This document discusses the origins of 20 common English idioms: 1) "Straight from the horse's mouth" refers to examining a horse's teeth to determine its age. 2) "Let the cat out of the bag" originated from replacing valuable pigs with cats in bags. 3) "Butter someone up" refers to throwing butter balls at statues in India to seek favor. 4) Additional idioms and their origins ranging from horse racing to medieval practices are described.

1. SOMECOMMONIDIOMSAND
THEIRINTRESTING ORIGINS

2. An expression whose meaning is different from
the meanings of the individual words in it.
Usually, an idiom is figurative in modern
contexts but once had a literal meaning. These
literal meanings, or idiom origins, can help a
learner of English understand where these
idioms are originated.
What is an Idiom?

3. 1. Straightfrom the horse’smouth
Meaning: Getting information directly from the most reliable source
Origin: This one is said to come from the 1900s, when buyers could
determine a horse’s age by examining its teeth.

4. 2. Let the cat
out of the bag
Meaning: Tomistakenly
reveal a secret
Origin: Up to and including in
the 1700s, a common street
fraud included replacing
valuable pigs with less valuable
cats and selling them in bags.
When a cat was let out of a bag,
hence the phrase association with
revealing a secret.

5. Butter
someoneup
3.
Meaning: To praise or
flatter someone, usually to
gain afavor
Origin:A customary
religious act in ancient
India included throwing
butter ballsat the statues
of gods to seek good
fortune and their favor.

6. Pulling someone’s leg
Meaning: Teasing someone, usually by lying in a comical manner
Origin:Although pulling someone’s leg is all in good fun
nowadays, it originally described the way in which thieves
tripped their victims to rob them.
4.

7. 5. Wolf in sheep’s
clothing
Meaning: Figuratively, anyone
who disguises a ruthless nature
through an outward show of
innocence.
Origin: Jesus taught his followers
to “beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves.”
(Matthew 7:15)

8. 6. HandsDown
Meaning: Without much
effort: easily
Origin: Winning “hands
down” once referred to
19th-century horse racing,
when a jockey could
remove his hands from the
reins and still win the race
because he was so far
ahead.

9. 7.
7. Riding shotgun
Meaning: Riding in the front
seat of a vehicle next to the
driver
Origin: In the Wild West, the
person who sat next to the
driver was often equipped
with a shotgun to kill any
robbers that might happen on
their way.

10. 8. Barking up the wrongtree
Meaning: To completely misunderstand a situation; to make a
false assumption about a situation.
Origin: Likely referring to hunting, this saying explains when a
dog would literally bark at the bottom of the wrong tree after
the prey in question moved to the next branch.

11. Meaning: Suddenly becoming
furious
Origin: This one is said to come from
poorly made axes of the 1800s that would
literally detach from the handle.
9. Flying off the
handle

12. 10. Cost an arm and a leg
Meaning: extremely
expensive
Origin: The saying is originated from
the early 20th century, possibly during
one of the world wars. The idea being
that soldiers, because of their heavy
involvement in the war, can possibly
lose a hand, foot or arm, which is a
high price to pay.

13. 11. Sleep Tight
Meaning: Used to tell someone to sleep well
Origin: One possible origin of this phrase dates back to when
mattresses were supported by ropes; sleeping tight meant
sleeping with the ropes pulled tight, which would provide a well-
sprung bed.

14. 12. Bite the Bullet
Meaning: To perform a painful
task or endure an unpleasant
situation
Origin: In the 1800s, patients would
literally bite on a bullet to cope with
the pain of having surgery before
anesthesia was common.

15. 1
Meaning: Look for avoidable errors so you don’t remove something good
with the bad
Origin: This idiom apparently comes from a time when the household
bathed in the same water; first, the lord would bathe, then the men, the
lady, the women, the children, and the babies last. The bath water is said to
have been so dirty that there was a risk of throwing the baby out with the
water once everyone was done bathing!
13
Don’t throw the baby out with
the bath water

16. 14. kick the bucket
Meaning: To die
Origin: The term is known to date
from at least the 16th century. The
phrase relates to suicides who would
stand on a large bucket with noose
around the neck and, at the moment of
their choosing, would kick away the
bucket.

17. 15. Minding your
Ps and Qs
Meaning: Being on your best
behavior
Origin: The bartenders would
keep track of the pints and quarts
consumed by their customers
with the letters “P” and “Q.”

18. 16. Turn a blind
eye
Meaning: To consciously
ignore unwanted information
Origin: The phrase “toturn a
blind eye” is said to originate
with Admiral Horatio Nelson,
who allegedly looked through
his telescope using his blind
eye to avoid signals from his
superior telling him to
withdraw from battle.

19. 17. Armed tothe
Teeth
Meaning: To be extremely well
equipped
Origin: The term originated in Port
Royal Jamaica in the 1600s when pirates
were constantly looking for ships to loot
and their guns were very primitive.
Consequently, they needed to carry a gun
in each hand, and also perhaps in each
pocket. For extra power, they would also
hold a knife between their teeth. So to be
''armed to the teeth'' means to carry the
maximum number of weapons possible.

20. Meaning: To irritate or annoy
someone
Origin: It originally belongs to
horse racing. The horse is a very
moody animal. In order to keep a
horse calm and relaxed, coaches
kept a goat as a stable mate for the
horse for better performance in
race. Competitor owners used to
bribe the stable employees to steal
the goat at night before the final
racing day. By the absence of the
companion goat, the horse had got
irritated and therefore, it did not do
well in race competition and had
lost the game.
18. Get One’sGoat

21. Meaning: To make every possible effort or use all available resources to
achieve an end.
Origin: Alluding to the piano-like instrument, this phrase refers to when the
stops are pulled out to turn on all the sounds in an organ, allowing it to play all
the sounds at once and, therefore, be as loud as possible.
19. Pull out all the stops

22. 20. Dish fit for the
gods
Meaning: A very delicious or
appetizing meal
Origin: We can thank Shakespeare
for this expression (found in
"Julius Caesar"), but we can also
thank him for “foaming at the
mouth” ("Julius Caesar"), “hot
blooded” ("The Merry Wives of
Windsor"), “wearing your heart on
your sleeve” ("Othello"), and “one
fell swoop” ("Macbeth").

23. THANK YOU