Advanced English: 5 Idioms with Unexpected Histories

[Humming]

E! What's confusing you?

Oh, hi. James from engVid.

Listen.

E. wants to do this lesson with you, and it's kind of interesting.

Because a lot of times, you'll do idioms. People will teach you idioms, right.

But he has an idea where we can use idioms as conversation starters.

Now how would we do this? Because everybody knows the idioms, right?

"It's raining like cats and dogs."

How do you start a conversation like that? You can't, really.

If it's raining, they're going to go, "Duh, yeah, it's raining."

But what happens if we gave you five idioms

that people probably don't know the total idiom?

Because it's been changed through time.

And with that change through time, sometimes it means the exact opposite of what they're using it for.

And that is a cool conversation starter.

You have a depth of knowledge that you can share with someone else.

So I'm going to give you the first one when we go to the board.

Now, I'm going to give you the idiom as it's supposed to be, okay?

But then I'm going to write what people say,

so you can see the difference between what

is said and what it used to be, and then we can

quickly discuss why it might be the opposite

or it has greater information that's given, and you'll see people go, "Hmm.

I never knew that."

And that makes you look smart.

And that's what we want.

Not that you're smart.

That people take interest in you because you can bring something new to them.

So let's go to the board, shall we?

Okay, so here is some blood.

I know, not pretty, but some blood, and there's some water causing ripples.

So we got blood and water.

Why am I showing that?

Well, in Western society, specifically North

American and, you know, English society, or,

you know, England, the island, the British

Isles, they love to say this particular idiom.

However, this was the original.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the room, the room, the womb."

A womb is like a room, but not really.

Okay, so a lot of complicated language here.

So you might be like, "What the heck?"

Well, when you have a covenant, it's sort of people coming together and making a vow

or a promise to each other to be like brothers.

Right?

So you say, "You are like my brother, and I'm your brother.

We will work together."

It's a covenant.

It's the agreement we make with each other.

We are not related.

Right?

So we make an agreement with each other to work as family.

Okay?

But this is something you find and you choose.

This is the important part.

Right?

Now, when you look at "water of the womb", I've gained a bit of weight, so just leave

me alone.

Okay?

I'm not going on "obsempic", whatever.

The womb is when a woman is pregnant, she has a big belly.

Okay?

Well, you're inside of that.

And when you're inside the womb, you share your mother's water, because it's water.

So what this is saying, "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the

womb", is kind of true, because blood is...

got more stuff in it than water.

But the idea is the friends that you make...

the friends that you make and the people you

call that you decide to be your family actually

have a stronger connection for you and are

better than the water of the womb than family

you have.

So it's not just your mother.

But they're saying if you have family that

you were born into, and you have family that

you have created, decided to create through people from work or friends that you have

met, those bonds are stronger and they should

be stronger, because you decided to make them.

When you were born into a family, you were just born into it.

But when you make a decision, you've consciously

thought about it, so they probably share more

of your values.

Yeah?

Cool?

Well, here's the funny thing.

[Clears throat]

The saying today is this.

"Blood is thicker than water".

Now, we know blood is thicker than water,

but they've changed it to mean that family...

the bonds of family are thicker than the water that you share amongst your friends.

But as you can see, that's not what the original idea...

I'm going to say the original intent or the original idea was.

It was to say that the choices you make to create a family are...

create stronger bonds than just being born into a family that you had no choice.

So today, they...

It means the exact opposite of what it was supposed to be.

Cool, huh?

There's your conversation starter.

Because when you walk up to me and go, "Have

you ever heard that saying, 'The blood is

thicker than water'?" and I go, "Yeah?"

I go, "That's not what it originally was.

I'm going to say right away, 'What do you mean?'"

and I get to start talking to you, and you get to go...

They will say, "Wow, I didn't know that.

You started a great conversation."

Well, I promised you five.

This is just number one.

Are you ready?

Let's go see what number two looks like.

Okay, number two is interesting because in the

last few years or last decade or so, we've...

We've heard this many times when you find a CEO of a company has done something bad,

or a police department has done something bad, or a politician has done...

Yeah, no, it's always bad.

And what they usually say was...

The leader of these particular groups will get up and say, "It's a few bad apples."

