How Cliché: All is Well with “W”
Well well, we are running out of alphabet and clichés. Fortunately, there is a wellspring of “W” entries to peruse:
Wait on hand and foot: dating back to the 1300s when servants and servitude was common, the expression implies serving a person completely, attending to their every need, often to an excessive or servile degree. Today the phrase is often dished with a serving of sarcasm.
Walking encyclopedia refers to someone having a vast knowledge about many diverse subjects. One of my favorite reads was the Encyclopedia Brown series—that neighborhood detective was one smart kid.
Walk on eggs: something that is quite a challenge and serves as a cautionary when around certain people who are considered sensitive i.e. they easily get hurt feelings or worse, they quickly give into anger (because their feelings are thin as eggshells?).
The walls have ears: a bizarre imagining, yet with all the sneaky tech out these days it is so true in how people could be listening. There is a story about Dionysius, the Greek tyrant. He ordered an ear-shaped cave constructed so he could listen to what his prisoners said while he was in another room. There are other instances where listening posts are created, including the Louvre in Paris.
Warts and all: while warts aren’t lovely, they are a part of life since perfection is often just an ideal. This saying is all about accepting someone or something with all its faults. Allegedly Oliver Cromwell, a British military/politician/dictator, remarked to the portraitist, Sir Peter Lely, that he wanted all his pimples, warts, roughness painted as he appeared or he would not pay him. Art did imitate life in this instance.
[image: TheCollector.com]
Waste one’s breath: to talk, only to realize no one is listening can be frustrating. The phrase dates back to the sixteenth century when it was thought a person’s breath could be saved as in “save your breath.” Tennyson is credited with saying “I trust I have not wasted breath” in his 1850 “In Memoriam.”
A watched pot never boils: impatiently waiting for something to happen does not quicken matters. Anyone who has actually waited for a pot of water to boil can attest to that idea.
Weak as a kitten: being defenseless. The original early nineteenth century expression is “weak as a cat,” although the cats I’ve known aren’t that weak, lazy perhaps, but not weak. We’ve seen cats go up against dogs, bears, lions on YouTube, right?
Wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve: to openly show one’s feelings; to be emotionally vulnerable can be traced back to the days of knights and ladies–a lady would offer her favor (usually a ribbon) to a favored knight in a joust to openly show her support. Shakespeare bettered this expression in Othello, “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.”
Wear out one’s welcome: to prolong one’s stay past polite acceptability is a risk when visiting. As the old saying goes: “After three days fish and guests are equally stale.” There is a modern updated version of this saying. It makes me wonder how in Austen’s day parties of people would stay two weeks or a month at someone’s country house. They didn’t have Febreze back then to lighten the air. They probably refrained from serving fish.
There are scads of “W” clichés still to unpack. Which ones should be included for next time?
Pam Webb 