On "Idioms", "Eponyms" and "Anecdotes".

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I was reading up, and feeling a bit depressed

about these awful floods in Australia,

when I came across this picture.

This cheered me up no end,

especially trying to think up a caption.

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I was going to digger out the music for -

“Michael Roo the Boat Ashore”.

Then I thought you may think …

I had "Kangaroos in my Top Paddock!.“ (eccentric!).

That, I believe, is called a ‘Idiom’.

As is “Takes the Biscuit”.

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I love not only these phrases but, words in general

although I’m afraid they tend to be mainly English words,

as I do not know more than a smidgeon of those from other countries.

Now there’s a nice word - ‘smidgeon‘.

When did you last hear anyone use that?

Or how about the word skerrick?

It was my Gran that introduced me to this one.

“Would you like some more gravy?” she might ask.

“Just a skerrick Nan, thanks.”

Todays words though, leave me cold.

They are complicated, contrived and down right ugly.

They seem to be made up on the spot to confuse

and to show how important the speaker thinks he is.

What, for example, is 'stagflation' or a 'rhetorician'?

The other day I was listening to a talking book.

I much prefer these tapes to books as the old ‘mince pies’ aren’t what they used to be.

Up pops a word that had a nice sound to it - ‘Risible‘.

Stop the tape! Look it up!

Ah, - ‘laughable‘, ‘ludicrous’.

A very useful word in times of politically correct clap trap,

and ‘elf ‘n safety restrictions, don’t you think?

A little further on I was treated to ‘bibelot’.

Mmmm, has a French aura around it. What can it be?

Mais Oui, a ‘small curio’, an ‘artistic trinket’.

(Collins says:- C19: from French, from Old French beubelet ,

perhaps from a reduplication of bel, beautiful)

Fascinating. My house is full of these bibelot‘s.

And books!

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Up, on the top shelf, is a row of dictionaries.

Not French/English or German/English but things like -

The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang.

Cassel’s Dictionary of Superstitions.

The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs.

A Dictionary of English Plant Names.

To name but a few.

Then I have these unusual ones -

Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. (as easy as ABC!)

A Dictionary of Eponyms. (Hoover those up!)

And a Dictionary of Anecdotes. (a brief chronicle?)

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How about:-

“As Rare as Hen’s Teeth.”

or

“It had the aroma of an Arab’s armpit!”

For me, that is just soooo descriptive.

There, are these fellows, wrapped up in towels, riding camels in temperatures well up in hundreds (F of course). Sand as far as the eye can see and no water for hundreds of miles.

When did they last wash their laundry? Or worse still, when did they last shower beneath their armpits?

Is there a name for these?

The phrases that is - not the Arabs!

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