LET'S SPEAK ENGLISH:
Broadcast: Wednesday, January 5, 1938 at 9:00 PM

Fourth Talk - Idiom

Fourth Talk - IDIOM

II. RED TAPE

III. A RED RAG TO A BULL

IV. TO SEE RED

V. TO DRAW A RED HERRING ACROSS THE TRACK

VI. A WHITE ELEPHANT

VII. A BLACK SHEEP
TO PULL THE WOOL OVER THE EYES
TO FLEECE
WOOL-GATHERING
A WOOLY MIND
THE WOOL-SACK

VIII. A DARK HORSE.

IX. ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

X. BLUE BLOOD

XI. OFF-COLOUR

XII. IN THE PINK

TRANSCRIPT: FOURTH TALK - IDIOM

Last week we had a terrible fight with the irregular verbs. Tonight I'm going to give you something much easier - a short talk on English idiom.

Now it's very important to use English idiom correctly. The slightest error may change the whole meanmg of a sentence.

Before the War there was a general hospital near Florence in Italy. The hospital was run by a religious brotherhood, the Fratelli della Misericordia, and was open to member of all communities. A very charitable enterprise, no doubt, but the English notice over the gate said : "The miserable brothers harbour every kind of disease and have no regard for religion."

But if the incorrect use of English idiom is bad, over-correct idiom is worse. I get so tired of the candidates for employment who copy their letters straight out of Pitman's manual. "I can assure you, Sir, that if I am so fortunate as to receive a favourable reply to my application, I shall do everything in my power to merit your approbation." So if you're going to write idiomatic English, at least be original.

This evening I propose to explain the meaning of a few idiomatic phrases. As there are so many different shades of opinion in Palestine, I shall start with the idiomatic use of different colours. So you can choose whichever phrase matches your own opinions.

My great grandmother was a communist, so we'll start with RED. This gives us RED TAPE, a RED RAG TO A BULL, TO SEE RED and a RED HERRING.

The idiom most frequently met with in Palestine is RED TAPE. Now the tape used to tie up bundles of papers in different Government offices in England is usually red. Government departments are often very slow in giving a decision, so the phrase 'RED TAPE' is used for unnecessary formality and delay. When you're asked to fill up fifteen different forms in Palestine in order to get some license or other, and you have to waste three separate mornmgs in a draughty corridor waiting in a queue, you rightly exclaim "What an awful lot of RED TAPE".

There are far too many papers in any case in the various Government offices in Palestine. I've made a calculation that if all the things. that've been written on this country were put side by side across the Mediterranean - they'd sink to the bottom - and a good thing too.

There's one way, of course, to avoid. RED TAPE in a Government office - and that's to use white tape ......

Personally I loathe RED TAPE and whenever I find it it makes me wild. In fact for me it's as bad as a RED RAG TO A BULL.

Now a RED RAG often irritates a bull and makes him charge. That's why a red cape is used in bull-fighting to attract the bull's attention. In fact, it makes the bull SEE RED or, in other words, makes him furious. The phrase to SEE RED comes from the red spots a man's supposed to see in front of his eyes when he's very angry. So if you buy an expensive hat and your husband sees the bill, don't be surprised if he SEES RED too.

To DRAW A RED HERRING ACROSS THE TRACK means to distract someone's attention in an argument by raising an irrelevant subject. The phrase comes, like many English idioms, from the hunting field. When hounds are exercised, a RED HERRING is sometimes drawn along the ground at the end of a string to provide scent. Even if the herring is drawn across the track of a fox, the theory is that the hounds will follow the herring and not the fox.

RED HERRINGS seem to abound in committee meetings in Palestine. The subject seems continually to change and you hardly ever end a meeting in this country talking on the same thing with which you started. That's why meetings in Tel Aviv usually finish at three in the morning. Perhaps the RED HERRINGs have something to do with the herrings that are a favourite food in that city.

We'll now turn to another colour - WHITE. What's the meaning of the phrase A WHITE ELEPHANT? In idiomatic English, a WHITE ELEPHANT is something you own but for which you have no use. Occasionally at a charity bazaar you'Il see a stall marked 'WHITE ELEPHANTS'. Don't think it's a Zoo: they're merely selling all the unwanted ornaments and bric-a-brac that generous people have given away.

My wife once had a WHITE ELEPHANT, a particularly hideous vase, luckily only one of a pair. So she gave it a·way to a bazaar. Unfortunately she didn't tell me, so when I saw it, I bought it back again so .she might have two to match.

But why is it called a WHITE ELEPHANT? Apparently the Kings of Siam used to keep valuable collections of rare white elephants. Whenever they wanted to confer an honour on a deserving subject, they gave him a WHITE ELEPHANT. He didn't dare to sell it or give it away but had to feed it for life - and elephants can live a very long time.

Now A WHITE ELEPHANT is one thing but a BLACK SHEEP is another.

A BLACK SHEEP is a man who has shewn himself to be good for nothing and a rogue. You sometimes hear that "So-and-so's the BLACK SHEEP of the family". That means he's the only BLACK SHEEP in a white flock. In the nineteenth century, the BLACK SHEEP in each family were all shipped off to Australia. That, I believe, is why Australia today produces so much wool.

