“That’s straight from the horse’s mouth.” “That reporter cut her teeth on a story about the county fair.” “I got there in time by the skin of my teeth.” You’ve probably heard these mouth-related sayings, but what do they really mean?
At Petrous Orthodontics, we love anything mouth-related, including some of the funny phrases we hear every day. Let’s take a look at some “mouthy” phrases and what they mean.
Armed to the teeth means you are prepared for anything, and it dates back to the days of knights in shining armor. Back in the 1300s, they wore armor that covered them completely, including their heads, leaving a hole for their faces that fell just below their mouths — and teeth. Hence “armed to the teeth.”
This means someone is unhappy or upset about something. It originates from the 18th century and refers to someone having a “drooping” mouth (frown) when they were upset.
Living from hand to mouth means living in poverty or poor situations, such as living paycheck to paycheck. It stems from Britain in the 1700s during a time of famine when people who got food ate it right away instead of trying to save it. The phrase was revived in the 1930s in the U.S. during the Great Depression.
“Cut your teeth” or “cut your eyeteeth” means getting your start or getting your first experience with something. It refers to baby teeth erupting, or in the case of “eyeteeth,” canine baby teeth erupting.
This means passing information from one person to another verbally. Its origins date all the way back to the 1100s in Britain. It’s believed to be related to the medieval Latin phrase viva voce, or “living voice.”
You know how hard it is to pull teeth, right? “Like pulling teeth” refers to this and means that a certain task was extremely difficult, frustrating, or tedious. It’s believed to have come from a publication in New Jersey in the 1830s in an article where a politician described the difficulty of the recent elections. Getting him to admit it, the publication said, was “like pulling teeth.”
A sharp tongue refers to someone who doesn’t say very nice things or is very blunt in their opinions. It refers to a tongue being barbed or sharp. The phrase can also be used to refer to someone who makes witty or clever remarks on the fly.
This refers to getting reliable information from someone, particularly someone close to the situation. Its origins are believed to go back to the early 1900s and British horse racing. It was believed the best way to pick a winner was to look at the horse, not listen to the jockey or owner.
This refers to graciously accepting something instead of questioning its origins, meaning, or motives behind it. The term dates back to the days of horse-drawn transportation. People buying horses would look at their teeth to see how worn they were, which would give them an idea of how old the horses were.
If you were given a horse, it was considered rude to look at the horse’s teeth immediately. You should instead accept such a valuable gift graciously. Hence, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
This means barely arriving or barely achieving something. The origins are believed to go back to the King James version of the Bible and Job 19:20. “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.” Job describes how he has barely survived an illness, but those around him have turned away from him.
What are your favorite mouthy phrases?
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