Bay: To keep danger at bay. In ancient times the
bay tree was regarded as having great protective powers. This was due
to the fact that it never seemed to be struck by lightning. Both Greeks
and Romans wore its leaves as protection during thunder storms in an
effort to keep the lightning "at bay". During the great plague of
London many citizens did the same, in the hope that they would be
spared the disease, but it didn't help.
In March 2005 Victoria
Dennis suggested another explanation. To "bay" means to bark with a
long repeated note, as a hound does in the chase (cf. "baying at the
moon"). When hounds have run down and cornered a stag or boar and he
turns to face the baying hounds, he is said to "stand at bay" and to
have been "brought to bay". (Think of all those Victorian paintings
titled "The stag at bay".) If he manages to hold them off with his
antlers or tusks, he is said to "keep them at bay" - i.e. all the
hounds can do is stand there baying. This image makes a natural
metaphor for fending off an attack, whether by humans, animals or
forces of nature.
Beam: On your beam ends; when life is bad and
all resources are low or absent then that is when you are said to be
"on your beam ends". The saying is nautical in origin and refers to the
supporting cross beams in old wooden ships. In shipwrecks the ships
often ended up on their sides i.e. "on their beam ends".
Bean:
To have a bean feast means to have a good time. In times past it was
customary for employers to hold an annual dinner for their employees.
It is thought that a regular part of the menu was bean-goose, so called
from a bean shaped mark on the beak. It is also possible that the menu
also contained a dish consisting mainly of beans. Whatever the menu,
such dinners were often rowdy and high-spirited, just like a modern
"bean feast". Incidentally, a shortened version of the expression also
passed into common usage. This is why we have a "Beano".
Beans:
To spill the beans indicates that a secret has been revealed. The
suggested origin of this one is similar to, but older, than that of to
"black ball". The ancient Greeks were very fastidious about who they
would let into membership of their many secret societies. A common
voting method was for members to drop either a white or a black bean
into a jar. White meant acceptance and black rejection of the new
application. It only needed a few black beans for total rejection. The
precise numbers of white and black votes were meant to be secret but,
occasionally, the jar was knocked over and the beans were spilt. This
splendid suggested origin is somewhat marred by the fact that the
saying only came into general use in the 1920s; however I know of no
better explanation.
Bear: A bear garden. Today this saying
implies a state of near chaos, turmoil and confusion in a room or some
other similar situation, e.g. a particularly noisy and crowded pub. It
comes from the time of Henry VIII when bear baiting was popular, so
much so that gardens were actually set aside for the "sport". They
were, of course, very noisy and rowdy places.
Bee: To be the
bees knees; i.e. to be first class at something. There are a couple of
explanations for this one, neither of which I find convincing, but
which are all that I can find. The first refers to the delicate and
precise way that bees knees bend when they clean off pollen from their
bodies and transfer it to the sacks on their back legs. The second, and
more likely, origin is one of rhyme and animal association. It was
fashionable in the 1920s to coin this type of phrase, not all of which
rhymed but all of which had animal connotations; other examples are
"the cat's pyjamas" and "the eel's heel". Several of the sayings have
died out, but "bees knees" survives.
In December 2003 another possible origin was sent to me by Kerry Pitman, as follows:
Another
explanation of "the bees knees" is that it derives from Clara Bow. She
seems to have been known as "The Bee" because of her "bee stung lips".
She was also known for showing off a rather nice set of knees. I don't
remember where I first ran across this explanation but I searched
Google with "clara bow"+"the bee" and verified that linkage to her name
seems true. I also checked by searching "clara bow"+"knees" and
verified that she was also known for showing off a first rate set of
knees.
Beef: To beef about something, means to complain or moan.
I have found only one explanation for this expression and it is another
that I find less than convincing; never-the-less, here goes. It
allegedly comes from the London criminal underworld, well known to be
full of cockney rhyming slang. The traditional shout of "stop thief!"
was mocked by being replaced by "hot beef, hot beef" in criminal
circles who thought that the shouters of "stop thief" were making an
unnecessary fuss. The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue defines Beef
as: "to cry beef; to give the alarm", thereby supporting the above
suggested origin.
The phrase was discussed on the SHU web site (see Appendix) in October 2000. An alternative origin goes as follows:
"In
order to get them from their ranges to railroads, herds of beef cattle
were once forced to trot for day after day in all kinds of weather.
Residents of railhead cow towns didn't need to be told when a rancher
and his cowpokes were getting close - the noise made by the 'beef'
could be heard for miles. Cattle drives are long gone, but a person who
is loud in finding fault is still said to beef or bellow like a tired
and thirsty steer". From "Why You Say It" by Webb Garrison (Rutledge
Hill Press, Nashville, Tenn., 1992).
Bell: To be saved by the
bell suggests a rescue at the last minute. I always thought that this
was derived from the Boxing Ring, but this is not the only explanation.
Another goes as follows: A guard at Windsor Castle in the Victorian
times was accused of being asleep on night duty. He vigorously denied
this and, in his defence, said that he had heard Big Ben (which could
be heard in Windsor in those days before traffic and Heathrow Airport)
chime 13 at midnight. The mechanism was checked and it was found that a
gear or cog had slipped and that the clock had indeed chimed 13 the
previous night. He was truly Saved by the Bell.
An alternative
explanation relates to the bell mentioned under 'Ringer'. I prefer the
boxing origin, since the expression doesn't seem to have been used
before the 1930s.
Bend: someone is said to be round the bend
when it's felt that they are a little mad. The bend here, according to
a psychiatrist colleague of mine, is the curve always placed in the
entrance drive of Victorian mental hospitals. Straight drives were the
characteristic of stately homes and bent ones of asylums to screen the
inmates from view and vise versa.
Bib: To wear ones best bib and
tucker: This saying conjures up a picture of someone dressed in their
Sunday best. In the 17th century bibs of all sorts were worn by adults
to protect their clothes. At the same time women also wore "tuckers";
these were made of lace or muslin and were tucked into the top of low
cut dresses and ended in frills at the neck. On special occasions
people wore their best "bib and tucker" and, over the passage of time,
it has been forgotten that only women wore tuckers.
