Another look at some English phrases

A few weeks ago I wrote about the meanings and origins of three English phrases. Today I am going to look at some others I find interesting, including one which is rather new to me.

"The cat's whiskers"

As you may have guessed, this phrase means that something is outstanding in some way. This is a 20th century phrase, with the first known usage being in the 1920s. The idea behind the phrase comes from the belief that a cat's whiskers are extremely sensitive and are a finely-tuned part of the cat's body. As such, the whiskers were seen as a symbol of precision, quality and elegance. Therefore, calling something "the cat's whiskers" is a way of saying it's the best, just like the whiskers are a unique and important part of a cat's body. Nobody is quite sure when it first entered common usage but it apparently gained popularity during the 1920s, possibly in conjunction with the jazz age when similar phrases like "the cat's meow" were used to describe fashionable things. I have heard several similar phrases such as 'the bee's knees', but I only came across this one a few weeks ago.

"A flash in the pan"

This phrase was inspired by the flintlock musket, a weapon used in the 16th and 17th centuries. These guns had a mechanism in which gunpowder was placed in a small pan, and when the trigger was pulled a spark from the flint ignited the powder in the pan to fire the musket. However, the powder in the pan would sometimes fail to ignite the main charge in the barrel. This would cause a brief flash of light or fire, but the gun wouldn't actually discharge a shot. This momentary flash was just a brief, insignificant occurrence - like a brief spark that quickly fizzled out, indicating a failed or incomplete attempt. Over time, the phrase has come to be used metaphorically to refer to something or someone which has a brief moment of success or fame but quickly fades away without achieving anything substantial.

"Caught between a rock and a hard place"

This phrase, which describes being in a situation with no easy solution, originates from the mines of America in the 1920s. Workers would quite literally be stuck between a rock and the hard walls of a mine. According to Phrase Finder, the phrase was first used by miners in Bisbee, Arizona in 1917 who approached their managers with demands for better working conditions, only to be forcibly deported to New Mexico. A phrase with the same meaning is "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea", although this one seems a little less depressing to me.

Thank you for reading this blog. Let me know if you have any favourite phrases you would like to see featured in a future post.