."
When Americans "table an item," they set it aside for consideration later.
In British and Commonwealth English, this phrase has
the opposite meaning. If you table something (i.e. a
proposal) in countries such as the UK and Ireland, you're
considering a decision rather than postponing it.
In the US, however, when a topic is "tabled," that typically
means that it's postponed, or it will sit there on the
metaphorical table until it can be discussed at a later date. To
make things even more confusing, the phrase "on the
table" in America could mean that something is up for
discussion.
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When you "jump on the bandwagon," you're joining a popular activity or supporting a popular cause.
In the 19th century, American showman and circus owner PT Barnum
coined the term "bandwagon," which referred simply to the wagon
that carried the circus band.
Noting that parades were an effective way to attract attention,
politicians took a page from the circus workers' book and began
incorporating bandwagons into their campaign strategies.
But
it was Teddy Roosevelt who helped cement the figurative
phrase in the American lexicon, when, in 1899, he referenced
political bandwagons in a letter he wrote.
When you quit something "cold turkey," you abruptly withdraw from an addictive substance or behavior, like smoking.
The phrase "cold turkey"
actually originated in Canada, where it first appeared in a
British Columbia newspaper in 1921.
Although some speculate that the idiom is named for the
goosebumps that accompany withdrawal symptoms, it more likely
comes from "cold," as in straightforward, and "talk turkey," a
19th-century-expression meaning to talk plainly.
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Often heard on procedural drama series like "Law & Order," "plead the Fifth" is a reference to the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects people from self-incrimination.
Pleading the Fifth (also known as taking the Fifth) refers to
the refusal to testify on the basis that the testimony could
incriminate the witness in a crime.
If two Americans are on a date, they might "go Dutch," or split the bill.
Various phrases in the English language are prefaced by the
adjective "Dutch," such as "Dutch
courage" - bravery inspired by drunkenness - and "Dutch
reckoning," a non-itemized bill that is unjustifiably
excessive.
While most can be traced back to the maritime rivalry between
England and the Dutch Republic (known today as the Netherlands),
"going Dutch" is as American as apple pie.
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If something has "fallen through the cracks," it has gone unnoticed or ignored.
If you've ever misplaced an object (like car keys) only to find
it between the cushions of your sofa, you know how easy it is to
neglect something that has
fallen through (or between) the cracks.
Despite seeming relatively straight-forward, this expression
puzzles people - especially
the more literal-minded, who might argue that the space
between fissures would form a flat surface rather than a
bottomless abyss.
If you're sitting in the "nosebleed section," you're seated in the highest (and cheapest) seats of an arena or performance space.
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An American might say "it's all downhill from here" if they've completed the hardest part of a task.
Based on the idea that the uphill climb is more difficult than
the descent, this phrase
stumps some people because a similar expression, "to go
downhill," has negative connotations.
If someone "throws you under the bus," they're betraying you for their own advancement.
While the etymology of this dark
vehicular idiom is unknown, it might have evolved from a few
British expressions from the 1970s, such as "fall under a bus" or
"suppose so-and-so were to go under a bus."
It entered the common American lexicon in the mid-2000s when
US sports journalists popularized the phrase.
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If you "ride shotgun," you sit in the front passenger seat.
While some think this phrase originated
in the Wild West (referring to the armed guard who sat next
to a stagecoach driver), it was actually popularized by Hollywood
westerns.
One of the earliest print references to "riding shotgun" was in a
Utah newspaper in 1919.
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