Origins of English Idioms
Charlotte Booth • 18 May 2021
Origins of English Idioms
Over the past year, we have perhaps started using a particular sub-set of lockdown idioms which describe how some of us may have felt – I know I have felt all of them.
Being stuck inside the house for more than a year, no matter how nice your house is, may have been driving you stir crazy, you may have been climbing the walls
and no doubt at some point you suffered from cabin fever.
Stir Crazy
Going stir crazy is a very apt phrase for being in lockdown as it originates from nineteenth century London slang for prison.
‘Stir’ as slang for prison is thought to have come from the nickname given to Start Newgate Prison in the 18th century, which was particularly notorious in London. This name ‘Start’ morphed into ‘Stir’ and was used to refer to all prisons.
So to be Stir Crazy is to be driven mad by incarceration.
Climb the walls
Whilst the feeling of climbing the walls indicates a need to escape it is thought that this phrase originally meant the opposite.
It is believed to be a medieval phrase connected with attempting to breach forts by ‘climbing the walls’ which was a difficult and time-consuming (not to mention dangerous) task – which some may have viewed as madness.
Cabin Fever
This phrase which refers to the feeling of being stuck inside for a period of time – normally that weird time between Christmas and New Year or between March 2020 and June 2021- is actually American in origin.
This nineteenth century phrase refers to being stranded in a remote cabin – of which they have a lot – perhaps being snowed in. Such a situation could lead to the fights, divorce, or murder. The Shining anyone?
During this lockdown period you may also have had mini-meltdowns making you think you are going bananas
or losing your marbles.
I know I have.
Going bananas
When you are becoming over-emotional and acting in an irrational way you could feel that you are going bananas. My lockdown highpoints were putting margarine in the microwave, panic buying a pineapple and a complete meltdown because I couldn’t get an Easter egg.
This idiom is a late addition to the English language, originating from 1960s US college campuses. It is thought to have evolved from ‘going ape’ which means the same thing – over-emotional and irrational or overflowing with enthusiasm.
Losing your Marbles
This phrase suggests that you are confused and behaving irrationally. But where does it come from? I’ve not had marbles since I was a kid. (You can take that however you want).
In the nineteenth century the word marbles was used to mean belongings and general ‘stuff’ so to lose one’s marbles was to be lacking something.
The first record of this phrase was in 1886 in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat: “He has roamed the block all morning like a boy who had lost his marbles,” referring to the feeling of losing something important.
However, it wasn’t thought to have come into common parlance in regard to insanity until the 1950s. In the movie The Caine Mutiny (1954) Humphrey Bogart provides a link between insanity and marbles, when his character jiggles marbles when under pressure.
Hopefully lockdown is going to end soon, and we can all pick up our marbles and bananas, come down from those walls blinking into the sunlight, to sit in a pub garden in 90mph winds and sideways rain as is befitting a British summer.
If you can think of any other ‘lockdown’ phrases that you may have used I would love to hear them so why not drop me an email
or catch up with me on social media (the links are at the bottom of the page).
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