Well, Aren’t You a Tall Drink of Water?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Michael. I’m calling in from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hey, Michael. I’m glad to talk with you. What’s up?

Excited to be here. I had a question that came up not too long ago. It actually, it occurred after a dinner party that I was at with some of my partner’s friends. And I was meeting them for the first time. She knew most of them, but I didn’t.

And so we were kind of debriefing on the ride back. We were kind of commenting about how we thought it went. And I said something like, I had a lot of fun. It was really nice to meet everybody. I hope they enjoyed my company. And I think we had also been commenting on the glass and plateware. And so she responded and said, well, of course they did. You were a tall glass of water.

And so I thought that was a joke. I thought it was like a total throwaway compliment. Like I didn’t think it meant anything. So we’re just kind of riffing off the conversation. And so I responded, you’re a tall glass of water. And she said, no, that’s a, it’s actually a compliment. So when I asked her what it meant, she’s like, I don’t know. It’s, I think it means you’re tall and handsome. And so we thought that would be appropriate to call in and just confirm and get some background.

So I just want to confirm that you are tall and handsome, Michael. So get that out of the way.

So she was right.

Yeah.

I hope so.

Oh, you didn’t want that kind of confirming.

I see.

You wanted another kind of confirming.

Yes.

But that’s a nice compliment to get, right?

Yeah.

Well, you tell me.

Is it, yeah, what does it mean?

Well, it is a compliment now, but it hasn’t always been. Now we could say somebody is a tall drink of water, a big drink of water, a long, cool drink of water. And it often implies that they’re tall and slim and good looking. And it’s usually for men, but not always.

Sometimes it only means that someone is tall and there’s no notion of good looking in there or attractive in there at all. But in older uses, particularly, you’ll find just drink of water without any kind of modifiers, sometimes being used pejoratively to kind of imply that somebody is just bland or they have no energy or they’re just kind of this nothing burger of a person. It didn’t used to always be a compliment.

I think most times today it’s a compliment.

Well, I hope in this case it was a compliment.

Yeah, you’ll find it’s at least 120 years old. It’s got a good long history to it. And generally it’s said by someone who thinks that someone else is attractive.

But Michael, there we go. So it was a compliment. You should take it as a compliment. It’s definitely a phrase that you want to hear more about yourself.

Well, thanks for explaining. I’ll have to start using that one more often.

Yeah.

But, you know, there’s a particular, you know, sometimes it’s a cool, dark glass of water, you know. It’s just, there are all these different ways to phrase it to let people know. Like, you’re like, it’s like a, it’s like the biggest flirt term that I know, frankly, if there’s any kind of tension between two people.

That’s a good one.

All right.

Take care of yourself.

Thanks for calling.

Yeah.

Thank you, guys.

Bye.

Okay.

Stay hydrated.

So what are the picturesque expressions that you use to describe the people you love in your life? Let us know, 877-929-9673, or email it to us, words@waywordradio.org.