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"Hail Mary" |
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The expression Hail Mary pass is
one of many political metaphors that come from the world of sports.
In football, a Hail Mary pass is a pass made in
desperation, with only a very small chance of success. The typical
Hail Mary is a very long pass thrown at the end
of a game where there is no possibility for any other play to work.
The phrase derives from the name of a prominent Roman Catholic prayer
to the Virgin Mary and comes from a translation of the opening words
of the prayer in Latin, Ave Maria. The point is that the success
of such a pass is so unlikely that it would need divine interention
to work.
From football, Hail Mary spread to other sports
in the sense of '(of a usually high pass, shot, etc.) made in desperation,
with a very small chance of success'.
The figurative use was popularized during the Gulf War by General
H. Norman Schwartzkopf, who compared a flanking maneuver to the
football play in a 1991 press briefing.
The earliest known use of the expression Hail Mary
pass is only in 1982, though it may well be earlier.
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"Pass The Buck" |
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Pass off responsibility to someone else.
Some card games use a marker called a buck. Players take turns acting
as dealer with the buck marking the current dealer. When the buck
is passed to the next player, the responsibility for dealing is passed.
Spawned the phrase "The buck stops here" popularized by
President Harry Truman.
A buck-slip is also a small piece of paper that is sometimes preprinted,
or hand-written, and included the names of the people who were to
receive a memo or report. It is a routing list.
In the days before copy machines and computers people typed one
memo, with a carbon copy, then passed the one copy of the memo around
to the people listed on the buck slip. Each person initialed next
to their name on the buck slip and passed the memo on to the next
person on the buck slip.
A tactic used to delay or delegate something was to pass the document
on to the next person, without initialing the buck slip -- pass
the buck (slip). When Harry said the buck stopped here he meant
he wasn't going to pass the responsibility along.
Although the buck slip was a popular use of the term, that usage
may have originated with the gambling usage.
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"Buck Naked" |
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Or, Butt Naked, the jury is still out. Pretty much means
Naked. Buck is so far a mystery |
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"Hoodwink" |
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OK, back in the 16th century, "wink" meant
to firmly close the eyes, not the brief, jaunty wink we know today.
To "hoodwink" someone was to literally blindfold them with
a hood, often the sort used by executioners. Hoodwinking was also
a tactic of thieves, who would throw a hood over their victims' heads
before robbing them. This literal sense of "hoodwinking"
was joined in the 17th century by the metaphorical sense of "hoodwinking"
we use today -- to blind someone by trickery or deceit in order to
take advantage of them. |
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"Pig In A Poke" |
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An offering that is foolishly accepted without being
looked at first.
I bought a used pickup truck, but it turned out to be a pig in poke
because it burned oil.
A poke is defined as a bag or a pouch and is the origin of the word
pocket - a small pouch.
At medieval markets, unscrupulous traders would display a pig for
sale. However, the pig was always given to the customer in a bag,
with strict instructions not to open the bag until they were some
way away. The trader would hand the customer a bag containing something
that wriggled, and it was only later that the buyer would find he'd
been conned when he opened the bag to reveal that it contained a cat,
not a pig.
The phrase refers to the failure to look inside the bag or poke.
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"Spank the Monkey" |
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Sorry, There was far to many to list
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"The Whole Kit And Kabootle" |
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Most recently from the earlier
phrase "kit and boodle". Boodle (or Buddle) is an old
word, and probably evolved from the Dutch "boedel" meaning
a crowd or bunch. "The whole boodle" was heard as
long ago as the early 19th century. Kit is also a time honored word
with many meanings, one of which is a collection of tools or possessions
that a person might carry with them. "The whole kit" was
used by 1785. Caboodle is essentially a nonsense word, and is
perhaps a contraction or rhyme of "kit and boodle". Stephen
Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" contains it: "Of
course it might happen that the hull (whole) kit and boodle might
start and run, if any big fighting came first-off." |
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"Your Joshin' Me" |
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"To Josh" as a verb
meaning "to joke" came from "josh" as a noun meaning
a "rube or "hick which in tunr was based on the fact that
"Joshua" was considered a typical rural name and a handy
label for anyone likely to be taken in by a simple trick |
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"In A Pig's Eye" |
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Not
true, a lie, a misperception, false.
Bill is a hard worker only in a pigs eye.
This is an example of rhyming slang.
"Pigs eye" is a rhyme for "lie". |
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"Rode
Hard and Put Away Wet" |
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Too
ride one's horse and put it away in a lather, rather than washing
it or brushing it or whatever it is you're supposed to do to resolve
this. |
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