LET'S SPEAK ENGLISH:
Broadcast: Wednesday, February 16, 1938 at 21:00 PM

Tenth Talk - Idiom

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TENTH TALK - IDIOM More English idioms and slang:
a) TO BE OFF MY HEAD
b) TO LOSE MY HEAD
c) TO GET IT IN THE NECK
d) TO LOSE MY HEART
e) TO LOSE HEART
f) DOWN-HEARTED
g) TO HAVE MY HEART IN MY BOOTS
h) COLD FEET
i) TO PUT MY FOOT IN IT
j) TO HAVE MY HEART IN MY MOUTH
k) TO BE BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN MY MOUTH
l) TO BE DOWN IN THE MOUTH
m) TO MAKE A LONG FACE
n) TO BE FED TO THE TEETH
o) FED UP
p) TO MAKE MY MOUTH WATER
q) To GRIT MY TEETH
r) TO KEEP MX CHIN UP
s) BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH
t) ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE
u) TO LICK INTO SHAPE
v) NOT SO MUCH OF YOUR LIP
w) TOOTH AND NAIL
x) RED-ANDED
y) CLOSE-FISTED
z) THE STING IS IN THE TAIL

TRANSCRIPT: TENTH TALK - IDIOM

This evening I'm going to talk about some more English idioms - those that are connected with the human body.

Let's start from the top. What's at the top of the body? Do I hear you say 'the head'? Right first guess! Splendid !

Now in olden times, people often committed crimes, like treason, and were sentenced to be beheaded. The king would say, 'Off with his head!' And his head would be chopped off. But to be OFF YOUR HEAD is quite different. That means you're quite MAD - in fact, BALMY; that's to say, CRACKED; or, in other words, DOTTY. A man who pays his taxes as soon as he's asked to is said by his neighbours to be OFF HlS HEAD.

Now the head's a very valuable possession and you should take great care of it. If you LOSE YOUR HEAD you'll get into all kinds of trouble. For one thing you won't be able to blow your nose.

In idiomatic English, TO LOSE ONE'S HEAD means to become confused and panic-stricken, especially in a crisis. If you're riding on your bicycle and you knock over a traffic policeman on point duty, you're apt to get confused and LOSE YOUR HEAD. That's fatal. What you should do is to help the policeman to this feet again and politely ask, "Please can you tell me the time?"

But if you LOSE YOUR HEAD and fry to run away you'll probably GET IT IN THE NECK. That means, in English slang, to get into serious trouble. The phrase was used a great deal in the War. If you were in the trenches and were hit by a piece of shell, you often got it IN THE NECK. If you did get it IN THE NECK you were in for trouble. You might even LOSE YOUR HEAD in a more literal sense.

Now some people LOSE THEIR HEADS. I prefer to LOSE MY HEART, You do that. when you fall in love. It's quite simple. You just take your heart out and lay it at the feet of your beloved. If she accepts it, you're a lucky man. But if she doesn't appreciate your offer, you may LOSE HEART.

Now to LOSE HEART means to fall into despair. It's quite different from to LOSE YOUR HEART which means to fall in love. If you LOSE HEART your heart sinks and you become DOWN-HEARTED. That means you're despondent. During the Great War, British soldiers were often cold and wet and hungry. Then they'd keep their courage up by shouting, "Are we DOWN-HEARTED? No!"

If you're DOWN-HEARTED, your heart may sink so much that you find you've got YOUR HEART IN YOUR BOOTS. TO HAVE YOUR HEART IN YOUR BOOTS means that you're in a state of terror. To use a slang phrase, you've got COLD FEET. Before you sit for a difficult, examination you often have COLD FEET. The best thing to do, of course, if you have COLD FEET is to wear an extra pair of socks.

In talking about feet we now seem to have come to the other end of body, having started with the head. The head is cleverer than the feet . The feet are usually clumsy. At any rate, mine are. So when I make a mistake, people say, "Now you've really PUT YOUR FOOT IN IT" TO PUT MY FOOT IN IT means that I have made a mess of things. The phrase sounds very modern but it was used by William Tyndale, the principal translator of the Bible into English. Over four hundred years ago he wrote that the Bishops were so meddlesome and unpopular that, if the porridge got burnt in the pot, the cook would grumble that it was the Bishop who had PUT HIS FOOT INTO IT. And today TO PUT YOUR FOOT INTO IT still means to do or say something which you shouldn't.

But you must be careful when you're using English idioms not to mix them. It's wrong to say about even your most stupid friend that every time she opens her mouth she PUTS HER FOOT INTO IT. She couldn't, unless she were under three years old, It's only babies who can still suck their toes.

Now, if you can't PUT YOUR Foot into your mouth, you may sometime HAVE YOUR HEART IN YOUR MOUTH. That means that you've been violently alarmed or startled. When I was a child I once went to the cupboard to steal some jam. When I heard my mother coming, my HEART WAS IN MY MOUTH, as well as my fingers.

Sometimes you'll hear someone say "MY HEART WAS LITERALLY IN MY MOUTH". I must warn you against using the word LITERALLY too freely. LITERALLY means without exaggeration. So if you LITERALLY HAD YOUR HEART IN YOUR MOUTH, you ought to go at once to see a doctor.

To HAVE YOUR HEART IN YOUR MOUTH is in any case bad. But TO BE BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN YOUR MOUTH is good. That means that you've been born in a well-to-do family and needn't worry about your future. The phrase comes from the old custom of giving a spoon to a baby at its christening. If the parents were poor their friends would give only a wooden spoon. But if the parents were rich the baby would get a silver spoon. The baby was then said to BE BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN ITS MOUTH. So next time you're born, insist on having a SILVER SPOON. Accept no other - unless, of course, it's a golden one.

