{"id":81373,"date":"2021-11-05T09:34:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T13:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=81373"},"modified":"2021-11-09T10:34:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:34:36","slug":"curiosity-killed-the-cat-or-what-your-ancestor-really-meant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/curiosity-killed-the-cat-or-what-your-ancestor-really-meant.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Curiosity Killed the Cat\u2019 or What Your Ancestor Really Meant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Jessica Edwards begins her discussion of the meanings and origins of idioms (figurative phrases) that our ancestors used. Jessica has had a lifelong interest in her family\u2019s history \u2013 especially on her father\u2019s side, which goes back to the first settlers in Pennsylvania, Jamestown and New England \u2013 and has documented and added more than 21,000 people to her family tree!<\/em><\/p>\n

In your research of your ancestor\u2019s life, you may occasionally read things by and\/or about them that may not make sense. For example, you may read in their diary that \u201cCuriosity killed the cat\u201d \u2013 but since that is an impossibility, you wonder what they really meant. In actuality, this saying is what is termed an idiom, or may be a proverb or adage depending on what the phrase contains.<\/p>\n

A proverb could become an idiom if it was written without the \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d in the phrase, and an adage is a short saying that expresses practical or basic truths. The difference between an idiom and a proverb or adage is that an idiom is a saying in which the meaning cannot be derived from the individual words, while proverbs and adages give clear advice. In other words, idioms use figurative language and are not meant to be taken literally.<\/p>\n

Many famous authors and storytellers, like Homer, Aesop, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, used idioms to bring life to their writings. The origins of some of the idioms they used may be lost to time, but sometimes they are traceable to a particular source, custom, speech pattern, or language. Many idioms may appear to be illogical or ungrammatical to non-native speakers because they evolve from popular usages.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew idioms come along all the time,\u201d says Arnold Zwicky, adjunct professor of linguistics at Stanford University. \u201cThere are several sources for idioms, but the big contributor is figurative language, especially metaphors.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new term that\u2019s quickly slipping from metaphor to idiom, Zwicky says, is\u00a0\u201call the way up.\u201d It comes from the 2016 song \u201cAll the Way Up\u201d by rappers Fat Joe and Remy Ma, and means \u201cto be at the pinnacle of your emotional spectrum.\u201d The term was then incorporated into 2017 Mountain Dew commercials.<\/p>\n

Slang and idioms are related, says Robin Lakoff, a professor\u00a0emerita of linguistics at University of California, Berkeley. But, she adds, \u201cslang changes rapidly while idioms seem to hang around. Slang is created and used largely by outgroups, but everyone picks up on and uses idioms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are three very common idioms, with their origin and meaning:<\/p>\n