We used Temi to auto-transcribe this, then Dan went through and checked it based on the show notes. He tried really hard on it, but this kind of stuff isn't his specialty. So if you notice anything confusing, please comment on this post so Dan can look at it and clarify anything.
Shauna: 00:00 Welcome
to bunny trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase. I'm
Shauna Harrison
Dan: 00:05 and
I'm Dan Pugh. Each week we delve into the origin and history of an idiom or
other turn of phrase and discuss how it's been used over time. This week we're
going to do a special segment, a themed episode as we do from time to time. But
first I want to say a huge congrats to our patron Mary Lopez for tying the knot
this weekend. Shauna, you and I both attended the wedding, which was a steam
punk theme wedding. What'd you think?
Shauna: 00:31 I,
it was pretty cool actually. I'm a little bit geeky sometimes, so I got into
it. It was fun.
Dan: 00:37 Yeah.
Steam punk is not one of my normal cosplay type things, but I last minute
through together something and I think it went off okay. Wasn't the greatest,
but it wasn't, uh, it wasn't embarrassing either.
Shauna: 00:52 Fair
enough. I think I just had items from my regular closet and I don't know what
that says about me.
Dan: 00:58 Well,
it might be more your, um, your style than mind. All right. Well, Mary, it was
great to be there for you while you got hitched and we wish you and Kadir all
the best. And with that we're going to explore some wedding themed idioms. So
first up we're going to talk about tie the knot. So according to the Oxford
English dictionary to tie the knot is "to effect a union between two
persons or things, especially to perform the ceremony of marriage."
Dan: 01:26 Now
knot has been around since the mid 12 hundreds as a stand in for marriage. As
an example, the legend of Saint Catherine used the middle English, cnotte, C N
O T T E to mean "the tie or bond of wedlock or the marriage or wedding
knot".
Dan: 01:43 And
then we see our phrase, uh, as we use it now as early as 1620 in May's The
Heir, "the happy not you tie concludes in love two houses emnity."
Dan: 01:54 We
see it again as another example in that timeframe, 1631 in Shirley's, The
School Of Complement, "You mean to tie that knot, nothing but death is
able to undo."
Dan: 02:06 And
then one of my favorite examples is in, uh, Francis Grose's Dictionary of the
Vulgar Tongue. And this was from the 1811 version. "He has tied the knot
with his tongue that he cannot untie with his teeth..." *Laughter*
Dan: 02:24 Yes.
So, uh, and then we're, we'll round out here a little bit later with some more
examples from the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. But first, uh, I saw many
suggested origin stories for this one, including that, uh, that said in, in ye
olden days of course before metal springs on beds, they used ropes, which kind
of makes sense. I didn't really know much about the history of beds before this
episode. Uh, but in order to make a marriage bed of two to one, you would need
to then tie the knots together and that would be tying the night. Of course,
there's no evidence to support this at all. And then I researched the history
of beds and got off on a little side tangent there, which I'm not going to go
down here cause it's not even a particularly good bunny trail. But it was
fascinating. So, um, that will be in our show notes.
Dan: 03:18 No,
mostly when this phrase came about, people would not have had any expectation
of privacy in the bedroom because it wouldn't have been a bedroom. Everybody
kind of slept in the same spot.
Dan: 03:27 So
even, and like woven strings might've been used at some times, but there's just
these two, the phrase and the history of beds don't really line up at any point
to, um, indicate that this would be where that comes from.
Dan: 03:42 And,
and we don't, I mean, I don't think many, anybody really thinks that's the
case. It's just a fun story.
Dan: 03:48 There's
another story from the Roman times where the brides girdle was tied in knots on
the wedding day and then the groom of course, after the ceremony would have to
untie the knots prior to the wedding night shenanigans, uh, which I will just
say this in Roman times, almost everything was told from the man's point of
view. So if this phrase came from that, we would call it untying the knots, not
tying the knots... Or something equally frustrating I'm sure. Uh, the most
likely origin is with the wedding customer of handfasting where the couple has
their hands tied together as a symbol of bonding the early Romans and Celtic's
frequently used handfasting in marriage ceremonies and many Hindu weddings
continue the custom today.
Shauna: 04:30 Yeah.
Is that, that was the one I thought of actually was the handfasting. I've um,
heard of that in my family's history and you know, other places as well.
Dan: 04:38 Yeah.
And that would make sense because that that custom was around long before we
started to see, knot used a middle English as a wedding thing. And in fact it
just started being used there in middle English as if it, as if everybody
already knew.
Shauna: 04:53 Gotcha.
Okay. Well up next we are going to jump the broom. I mean not like right this
minute, but jumping the broom symbolizes sweeping away the old and welcoming the
new people actually jump over brooms for the ceremony.
Shauna: 05:13 uh,
so the origin is not very clear, but several stories state that this is an
African tribal ritual consisting of sticks laying on the ground representing a
couple's new home or that the spray of the broom symbolizes the people and the
handle the Almighty who holds them all together.
