Long ago, I was a sophomore in college. 

That was the year my family decided to fill the space I left behind with a foreign exchange student from Italy. I didn’t get to spend much time with her, but on breaks and the occasional weekend home for a visit, I listened, fascinated by her delivery of the English language. Her English was good, but she made it sound elegant and exotic with her rolling r’s and extra vowels. Since English was her second language, there were occasions where some ideas and conversations ended up a bit lost in translation. Simple phrases that seemed perfectly logical to us confused her.

As I later found new friendships with people from around the globe, I realized many of my foreign friends had the same issue.

Little catch phrases I would use, or terms I’d heard since childhood only produced blank stares or questions for clarity. Often, I was taken literally when I said things like “to stick your neck out” or “knock on wood”.

It began to take on a you-just-had-to-be-there feel as I attempted to explain what I meant by saying these words. As it turned out, sometimes I didn’t quite understand what the phrases meant. I just knew from some kind of deep-seated experience that it was the right thing to say in the moment. 

Fast forward…a long way…to the present day.

Over the past few months, I’ve paid closer attention to these phrases we like to sling around on a daily basis. 

• Thrown into a conversation with a coworker about a deadline, one might encourage the other to “keep your eye on the ball”. 
• In the aftermath of a misunderstanding, we demurely admit how we’ve “opened mouth and inserted foot”. 
• We like to “chew the fat” with friends, tell our kids to “toe the mark”, and heaven forbid we “toss the baby out with the bathwater”. 

Idioms have been woven into our language since its birth, tracing their roots back hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of years. Sprouting from various cultures, they mingle together in a rich language soup.

We use them frequently. Well, I do at least. I love them. They’re fun words shaped into surprising phrases, rolling off the tongue in a sing-song fashion. Often, we don’t even realize we’re using them. They’re sneaky like that. Repeated from generation to generation, their meanings become so ingrained into our psyche that we find them hard to define for those who are unfamiliar with them. Each one has its own back story, words with a history. 

Intrigued yet? I’m hoping you are, because I have a proposition. I’m taking a trip, and I’m inviting you to tag along with me. No equipment needed for this treasure hunt, except a love for words and quite possibly a sense of humor. I’m going to explore some well-loved and used phrases over the next few months, along with some idioms you may have never heard before. I’m hoping to find friends who value fun words and phrases like I do and are ready to add new ones to their vocabulary. 

I want to hear from you as well! This is an interactive space, and I’d love for you to add to the conversation. Commenting with your favorite idiom would be a great start, and maybe I’ll add it to my list to investigate! 

Together, we are going to gild the lily… and if you aren’t sure what that means or why I’ve given this series that title, stay tuned.

So, let’s get started! Subscribe below so you don’t miss the first post, and be sure to comment with an idiom you love to use.

Jamie Inman

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For more reading material, click the links below. They’re perfect for boring waiting rooms or making it through meetings that should’ve ended long ago.

• Still, Small Voice
• The Chime of our Lives
• Gilding the Lily – #4: The Bee’s Knees
• A Song of Hope
• Truth for Aching Hearts