Trimming the Tree But Not Cutting its Branches

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Oh, hello. Nice to be here. This is Anna. I am calling from Seattle, Washington.

Hi, Anna. How are you? Hi. Well, there are two particular expressions that I have heard here in America. And the first one, if you don’t mind, I would like to introduce with the context of how I heard it.

Okay.

Okay.

So I am from Hungary originally and came to America in 1980. Arrived in Seattle in April of 1980. And a very nice American family sort of sponsored us and took us under their wings. And they were very nice.

And one day, I was only three weeks in America and my English was not very good. I was 20, and I had two years of high school English under my belt. And one morning, I was standing in a doorway, and the father of this family came towards me with a big smile on his face. And coming down towards me, and very loudly, he yelled, “How is it hanging?” And I was mortified. How is what hanging? I don’t have anything hanging. Should I have something hanging? Am I in trouble? So by the time he reached me, I figured, okay, this is some sort of greeting. But I was so confused. And I’ve never heard this since then, but I’ve never forgot it. And I would really like to know how this, a line like this came to be a greeting.

Yeah.

So the question, how’s it hanging, is not really a formal greeting. It’s not something you’re going to hear when you talk to the president or your boss or something like that. And, you know, if you look at dictionaries, they’ll explain that it was originally described as a man-to-man greeting, if that makes sense.

Oh, that does make sense. It’s moved beyond that. It’s no longer man-to-man. It’s now more widespread, and it’s kind of lost to gender connotations.

Right. But I have not heard it since then. And so man-to-man, that does make sense.

Okay.

Well, thank you. Another one with the same family, we spent our very first Christmas with them, and they kept talking about trimming the tree. And I was also very confused, like, why would you want to cut off the branches of a tree that you’re about to decorate?

Right. And did they give you an explanation for that?

I don’t think I asked them. I was just sitting there confused, and I watched them as they are decorating the tree. And later I came to understand that the trimming itself meant the decorating. But still, the expression to this day confuses me.

Well, Ana, you’ve actually zeroed in on a really interesting word because the word trim in English probably comes from an old English word that meant to make firm or make strong or to arrange or prepare. So, for example, you may have heard people talk about how you need to trim a sail on a boat. And that means to adjust the lines on the boat that are attached to the sail to adapt to whatever conditions there are. Or if you’re in good trim, you’re in good physical condition, you’re ready for anything. And in the same way, if you’re making a Christmas tree ready for the holidays, you trim it. Or think about Thanksgiving. You know, you have turkey with all the trimmings.

All the trimmings.

Mm—

Yeah. It’s what we call in English a contronym, which is a word that can have two different meanings for various historical reasons. For example, the word cleave. You know, a meat cleaver separates things, but you can also cleave to an idea, cleave to a spouse. There are several words in English that do that. For example, if you’re making Christmas cookies, you might dust the cookies with powdered sugar. But if you’re dusting your house, you’re not spreading dust all over your house. You’re taking away the dust.

That’s right. You’re removing the dust.

So cool. What a wonderful language. I love English. Anna, thank you so much for sharing your stories with us. And call us again sometime, okay?

Thank you very much for your enlightening explanations.

All right. Take care and be well.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Take care, Anna.

Bye-bye.

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