expressions - Felicia Davin

Felicia Davin

Sign in Subscribe

expressions

A collection of 12 posts

graphic of 4 fragments of book covers

Behind closed doors

shacks, cabins, toilets, cahoots, and a real “one of these things is not like the others” set of book reviews

the cover of Graham Greene's The Quiet American, showing a white man in a suit on a red background

White elephants and quiet Americans

I do cock a snook, but not at thee

rude gestures, death, and romance novels

Following nature

SECOND NATURE, expr. I was listening to a song of this title recently and it occurred to me that I didn’t really know what this phrase meant. Sure, sure, something that “is/comes as/feels like second nature” is instinctive or effortless, but shouldn’t that be first nature?

Future Cake

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO, expr. For a long time I didn’t understand this expression. As a kid I thought, “isn’t having a piece of cake the same thing as eating a piece of cake?” After all, in English you can ask “would you like to

Bloodhounds and red herrings

Bloodhounds and red herrings

RED HERRING, n., exp. Without even trying to, in my head I had made up a whole little fake history for this expression. “Probably there was some groundbreaking important murder mystery with a literal red herring in it,” I said to myself, “and it was misdirection, and that’s why

Jackpot

JACKPOT, n. I mostly associate this noun with winning the lottery—hitting the jackpot—but it actually comes from poker, which isn’t too surprising. It originally referred to a pot, or a collective pool of money, into which players would contribute until one of them could open the betting

Joints and popsicles

Joints and popsicles

Since I left Substack this week, I was thinking about expressions people use when they’re leaving a place, and I landed on “let’s blow this popsicle stand” as a particularly puzzling one. Why does “blow” mean “leave”? Where are all these popsicle stands and why are people leaving

Swan around and swan song

Swan around and swan song

SWAN (ABOUT/AROUND/OFF), v. A friend asked about the origin of this expression a couple weeks ago, and here’s what I’ve found. It seems to be primarily British, first used at the end of the nineteenth century. Initially, it meant moving like a swan—swimming, gliding. Because

Flop flip

It is Sunday evening and I am still woefully unprepared to teach Monday’s classes, so no word this week, sorry. I’ll be back next week! Instead, for your perusal, here are links to lexicographer Jonathon Green’s slang timelines of words used for penis (that is to say,

Suck-egg grannies

A couple readers asked me about the expression “teaching grandmother to suck eggs.” I’ve never heard anyone say this in conversation, but the expression came up a couple times in my googling for last week’s newsletter on weasels and sucking eggs. I didn’t include it because I

Art-schmart

SCHMANCY, adj. This word isn’t from a Romance language, exactly. It has international origins. Usually you see “schmancy” as part of “fancy-schmancy,” which is a Yiddish construction that entered US English along with Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants. Yiddish has a linguistic feature called “rhyming reduplication,” which is what’s happening