The Whole Nine Yards

Meaning: Everything; the whole thing

Curiously enough, “nine yards” does not refer to distance in any kind of athletic contest.  The reference is actually to the amount of cement contained in the rotating cement-mixer trucks used by construction companies.   When emptied, it would discharge the whole nine yards, completing its mission.

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It’s All Greek To Me

Meaning: Something doesn’t make sense

During the Middle Ages, the educated Englishman or woman knew Latin, but only a minority understood Greek.  One major reason for this is that Greek uses its own alphabet, so before even learning the language one would have to learn the alphabet. The phrase itself comes from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

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Mind Your P’s and Q’s

Meaning: Be on your best behavior

The most likely source of this traditional warning is the practice of tavern owners tallying up the pints and quarts of alcohol consumed by the average thirsty customer in the course of an evening. Customers had to keep track of how much they drank…and how much they owed.  Then they could be “good” and pay off their debts.

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In One Fell Swoop

Meaning: All at once

This term has nothing to do with falling.  Fell comes from the Middle English word fel, meaning “cruel, deadly, or ruthless.”  This expression first appeared in Macbeth, when Shakespeare compares the sudden death of a character’s family to an eagle swooping down on some chickens and carrying them off.

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Called On The Carpet

Meaning: Admonished or reprimanded by a superior

In the 19th century, carpets were exorbitantly expensive; usually, only the boss’s office was carpeted in a business.  To be “called on the carpet” meant one’s boss wanted to speak with you, which usually meant trouble.

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A Load Of Bull

Meaning: A lie or exaggeration

Boule is an Old French verb meaning “to lie.”

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Red-Letter Day

Meaning: A special occasion or day

As far back as the Middle Ages, Christian church calendars and almanacs had holidays, feast days, and saint days printed in red ink; everything else was printed in black.

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Clap-Trap

Meaning: Meaningless talk; empty speech

This expression comes from the theater. It describes any line the playwright inserts—often knowing that it is terrible or useless—just to receive applause. It is literally “a trap to catch a clap.”

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If You Can Do It I’ll Eat My Hat

Meaning: I don’t believe you can do it

Under what circumstances would anyone eat a hat?  The original hat in this expression was “hatte,” an English dish that contained eggs, veal, dates, saffron, and salt.  Over time, it evolved into the ridiculous proposition it sounded like.

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Double-Crosser

Meaning: Betray

This phrase comes from a fixed fight in boxing. If a boxer purposefully loses, he “crosses up” the people who have bet on him to win; if he wins, he “crosses up” the people who were paying him to lose.  He couldn’t win either way and so was a “double-crosser.”