Idioms 169, Etymologies 168, English: “against time, wash dirty linen in public, 3 more idioms, meanings, origins, Spanish, Portuguese
Michael D. Powers, Ph.D., USCCI
![Michael D. Powers, Ph.D., USCCI]()
Michael D. Powers, Ph.D., USCCI
US Certified Court Interpreter 1980 / Ph.D. Spanish Portuguese 1981 / 24 years university professor / Estimates: 12,000+ depositions, hearings, etc. / 850 trials / 3000 documents / Conference Interpreter 650 conferences
Idioms 169, Etymologies 168, English: “against time, wash one’s dirty linen in the public, albatross around one’s neck, a little bird told me, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” meaning, origin, translations into Spanish, Portuguese, and back translations
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1) against time, against the clock
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com???against+time
Against time - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
against ?time (also against the clock) if you do something?against time, you do it as fast as you can because you do not have much time: We've only got two days to find a replacement, so we're racing?against time. ? They're working against the clock to try and get people out of the rubble alive. See also: time
Spanish
contra el reloj [against the clock]
contra el tiempo [against time]
a marchas forzadas [under the pressure of time, too close fo the deadline]
con el agua al cuello [with the water up to the neck]
contrareljo, contrarrelo [against the clock]
Portuguese
contra o tempo [against time]
contra o relógio [against the clock]
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2) air one’s dirty laundry in the public, wash one’s dirty laundry in the public
The meaning and origin of the expression: Dont wash your dirty linen in public
Dont wash your dirty linen in public
Whats the meaning of the phrase Dont wash your dirty linen in public?
The proverbial saying 'Don't wash your dirty linen in public' advises us to avoid making personal matters, which those involved may consider private or embarassing, public.
In the USA, the 'air your dirty washing in public' variant is often used.
Whats the origin of the phrase Dont wash your dirty linen in public?
This proverb makes a figurative reference to the washing and drying of clothes. In the past and many people didn't have the space or facilities to dry washing privately. This picture shows clothes being hung to dry across a street in Leeds, Yorkshire in the 1960s and this is still a common sight today. Keeping one's dirty linen (especially underwear) away from prying eyes was the preserve of the more affluent and genteel sections of society.
The original form of this phrase would have been more often heard in Lyon than Leeds though, as the proverb was first popular in France and later migrated to English-speaking countries.
The phrase is often creditted to Napolean Bonaparte. Various sources say that Napoleon used it on his return from Elba in 1815:
Il faut laver son linge sale en famille [One should wash one's dirty linen at home]
There's no documentary evidence to prove that Napolean was an early user of this expression but there's no especial reason to doubt it.
Although Napolean's usage gave the proverb some cachet in France it wasn't the first time it had been used. There are English versions of the phrase which predate 1815. The first one that I know of is from the American writer Thomas Green Fessenden, who published in both England and the USA. His book?Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical, was published in 1809 and includes:
The man has always had a great itch for scribbling, and has mostly been so fortunate as to procure somebody who pitied his ignorance, to 'wash his dirty linen'.
That citation appears to assume that the reader would have been familiar with the phrase, although earlier examples of it in print haven't yet surfaced.
Back to France and another early use of the phrase, this time from Honore De Balzac in the novel?Eugenie Grandet,?1833:
Il faut laver son linge sale en famille, disait Napoleon.
[You have to wash your dirty laundry as a family, as Napoleon said]
So, whether or not Napolean used the phrase in 1815, Balzac believed it in 1833.
By 1867, which is the date that many sources cite as the origin of the expression, it was well established both in France and England. It appears in Anthony Trollope's novel?The Last Chronicle of Barset, 1867:
There is nothing, I think, so bad as washing one's dirty linen in public.
By the emnd of the century the proverb was well enough known for Oscar Wilde to make an irionic joke out of it. In?The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895. He has his character Algernon Moncrieff say:
The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.
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By?Gary Martin
G[ary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
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sacar los trapos al aire [pull the rags out to the air]
sacar los trapitos al aire [pull the little rags out to the air]
sacar los trapos sucios [take out one’s dirty rags]
sacar los trapitos al sol [take the little rags out in the sun]
sacar los trapos a la colada [pulling the rags from the washed clothes]
sacar los trapos a relucir [take out the rags to shine]
sacar los trapos al sol [take the rags out in the sun]
Portuguese
revelar conflitos particulares en público [reveal specific conflicts in public]
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3) albatross around one’s neck
What's the meaning of the phrase 'An albatross round his neck'?
