“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!” This is a saying I’m sure everyone has heard at some point in their lives. Little sayings like this serve as life lessons that are told to children and sometimes adults. Because of this, nearly everyone is familiar with them. Have you ever wondered, though, where these sayings come from?
I’ve compiled a list of five common sayings as well as their origin stories below.
1. “Close, but no cigar.”
This saying is typically used when we fall short of just reaching our goals. The origin of this saying is widely believed to date back to fairgrounds between the 1920s through the 1940s. Carnival game stalls would give the winner a cigar and if they lost, “Sorry pal. Close, but no cigar.”
This is the most believed theory although there isn’t enough evidence to actually solidify it. The first documented use of this saying, however, was in a script for the 1935 film "Annie Oakley": “Close, Colonel, but no cigar!”
2. “Don’t shoot the messenger!”
Dating back to ancient Greece, the general message of this saying was expressed by Sophocles in his play Antigone: "No one loves the messenger who brings bad news." The saying as we know it now was phrased by Shakespeare and can be found in two of his plays, Antony and Cleopatra and Henry IV.
3. Achilles Heel
Used to describe someone’s weak spot or general weakness, this idiom (like the one above) dates back to ancient Greece. According to Greek mythology, Achilles was the son of a nymph named Thetis. She wanted her son to be immortal so she dipped him into the river Styx (which was believed to make whomever was immersed invincible). However, Thetis held her son by the heel and because her hand covered it, that part of Achilles’ body remained vulnerable. Achilles was eventually killed in battle when Paris of Troy shot him in the heel with an arrow.
4. The bees’ knees
Speakeasies, flappers, and the rise of jazz music were just a few elements of the 1920’s beside animal related slang terms like this one. Referring to something incredible or of excellent quality, “the bees’ knees” and many other phrases were used everyday. Only a few remain somewhat in use today (and in true hipster fashion, they’re all cat related): “The cat’s whiskers,” “the cat’s pajamas,” and “the cat’s meow.”
5. “Riding shotgun”
Whether you’re going on a ride with friends or family, whoever yells “I call shotgun!” first gets to ride up front. Although this phrase wasn’t coined until 1919, it actually dates back to the days of travel by stagecoach. Back in the day, the person that typically rode next to the driver of the coach was known as the “shotgun messenger” (that’s just slang for express messenger). Even though stagecoaches have gone out of style, the phrase has not. We all call “shotgun” to get dibs on riding up front.
