The phrase throw in the towel meaning “give up,” stems from boxing competitions in the late 19th. If a boxer’s team wanted to stop the fight—usually because their fighter was taking too much punishment—they would literally throw a towel into the air...
Which is correct to describe “a morally upright path” — straight and narrow or straightened arrow? The latter is picturesque, but the vastly more common term is straight and narrow. The original expression was strait and narrow, a...
Why do people say They don’t geehaw to mean “They don’t get along”? Geehaw, occasionally spelled jeehaw, comes from the calls people use to drive a team of animals, such as oxen, mules, horses, or sled dogs, gee being an...
We’ve previously discussed when pigs fly and other idioms expressing profound skepticism that something will occur. That prompted an email from Guillermo in Tucson, Arizona, who shared a Spanish phrase that conveys a similar idea: cuando la...
There’s no evidence that anyone named Sam Hill inspired the phrase What in the Sam Hill? It’s almost certainly just a euphemism for What in the hell? This is part of a complete episode.
The Texas Folklore Society’s book The Best of Texas Folk and Folklore, 1916-1954 (Bookshop|Amazon) offers some wonderful browsing, including this saying to describe an environment that’s too loud: You can’t hear your ears in this place...
