Language Absurdity: Funny English Expressions You Didn’t Think Twice Of 2

Clarke and M’Arthur printed what they claimed to be a Nelson’s actual words at the time:[Putting the glass to his blind eye] “You know, Foley, I have only one eye – and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal.”

How it evolved: The first recorded use of the phrase were reprinted in 1935 in More letters from Martha Wilmot: impressions of Vienna, 1819-1829. “turn a blind eye and a deaf ear every now and then, and we get on marvellously well.”

Comments: You don’t literally turn a blind eye when your eyes are working perfectly well. That brings us to the next expression.

In the Blink of an Eye

Original meaning: Something happens fast and sometimes without notice. Can be used to refer to how fast time passes.

Comments: Another eye-related experience. Seeing is believing isn’t it? It is understood why this expression is used. It actually makes sense when things disappear in front of you when you blink your eyes. So, don’t lose your precious things. Don’t lose precious time. Don’t blink your eye.

The Birds and the Bees

Original meaning: It is a phrase used to explain the topics on sex and reproduction to children and teenagers.

How it came about: While the phrase is getting more and more ubiquitous, it is still uncertain how it came about. From time to time, there were works and quotations that seemed to allude “birds” and “bees” to the sensitive topics. Perhaps “birds” and “bees” are used as children are attracted to them easily.

One of the sometimes referenced work in making the link between birds and bees and human sexuality is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Work without Hope, published in 1825.

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair -
The bees are stirring – birds are on the wing -
And Winter, slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Another commonly cited source is Cole Porter’s lyrics in the song Let’s Do It, 1928. 

When the little bluebird
Who has never said a word
Starts to sing Spring
When the little bluebell
At the bottom of the dell
Starts to ring Ding dong Ding dong
When the little blue clerk
In the middle of his work
Starts a tune to the moon up above
It is nature that is all
Simply telling us to fall in love

And that’s why birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Till now, there is no exact explanation for how the birds and the bees refer to sex education to children.

Comments: I don’t think it’s for long before you start to hear something like this: “Honey, let’s have the birds and the bees on bed! Let me show you how. But do pay attention to the lesson ok?”