Most of the BLACK SHEEP, when they arrived in Australia, PULLED THE WOOL OVER other people's EYES. That's another idiomatic phrase which means to deceive people by hiding the truth from them. When someone thinks he's being deceived, he says "Oh! no. You can't PULL THE WOOL OVER my EYES" .

But the BLACK SHEEP from England successfully PULLED THE WOOL OVER THE EYES of their victims in Australia and then proceeded to FLEECE them. A FLEECE is the woolly covering of a sheep: and to FLEECE means to remove the wool. In idiomatic English it means to strip someone of his possessions or, in other words, to cheat him of his money. So if you meet a BLACK SHEEP when you're out for a wlk you'd better cross to the other side of the road

While we're talking about sheep and wool, you ought to know that a man whose thoughts are continually wandering is said , in English idiom, to be WOOL-GATHERING. That's to say his thoughts are not occupied with the subject in hand, but are miles away doing something else. So a teacher sometimes says to an inattentive pupil. "Come now, Stop WOOL-GATHERING!".

In the same way if ' someone's ideas are not very clear, he's said to have WOOLLY MINDS. In England, in the House of Lords, some of the peers have WOOLY MINDS. Now the Lord Chancellor, who acts as speaker of the House of Lords, doesn't sit on a chair but on the WOOL-SACK. The WOOL-SACK is a very large cushion covered in red, a reminder of the days when England was supreme in the wool trade. I believe the wool for the WOOL-SACK is drawn almost entirely from the WOOLLY MINDS of the noble lords themselves.

In Palestine there isn't any WOOL-SACK but there are plenty of WOOLLY MINDS. I'm thinking of setting up a factory to extract all the WOOL and make it into children's jerseys. If you'd like to buy shares in the company, I'll send you full particulars.

Now a BLACK SHEEP is one thing but a DARK HORSE is another.

The idiom a DARK HORSE is taken from the racing field and, is. used for someone whose possibilities are not exactly known but who might have great chances. You often hear people say about a candidate in an election "So and so's a DARK HORSE". But it's often the DARK HORSE who's successful. while a BLACK SHEEP hardly ever is.

Even if a DARK HORSE is elected to Parliament, he has little chance of speaking in the House of Commons, unless, of course, he asks questions about Palestine. He'll only get an opportunity to speak ONCE IN A BLUE MOON. As the colour of the moon is usually silver or golden a BLUE MOON is somewhat rare. You can say, "ONCE IN A BLUE MOON I have a balance at the Bank". Or you say "I give money to charity ONCE IN A BLUE MOON". But that's wrong: you should be far more charitable than that.

Now BLUE is also the colour of aristocracy. A man who's a member of the English aristocracy is said to have BLUE BLOOD. You'll notice, if you look at most English aristocrats, especially the women, how thin and pale they look. That's their BLUE BLOOD. Or it may be the heavy income tax and death duties that makes them LOOK BLUE. To LOOK BLUE is another idiomatic phrase that's used when a person looks depressed. You can say to someone "You're looking BLUE this morning. What's the matter?"

Now if MOONS are sometimes BLUE, and BLOOD is sometimes BLUE, the sky is never blue in England. A Persian visitor to England was once asked if it was true that he worshipped the sun. "Yes" he said, "and so would you, if you ever saw it".

The sun usually makes things cheerful: and because there's little sun in England, the English take their pleasures sadly. In England, any one who looks flushed and excited is believed to be ill and is sent to bed. When he looks mournful again they say he's recovered and he's allowed to get up.

In England, if any one's not very well, they say he's OFF-COLOUR. You often hear some one say "I'm feeling a little OFF-COLOUR today". That applies to the educated man. If you're a working man you say "I feel like 'ell". But if you 're in the Army, you haven't much time to feel OFF COLOUR or like 'ell. A British Tommy, when he writes home to his family, is always IN THE PINK. That means he's well and healthy. The idiom comes from the boxing ring. A boxer's colour should be rosy: his body is then IN THE PINK".condition .. So the Tommy always ends his letter "Hoping this finds you as it leaves me, IN THE PINK". And on the back of the envelope, he puts the secret sign 'S.W.K.' Now you might think this means 'Soldiers will kill'. It doesn't. It means 'sealed with a kiss'.

If you're interested in other English idioms I can recommend a little book called 'Everyday English Phrases' by Whitehead. There's one idiomatic phrase on each page with an explanation of its meaning and its origin. It's for advanced students only but if you want to improve your style in English it might help you. The name of the book is 'Everyday English Phrases' by J. S. Whitehead. It costs two shillings and sixpence, about a hundred and fifty mils in Palestine : and it is published by Longmans Green of London. You can order it through any local book shop.

In finishing my talk this evening I think you might be interested to know who are the other members of the Brighter English League. There are now 350 members. Half live in Jerusalem, seventy in Tel Aviv, and forty in Haifa. There are others at Nablus, Tiberias, Petah Tikva, Rishon le Zion, Rehovoth, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Benyamina, Natanya, Affula, Pardess Hanna; at Amman and es Salt in Trans-Jordan, at Baghdad and Kirkuk in Iraq, at Beirut, Aleppo and Kuneitra in Syria and even at Plovdiv in Bulgaria and Constanza in Rumania. Most seem, from their names, to be Jewish, and there are more men than women. Quite a number are students in secondary schools.

I'm sorry I can't reply personally to all the questions I've been asked in your letters. But I am very grateful for your suggestions many of which I'm using in future talks.