Stock Phrases: Keep Them On The Shelf

Clichés suck. They’re overused, hence the reason they are clichés. They are stock phrases with generic meanings and connotations. Occasionally bits of odd or outdated terms pop up in the stew. If they’re so overused, why are they still around? Because they’re useful. A few words can sum up an otherwise-lengthy situation into a handy ball of well-defined goodness. These phrases are overused because they work.

“Well, this is a fine kettle of fish,” Madame Example mutters to herself, yet there is not a single salmon or sardine in sight. Entirely unrelated to any sort of cookery (usually), Madame Example is just in a pretty frustrating or awkward situation. Maybe ninjas are attacking, or she just dropped her favorite china, but these have nothing to do with cauldrons of seafood. Prior to this paper, I had no idea, but after searching the internet, I found that it probably came from the practice of throwing live fish into boiling water. Supposedly after the fish had been boiled enough, they made a rather messy sort of stew. This is just one theory, and it may not be correct, but there are plenty of other phrases that have entered our language through literal actions turned figurative that it makes a good example. More importantly, it gives some spice to the otherwise-limited options of describing the happenings. In a way similar to the large variety of swears in the world, there are thousands of overused idioms available to talk about almost any sort of situation or thing. It’s just more interesting that way.

While on the subject of interesting things, the ninjas have accidentally stepped on the broken crockery at Madame Example’s house. The head ninja quietly steps up to the Madame, starting to explain in very vague and uncertain terms that he may, perhaps, need some form of medical assistance, possibly in the form of an adhesive bandage strip or some other sort of pre-prepared first-aid supplies. “Stop beating around the bush,” Madame Example snaps, “I haven’t got all day!” Unless the Madame is a horticulturist, there are no bushes in the house, and the poor ninja just wants a band-aid for his foot—no beating for him. This common phrase is derived from ye olde practise of hitting at bushes to make the birds fly up in order to catch and eat them. By beating around the bushes, instead of directly on them, there was a lot of work without much purpose. It’s not a far leap to see the figurative meaning’s evolution to simply “avoiding the point.” This phrase adds to our repertoire so that we don’t have to say “stop telling me things that are not the thing you mean to tell me!” and such, or even just “just say it” all the time.

These terms are just fine, but the real magic happens when you’re so familiar with them that they can be changed and still understood. “There’s a silver lining to this fine kettle of fish,” Example exclaims as she finds a brick of gold underneath the shards of her tea set. After all, a silver lining is the good side of a bad thing, and the kettle of fish is still an awkward situation. They’re easily combined into one new phrase that succinctly tells us what the Madame thinks of the new discovery. The established meanings of the phrases we learn in childhood allow us to construct new forms of idioms in adulthood, which thereby expand our range of colorful language to new lengths. Apart from giving us more ways to describe things, mixing metaphors can result in such amusing phrases as “the icing on the kettle of fish” or “birds of a feather cry wolf.” It’s funny because two logical happenings combine to make one that’s totally absurd in a literal sense, yet because of their separate meanings, they still make sense metaphorically.

Idioms can be poetic, simple, odd, or merely quirks of everyday language, but they give variety and allow more freedom of expression than merely literal phrases could provide. They can be a little overused, but there’s nothing wrong with airing them out every once in a while. They help to make the English language fun and fresh every day.

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Sources:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ket1.htm

http://www.takeourword.com/TOW191/page2.html

This is an essay I wrote for a class that got rejected for being too informal. I'm still fond of it, so I thought I'd put it on the internet. Please don't use this essay as your own work, ever, and link back to the permalink page if you choose to quote or otherwise use it.