Bob in Oceanside, California, learned the practical range of Spanish mordida in Baja: it can mean an actual bite, as in a warning about a dog, and in Mexico it can also mean a bribe, the sort demanded instead of a ticket. The English expression put...
No great shakes means not impressive, no big deal, or nothing much to boast about. Kat in Dallas learned it from her mother and found that friends sometimes took it for a family oddity, but the expression has been around at least since the early...
Garrett in San Diego remembers his great-grandmother saying You bet your boots! or You bet your britches! to mean without a doubt. The phrases are common in American English and likely come from gambling, where betting your boots or trousers would...
“A horse apiece”, meaning “six of one, half a dozen of the other,” comes from an old dice gambling game to describe a draw. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of “A Horse...
If a waiter marks your date as a WW, you know you’re in for a special bottle of wine. The wine whales, as they’re called, take their name from the Las Vegas gambling whales: those folks who play big at the tables, to the tune of hundreds of...
The die is cast has nothing to do with dye in water or a metal mold. The die is the singular of dice, and cast here means thrown, the older sense still found inside broadcast and podcast. Brian in Indianapolis ran into the phrase as the title of a...
