Everybody Loves Reading How The Underdog Overcame Adversity

Often, English idioms describe human behavior and character.

Idioms are phrases such that a person cannot determine the meaning from the literal meaning of the words that make up the phrase. Many languages utilize idioms to add color and clarity to the language. Such as, "it was late at night" clearly conveys a time on the clock, but the expression "in the dead of night" provides a sinister nuance. Mastering idioms will make a more proficient speaker and listener of English.

Everybody loves reading how the underdog overcame adversity.

Underdog refers to someone or something at a disadvantage in a competition or match. Suppose two friends are playing one-on-one basketball. The shorter player is an underdog because the taller player has a significant advantage.

Vocabulary.com states that the term comes from the sport of dogfighting in 1887 to identify a dog that has lost a match. I think the word is much more literal. Several months ago, my wife was walking her beagle-terrier mix dog in the neighborhood. As they came around a street corner, a much larger dog suddenly appeared and jumped at Chester. Instinctively Chester knew he was no match for the pitbull. Chester dropped to the ground and rolled over on his back, exposing himself in submission. Thus, a dog on its back is an underdog beneath a dominant dog.

Why do we root for underdogs? I think it has a lot to do with our human experience. We all face challenges. We like to overcome and see others overcome challenges. Dr. Asim Shah, at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, USA, says "…more than two-thirds of the people vote for the underdog." (Baylor College of Medicine)

You may have noticed Shannon Ashley, Gerald Sturgill, and Jan Sebastian use the theme of an underdog in their stories.

We've always wondered about him. He has to have a screw loose.

Most of us have encountered someone whose behavior is a bit off. Someone who acts oddly or irrationally is often said to have a screw loose. The origin of this idiom dates back to the Industrial Age of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Bolts and screws held machines together. An industrial loom, mass-producing cloth, would alter the pattern when it had a screw loose. (idiomland.tumblr.com). I believe this idiom will endure for many more years considering advanced prosthetic devices are held in place with screws.

My dad was not impressed with the electrician's work. He said it was two-bit quality.

The phrase two bit has a fascinating history and future. The earliest references to two bits come from 1730. A *Mexican "real," a large coin, frequently was cut up into eight pieces (etymonline.com). Two pieces of the currency would be two bits or a quarter of the whole coin. A quarter of a dollar became known as two bits in America.

Often, older idioms such as this one drop out of use. It's been years since I've heard a quarter called two bits. However, I think this idiom will live on in the digital world. A bit is a digital age term meaning “binary digit”, representing either a 1 or 0. Thus, two bits is still a tiny amount.

As a side note, in the early 1700s period of the Golden Age of Piracy, a favored prize to be taken from ships were "Spanish pieces of eight."

*Author's note: I believe etymonline.com made an error in their original text by stating the real was a Mexican coin. The territory of Mexico, known as New Spain, was under Spanish rule from 1517 through 1821, except for a brief time it was occupied by France. (Scholastic.com)

We're not just doing well; we're cooking with gas.

The phrase "cooking with gas" is a product of American marketing. During the 1920s and the 1930s, kitchen appliance manufacturers were upping their game. Home cooking was transitioning from wood stoves to gas and electric stoves. Electric stoves were in brisk competition with gas stoves.

A fellow named Carroll Everard "Deke" Houlgate was a public relations specialist for the American Gas Association in the 1930s. He had the clever idea of introducing the phrase "cooking with gas" to the writers of American entertainer Bob Hope. The positive expression, meaning modern and up to date, became a catchphrase for Bob Hope and many other entertainers in the pre-World War 2 years. (Waltongas.com) The idiom continued to be used up through the 1960s, at least. Even in the 21st century, I occasionally hear it.

An aside note: My grandparents had a gas stove that looked old-timey. My mother told me it was a wood-burning stove converted to gas. My grandmother, born in the 1880s, was a thoroughly modern woman because she was cooking with gas.

She was late for the start of the show. She was answering the call of nature.

The current meaning of "answer the call of nature" is to urinate or defecate, pee or poop. But to answer the call of nature has not always meant going to the restroom, potty, or loo. In the mid-1700s, the phrase meant to enjoy the pleasures of the natural environment. "Here's an early example from Laurence Sterne's 1761 novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman": 'Shew me a city so macerated with expectation — who neither eat, or drank, or slept, or prayed, or hearkened to the calls either of religion or nature,' for seven-and-twenty days together, who could have held out one day longer." (phrases.org.uk).

Given this definition of call of nature, I could easily see it being a euphemism for having sexual relations. After all, is there anything more natural than procreation?

The English language is highly dynamic. A new phase is becoming more popular for going to the restroom. I've heard bio-break recently, most often in Zoom meetings. A bio-break can include eating and drinking, in addition, to a restroom break.

My brother was trying to determine why the printer wouldn't work. He thought it was a problem with the WiFi, but I think he was barking up the wrong tree.

When someone is "barking up the wrong tree," they act under a false assumption. The origin of the idiom heads back to when hunting with a pack of dogs was popular. Dogs would chase the prey. If the game could, it would climb a tree to escape the dogs. Clever animals such as raccoons or squirrels often would climb one tree, then jump to another tree and descend, thus running off while the dogs were still barking at the foot of the first tree. The earliest known printed citation of barking up the wrong tree is in James Kirke Paulding's "Westward Ho!", 1832 (phrases.org.uk).

Americans love descriptive phrases and must have loved this idiom because the expression continued to be used in American newspapers throughout the 1830s. I still hear it often.

Learning a language well requires much more than memorizing vocabulary, conjugation, and grammar rules. Learning common vocabulary is essential, but a learner must also understand the idioms of speech. Fluent speakers of a language constantly add to it to make it more descriptive and relevant. Idioms fulfill a common cultural connection between members of the language group. Even native speakers must learn new language terms to master English.

Copyright 2022 Harold Zeitung All Rights Reserved

Disclosure: This story has been edited by Grammarly.com

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