Tell a small child, “It’s raining cats and dogs!” and you might get a giggle or a confused look. While adult native English speakers know this just means it’s pouring, a child (or a new English learner) might not understand this or other idioms, which are nonliteral expressions whose meanings are not easily understood from the meanings of the individual words. Among the 25,000 known idioms in English, a wide swath are based on animals, a topic that everyone is familiar with. So, why does it rain “cats and dogs” and not “zebras and giraffes”? Make a “beeline” to these explanations below.
The Straw That Broke the Camel’s Back
Meaning: The last in a series of bad things, seen as the tipping point.
This idiom is essentially a more imaginative way to say “the final straw” (which is also an idiom, but more easily decipherable). “The straw that broke the camel’s back” has negative connotations, referring to the final element in a series of negative things that have already happened. For example, “After a long week of work, the dead car battery was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
While the phrase has been seen in English publications dating back to the 1600s, it most likely comes from an ancient Arab proverb that translates as “the last straw breaks the camel’s back.” The wording sometimes varies slightly — as seen in the 1954 journal Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, in the line, “It is certainly true that the last feather will sink the camel” — but the usage carries the same meaning. Other animals, including monkeys and horses, have been used interchangeably in this idiom as well, but the camel is the most popular version.
Take the Bull by the Horns
Meaning: To deal with a difficult situation directly.
When the best course of action is to deal with something directly and confidently, one might say they are “taking the bull by the horns.” This is common advice to tell someone to face something head on. It might have originated with cowboys in the American West who often wrestled cattle, but it more likely came from farmers who controlled cattle by grabbing their horns to guide them. The earliest versions of the phrase appeared around the early 18th century.
I’ll Be a Monkey’s Uncle
Meaning: An exclamation of surprise or disbelief.
“Did you hear Mary won the lottery?” “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” This idiom is bound to bemuse non-native English speakers, but it’s been used for at least a century as a display of astonishment (sometimes sarcastically). Its exact origin has never been pinned down, but one guess is that the phrase was a sarcastic response to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. One of its earliest recordings came in a 1917 ad in the El Paso Herald for the play A Brass Monkey — the small ad features the line, “Well, I’m a monkey’s uncle!”
It’s Raining Cats and Dogs
Meaning: A downpour of rain; a violent storm.
The first recorded use of “cats and dogs” to refer to heavy rain came in 1651 from British poet Henry Vaughan, who wrote, “dogs and cats rained in shower.” Nearly a century later, Jonathan Swift popularized the phrase “rain cats and dogs” in his 1738 satire Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation.
There are several leading theories as to why Swift and other writers chose “cats and dogs” over, say, “zebras and giraffes.” The most eccentric hypothesis deals with Odin, the Norse god of storms, who is often depicted with dogs (symbols of the wind). This idea was allegedly combined with the folklore of witches, who were associated with black cats and rainstorms. So, “raining cats and dogs” referred to the rain and wind, combining two mythologies. Another possible source is a perversion of the Old English word catadupe, meaning “cataract” (a large waterfall), and yet another theory stems from the perversion of the Greek phrase cata doxa, meaning “contrary to belief,” as in, “it is raining beyond belief.”
One-Trick Pony
Meaning: Someone or something that is only good at one particular thing.
When someone or something is lacking diversity in abilities, they might be referred to as a “one-trick pony.” For example, “After decades of romance writing, the author released a new sci-fi novel, proving that she wasn’t just a one-trick pony.” This idiom was probably derived from a literal circus expression at the beginning of the 20th century, when a one-trick pony would have been rather boring to the audience. By the mid-20th century, it had transformed into the idiom we still use today.
Make a Beeline For
Meaning: Go directly to.
If you’ve been told you make a beeline to the coffee pot in the morning, you likely understand this idiom describes taking a quick and direct path. It relates to the science behind how bees travel back to their hives after they’ve had their fill of nectar and pollen. Research has shown that they take the fastest, most direct route home — in other words, a “beeline.” This saying has been around for centuries, as seen in an 1830 excerpt from The Massachusetts Spy: “The squirrel took a bee line, and reached the ground six feet ahead.”
Get Your Ducks in a Row
Meaning: Get organized or prepared.
This phrase was popularized in the 1970s as slang to tell someone to get ready for something. However, early variations date to the late 19th century. These references all pertain to the idea of ducks being in a literal row, but they point to real ducks, target ducks in a shooting gallery, and duckpins (a type of bowling pin), so take your pick on the origin of the idiom.
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