Gone But Not Forgotten
They roll off the tongue, calling to mind those Sunday dinners when grandma would drop a line or two while stirring a pot of soup, not even looking up from the stove. These phrases once clinked around in everyday conversation like a common currency, but nowadays they’re rare—a shiny silver dollar in your pocket change. These days, no one under seventy says these without a wink, and yet, these phrases endure. Sometimes, they hitchhike into conversation uninvited when we least expect them. A phrase like “brass tacks” will pop out in the middle of a business meeting, and suddenly everyone’s remembering their eccentric great uncle’s ramblings at the last family reunion.
1. “Don’t take any wooden nickels.”
This advice was meant to keep someone from getting swindled back when currency didn’t have all those fancy holograms. Picture a grandfather in the 1940s, sending his son off to the city with this final warning. It’s got a good weight to it—solid, but also oddly playful.
Unknown authorUnknown author on Wikimedia
2. “You look like the cat that ate the canary.”
If you heard this back in the day, it was because you had a smug look on your face. Not just smug but satisfied. In this case, it was not enough to say that you looked happy; this phrase captured the additional element of mischief written across your face, as if you’d gotten away with something.
3. “Hold your horses.”
This one isn’t entirely out of style. It’s a call for patience, to wait. Slow down, kid. And while you’re more likely to hear it in an old TV Western than in your local coffee shop, this phrase is an enduring classic that still makes the odd appearance in daily conversation—usually with an ironic smirk.
4. “Let’s get down to brass tacks.”
In essence, they’re telling you to get to the point. Supposedly, this phrase originated from upholstery shops, where you’d measure fabric right down to the brass tacks on the furniture. But also, doesn’t it just sound authoritative? The consonants have teeth, and even if you have no idea what it means, you instinctively understand.
5. “Heavens to Betsy!”
Who is Betsy? Nobody knows. Putting that little mystery aside, this phrase is to express surprise, shock—even mild scandal. It frankly doesn’t matter who Betsy is; this expression is the verbal equivalent of a gasp and hand placed dramatically over your chest.
6. “You’re in a fine kettle of fish.”
You only need to take a moment to reflect on the imagery to understand that this means you’re in a real mess. This food-related phrase certainly doesn’t conjure an appetizing image. Imagine walking into a kitchen to find an actual kettle of fish boiling away. If ever someone feels compelled to say this to you, then yes, that’s about how disastrous things are.
7. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
This one contains timeless wisdom wrapped in a horrifying image. Don’t lose sight of the essential. It hearkens back to the days when bath time was a weekly ritual that saw each family member share the tub one after the other. By the time the baby’s turn came around, losing them in the murky water was a legitimate concern.
8. “Bite the bullet.”
Another one that modern generations are still somewhat familiar with. It means to endure something painful or unavoidable. Origin stories vary—Civil War field surgeries, old-time dental work—but they all make you wince and brace for the pain.
9. “A real humdinger.”
While humdinger may evade a concrete definition, the expression means that something is excellent. It could be a pie, a party, or a baseball game that went into extra innings. Humdinger may be pure invention, but it has bounce. You can’t say it without an accompanying smile.
10. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”
In today’s sensitive society, this one’s the likeliest to offend. In other words, it’s telling you to calm down. The British influence shows here with its choice of knickers over undies, though American grandparents used it plenty. It’s a little cheeky, and that’s part of the charm.
11. “The bee’s knees.”
If you’re on the receiving end of this one, it’s because you’ve done something worthy of high praise. This is Jazz Age slang, right alongside “the cat’s pajamas.” Nobody has ever seen a pair of bee’s knees, which may be why it’s such a rare thing—it’s nonsense, but the sort of nonsense that makes you crack a smile.
12. “Mind your Ps and Qs.”
In other words, watch your manners. According to some accounts, this phrase originated in the pub, where bartenders would instruct a rowdy customer to keep track of their pints and quarts. While there’s some debate on the origin, there’s no debate on the tone.
Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash
13. “Like a broken record.”
Anyone with a turntable can relate to this expression. It means repetitive. Stuck. This one might just vanish entirely now that fewer and fewer people remember the days when putting some music on required more than navigating through a screen. Anyone who's heard that needle hit the same scratch again and again understands immediately.
14. “Don’t upset the apple cart.”
This one means don’t mess up a good thing. Back in the day, farmers literally wheeled apple carts to the market, and if you tipped one over, you had hours worth of harvesting rolling around in the dirt getting ruined.
15. “I’ll be there with bells on.”
If you dropped this line, it meant that you were excited, dressed to the max, and ready to make an impression with your arrival. Where the bells came from remains anyone’s guess. Some suggest it originated with a wagon team or Vaudeville costume, but the origin story for this phrase is murky.
16. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
This one is particularly annoying to be on the receiving end. It’s a call to succeed through sheer effort. Ironically impossible in the literal sense—just try lifting yourself up off the ground by tugging at your boots—but that’s never stopped anyone from using this phrase to dismiss whatever struggles may be hampering your success.
17. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
An expression of resignation, this phrase is basically a shrug in verbal form. You can almost hear it accompanied by the rustle of a newspaper being snapped indifferently.
18. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
Horses’ ages were once checked by their teeth, so inspecting a gifted horse implied suspicion and a lack of gratitude. Nowadays, it just means to accept the free gift without complaint.
19. “As the crow flies.”
Crows apparently are not inclined to waste time flying in zigzags, and this phrase implies the direct distance between two places, ignoring roads, fences, or detours. This one still makes an occasional appearance in your great uncle’s fishing stories.
20. “Happy as a clam.”
Clams are not known for their blissful emotional states, but it may be that a clam with its shell cracked open at high tide appears to be smiling. The exact scientific explanation isn’t important; it’s just a cheerful, salt-of-the-earth kind of phrase.
