v25.9: You Idiom Part Deux - 12

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

I've had a super busy morning this morning.  I arrived at work early again only to be greeted with a phone call from my bosses' boss who is in Hong Kong.  Here I am 2 hours later ready to write.  Is it Friday yet?  Oh wait, IT IS!

-slurp-

Keeping with the topic I started yesterday, I plan on discussing those commonly used phrases (or idioms) and giving background and meaning to them.  Yesterday I asked you to post any idioms you would like to know the meanings of and you provided me with 3 challenges; Kick the Bucket, A little birdie told me and A Penny for your thoughts.  Here we go!

Kick the Bucket
We all know this one as it typically means someone has died.  I had to do some real digging and had to ask the question, "How does kicking the bucket relate to someone dieing?".  There are a few plausible answers to this one but the one I feel is the best goes back to the late 1500s.  Shakespeare wrote in Henry IV: part 2

"Swifter then he that gibbets on the Brewers Bucket." [to gibbet meant to hang]

If you think about the way people hang themselves, they usually need an object to stand on in order to reach the rope.  This object (in Plays especially) was simply a bucket.  In order to complete the hanging, one would kick the bucket out from underneath of them thereby hanging them and eventually killing them.  Hence, Kick the Bucket.

A little birdie told me
This was an interesting one to look into.  It actually has several possible meanings.  I have chosen two to share with you since they seem the most plausible.  First off, for those who are of religious background this phrase could be referring to Ecclesiastes 10:20 which says:

"for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."

So I guess that could be it.  However that passage from the bible does not translate well to "A little birdie told me" does it?

Another explanation derives from Carrier Pigeons which were used quite a bit to carry messages.  In some cases, these messages were secretive so when asked, someone may have simply said "A little birdie told me" so to not reveal the sender's true identity.  Very interesting no?

-slurp-

Ahhh, I really needed that.

-slurp-

Penny for your thoughts
Last but not least.  It took me a bit longer to find this one.  Basically, a Penny for your thoughts means you're asking someone what is on their mind.  But how was this phrase "coined"?

I traced it back to a man named John Heywood who was a playwrite.  Apparently he wrote a two-hundred page book entitled "A dialogue conteinying the nomber in effect of all the proverbes in the Englishe tongue" (try saying that name 3 times fast) which was published in 1546.  I then found out that this book was later reprinted and renamed to "The Proverbs of John Heywood".  In that book we first see "A Penny for your thoughts" as well as other famous idioms today like "In one ear and out the other" and "don't look a gift horse in the mouth".  While it may be unlikely that John Heywood came up with a penny for your thoughts, this is the first record I could find where it was written.

Another thought behind this could also relate to the pay a playwrite would make to think up a new story.  Now I'm no econimics expert but I suspect a penny in the 1500s was worth a lot more than it is today.  Therefore, for someone to get paid a penny for think up and writing a play for a Queen or King may be a decent wage.  Of course this is only speculation.

-slurp-

Well folks, thanks for giving me the idioms to look up and give a definition and history lesson on.  I'd like to continue this theme next week so I'm going to give you the weekend to come up with some new ones for me to look into and on Monday I'll pump a few of them out for you to enjoy.

-slurp-

Take care all and have a great weekend!

Cheers,
Al