Common Sayings That Are Completely Antiquated

This is when someone is working extra hard or late into the night. It was a time before electricity, so candlelight or lamp oil was used for lighting. Those working late would be literally burning lamp oil at midnight.

Circuses in the 1800s would parade around town first before setting up, and in front were bandwagons leading the festivities. These drew large crowds, so politicians began renting space for more time with the audience.

As time went by, politicians would call for people not to “jump on the opponent’s bandwagon,” resulting in a negative connotation, which meant to mindlessly go along with whatever was flashy or trendy.

Before power windows in cars came to be, drivers or passengers had to “roll”. Instead of pushing a button, you would physically move the window by cranking or “rolling” a lever in the car door.

Before cars came to be, people with horses enjoyed prominence, with nobility and high-ranking military officials the ones riding them.

To “get off your high horse” meant to literally dismount a horse and humble yourself. Today, that means a person is acting superior, often arrogant in a moral context.

Hat makers from the 17th and 18th centuries usually suffered from cognitive issues thanks to mercury poisoning, a side-effect of manufacturing felt hats of the day. The famous Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland is a play on this phenomenon.

This is an ancient one originating in 77 A.D., though it was in the 17th century when it was given the meaning we know today. Since a grain of salt was thought to aid in digesting food, and a component in an antidote for poison, the phrase was literally meant for hundreds of years.

So the figurative meaning is, don’t take everything at face value. Discern well to sort out the truth.

The passage comes from Pliny’s Naturalis Historia:

“After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.”

It’s a phrase that means someone was wealthy enough to literally purchase the entire nine yards it took to make a tailor-fit outfit. Today, the meaning is pretty much the same to mean that someone is dressed their best.

During the time of Great Britain and the early American colonial era, disgraced military officers would be drummed out of their regiment when discharged. Today, this means that someone has to face the fallout of his actions.

There was a time when copying machines weren’t found in offices, so copies had to be made by sliding a piece of carbon paper between the original document and a blank piece of paper.

And even though an intermediary paper soaked in ink is no longer necessary, this phrase still means “an exact copy.”

That’s what the “cc” in emails actually stands for.

In 18th century social clubs, those who wanted to be members had to be voted upon by a committee. Anonymous votes were cast using different colored balls.

Positive votes used a red ball, and a black ball was for negative votes. There were clubs who only needed one black ball vote to reject a membership. So to be blackballed literally meant to be voted against and denied membership.

In the 1800s, the custom was to drop a hat to begin a race instead of firing a gun. Dropping a hat is way safer than a stray bullet landing somewhere. Unless it’s a blank, but who was checking?

This one just means “applying your best effort”, and it originated from a time when organists would quite literally pull the stops from every pipe on an organ to play it at maximum volume.

At a time when buying a horse was a really expensive endeavor, you had to know what you were doing as you could easily be swindled. A horse’s teeth would tell you all you needed to know about it like the age, health, and general condition of the animal.

The horse’s mouth literally told the truth.

“To hear it from the horses mouth” is no longer literal, but it means that you get the truth from a solid source.

It was a romantic time so when bowing to nobility, a gentleman would put his best foot forward, extending his leg to take the bow. It was a literal movement.

In the 18th century, businessmen kept track of debts owed, plus the interest built, by carving notches or nicks on a “tally stick.”

When a person paid off their debt before the next nick was carved, they would save that day’s worth of interest, thus arriving “in the nick of time.”

In times of war and no painkiller was available, soldiers bit down on a bullet during surgical operations. A far cry from today’s meaning. To bite the bullet just means to endure what is necessary but unpleasant.

You will have heard a few of these outdated phrases, perhaps at work, or a party, and even at home. Have you ever wondered where these phrases came from though? You’ll be surprised at the root of these sayings, so the next time you use one and they ask, you can back it up with a history lesson.

Discover the origins of those outdated phrases still in use, and see which ones you hear a lot.

“Close, but no cigar”

Carnivals in the 1800s used cigars as rewards and prizes for winning carnival games. Not something you’d give a kid so the updated one should be, “Close, but no stuffed teddy bear.”