How Cliche: “R” You Ready?
As we move on down the line of our cliché alphabet let’s get ready to take a running leap at a few “r” entries.
Raining cats and dogs: raining heavily. The origin of this common cliché isn’t certain, although it does possibly go back to Norse mythology and the obsolete word “catadupe” (waterfall) and was associated with it raining so hard that animals, most likely cats and dogs, were found drowned in the streets; hence, the logic being the skies must have released animals in the rainstorm.
Read between the lines: to understand what is being said without it being actually stated. Secreting messages within messages via code or invisible ink used to be common practice around the 19th century, which meant people might literally be reading between the lines to get the actual message. Modern day application involves listening to what is not being said to get the possible true meaning of a message.
Rags to riches: going from poverty to wealth. Fairly self-explanatory and who doesn’t appreciate a good old destitute to millionaire story? Horatio Alger was known for this particular theme in his stories and present day rags to riches real life examples include J.K. Rowling who went from welfare mom to millionaire author with her Harry Potter series. Movies and stories like The Great Gatsby and Slumdog Millionaire remain popular as audiences cheer for the underdog.
Rack your brain: to think very hard. Torture is not a means people voluntarily chose to recall some bit of knowledge, yet this was a method often employed to nudge a person into relaying some knowledge they had. The inquisitor would place the person with the needed knowledge on a device called the “rack” (refer to most medieval movies for the gruesome details) and applied pressure until the knowledge was revealed. One has to ponder if the revealed information was truly believable at that point.
Rain on your parade: to spoil someone’s enjoyment or ruin plans. It’s a common phrase but a relatively new one since parades came into popularity around the 18th/19th century, going from serious celebrations such a military pomp and circumstance to the traditional splendor of Macy’s annual Thanksgiving parade. Barbra Streisand popularized the phrase with her well-known song from Funny Girl.
Raise the roof: make a lot of noise. One origin story is how a community would come together and build a barn (aka a barn raising) and hefting up a barn roof took a whole lot of effort and was probably a bit noisy.
Raise your eyebrows: something that initiates a response of surprise or shock. It’s a human response to show surprise or shock with the facial expression of lifting up one’s eyebrows and the phrase came into popular use around the Victorian era when people had certain standards that when jeopardized might cause the subtle response of eyebrows indicating disapproval.
Raise Cain: to be disruptive or display rowdy behavior. Cain refers to the biblical brother story where Cain slays his brother Abel and it is thought the expression is to behave so unacceptably that one could raise the dead. Brotherly squabbling takes on a new context with this revelation.
Ring a bell: something sounding familiar. One origin story is how church bells have been employed through the centuries to toll time, honor the fallen, and to sound alarms—their use being a familiar part of life. While church bell ringing isn’t as common today, our familiar cell phone alarms do an adequate job of reminding us to get up and go to work.
Rake over the coals: to harshly scold. Another tortuous origin story. If the rack wasn’t enough to get someone talking there was always the method of dragging them over hot coals, perhaps giving way to the expression of hotly denying an accusation.
Rock the boat: disrupting an otherwise stable situation. This one makes absolute sense: don’t upset the boat otherwise you will end up in hot water (or maybe not, but that is an idiom that comes to mind).
Read the riot act: being chastised for unacceptable behavior. The British created the “Riot Act” of 1714, which involved reading a proclamation to dissemble any unlawful gatherings of 12 or more people or risk being charged with a felony. While riots still occur today, and with consequences, being read the riot act usually involves an unpleasant scolding.
Well, there “r” a few more clichés we could explore, but a dozen is fine without the need to rack up more Word Nerd points.
On to “S” next post…
Pam Webb 