And what they mean by that is...

Let's see, let's see.

It's a few bad apples.

See, there's the apple.

A few bad apples.

It's a little rotten there, right?

It's a few bad apples, meaning it's only one or two, so what's the problem?

Well, the original idiom wasn't that, because

the original idiom understood something that's

not usually talked about, and that's this.

The original idiom was "a few bad apples spoil

the bunch", meaning if you have one bad actor,

one bad person in a group, they will make the whole group bad.

And why would they make them bad?

Does it mean they're all going to be terrible individuals?

No.

But because they don't do anything about that

one bad apple, they allow that bad apple to

keep doing things and it ruins the group, so you end up not trusting politicians, not

trusting police, not trusting company presidents,

because that one bad apple, like they say,

it's just one, the actual saying is "No, no, no.

Even one will destroy everything."

So, we have to be careful not to let one bad apple there.

Yeah?

Cool?

So, a few bad apples spoil the bunch.

Use that in your next conversation.

And I'm back.

Okay, so let's do number three, shall we?

Well, with number three, this is rather interesting,

because in the old days, there was sort of

like - well, not in the old days.

Today, we insult people in a way who have - know a little about a lot of things, but

not a lot about one thing.

In fact, we praise people who have a PhD,

you know, they know one thing really, really

well that's very, very narrow, right?

And that's really cool, because knowledge is cool.

For myself, like, I'm not, like, that PhD type.

I'm more like a jack-of-all-trades.

And what I mean by that is I - I mean, I teach some yoga, so I know yoga.

I know some meditation.

Clearly, I teach English, but I'm not the

definitive - I'm not the person for each one

of these things.

So, I'm more of a jack-of-all-trades.

And when you look at here, we have this saying

that we use in modern society, which is "Jack

of all trades, master of none", which would be me.

We're not all masters.

There might be one thing we know a lot about, but you know, that's life.

The funny thing is, though, this insult, "Jack

of all trades, master of none", that wasn't

the original.

Nope, not at all.

The original idiom went like this.

"Jack of all trades, master of none" - so far,

so good - "though oftentimes better than a

master of one."

What?

Yeah, because here's what happens.

You've got a house, okay?

Rain comes in, breaks your house, okay?

So, all of a sudden, the pipes are broken, electricity's everywhere.

You're like, "Oh no!" from Home Alone.

You won't remember this movie.

"Oh no, my house.

I've got to call someone."

So, you call the master plumber.

He comes, he goes, "I will fix the water."

Fixes the water for you.

Brilliant.

And then you go, "What about the electricity in the wood?"

He goes, "I am a master of water, that's it."

What's going to happen to your house?

Now, if you call Jack - Jack trades - he'll

come over and go, "Okay, I can fix the water.

I'll fix the electricity.

And I'll fix the roof."

He may not be a master, but in this case, he's better than the master of one.

Yeah?

So, it's funny how, in time or over time,

poor little Jack got switched from being the

hero to the villain.

Funny what time does.

Anyway, let's go to number four.

I think it's four?

Four.

So, we're getting there.

We're at number four.

Conversation starters, especially since you're

a person learning the language and you're

going to educate people who speak the language.

And I promise you they'll have a smile on their face because they didn't know that,

because they're going to steal it from you, and they're going to put it in their pocket

and use it in another conversation.

Good on you.

So, let's go to the board and find out what number four is, because, you know, you and

I think alike because we agree that being good at English is good for life.

Right?

Whoa, look at that.

See?

Great minds think alike.

That's number four.

Well, that's what we say today, but that's not what the original saying was.

No sirree bob.

What the original saying was this, because you'll notice this is great minds, and this

is this other group.

What other group?

Great minds think alike.

They agree.

Though fools seldom differ.

A fool is an idiot.

Stupid person.

Dummy.

Dumbass.

That's what a fool is.

Yep, that's what that is.

And "though fools seldom differ", that

means seldom is, like, rarely, almost never.

Right?

As you go...

Well, James, I'm confused.

If great minds think alike and fools seldom differ, how can I tell a difference?

Oh, here's how you tell a difference, pal.

We have people called scientists.

Not saying they're always right, but usually they have a method.

