Idioms and Their Origins

endure something hard

„08/15“ comes from the German „MG 08/15“ machine gun of the First World War: mass-produced and drilled endlessly, it became the epitome of the dull and ordinary.

💡 Did you know? The phrase spread mainly through soldiers and today means anything standard and unimaginative.

ease initial tension

Ice-breaking ships cut a channel through frozen waters so that other vessels could follow; the figurative sense of easing the first awkward moments is recorded from the 16th and 17th centuries.

💡 Did you know? At parties and meetings, a short game or question to get people talking is still called an “icebreaker”.

rough estimate

The phrase comes from the era of shared bathhouses: whoever bathed last had to use the dirty, cold water and then empty the tub.

💡 Did you know? To „ausbaden“ something today is to bear the consequences of what others caused.

reveal a secret

„Blaumachen“ (skiving off) goes back to the dyers: when dyeing blue with indigo, the cloth had to „ferment“ in the air: leaving the craftsmen free meanwhile.

💡 Did you know? The „blue Monday“ as craftsmen's day off still lives on in the phrase.

caught in the act

The expression goes back to Scottish legal language of the 15th century, where an offender „taken with red hand“ was seized with the victim's blood still on their hands; the form „red-handed“ became popular through Walter Scott in the 19th century.

💡 Did you know? Today the phrase is used for any wrongdoing, from raiding the biscuit tin to cheating in an exam, with no blood involved at all.

completely crazy

The phrase comes from the battlefield: fleeing soldiers threw their heavy musket into the grainfield to escape faster: giving up the fight.

💡 Did you know? The „Flinte“ was an early firearm: whoever threw it away had finally given up.

deliberately ignore

„Holzwege“ were paths made by woodcutters only to haul out timber: they ended in the middle of the forest. Whoever followed them got lost.

💡 Did you know? The philosopher Martin Heidegger deliberately titled a work „Holzwege“, as an image for thinking that can lead astray.

pursue a mistaken idea

The blunt phrase probably comes from the battlefield: dying warriors fell to the ground and bit into the grass in their death throes.

💡 Did you know? The Greek poet Homer already described fallen warriors „biting the dust“: a similar image.

make every effort

The good-luck wish is probably a corruption of the Yiddish „hatslokhe un brokhe“ („luck and blessing“): so one wished the opposite of the literal words.

💡 Did you know? Out of superstition, seemingly bad things are wished elsewhere too: actors say „toi, toi, toi“, in English „break a leg“.

it's your turn

The „Laufpass“ was once a soldier's discharge paper: whoever got it had to leave. Today it mostly means dumping a partner.

💡 Did you know? Similar discharge papers were also called „Wanderbuch“ or „Abschied“: but „Laufpass“ prevailed in the language.

reveal information

„Pleite“ (bankrupt) comes from Yiddish (pleite „flight“): an insolvent debtor once fled to escape his creditors.

💡 Did you know? Many money-related terms like „Pleite“ or „malochen“ come from thieves' cant and Yiddish.

rescued just in time

Before writing was common, debts were notched into a split piece of wood: whoever had „a lot on the tally stick“ was deeply in debt.

💡 Did you know? Both halves of the tally stick were compared: making fraud nearly impossible, an early „tamper-proof“ contract.

on the whole

The image comes from the vending machine: only when the coin (the „Groschen“) dropped through did the mechanism start: just as understanding „clicks“ after a brief delay.

💡 Did you know? English says very similarly „the penny dropped“.

scold severely

The phrase plays on loading someone with something utterly unbelievable (a heavy „bear“) that they naively believe; that is, a brazen lie.

💡 Did you know? „Bär“ here may also go back to an old word for „burden“ or „debt“.

everything

In old farmhouse parlours there was often a pot of grease for oiling boots: whoever stepped in it left greasy marks and embarrassed themselves before the host.

💡 Did you know? Today „stepping in the grease pot“ means any unintended, embarrassing gaffe.