Confused by modern idioms? - 6 Minute English

Hello.

This is 6 Minute English

from BBC Learning English.

I'm Rob.

And I'm Sam.

Can you wait

a second, Rob?

I have

to spend a penny.

What!

You're going shopping

now, are you?

We're just

about to start the programme!

No, no, I have to ... you

know, 'spend a penny'.

Haven't you heard that

expression before?

Spend a

penny means 'go to the

toilet'.

It's an old idiom

from the days when it

cost a penny to unlock the

door of a public toilet.

OK, I see.

Well, you're

showing your age there,

Sam - most young people

today wouldn't know what

that phrase meant, and

there aren't many public

toilets left

nowadays anyway.

Language changes fast,

and new words and phrases

are being created all

the time.

In this

programme, we'll be

learning some modern

idioms - new expressions

that have been introduced

to English through the

internet, TV and social

media.

And of course,

we'll be learning their

meanings a well.

Great, I'm 'raring

to go' - another idiom

there.

But first, as

usual, I have a question

for you, Sam.

Many

well-known idioms come

from the world of sport,

for example 'throw in

the towel' which means

'give up', or 'surrender'.

But which sport does

the idiom 'throw in the

towel' come from?

Is it:

a) football?

b) tennis?

or c) boxing?

I think I know this one.

It's c) boxing.

OK, Sam.

I'll reveal

the answer at the end

of the programme, so

just hold your horses

for now!

Ah, another idiom there,

Rob - hold your horses

meaning 'stop and think

for a moment'.

That's an

idiom that Gareth Carrol

might teach his university

students.

Dr Carrol is

the author of a new book,

'Dropping the Mic and

Jumping the Shark: Where

Do Modern Idioms Come From?'

He became interested in

idioms when he realised

that he didn't know many

of the expressions his

students used in their

everyday speech, modern

idioms like 'jump

the shark'.

Here is Gareth Carrol

telling BBC Radio 4

programme, Word of Mouth,

about one source of

many modern idioms -

the movies.

So, Groundhog Day I think

more or less has the

meaning of 'déjà vu' now,

and it's completely

embedded in the language ...

actually, that's probably

one of the first phrases

that got me thinking about

these modern idioms in

the first place because

it is so ubiquitous,

it's used in a huge

range of contexts, and

one of the things

that made me sit up

and take notice is,

I had a number of

students who know the

phrase, Groundhog Day,

but had no idea

it was a film.

In the film Groundhog

Day, the main character

wakes up to live

the same day over

and over again.

Gradually, the movie

title itself became

an idiom, Groundhog

Day, meaning 'a situation

in which events that

have happened before,

happen again in exactly

the same way'.

It's

similar in meaning to

another expression -

déjà vu.

When phrases the movies

develop into idioms

it's often because

they are ubiquitous -

they seem to

appear everywhere.

And one of the ways

they appear everywhere

is, of course, the

internet.

Here's

Gareth Carrol again,

telling more to

Michael Rosen,

presenter of BBC

Radio 4 programme,

Word of Mouth.

The vocabulary of the

internet, even the

word 'internet', is

relatively modern ...

the idea of breaking

the internet is

now a phrase I think

people would use and

recognise, so something

that causes such a

stir online that

metaphorically so many

people rush to a

website that it

threatens to bring it

down, something

like that ...

In the early days we

had 'go viral' which

has stayed with us,

hasn't it?

Yeah, so the idea of

something going viral

is certainly very much

in the vocabulary

now ... But things like

Twitter have leant

sort of phrases, so

the idea of first-world

problems, meaning sort

of ironically things

that we complain

about but actually,

compared to other

parts of the world,

may well be

relatively minor, that

started life as Twitter

hashtag, for example.

Another modern idiom

is breaking the

internet - causing so

much excitement about

something online that

too many people visit

the website at the same

time, making it crash.

Social media outlets

like Twitter have also

created their own

idioms, including

first--orld problems -

a trivial problem that

does not seem very

important when

compared to the serious

problems faced by

people in poorer parts

of the world.

If you don't know some

of these idioms, don't

worry.

Unlike general

vocabulary, a native

speaker's full

knowledge of idioms

takes longer to

develop, usually at

around the age of

thirty to forty.

Meanwhile, you can

still rely on classic

English idioms, like

'pull my leg', 'kick

the bucket', and 'throw

in the towel' - which,

I think, comes from

the sport of

boxing.

Rob?

Yes, in my question

I asked which sport

gave birth to the

phrase 'throw in the

towel', and Sam's

answer was correct!

Well done!

The idiom

'throw in the towel'

comes from boxing

where the coach of

losing boxer would

literally throw a

towel into the ring

to surrender.

OK, let's recap the

rest of the idioms,

old and new, that

we've learnt today.

To spend a penny is

an old-fashioned way

of saying 'go to

the toilet'.

Groundhog Day describes

a situation in which

events that have

happened before, happen

again exactly

the same way.

If something is

'ubiquitous', it seems

to appear everywhere.

The modern idiom 'break

the internet', means

to cause so much

excitement about

something online that

you make the

website crash.

And finally, a

first-world problem is

a problem that does

not seem very important

when compared to the

serious problems faced

by people in poorer

parts of the world.

Unfortunately for us,

our six minutes are up!

Bye for now!

Bye bye!