To Beat the Band

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Claudia, and I’m calling from Gardnerville, Nevada.

Hey, Claudia, welcome.

Hi, how you doing?

I’m good, thank you.

Great. Well, Claudia, what’s on your mind?

My mom, who passed away about six years ago, she used to always say something to me, and it’s always confused me, and I thought maybe you guys could help me out with it.

I’m going to try.

So when I was a kid, if something was happening that was big, say there was a big snowstorm, she would always say, it is snowing to beat the band.

And I thought that was interesting, but then it could be used in many different ways.

It could be, she was running to beat the band, or they were driving to beat the band.

And I never understood what the band reference was and why that would be used in that way.

And I was wondering if you had any ideas.

Yeah, that is a crazy reference, isn’t it?

I feel sorry for people who are learning English because what in the world to beat the band?

Beat the band.

I came thinking of a marching band, and I was like, that is not very fast.

That’s true. They don’t move very quickly.

Here’s the thing about the band. It’s about the noise they make, not the speed at which they march.

And so originally it looks like the historical record is pretty clear on this.

Late 1800s we start to see uses that pop up where it’s usually somebody shouting to beat the band or singing to beat the band or talking to beat the band, meaning they are so loud that they’re overcoming the music that’s being made, and then it becomes metaphorical pretty quickly.

And so anything can beat the band usually as a kind of positive.

Like he was dressed to beat the band or the store sold out all of its goods to beat the band or something like that.

And that’s where we are today.

That’s why you can have somebody running full out to beat the band and not have it really to do with the band being fast or slow.

That makes total sense.

Well, thank you for clearing that up for me.

Yeah, sure.

Glad to have you on the show.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you.

Take care now.

All right.

Have a great day.

Bye, Claudia.

Bye-bye.

I know we have a lot of people listening to the show who are learning English as a second language or perfecting English as a second language.

Or third or fourth.

Or third or fourth.

And I just want to apologize on behalf of the English language and its terrible idioms and how utterly opaque they are.

I’m sorry.

Of course, maybe they’re as charmed as we are by idioms in other languages.

But that one, that would be so opaque.

Yeah, it would be.

When you first look at it.

And even once you know the etymology, you’re still like, all right, but it still sounds weird.

But I’m thinking, too, of maybe you had more experience with bands, with marching bands back in that period.

Well, we’re not necessarily even talking marching band.

It just might be the band playing in the corner at a dance.

It could just be the band playing at some kind of public ceremony where the mayor is about to speak.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah, and you’re having to shout over to be heard.

Yeah.

This is a show about words and language and how we use them and why.

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