Dan: 05:30 When
you said that, uh, representing the couple's new home, I kind of thought of the
tradition of carrying someone over the threshold, which I know some European
countries do. So I wonder if those, I'm sure you didn't research that far into
it, but it does make me wonder now and I may have to look that up to determine
if there's some correlation between the, uh, the sticks laid on the ground
representing the couple's new home and the crossing the threshold into the new
home or a newly married.
Shauna: 05:58 Well
the customer has been practiced in Wales since the 17 hundreds, and it's used
there now as a sort of common law marriage, uh, like a symbolic act.
Shauna: 06:08 The
actual phrase jumping the broom was seen for the first time in literature in
the 17 hundreds in French and English writings. And uh, a good example is 1839
in The Standard of London, "When the commissioner said he thought Mr.
Taylor was rather advanced in life to think of marrying again, he said, am I indeed
many women have offered to jump over the broomstick with me."
Shauna: 06:42 In
2006 in the New York Times, there was an article with a quote that reads
"After they exchanged vows, they jumped the broom in the African American
tradition and smashed a glass in the Hebrew tradition."
Shauna: 06:58 Yes.
So in this one, there was uh, one side of each family that, that had different
traditions they wanted carried over.
Shauna: 07:06 There
was also a 2011 movie called jumping the broom. Two very different families
converge on Martha's Vineyard one weekend for a wedding. The tagline for the
movie is sometimes the only way to get past family drama is to jump right over
it.
Dan: 07:21 Haha.
We had, I think we had a very similar conversation this weekend where you
might've been the one to point it out or somebody else, I think that was at the
wedding, uh, had mentioned that sometimes my preferred style of moving through
something is to just punch right through it.
Dan: 07:37 Just
go. Just keep going. All right. So next up is getting hitched. Getting hitched,
uh, or getting hitched up is a phrase that was originally a nautical term that
came around in the 15 hundreds actually.
Dan: 07:49 It
entered the English lexicon talking about marriage in the 18 hundreds and it
evolved from hitching your horses together, meaning you've got along well to
the concept of getting married or hitching up for life. An early example from
1857 by Josiah Holland in The Bay-Path; a tale of New England Colonial Life
said “Now and then a feller gets hitched to a hedge-hog [of a wife].”
Dan: 08:23 Well
they can be prickly, but no, they can be cuddly, too. They don't like... If...
Unless their things are sticking out they're not really stabby.
Dan: 08:31 Um,
maybe not. Let's presume it wasn't. Another example and one that I'm going to
use just because I love the title of really old books or, or books or in the 18
hundreds at least and 1700 is uh, this is Sydney Buckman John Darke’s sojourn
in the Cotteswolds and elsewhere
Dan: 09:07 Well,
today's show is sponsored by our patrons on Patreon. You make bunny trails
possible. We'd like to thank all our patrons and especially our lagomorphology
interns, Charlie Moore, Pat Rowe, and Mary Lopez. Patreon.com is a subscription
service that allows you to support content creators you love. It's free to sign
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Features like early access to episodes, behind the scenes content, bonus
episodes, and more are all available at www.patreon.com/bunnytrailspod
Shauna: 09:41 All
right, it's time to take the plunge. As soon as the phrase take, the plunge
appeared in English. It was almost immediately associated with marriage In 1771
in Pazzie d'Orlando “Very fine truly—excellent husband!” And the reply, “I have
taken a plunge indeed.”
Shauna: 10:00 The
phrase truly just means to commit oneself to a course that doesn't allow one to
turn back, but it's so often used to describe marriage that it now frequently
is used independently to indicate getting married or engaged.
Shauna: 10:14 Yeah.
Sometimes people still use it, uh, I've seen it in some financial things, but,
but generally it's, it's the marriage stuff. Uh, there are some really fun
stories about couples using the idiom today for their wedding theme. Uh, we're
taking the plunge. One couple got married, uh, the wedding party, piano, and
all of them, all of this whole group was on a platform 160 feet in the air. And
then as soon as the bride and groom were announced, uh, they bumped, he jumped.
Shauna: 10:45 Yeah.
The couple, another couple took a submersible that was used for the Hollywood
movie "Titanic" down to the wreck of the actual Titanic and said
their vows underwater.
Shauna: 10:56 Yeah.
They had to have the ceremony on their knees because the craft was too small
for them to stand. But I thought it was a really cute.
Dan: 11:04 Nice.
We'll suddenly, the a steam punk themed wedding that we just attended doesn't
seem quite so, uh, out of traditional place, does it?
Dan: 11:15 Well,
let's talk about a match made in heaven. So originally it was known as a
marriage made in heaven, meaning an ideal or perfect romantic union or a
marriage between two people. Uh, and it's, oh, it's been extended into other
areas of course now, but, uh, generally speaking, when someone says a match
made in heaven, they're talking about two people who are in love. So the idea
of perfect marriages being made in heaven dates much, much older than our
phrase as this 1580 example attests in Lyly Euphues and his English
"marriages are made in heaven though consummated in Earth."
Dan: 11:53 Yeah.
