IDIOMSIDIOMS

SHAKESPEARE’S IDIOMATIC SHAKESPEARE’S IDIOMATIC CONTRIBUTION TO THE CONTRIBUTION TO THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGEENGLISH LANGUAGE

My salad days!

Have you ever thought about Shakespeare’s influence on the English language?

There are lots of phrases from Shakespeare which have become part of the English language.

The mind's eye; To the manner

born; It out-Herods

Herod; A sea of troubles; Dog will have his

day; There's the rub.

The answer is Hamlet.

WHAT’S AN IDIOM?

A sequence of words which has a different meaning as a group from the meaning it would have if you understoodeach word separately.

To kick the bucket

When you complain about a loss from the past.

WHEN ARE IDIOMS USED?

In a wide variety of contexts and situations. In spoken language and also in writtenEnglish, especially journalism

CHARACTERISTICS

FLEXIBLE

BECOME CLICHÉS (expressions) CAN BE SHORTENED…

BRITISH AND AMERICAN IDIOMS

Sweating bullets (USA)

Very worried

Do a bunk (UK)

Leave without tellinganyone

HOW MANY IDIOMS ARE THERE?

LONGMAN HAS OVER 6000 IDIOMS IN ITS DICTIONARY!!!

Meaning

The days of one's youthful inexperience.

Origin

From Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, 1606:

CLEOPATRA: My salad days,When I was green in judgment: cold in blood,

Salad days

"What fools men are in their salad days."

Salad Days was later used as the title of a highly successful is a musical,which premiered at the Bristol Old Vic in 1954.

MeaningDisplay your feelings openly, for all to see.

OriginFrom Shakespeare's Othello, 1604:

I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

MeaningPartners engaged in sexual intercourse.

OriginThis modern-sounding phrase is in fact at least as early as Shakespeare.He used it in Othello, 1604:

Iago:"I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs”.

Make the beast with two backs

Meaning

A pursuit of something that is unlikely to be caught.

Origin

This is old and appears to be one of the many phrases introduced to the language by Shakespeare. The first recorded citation is from Romeo and Juliet, 1592:

"Nay, if our wits run the Wild-Goose chase, I am done: For thou hast more of the Wild-Goose in one of thy wits, then I am sure I have in my whole five."

Wild goose chase

Cold comfort

MeaningSlight consolation or encouragement in the face of a reverse.

OriginThis dates back to the 14th century. It was used in early literature by several authors, Chaucer and Shakespeareused it several times.

The Taming of the Shrew

When he heard that he had lost his job, it was cold comfort to learn that he could keep his car.

Idiom definitionWhen he heard that he had lost his job, it was little help to learn that he could keep his car.

Green-eyed monster

MeaningJealousy.

OriginGreen is a colour associated with sickness. Green is also the colour of many unripe foods that cause stomach pains. The phrase was used by, and possibly coined by, Shakespeare to denote jealousy, in The Merchant of Venice, 1600

In Othello, Shakespeare also alludes to cats as green-eyedmonsters in the way that they play with mice before killing them.

Tower of strength

Origin

From Shakespeare's Richard III –

'The king's name is a tower of strength'.

ALONSO:And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should theyFind this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em?

How camest thou in this pickle?

TRINCULO:

I have been in such a pickle since Isaw you last that, I fear me, will never out ofmy bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.The most celebrated personage ever to be literally in a pickle was Admiral Horatio Nelson.

The Tempest, 1611:

To be in a pickle Meaning

To have problems that are difficult to solve.

Shakespeare appears to be the first to use in a pickle, in THE TEMPEST

Hoist by your own petardMeaningInjured by the device that you intended to use to injure others.

OriginA petard is or rather was, as they have long since fallen out of use, a small engine of war used to blow breaches in gates or walls. They were originally metallic and bell-shaped but later cubical wooden boxes.

Shakespeare gives the line to Hamlet (1603):

"For tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his owne petar".

Milk of human kindness

MeaningCare and compassion for others.

Origin

From Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1623:

"Yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o' th' Milke of humane kindnesse."

To be / make strange bedfellows

OriginFrom Shakespeare's The Tempest:

Alas, the storm is come again! my best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabouts: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.

Mum's the word

MeaningKeep quiet - say nothing.

OriginMum; not mother but 'mmmmm', the humming sound made with a closed mouth.

Used by Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part 2:

"Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."

A fool's paradise

MeaningA state of happiness based on false hope.

OriginAn early phrase, first recorded in the Paston Letters, 1462:"I wold not be in a folis paradyce."

Shakespeare later used it in Romeo and Juliet.

A foregone conclusion

MeaningA decision made before the evidence for it isknown. An inevitable conclusion.

OriginFrom Shakespeare's Othello, 1604:

It’s (all) Greek to me

MeaningIt is unintelligible to me.

OriginFrom Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 1601:

but, for mine own

part, it was Greek to me.

As dead as a doornail

MeaningDead - devoid of life (when applied to people, plants or animals). Finished with - unusable (when applied to inanimate objects).

OriginThis is old - at least 14th century. There's a reference to it in print in 1350:"For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenail."Shakespeare used it in King Henry VI, 1590:

Without rhyme or reason

MeaningA thing which has neither rhyme nor reason makes no sense,from either a poetic or logical standpoint.

OriginThis line originates in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, 1590:

Vanish / disappear into thin air

MeaningDisappear without trace.

OriginShakespeare came close to this phrase in Othello, 1604:

Shakespeare didn't put the two together to make vanish into thin air, though. It is said that the first use of that phrase, which is clearly an adaptation of Shakespeare's terms, appeared in The Edinburgh Advertiser, April 1822, in a piece about the imminent conflict between Russia and Turkey:

The latest communications make these visions "vanish into thin air."

The game is up

MeaningThe original meaning was the game is over - all is lost. More recentlyit has come to be used to mean we have seen through your tricks – your deceit is exposed. Your dishonesty has been discovered.

OriginFrom Shakespeare's Cymbeline, 1623

A sea change

MeaningA definite and important change in a situation or in people’s opinions

OriginFrom Shakespeare's The Tempest, 1610:

All that glitters is not gold

MeaningA showy article may not necessarily be valuable.

OriginThe 12th century French thelogian Alain de Lille wrote Shakespeare 'all that glisters is not gold'. From The Merchant of Venice, 1596:

Every dog has its dayMeaningEven the most unimportant person has a time in their life when they are successful and noticed

Origin

The dog will have his day

Hamlet, act 5, scene 1

But it was a proverb as early as the 1520s

Have an itching palmMeaning

Used about someone in an official job who is willing to take money from people and do things he or she should not do.

Origin

Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3

Do sth as (if) to the manner born

Meaning

Used to say that someone does somehing easily and naturally, although it is an unusual and unfamiliar thing for them to do so.

It was her first lesson, but she taught as if to the manner born Origin

Hamlet, Act 1, scene 4

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Self-Study Idiom Quizzes

www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions

'Shotgun marriage'

The Good Friday Agreement was the political equivalent of a shotgun wedding! Most Unionists felt that a gun was put to their head.

A storm in a teacup