A burden which some unfortunate person has to carry, by way of retribution for doing something wrong.
What's the origin of the phrase 'An albatross round his neck'?
?Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the source of the phrase 'An albatross around your neck'.
This phrase refers to lines from the poem?The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in which the eponymous mariner, who shoots an albatross, is obliged to carry the burden of the bird hung around his neck as a punishment for and reminder of his ill deed.
Coleridge published the work in 1798, in the collection of poems that is generally accepted as being the starting point of the Romantic movement in English literature -?Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems. The epic poem is exceedingly long, so I'll just reproduce the verses relevant to the phrase:
God save thee, ancient Mariner From the fiends, that plague thee thus Why look'st thou so ? - With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS. ... Ah. well a-day. what evil looks Had I from old and young Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.
The poem doesn't actually use the line 'an albatross around his neck' although the image is central to the narrative. Coleridge's style is what would, in the present day, be called magical realism and is arguably the first major work written that way. This was intentional on Coleridge's part - he started with the idea of having supernatural things happen which would be treated as normal by the participants.
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By?Gary Martin
Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
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Spanish
pagar cara esta decision [pay a lot / expensive for this decision]
Portuguese
um fardo para alguém [a burden for someone]
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4) a little bird told me
What's the meaning of the phrase 'A little bird told me'?
I was told by a private or secret source.
What's the origin of the phrase 'A little bird told me'?
The text 'a little bird told me' doesn't appear in any version of the Bible, but the root source of this expression probably is biblical, from?Ecclesiastes 10-20?(King James Version):
"Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter."
Various authors over the centuries, including Shakespeare, have made reference to birds, feathered or otherwise, giving messages. The first that comes close to our current version of this phrase is Frederick Marryat, in?Peter Simple, 1833:
"A little bird has whispered a secret to me."
By?Gary Martin
Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms
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Spanish
me lo dijo un pajarito [a little bird told me]
Portuguese
um passarinho me countou [a little bird told me]
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5) a little knowledge is a dangerous thing
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
What's the meaning of the phrase 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'?
The proverb 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing' expresses the idea that a small amount of knowledge can mislead people into thinking that they are more expert than they really are, which can lead to mistakes being made.
What's the origin of the phrase 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'?
'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing' and 'a little learning is a dangerous thing' have been used synonymously since the 18th century. The 'little learning' version is widely attributed to Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744). It is found in his?An Essay on Criticism, 1709 and I can find no earlier example of the expression in print:
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.
The similarity of the two phrases is demonstrated by what appears to be an impromptu coining of 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' in a piece in?The monthly miscellany; or Gentleman and Lady's Complete Magazine, Vol II, 1774, in which the writer misquoted Pope:
Mr. Pope says, very truly, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Both Pope's original verse and the misquotation of it were pre-dated by a similar notion expressed by an anonymous author, signing himself 'A B', in the collection of letters published in 1698 as?The Mystery of Phanaticism: “Twas well observed by my Lord Bacon, That a little knowledge is apt to puff up, and make men giddy, but a greater share of it will set them right, and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves. Again, there is a degree of misquotation here. 'My Lord Bacon' was the English politician and philosopher Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban, and what he actually said, in his?The Essays: Of Atheism, 1601, was:
"A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion."
So, who coined the phrase? It appears to have been a group effort. Bacon can be credited with the idea, Pope with the 'learning' version and the mysterious 'A B' with the 'knowledge' version.
The number of writers who were stating variants of 'a little learning is a dangerous thing' in early 18th England is probably a consequence of spread in the availability of scholarly works in English. The Age of the Enlightenment, as the period was known, saw a growth in the interest of cultural and philosophical concerns amongst the middle classes. Discussion of such topics had previously been conducted mainly in Latin and been the preserve of the elite. The sight of the?hoi-polloi?having views on higher matters wasn't welcomed by those who had been classically schooled - hence 'a little learning is a dangerous thing'.
See also: the?List of Proverbs.
See also:?the last words of Sir Francis Bacon.
By?Gary Martin
Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
Spanish
la ignorancia es atrevida [ignorance / lack of knowledge is recklessly daring, bold, adventurous, audacious]
Portuguese
um pouco de conhecimento é algo perigoso [a little bit of knowledge is somewhat dangerous]