You ask a question, you prove it, called a hypothesis.

You have a theory, hypothesis.

You work it through, and you see the result.

And then when you do it, it's called peer

review, someone else goes, "Well, maybe you're

right, maybe you're wrong.

I'll do it too."

They take your method and see.

Now, if a few people get it right, they go, "By Jove, it's correct.

We agree with you.

And we think alike because we followed a method to check that this is true."

Now, fools, y'all fools don't do that.

No, sorry, Bob, we don't.

We just agree.

You say it's black, I say it's white.

We just agree with everything.

Don't ask no questions.

We all the same.

This is not to embarrass anyone from any particular part of the world.

Southern United States.

Anyway, when we say fools seldom differ, it means they just agree because they agree.

They have no methodology.

It's just somebody said this is this, so they go...

If they said it, it must be right.

Got to be careful of that.

So, when we look at it, this is what people say great minds think alike, but the fool

saying to make sure you're not a fool, right?

Dumbass.

Don't want to be this.

See if there's a method, then you're a great mind.

But if you're just agreeing because you agree with the group, you're a fool.

And I'm back with the fifth and final one for you.

Man's best friend may be a dog, but a dog has

never betrayed you by telling you where...

Telling people where you're...

Don't worry about that.

Just going to move on.

The cat.

The domesticated cat.

Beloved and hated by many people.

It has its own idiom, and do you know this idiom is also incorrect?

That's right.

See, today we say curiosity killed the cat.

That's when people say it's none of your business.

Stay out of your business.

Stay in your lane.

Don't ask questions.

Because curiosity can get you killed.

You ask too many questions.

But do you know that's not what the original one was?

No, no, no, no.

See?

They said curiosity killed the cat, but the actual original idiom was curiosity killed

the cat, but satisfaction brought him back.

I'm back.

That's right.

What the idiom was trying to say was the act

of asking questions, investigating, like being

a scientist, does cause you trouble.

However, it is well worth it to ask the question to get the answer.

It will bring you a satisfaction that will make you happy.

See?

But I got another little tidbit, because remember I said conversation starter?

And I told you, remember the jack one, that you're not a master?

Now you've become a master, my friend, because

not only will you say this one, satisfaction

brought it back, you're going to say, "But did you know that wasn't the original one?"

They go, "What?

Tell me more."

The actual one was care killed the cat.

What does that have to do with anything?

My friend, hold for a second, and I'll explain to you.

Originally, they were talking about caring, meaning worrying, kills the cat.

And over time, Shakespeare and other things,

they changed and evolved to curiosity killed

the cat, but satisfaction brought it back,

and then they finally came to curiosity killed

the cat, which has nothing to do with the original one.

But now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Husk GI Joe.

Anyway, listen, my time is up.

I gotta go.

It's dark out.

I gotta get home before, you know, you know, the wolves get me.

So, you got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, right?

What was the first one we did?

Remember the first one?

I don't remember the first one.

What was the first one?

Oh, geez, I forgot.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

What is the hell?

What did Jack do?

Jack and Gill went up the hill to get a payload.

No, freak, no, no, no, no.

Cats, cats, cats in the cradle and the silver spoon.

We've got the one with the jack-of-all-trades,

we've got the cat and the curiosity, we've

got the rotten apple, we've got the blood

of the covenant, and we've got similar minds

thinking together, right?

You got all five.

Go through the video, go through them again.

Make sure you get the explanation, right, for why they're opposites, because that's

the part that will make the interesting conversation, right?

Just saying the whole thing, you know, the blood of the covenant is thicker than the

water of the womb.

They don't care because they don't know how it's been changed and how you can explain

that those relationships and bonds are important.

Anyway, I did number five for a reason.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction

brought it back, because that is you, my friend.

You come back to this channel again and again

to learn new idioms, grammar, phrases, meet

new teachers, and get good at your English, and I'm proud of you.

Anyway, listen, I'm satisfied you got from this lesson.

Please go to www.engvid.com and subscribe.

It helps us with the algorithm so we can bring more of these videos to you.

I know you smiled and had fun.

Don't deny it.

I'll see you soon, okay?

Have a great day.

What was the first one?