A
blackguard (= blaggard) on the other hand is a rogue or scoundrel. The
only origin I found was, again, in the 1811 dictionary; it says: "A
shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty,
tattered roguish boys who attended at the Horse Guards and Parade in St
James' Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any
other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance at about the
time of guard mounting, were nick-named black-guards.
However, on Michael Quinlon's World Wide Words web site there's more
background to the saying.
"The earliest recorded use, by a few years, was in 1535. Then it
referred to low menials in a royal or noble household. They were the
ones who looked after the pots and pans and other kitchen utensils: the
scullions or kitchen-knaves. Nobody knows for sure why they were said
to be black - perhaps the colour of the pots literally or figuratively
rubbed off on them. A slightly later sense is of the rabble that
followed an army about: the servants, camp-followers and general
hangers-on (here "black" presumably has its common derogatory sense).
There seems to be a third sense, which refers to a guard of attendants
or soldiers who were dressed in black; it's possible that there really
was a Black Guard - so called - at Westminster about this time (there
are account records that refer to them, but nobody has any idea who
they actually were)."
Black over Bill's/Will's mother. Eric Partridge, in "A Dictionary of
Catch Phrases American and British," uses the variant ". . . Bill's
mother." Partridge goes on ..."Applied to dark clouds looming--in no
matter what quarters of the sky. The phrase is very common, later C20,
in the East Midlands, but is by no means limited to that region, for I
have heard it also from a Scotsman in Sussex, where also I heard the
variant 'it's a bit brighter over . . .'"
The matter has been debated on the Phrase Finder message board
(http://www.phrases.org.uk/); no one knows who Will/Bill was, who his
mother was or where they lived! Until the early 2000s I had never heard
of the phrase but now it seems to come up regularly, with Bill more
common.
Blank: Point-blank, means close to or direct, such as "he was shot at
point-blank range". The origin here is close to its present day use and
comes from gunnery. Point-blank is when the line of sight of a cannon
is parallel to its axis. Shot then flies direct to the target without a
curve. Naturally such a target must be nearby. Point blanc is also
French for the centre of a bullseye target and this may have had an
influence in the phrase.
Blanket: To be a wet blanket, means to be less than enthusiastic about
a project or an idea. I can't find a recorded origin of this one but it
seems highly likely that it comes directly from fire fighting use where
a wet blanket is an excellent means of quelling the start of a fire.
I'm sure that "to put the dampers on something" has the same origin,
but an alternative is given later. Political "Wets" are modern
variants.
Block: Chock-a-block, indicates that something or somewhere is grossly
over full. This is another of naval origin. It was used when two blocks
of tackle were so hard together that they couldn't be tightened
further. The modern colloquial "this room is chockers" and similar
phrases are derived from this old saying. Incidentally, a ‘chock' is a
block of material used to stop something moving; eg the wedges placed
under the wheels to stop aircraft rolling away.
Board: Above board; i.e. honest and legal. I have found two possible
reasons for this saying - either: 1) keeping one's hands above the
gambling table and thus being unlikely to cheat or, 2) the stowing of
goods on a ship all properly above the boards, i.e. the deck and sides
so that the Customs officers could easily check for contraband. I
prefer number 2.
To go by the board means that circumstances are dire and that a
situation is desperate. The board here is one on the side of a ship. If
a person or goods fall overboard then the situation is indeed desperate
and any means of rescue is welcome; finesse and proper behaviour are
not relevant. The technical meaning is "be jettisoned, be swept away".
If any part of the deck fittings or cargo was damaged and hanging over
the side, the captain would have to decide whether it could be
retrieved or whether to cut it away and let it "go by the board".
Bob: "Bob's your uncle" applied as a final clause to some proposition
or other implies that all is fine and problem free - everything has
been fixed. The origin here is not absolutely certain but I think the
following is highly likely. It goes back to the 1890s and follows the
appointment of Arthur Balfour as Secretary State for Ireland. The man
who gave him the job was the then Prime Minister, Robert Cecil (Lord
Salisbury), who also happened to be his uncle. If Bob was your uncle,
then you got the job.
Bone up: To bone up something means to especially read about a subject,
usually for exam purposes. The phrase is used mainly by students and
goes back to one of the prime sources of pre examination last minute
study - texts of literal versions of classic books produced by the firm
of Bohn. Students had simply to "Bohn up".
Bonfire: This is not a phrase but a word. As such it really has no
place in a book of phrases and sayings, but its origin I found
sufficiently unusual as to warrant inclusion. The word goes back a lot
further than Guy Fawkes and is derived from the ancient custom of
lighting three fires to honour St John. These were lit on a special day
in the year and the first fire was made of animal and human bones (from
charnel houses) and was known as a bone-fire, the second of wood was
known as a wood-fire; the third was of wood and bones and was called St
John's fire. Our word comes from the "bone fire".
Book: To bring to book or to call someone to account. There is no one
single book meant by this saying, rather any book (or other source of
information) which can be consulted in order to verify a statement or
claim made by a person or group of persons.