Interesting. So the whole concept is like the union was already made and
there's some sort of a soulmate type of thing that was made in heaven and then
their consummated on earth, which I think is exactly the opposite of what Jesus
talks about in the Christian Bible where he talks about like marriage. There
are no marriages in heaven. They don't work the same way as you think about the
here, uh, which kind of makes the whole concept of soulmates, not a really
Christian concept, but, uh, that does not seem to have translated very well for
people from about Peter onward in the Christian faith
Dan: 12:29 I'm
not sure if there is some translation errors, uh, from the original words or
if, uh, there's just like a, but we really want to have soul mates. I don't know,
Dan: 12:42 So
in 1727, Daniel Defoe of Robinson Crusoe fame and an essay called Conjugal
Lewdness, uh, for short, the full title of the 1727 essay was Conjugal Lewdness
or Matrimonial Whoredom but he was later asked to rename it for the sake of
propriety. The modified title became A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of
the Marriage Bed. Uh, his, so in specifically in this, he said, "Is this
matrimony? Is this a marriage made in heaven?"
Dan: 13:09 And
he used this because he thought that any contraception was a form of, um,
basically you just were killing babies if you use contraception.
Dan: 13:17 I'm
not sure what his, uh, assessment it would be for, um, males who, um, self
pleasured. I'm not sure what his assessment on that would be, but probably
something along the same lines of mass murder, maybe? I don't know how that
would work.
Dan: 13:31 I
mean, yeah, they would, hey, I guess if you're going to say one, you're going
to have to go to a logical conclusion on the other.
Dan: 13:44 Um,
so anyway, by the 18 hundreds, the phrase was used as we use it today, like in
this June, 1819 article in the North American review saying "as this was
truly a match made in heaven, they live happily and have children and
grandchildren."
Dan: 14:01 This
book Match Made in Heaven by Bob Mitchell was from 2006. And I love the concept
of this book. "50 year old Harvard literature professor has a heart
attack. He cries out to God for help. And to his surprise, God appears. God
Asks Elliot", who is the professor, "why is life should be spared and
decides to offer Elliot a chance to save his own life by playing a golf game?
But this is not an ordinary golf game. His opponents turn out to be selected
from heaven by God and includes such famous historical figures at Shakespeare,
Socrates, Beethoven, Moses, Freud, Picasso, and others." So this is a
humorous fiction sports fiction book. Right? But I, uh, I still haven't read
it, but I, it's definitely on my to be read list now. Yeah.
Dan: 14:49 Yeah,
absolutely. Absolutely. All right, well let's wrap this up with a few phrases
for marriage from the 1811 Dictionary of Vulgar Tongues by Francis Grose. So
first one up Giblets. So " To Join Giblets: a set of a man and a woman who
cohabitate as husband and wife without being married."
Dan: 15:09 So
this is the precursor. Uh, so when, uh, as many couples do cohabitate now, uh,
and have for many years that before they've gotten married, then in 1811, you
might call them Giblets.
Dan: 15:29 Well
I mean, the concept was vulgar tongues meaning not appropriate for the rich and
wealthy. Yeah. So it doesn't mean it's necessarily Cursewords or bad things. It
just wouldn't be something you said in polite society.
Dan: 15:44 All
right. So leaping over the sword was, and this is also still from that
dictionary of vulgar tongues, "An ancient ceremonial said to constitute a
military marriage. A sword being laid down on the ground, the parties to be
married joined hands , when the corporal or serjeant of the company repeated
these words: 'Leap rogue, and jump whore, And then you are married for
evermore.' Whereupon the happy couple jumped hand in hand over the sword, the
drum beating a ruffle; and the parties were ever after considered as man and
wife."
Shauna: 16:16 Okay,
I see. Yes. That's kind of interesting. So does this like link the jumping over
the broom thing or is that coming from something else?
Dan: 16:25 Yeah
I guess it's kinda along those same lines because in this case you jumping over
a sword, which would have been a symbol of the military at the time. Yeah,
definitely. Yeah. It's also interesting the words they use for the man and the
woman here, cause rogue was also not considered to be a good thing. So this was
almost a, uh, playful ribbing where you called them names that would not be
considered polite, but then, you know, they were happy about it anyway.
Shauna: 16:47 Yeah.
And does it have to do with the fact that they're like, okay, this is all you
got to do, jump over a sword?
Dan: 16:53 Well,
I mean, let's be honest, if you look at most traditional marriage ceremonies,
there's a whole lot of things you do. But the truth is you just have to be
like, yes and ts and sign here.
Dan: 17:03 So,
uh, all right, so a couple of others that are a little more to the point,
Priest-linked meaning married
Dan: 17:10 Spliced,
which also means married. And it says that it's "an allusion to the
joining of two rope end by splicing", which was a sea term.
Dan: 17:25 Yeah.
There's also one that they used Tenant For Life, which makes sense, but it's
"a married man, specifically possessed of a woman for life."
Dan: 17:33 And
then yoked is the last one in the book that they have mentioned, which simply
means married.
Dan: 17:42 Well
that about wraps us up for today. Thanks for joining us. If you haven't
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www.bunnytrailspod.com
Shauna: 18:07 We
want to say a big thank you to everyone who sent us notes and comments about
your favorite idioms and turns of phrase. Next week is episode 50 so remember
to tell your friends about the show so we can all explore them together. We're
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