Maree’s Musings

to COIN a PHRASE …

Being both a writer and a fan of a decent chinwag, I suppose it’s not surprising that I take much delight in the many ways we have of expressing ourselves. When you think about it, turns of phrase frequently slip off one’s tongue like water off a duck’s back, yet people can usually suss out what you’re rabbiting on about. And of course effective communication only works when your listener (read reader – you, in this case) cottons on. I also hope that when it comes to the crunch, that despite not being mindblowing, my musings are right up your alley. Fingers crossed!

I confess, when push comes to shove, writing sometimes resembles heavy lifting. But occasionally there’s those lightbulb moments when putting pen to paper produces the finished article, give or take, in two shakes of a dead lamb’s tail. This centuries old expression bugged me. Live lambs do wag their tails after all, but dead ones? However, there’s a sequel. During the 1940s’ Manhattan Project designed to produce nuclear weapons, scientists involved needed to define tiny units of time for reaction sequences. One chap, maybe a bit of a wag himself, chose ‘shake’ to refer to ten billionths of a second. Golly! That’s considerably faster than the blink of an eye, and totally unlike watching paint dry, which makes  your eyes glaze over. 

It may be a Kiwi thing, but sheep are big news in the metaphor metaverse. It’s not good to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, for example; as then they can’t see the wood for the trees. And what about ‘a bit of a dag’? In fact, this may have been pinched from our Aussie mates, but fair cop. There’s pavlova, togs etc, after all.  

A newcomer to Aotearoa will be totally in the dark, but anyone with a drop of rural blood in their veins will know it well. Dags are clumps of dried poo dangling from a sheep’s behind; but how the word came to refer to someone who’s a bit loopy, funny, maybe in cloud cuckoo land, or [less likely] off the planet beats me. Wolves disguised as sheep are best avoided too.

Other animals and birds often feature in turns of phrase. I’m not sure why; perhaps it’s because we can relate to their antics. It’s always a relief when all your ducks [see above] are in a row, so long as none of them is a dead one. And of course, if you’re lucky enough to have a box of fluffy ones, even better. Other birds on your radar might include pigeons in holes, farting sparrows  and singing swans. Pigs are definitely not birds, even if they do occasionally fly.

I’m familiar with the saying ‘a monkey on your back’ – an uncomfortable nuisance, or even a cross to bear – but the origin was a mystery which needed clearing up. In the 1800s it meant being angry; then having a terrible burden. By the 1930s it became the term for drug addiction. A change is as good as a rest, I suppose. It’s sad that monkeys get a bad wrap, although, with bigger fish to fry in these troubled times, we might not give a monkey’s about that. A monkey’s what? There’s uncle, arse and toss. Enough to send you bananas!

I guess my imagination has run riot as usual, because there’s many more. However, with the word limit and dreaded deadline looming, you’ll have to wait for a sequel. Thanks to Mike and our Star, to coin a phrase, that’s definitely on the cards.