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What are some idioms that no longer make sense? Can you think of a modern replacement? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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I was thinking about the phrase 'The pot calling the kettle black'. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)

What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?

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[–] 30 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Oh, man, when it comes to nautical idioms, I could go on all day. There are so many, and they've lost their literal connections so thoroughly, you probably don't even think of some of them as idioms. A few that occur to me immediately:

  • taken aback (wind on the wrong side of the sails)
  • give a wide berth (extra space for a vessel to maneuver)
  • leeway (unwanted downwind slippage of the vessel when in motion)
  • above board (on deck, the board being the section of the hull running fore and aft just above the water line)
  • onboard (to load onto the deck of the ship)
  • go by the board (to fall off of the ship into the water, passing the board on the way)
  • hand over fist (two-handed motion to pull in sails, ropes, etc. as quickly as possible)
  • high and dry (above the tide line)
  • loose cannon (a gun insufficiently secured would cause havoc on a warship when fired, or as the ship rolled in waves)

Honestly, I'm not sure that I want modern equivalents, since many are so rich in imagery.

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  • [–] 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

    Honestly, I'm not sure that I want modern equivalents, since many are so rich in imagery.

    I do love the imagery of "loose Canon", and by "love" I mean that as it's been described and depicted, it's a truly horrifying situation. So it makes for a really visceral image.

    A quick aside: there's this murder mystery/logic puzzle game called "the Return of the Obra Dinn" that takes place on a merchant ship. The game is basically like a series of still frame dioramas that you have to analyze and figure out what's going on. There's a particularly striking scene with a cannon which breaks loose from its chains and several unfortunate sailors. It took me a long time to actually find the third sailor in the scene... (There wasn't a lot left)

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