If you aren't BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN YOUR MOUTH, when you grow up you'll be DOWN IN THE MOUTH, or dejected. When you're dejected the corners of your mouth turn down, not up. So you're said to be DOWN IN THE MOUTH.

Some people I know are always pessimistic about everything. Whenever they walk about the corners of their mouth flop about on the carpet, like Pluto's, Micky Mouse's blood-hound. It's wrong to be DOWN IN THE MOUTH : it wears out the carpet

If you're DOWN IN THE MOUTH you often MAKE A LONG FACE. That means that you're dismal and disappointed. Whenever I see, at the end of the month, how much my overdraft has grown at the bank, I MAKE A LONG FACE. My overdraft's like my son. It' won't stop growing.

Now if you're DOWN IN THE MOUTH and MAKE A LONG FACE, you're also FED TO THE TEETH. To be FED TO THE TEETH is the same as being FED UP. This implies that you're full of annoyance right up to your teeth. When I was a boy at school I used to be kept in as a punishment on a sunny afternoon. I couldn't go off and play football, so I was just FED UP.

But I was never FED UP long. There were lots of pleasant things in life to look forward to. For example, a tasty cake on my birthday. The mere though of it MADE MY MOUTH WATER, That means that I looked forward to something extremely pleasant. For it's a physical fact that, when you see, hear or smell food, the water in your mouth increases. So anticipation MAKES YOUR MOUTH WATER.

Now my mouth's full of teeth, except where my dentist has been amusing himself. Whenever he gets busy I have to GRIT MY TEETH - or clench them together. That's supposed to shew courage. But I GRIT MY TEETH largely to prevent my dentist from putting his fingers in my mouth. To GRIT ONE'S TEETH means almost the same as TO KEEP ONE'S CHIN UP - to be brave. Whenever I sit in the dentist's chair, he always pushes my head back. So I have my chin well up. But it doesn't help. He hurts me just the same.

Now your teeth are set in gums which are covered with thin skin. If you do something by a narrow margin you say, "I just managed that BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH''. Sometimes I forget the time my train goes and catch it BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH. That's in England. In Palestine, by the time one's train goes, one has no more teeth. They've all dropped out through old age long ago.

Why is it that people forget things? Sometimes you know someone's name as well as your own but you just can't recollect it at that very moment. So you say, "Well, I never! It was just ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE". You can also use that phrase if you were just about to say something which you realized at the last moment you shouldn't. If you begin to talk to someone about the beautiful new cemetery and suddenly remember that she's just become a widow, you stop and say to yourself, "By George! It's lucky I remembered in time. I had it ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE".

What do you do with your tongue? First, you use it for talking. Then you can put it out to your doctor - or at your enemies. Lastly, you can use it for licking stamps.

In idiomatic English, there's another use for LICKING - TO LICK SOMEONE INTO SHAPE. That means to take a beginner and train him in his job. It comes from the old legend that baby bears, when they're born, are a formless mass of flesh and fur. The mother and father bears have to LICK THEM INTO SHAPE. That's also a very old phrase. Even Shakespeare talks of an 'UNLICKED bear Whelp'; that is, an UNLICKED baby bear.

Unruly English school-boys are sometimes beaten for the good of their souls. They say afterwards, as they rub. their behinds, "I didn't half get a LICKING", So if someone says he's going to LICK YOU INTO SHAPE, you'd better wear an extra pair of trousers underneath.

Talking of LICKING reminds me of LIP. LIP is English slang for impudence. It means that you're using your LIPS too much in talking. If two English workmen have an argument and one gets rude, the other says, "Look 'ere! Not so much of yer LIP!"

If, however, the argument. continues they'll probably come to blows. Then they go at each other with TOOTH AND NAIL. That means with the utmost effort, like wild beasts fighting. If someone's given a new job which he starts with great enthusiasm, you can say that he goes at it TOOTH AND NAIL.

Now if wild beasts fight each other, the weaker one is often killed and eaten. The stronger uses his claws to tear his victim to pieces and his paws are stained with blood. Sometimes he's surprised while he's doing this. Then he's caught RED-HANDED.

To be caught RED-HANDED is to be caught in the act of committing a crime. I've already told you about the time when I was stealing jam from the cupboard and heard my mother coming. I had MY HEART IN MY MOUTH because my mother caught me RED-HANDED. The jam was made, if I remember rightly, from red currents.

A thief trying to open a safe is sometimes caught RED-HANDED. I'm sorry about that. I'm sure the thief would put the money to much better use than the owner of the safe, who's often CLOSE-FISTED. To be CLOSE-FISTED means to he stingy, not generous. A man who never gives anything, to charity is said to be CLOSE-FISTED. His fists; or hands, are always closed. He keeps his money locked up. The thief would probably spend it on drink and put the money back into circulation. Money in circulation means prosperity. So we might almost say that it's the thief who's really a public benefactor; while it's the CLOSE-FISTED man who's the criminal.

And now I come to the end of my talk. I'm sorry to say that there are only two more to finish the series of twelve. Then I'm going away for a rest. I'm sorry to disappoint you. At any rate I've kept the had news this evening to the end. In other words the STING IS IN THE TAIL. Have you ever been bitten by a scorpion? Well, if you have, you'll know where that idiom comes from.

Good night.