Clichés, Proverbs, and Idioms are Pieces of Cake that Make You as Sick as a Dog

Because I am a word nerd, I have several books devoted to idioms and clichés. I often refer to these books—and more often, I just reach for Google—when I find myself wondering where a particular phrase comes from and why we use it with nary a thought as to its literal meaning. Before we go on, however, we need to define some terms. Fear not. I’ll be as gentle as possible. This might pinch or tug a little.

Idioms are phrases that have a differing symbolic meaning than the literal meaning of the words comprising the sentence. Idioms color the English language and make it nearly impossible to master unless you are a native speaker. Interestingly, while we often know the symbolic meaning behind phrases such as “rule of thumb” or “piece of cake,” we rarely know the origin behind these common phrases. In other words, we know that “it’s a piece of cake” means something is easy, but we don’t know why saying something is a piece of cake means that thing is easy. Capisce?

Idioms are always figurative and have no direct literal meaning (see the bit on transparent idioms below). They’re also specific to the language in which they originate. If I say that someone “rubs me the wrong way,” I clearly mean that person irritates me. However, translated into, say Farsi, this idiom might raise eyebrows because it would infer that this person had touched me inappropriately or didn’t touch me the way I prefer. Misunderstandings would abound. Arrests might be made. Clearly, this an idiom that our president should avoid at all costs.

Also, idioms can be either transparent or opaque.

Transparent idioms make a tenuous connection between the phrase itself and the actual meaning. For example, if I say “I am whistling Dixie,” I mean that I am feeling positive about something, sort of like Confederate soldiers felt before having their asses handed to them by the Union in 1865. However, Confederate soldiers did whistle Dixie as a means of bucking themselves up before a battle, so the actual meaning of this transparent idiom has a correlation to its figurative meaning. Some people simply refer to transparent idioms as “figures of speech.” Both similes and metaphors (another kettle of fish altogether) are figures of speech. (“Another kettle of fish,” by the way, is a figurative cliché…or maybe an opaque idiom. Researchers here at Dances with Bass Industries are currently mulling it over.)
Opaque idioms are idioms with meanings that are absolutely unrelated to the actual expression. If I say someone is “as high as a kite,” I don’t mean that they’re way up in the sky; I mean that they’re one toke over the line. Taken literally, opaque idioms are a nightmare for translators because they are nonsensical outside the language in which they originate.

Proverbs share some similarities with idioms in that the literal meanings of both are different from the sum of the individual words. However, when it comes to proverbs, the literal meaning is almost (if not entirely) impossible to understand unless you understand the context in which they are used. The literal meaning of idioms can have some grounding in reality. For example, taken literally, the phrase, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” is ludicrous. I’ve handled swords, and I’ve handled pens. While I’m definitely better with a pen, I won’t be taking my ballpoint to battle; give me the sword, thank you.

Clichés are phrases/expression that are so commonly used that their true meaning has been lost. Clichés can be literal or figurative.

Literal clichés mean exactly what they say. For example, “all that glitters isn’t gold” means the sequins on my Elvis-inspired jumpsuit aren’t gold even though they glitter provocatively when I sing Burnin’ Love. Some transparent idioms and literal clichés are very similar, and while researching this post, our researchers and staff writers argued strenuously over which was which.
Figurative clichés have no literal meaning. If you were to translate “the writing’s in the wall,” to say, Japanese, your local sushi chef would be looking for actual handwriting on the wall, and he would fail to understand that you meant something had been made painfully obvious. Sushi chefs have sharp knives, so be careful poking that particular bear.

Now that we’ve worked out the particulars, let’s look at a handful of the more interesting idioms, proverbs, and clichés:

