What does that mean?

[Clint]

Have you ever stopped and wondered where some crazy expressions and sayings come from?

Like, "the whole nine yards" or "rigimerole" (or however you even spell that one).

So let's find out...

I will start by proving a popular* explanation to a common saying, and then provide one for the next person to look up.

When you post the explanation to the last saying, You then get to leave one for the next person to explain and so on.

*There are often several explanations for some expressions and sayings, so posting your favorite is fine.

So the.expression I chose to start out is 'The whole nine yards'. Explanation: World War II aircraft machine gun belts were nine yards long, thus giving any enemy plane the whole nine yards meant you really unloaded everything you had.

Next up: 'bang for your buck'

 

[zama80]

There is one that has always baffled me, and I have yet to find the answer.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 

[ChefBoyRG54]

There is one that has always baffled me, and I have yet to find the answer.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Bobblehead and woodchips

 

[ChefBoyRG54]

Have you ever stopped and wondered where some crazy expressions and sayings come from?

Like, "the whole nine yards" or "rigimerole" (or however you even spell that one).

So let's find out...

I will start by proving a popular* explanation to a common saying, and then provide one for the next person to look up.

When you post the explanation to the last saying, You then get to leave one for the next person to explain and so on.

*There are often several explanations for some expressions and sayings, so posting your favorite is fine.

So the.expression I chose to start out is 'The whole nine yards'. Explanation: World War II aircraft machine gun belts were nine yards long, thus giving any enemy plane the whole nine yards meant you really unloaded everything you had.

Next up: 'bang for your buck'

Bang for buck began politically, literally meaning more bombs for the money

I'll add one shortly

 

[ChefBoyRG54]

I'll go with this world of annoyance for when lol or lmao isn't enough.

"Roflmfao"

 

[THEMISCHMAN]

Roflmao is a silly-ass-new-age-short-hand way of saying: Rolling on floor laughing my ass off. It originated from Tweeners who are too lazy to spell and have no idea how to read an analog watch. It took me a long time to even use: LOL. I'm ornery, what can I say.

Mine phrase is,
Like the crow flies.

 

[mdwest]

Like the crow flies.

from: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/as-the-crow-flies.html

The allusion in this expression is obviously to the ability of crows to fly directly from A to B, without the encumbrances of roads and landscape features that restrict man. Crows are perhaps an odd choice as, unlike many birds that migrate over long distances, their flight isn't especially straight. Crows normally fly in large wheeling arcs, looking for food.

The earliest known citation of the phrase, which explicitly defines its meaning, comes in The London Review Of English And Foreign Liturature, by W. Kenrick - 1767:

 

[mdwest]

"Dont look a gift horse in the mouth"

 

[ENV]

"Dont look a gift horse in the mouth"

Straight from Wiki

Since horses' gums recede as they age, which makes the teeth appear to grow long, checking the teeth of a horse given as a gift is a way of checking for old age.

 

[ENV]

"Close but no cigar"

 

[mdwest]

"Close but no cigar"

The phrase, and its variant 'nice try, but no cigar', are of US origin and date from the mid-20th century. Fairground stalls gave out cigars as prizes, and this is the most likely source, although there's no definitive evidence to prove that.

It is first recorded in print in Sayre and Twist's publishing of the script of the 1935 film version of Annie Oakley:

"Close, Colonel, but no cigar!"

It appears in U. S. newspapers widely from around 1949 onwards; for example, a story from The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, November 1949, where The Lima House Cigar and Sporting Goods Store narrowly avoided being burned down in a fire, was titled 'Close But No Cigar'.

 

[mdwest]

Hootenanny

 

[Sirspanksalot]

One of my old teachers would always say rigemerole figured she had just made it up lol

 

[Ilkligas]

Deleted

 

[Clint]

Rules, man...Read the rules, lol!!

 

[TonyRome]

Straight from wiki
Hootenanny is a Scottish word meaning "celebration" and / or "party", most closely associated with Hogmanay[citation needed]—the Scots New Year celebration which, traditionally, is the biggest celebration on the Scottish calendar.

 

[TonyRome]

I never got best thing since sliced bread. I get it means a good idea but was sliced bread that revolutionary?

 

[Cigarth Vader]

From Wikipedia

Sliced bread is a loaf of bread that has been pre-sliced with a machine and packaged for convenience. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".[1]This led to the popular phrase, "the greatest thing since sliced bread".

 

[THEMISCHMAN]

I never got best thing since sliced bread. I get it means a good idea but was sliced bread that revolutionary?

According to what I've read, yes. Not to mention, bread has been around a hell of a lot longer than I imagined. Anyways, this guy Otto Rohwedder built the first machine to automate slicing bread in 1928 and sold it to a bakery in Missouri. The local newspaper claimed it was the "greatest forward step in baking history since bread was wrapped". Before this people had to slice their own bread and now they could purchase it pre-sliced. Apparently this was friggin amazing to people in the 1920's and 30's.

Here's a couple stories about it so you can read it your selves. It's pretty neat.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/05/origin-phrase-best-thing-since-sliced-bread-2/

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/02/how-the-phrase-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread-originated/252674/

 

[Cigarth Vader]

"Under one's thumb"