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Mad as a hatter
Alternative: Originally the expression is believed to have been "mad as an adder," meaning "angry as a snake." However, in the Canadian writer Thomas Haliburton's Clockmaker serial (1836), the adder became a hatter and mad could mean loopy as well
as angry. By then it was known that mercurous nitrate caused mental instability among hatters, who used the substance in brushing fur
pelts. But contrary to perception, the character in Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) is not actually named the Mad Hatter. Thanks to Max Cryer. ______________________________________________________________________________
Make both ends meet
Alternative: From tailoring or dressmaking, the amount of cloth available might only just be sufficient to complete the garment, so that it would wrap completely around the body, making the ends meet. A saying with this sense occurs in Polish. ______________________________________________________________________________
Make money hand over fist
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Make no bones about it
To "make no bones" means make no boners or mistakes. ______________________________________________________________________________
Making hay
______________________________________________________________________________
Making tea with your navel
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Man up
______________________________________________________________________________
Mark my words
______________________________________________________________________________
Mind your own Beeswax
Alternative: This may just be a childish rhyme to the phrase "mind you own business".
"Biz" is sometimes used as an abbreviation for "business" and rhymes with
"bees". "Biz" also sounds and is spelled similar to "buzz",
the sound usually attributed to bees. ______________________________________________________________________________
Mind your P's and Q's
Not only did pub keepers maintain the count of pints and quarts consumed,
they often maintained a tab for regular customers, especially sailors.
The sailors tab was sometimes paid directly out of the sailors pay by the
ship's captain. This to assure the pub keeper of payment.
However, this created the opportunity for the pub keeper to charge for
a few extra pints and quarts. And in some cases the captain was in on this
little deception, and shared in the extra payment. Hence it was to the
sailors best interest to keep count of the pints and quarts. To mind his
Ps and Qs.
Alternative: Lower case Ps and Qs look similar and can be mistaken for each other.
When setting moveable type printing presses, "minding your Ps and Qs" is
important.
Similarly, a person just learning how to write could easily confuse lower case
Ps and Qs. Hence a need to be careful and "mind your P's and Q's".
Alternative: Ps and Qs may just be a childish word play for "please and thank yous"!
Certainly this seems to fit with the accepted meaning.
Alternative: The printing reference is the correct one. Movable type for printing presses were always reversed (look at the keys on a typewriter or even a Daisy-wheel); the reversed 'p' looks like a 'q' and vice-versa. With so many individual letters required for even a single-page publication, a printer's devil (the apprentice who assembled the plates) had to be mindful not to confuse the two.
Thanks to Shelia Clark.
______________________________________________________________________________
Monkey Business
This idiom, from 20th century America, is like many other expressions that relate human behavior and animal behavior ("sly as a fox" and "wise as an owl"), and probably comes from an older expression, "monkeyshines," which dates from the 1820s. ______________________________________________________________________________
Monkey's uncle
"I'll be a monkey's uncle" was originally a sarcastic remark by a non-believer
of Darwin's theory and was intended to ridicule the theory of evolution. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
“Most Progressive Day” of the Year ______________________________________________________________________________
My giddy aunt
Meaning:
Crazy behaviour. Example:
Origin:
In olden days, felt and other hats were prepared with the aid of mercurous nitrate, a highly toxic substance which can produce a tremoring disease similar to Parkinson's disease. Such people were assumed to be mad. The most famous Mad Hatter is in Lewis Caroll's "Alice in Wonderland", but the original is thought to be the 17th century Robert Crab, an eccentric who lived in Chesham, who gave away all his worldly goods to the poor and lived on dock leaves and grass.
Meaning:
To live within one's means. Example:
Origin:
In accountancy, 'meet' used to be an adjective meaning "equal" or "balanced". The end was the end of the financial year in which both profit and loss accounts had to be balanced: the ends had to be met.
Meaning:
Rapid success in a business venture.
Example:
Since I joined that pyramid
club, soon I'll be making money hand over fist.
Origin:
Sailors through the ages have used the same
hand-over-hand motion when climbing up ropes, hauling in nets, and hoisting sails. The best
seamen were those who could do this action the fastest. In the 19th century, Americans
adapted the expression "hand over fist" - describing one hand clenching a rope and the other
deftly moving above it - to suggest quickness and success.
Meaning:
Don't misunderstand what I
am saying, I am speaking frankly.
Example:
Make no bones about
it, I will be calling your boss about your proposition.
Origin:
"Bones" in this case is
short for boners. Although boner has other meanings, a boner
is defined as a mistake. This meaning has fallen out of common
usage but was once widely used.
Meaning:
To be highly productive for
a limited period of time when the opportunity is present.
Example:
While in graduate school
you may be living as a pauper, but when you get out with your new degree
you will be making hay.
Origin:
"Making Hay" is short for
"Making hay while the sun shines". If you cut or harvest hay during inclement
weather (e.g. rain) the hay becomes heavy and hard to rake and bail but
even worse it will mold and become useless. You can only make hay while
the sun shines.
Meaning:
Laughable. Example:
Origin:
Japanese origin.
Meaning:
To accept responsibility; to take ownership; to gather your courage.
Example:
If something hard needs to be done, then you ought to man up and take care of it.
Origin:
Thanks to
Pamela Walker.
Meaning:
I will be proven correct.
Example:
Mark my words, if
you don't replace you tires you will have a blow out on your car by the
end of the summer.
Origin:
"Mark" in this case means
to write, hence "mark my words" means to write down my words. This will
enable the written words to be referenced later, presumably proving the
speaker correct.
Meaning:
Keep your opinions and comments
to yourself.
Example:
If I want your opinion
I'll beat it out of you - mind your own beeswax.
Origin:
This came from the days
when smallpox was a common disease that caused disfigurement. Those
who survived the disease were left with pock marks on their body and face.
Ladies would fill in the pock marks with beeswax. However when
the weather was very warm the wax might melt. But it was not
the thing to do for one lady to tell another that her makeup was melting.
Meaning:
Behave properly.
Example:
Since his drunk driving arrest,
he has been minding his Ps and Qs.
Origin:
Comes from the early pub
days when beer and ale was served in pint and quart containers. The tab
was kept on a chalkboard used to count the pints and quarts consumed. To
watch your Ps and Qs is to control your alcoholic intake and behavior.
Meaning:
Silliness or fooling around; dishonest or illegal activities; idiotic pranks. Example:
Bubba was sent to the principal's office for monkey business - he used a monkey instead of an apple to greet the new teacher. Origin:
This expression has two meanings. One concerns comical behaviour like that of a playful monkey. The other refers to sneaky, unlawful actions. So a student could be sent to the principal’s office for monkey business and a politician can be sent to jail for monkey business.
Meaning:
To express disbelief or skepticism
at an idea, or surprise when you find something unexpected to be true.
Example:
If Paul Martin remains
in office, I'll be a monkey's uncle.
Origin:
The publication of Darwin's
theory of evolution in the "Decent of Man" was greeted with derision and
a great deal of skepticism. The idea that man is related by a common ancestor
to apes and monkeys was considered the most outrageous of the claims.
Meaning:
My giddy aunt is an expression used to denote surprise. Example:
Origin:
The "giddy" in this instance is probably unrelated to a sense of spinning around but rather to an alternative meaning of the word indicating "impulsive" or "scatterbrained" (Old English gydig meant "mad, frenzied, possessed by God").
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