Generic Phrases
Phrases: I don't get them!?
Hi, I have been trying to understand a few phrases that are uniquely American. Please, can anyone explain these to me so I understand their meaning? 1. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." 2. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." 3. "Don't take any wooden nickels." Even though I grew up with these phrases, I still don't understand them nor how to use them. Thanks. Thank you for the quick education Math Hobbyist! Thank you to the other two repliers - I appreciate your inputs.
Public Comments
- 1#: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Meaning Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift. Origin This comes into the category of phrases called proverbs, that is, 'short and expressive sayings, in common use, which are recognized as conveying some accepted truth or useful advice'. don't look a gift horse in the mouthAs horses age their teeth begin to project further forward each year and so their age can be estimated by checking how prominent the teeth are. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase - long in the tooth. The advice given in the 'don't look...' proverb is: when given a present, be grateful for your good fortune and don't look for more by examining it to assess its value. #2 A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush Meaning It's better to have a small actual advantage now than the chance of a greater one. Origin It isn't until the 19th century that we find the phrase in its currently used form. The earliest I've located is in a US newspaper The Huron Reflector, from January 1833: "But few persons, so prone are we to grasp at the shadow at the expense of the substance, bear in mind the good old adage, 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.'" This refers to the phrase as old. How long the current version predates 1833 isn't clear, but variations of the phrase have been known for centuries. The earliest English version of the proverb is from the Bible and was translated into English in Wycliffe's version in 1382, although Latin texts have it from the 13th century. #3 Meaning: Don't be cheated. Origin Just when the adage "Don’t take any Wooden Nickels!" was added to the American language is unclear, but the reasons are easy to understand. First of all, each wood had an expiration date and generally even a specific final redemption time. If you were in a possession of a handful of wooden nickels that expired at noon today and your best customer came through the door at five minutes to noon, it would be difficult to get to centennial headquarters to cash them in. Many Wooden Nickels also said they had to be unbroken, and the rectangular "Flats" were pretty fragile. Probably the Rogers Company’s use of wooden money should be studied as one of the great marketing schemes of the 20th Century. They had the wooden pieces printed up sometime prior to the actual celebration. They then sold the woods to area merchants for face value and the merchant in turn gave the Wooden Nickels, Wooden Dimes, and Wooden Quarters to their customers in change. The woods usually carried the time, date and place of the celebration. So in effect you had paid to take home an advertisement for the event!
- 1. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Meaning: Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift. 2. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Meaning: It's better to have a small actual advantage than the chance of a greater one. 3. Don't take any wooden nickels. Meaning: Don't let yourself be cheated. (real nickels are worth 5 cents, wooden are worth nothing)
- The first two are proverbs. Do a search on the first following site. Click on the letter that the proverb starts with for the first two. For the third one: use the same website, but search for "wooden nickels" without the quotes.
