Words from Where

By Mick Holien

You often hear phrases uttered full well thinking they have aptly described a scenario when in fact what they have done is to describe something or maybe someone with words with a commonality but have little or nothing to do with what is happening.

In other words those three dozen or so words did little to further your understanding of what I intend to explain as in to continues

Now I don’t want you to be taken back by my A-1 attempt to hold you back as I make an above board Adam’s Apple try to work against the grain.

So there you go: Taken back, A-1, Above Board, Adam’s Apple and against the grain used in a bit cloudy sentences to explain I want to describe what is occurring.

A taken back attempt for example is a nautical term when the sails of a square-rigged sailing ship are suddenly carried back against the mast by the wind.

Thus a person stopped hurriedly by a new development is ”taken back.”

My A-1 effort originated from Lloyd’s of London’s marine insurance company that graded ships and their cargo by the first of 26 letters accompanying a letter.

Being above board is in reference to a magician’s honesty the thinking being if your hands were below the table – below board – was a possible sign of dishonesty or maybe just trickery.

We can occasionally explain where such words and phrases originate as long as such an effort isn’t our Achilles Heel in reaching the true meaning and in speaking or not speaking for r our Adam’s Apple interferes.

But a caution that such breaking down of their origin might well go against the grain of what has become a standard conversation.

A carpenter’s reference “against the grain” is the use of a plane against the wood grain, thus roughing it up while Adam’s Apple is in reference to the Garden of Eden when a piece of the forbidden fruit got stuck.

Reference to your Achilles was an attempt by the mother of Achilles in Greek mythology dipping her son by his heels into the river Styx in a mistaken attempt to make him invulnerable.

He died by being shot by an arrow into his heal.

Just sayin’  

You May Also Like

More From Author