Phrase	Idiom, Proverb or Cliché*	Meaning	Origin
Dumb as a dog’s foot	Idiom, opaque	Really stupid. As Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said, “If your brains were dynamite there wouldn’t be enough to blow your hat off.”	I couldn’t find the origin for this one, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. I’ve known a lot of dog feet and ain’t none them can do long division.
Best thing since sliced bread	Idiom, transparent	This means something is so great, it is comparable to the convenience and ingenuity of sliced bread.	Iowan smarty pants Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the first slicing machine that sliced whole loaves of bread in a single whack in 1928. The first manufacturer to offer sliced bread was Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri, which first started selling “Kleen Maid Sliced Bread” also in 1928. The first recorded use of “best thing since sliced bread” occurred in 1952 when comedian Red Skeleton referred to television as rivaling the goodness of sliced sammich goods.
Curiosity killed the cat	Proverb	Poor decision-making can result in you pushing up daisies. (That was a figurative cliché, by the way.)	British playwright Ben Johnson made the first known use of this proverb in his 1598 play, Every Man in His Humour, which was performed first by Dances with Bass poet emeritus William Shakespeare. “…Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care will kill a cat, up-tails all, and a pox on the hangman.” (Helter skelter, by the way, is a 16th-century English term for being chaotic and disorderly.)
Stab in the back	Idiom, transparent	A treacherous attack, often perpetrated by someone unexpected.	Note: this is one such transparent idiom that is often categorized as a literal cliché. Surprisingly, this phrase has only been part of our lexicon since the early 20th century. It is believed to have originated in right-wing Germany sometime after 1918 when the Germans lost World War I. The phrase refers to the idea that the German Army didn’t lose the war on the battlefield; instead, the war, they say, was lost by civilian politicians who overthrew the monarchy by signing an armistice.
Shooting self in foot	Cliché, figurative	To foil one’s own objective.	This phrase appears to have originated during the first World War when soldiers would intentionally shoot themselves in the foot in order to get out of further danger in battle. Of course, shooting one’s self anywhere can have unintended consequences—including death—which was the fate the soldier was attempting to avoid in the first place. We here at DWB Industries recommend not shooting yourself.
Don’t reinvent the wheel	Cliché, figurative	Avoid doing something that’s already been done.	(Note that this could be an opaque idiom if I think about long enough, and some scholars refer to it as an idiomatic metaphor instead of a figurative cliché. And to make things even more confusing, “reinventing the wheel” could be an ironic cliché because the actual inventor of the wheel is unknown, which means it’s entirely possible the wheel was a reinvention of some other similarly shaped item. So, someone could have told the inventor of the wheel not to “reinvent the wheel.”) Like the invention of the actual wheel itself, the origin of this term is unknown, though it’s found in both American and British English.
The kiss of death	Cliché, figurative	An action that ultimately ruinous.	Some believe that the phrase, “the kiss of death”—”bacio della morte” in Italian— is believed to have mafia origins in which a boss identifies someone who has been marked for death by giving the target a kiss. Some believe it refers to the kiss of Judas Iscariot. Judas was one of Jesus’s disciples, and he is said to have used a kiss to identify Jesus to the Roman soldiers who sought to arrest him. Whatever your poison, a kiss of death generally means curtains for the recipient. Translated to modern usage, the phrase means action X will lead to the death (destruction, failure, whatever) of object Y.
Hands are tied	Cliché, literal	No action is possible.	This phrase dates to the 17th century. The earliest occurrence I could find was in Thomas Fuller’s (an English clergyman and historian) 1642 book, The Holy State and the Profane State: “When God intends a nation shall be beaten, He ties their hands behind them.”
Hair of the dog	Cliché, figurative	A little of the thing that made you sick is exactly what will make you better.	No, I am not talking about the famous Nazareth album. Sorry, I know love hurts, man. This phrase was first used in 1546 in John Heywood’s aptly titled The Proverbs of John Heywood: “I pray thee let me and my fellow have a haire (sic) of the dog that bit us last night.” This phrase has been popular with college students since.
Love is blind	Proverb	Love makes one fail to notice the faults of the object of his/her love.	One might also say that love is deaf, dumb, and blind, but that’s neither here nor there. This one is ancient and appeared in the writings of Greek poet Theocritus who died in 270 BCE. This term first appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1390.
Give the devil his due	Proverb	A dude deserves recognition even if he’s really a sot.	This phrase first appeared in 1589 in John Lyly’s Pappe with an (sic) Hatchet. Unfortunately, Lyly gets shafted by history because one William Shakespeare later used this phrase in Henry V Part 1 (1597): ORLÉANS: And I will take up that with “Give the devil his due.” To Shakespeare’s credit, he did refer to the phrase in the play as being a proverb, so he was admitting that he was merely borrowing the phrase. However, Shakespeare is a household name; Lyly is not.