One Side or a Leg Off!

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Brenna calling from Rapid City, South Dakota.

Hi, Brenna. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

What’s on your mind?

Well, I kind of had a question around a saying that was really common in my household growing up.

I grew up in northwestern Nebraska, and I used this saying recently at work, and my colleagues all kind of looked at me like what does that mean? And so the saying is one side or a leg off.

And the context that I recently used this thing or phrase and was I we were on the elevator and we were trying to let somebody off.

And so I they were at the back of the elevator and I kind of said to the group one side or a leg off, which to me means you know get out of the way or you might lose an appendage I guess, but really it just seems get out of the way, you know?

Yeah, yeah, and they they’re like why is this woman threatening violence?

Right, yes. And here’s the other funny thing is is I’m a nurse, we’re in the hospital and so you know amputations are a real thing in our work.

Oh no, one side or an appendix out.

Right. Yeah, I could have said that too. Oh my goodness. But, but it was just this moment where I was like, okay, that did not land or translate.

And so I said to some of my colleagues, I was like, have you, have you ever heard of that thing? And everyone was just like, no.

And so I asked a couple more people and then I thought, am I like, is this a real thing? You know? So I, of course, consulted Google and Google didn’t really, you know, help me out.

You need real arbitration here. Real adjudication.

So I checked in with my, my parents.

My dad is really the person who used this phrase the most growing up, you know, it’d be like keeping moving a big piece of furniture and would say one side or a leg off, like get out of the way, you know?

And so I asked him and my mom about it. And it actually turns out that my dad adopted this phrase from my late maternal grandmother, who used it all the time.

And so she has passed on many years ago now. But my mother shared, you know, that she was she was a super energetic person.

And she was always like, move, move, move, go, go, go. And so she used this phrase a lot.

One side or a leg off that she’d be, you know, busting through the house or whatever.

And my dad adopted it because, you know, he just thought it was a funny thing, but neither of my parents know where it came from.

Well, I got to say, Martha, there’s no, am I remembering correctly, there’s no regional or national component to this?

Not that I know of, but it’s definitely not just their phrase.

And I’m picturing him moving furniture and people worrying that, you know, one of the legs of the chair or the table were going to come off.

Oh, sure, yeah.

So I can see how that could be confusing and confusing for the folks in that elevator, too.

But this expression has been around since at least the early, early, early 1900s.

And it means exactly what you said, you know, move it or lose it. Get out of the way.

Well, it’s funny that you should say move it or lose it, because that’s an expression that didn’t come around until much later, like the 1960s.

But it’s the same idea.

The losing it is a limb.

Yeah, it’s the very same idea.

And so, yeah, it means just what you said.

It’s not limited to your family.

The writer Nelson Algren, back in 1951, published a book called City on the Make about Chicago.

And he describes Chicago as not so much a city as it is a vast way station where three and a half million bipeds swarm with a single cry.

One side or a leg off. I’m getting mine.

Oh, my God.

Which is a great way.

How funny.

Yeah, it’s a great use.

It’s kind of like gangway, meaning get out of the way.

Well, Brenna, call us again sometime.

Let us know about the language and jargon in the nursing environment, maybe, or another time you felt silly in an elevator.

Yes, that sounds great.

Thank you guys so much for your time.

All right.

Take care.

Keep up.

Good luck.

I just want to say thanks for the nursing and all the medical care.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

I absolutely love it.

All right.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

We know you work hard.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

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