Cock:
see Bull:
Cock: To be cock-a-hoop is to be full of jubilation and delight, as a
cock crowing proudly and the analogy with a crowing cock could well be
the origin. However, there's another likely basis, one which I prefer.
During medieval drinking bouts the spigot or cock was often removed
from the barrel and placed on the hoop at the top. The beer flowed
freely and the drinkers were full of merriment and delight. The 1811
dictionary, however, spells it Cock-a-whoop, thereby raising an
altogether different possibility.
Codswallop: What a load of codswallop means that something is a load of
rubbish. This one also has a drinking background. Wallop is a still
current expression for beer; it was certainly in use in the 19th
century. In 1872 a certain Victorian businessman called Codd went into
the manufacture of lemonade. It was sold in green glass bottles sealed
with glass marble stoppers and was jokingly called Codd's wallop. Its
poor quality, when compared to beer, although not perhaps with other
lemonades, gave rise to the derogatory implications of the phrase.
In January 2005 Grant Smith offered the following explanation. It seems
a bit unlikely, but worth including.
I was told this derivation of codswallop by an old brewer about twenty
years ago.
In the process of brewing the ale is "fined" to clear it of yeast etc.
suspended in the liquid, and the finings are made from the viscera and
scales of the cod fish.
Poor ale was sometimes treated or fined several times in an attempt to
clear it with the result that it contained a large proportion of
finings which may have imparted a fishy or cod taste to the wallop (the
colloquial term for beer) hence "codswallop".
However, it seems the expression is first recorded only in 1963 (SOED).
Thus, there's still a problem with the origin.
Coil: Shuffle off this mortal coil; i.e. to die. Why "coil" I have not
been able to find out. My references state "Archaic for disturbance;
confusion; fuss." The actual saying comes from Shakespeare's "Hamlet".
Cold: To have cold feet is to have doubts; to be afraid of a course of
action and is, again, of uncertain origin. The one reference that I
found suggested that an old Italian (Lombard) proverb may be the
source. The story goes that the expression signifies "to be without
means or resources"; if someone is very poor then the chances of
affording shoes are remote and the person therefore has cold feet. How
this translated into our current usage has never been explained and it
may be that the phrase has nothing to do with the proverb.
A second explanation comes from an 1862 novel by Fritz Reuter in which
a card player backs out of a game on the grounds that his feet are
cold. One can imagine that he was fearful of losing all and his cold
feet were as good an excuse as he could think of to help him get out of
the game.
Colours: To come through with flying colours is to successfully
achieve a difficult objective, such as passing an
exam with distinction. The origin here is clearly military, but which
service? Lancers charging? A victory parade through a captured town? In
reality it is a victorious fleet sailing into harbour with their flags
still flying at their mastheads.
Column.: To dodge the column is to avoid a task, avoid your duty in
some respect. This is another with a military background and comes from
the way some men managed not to join a column of their colleagues
waiting for an allocated task.
Comb: To go something with a fine tooth comb is to do a task with
especial care. This probably comes from the use of a fine tooth comb to
remove nits and head lice from scalp hair, a common infestation of
children in the inter-war years, and back with us in the 21st century!
Cook: To cook the books is to falsify an account of an event, often a
financial one. At first sight this may seem a strange combination, but
it started its life in the mid 17th century, and thus it has endured.
It truly relates to the act of cooking, whereby ingredients are
changed, altered and improved by the process. Thus financial statements
can also be so modified to the benefit of the 'cook'. Such a change, in
a negative way, is also seen in the expression to 'cook someone's
goose', thereby depriving the owner of the benefit of the animal,
either alive or dead. See Goose.
Copper bottomed: A copper bottomed guarantee indicates that the
guarantee in question is "Cast Iron" in quality. One can work out the
relationship between quality and cast iron, but why copper bottomed?
This too harks back to the days of sail. Wooden ships are particularly
prone to damage from underwater rocks and other obstacles; they are
also particularly prone to encrustation from barnacles and other sea
creatures. In order to significantly reduce the chance of damage, and
encrustation, really well built expensive ships were given a copper
bottom. This almost guaranteed that they would suffer only minimal
damage or encrusting. The smooth bottom meant that they were faster
than their rivals and could be guaranteed to arrive earlier.
Corker: What a corker; this is another where this is another where I
found an origin on the Sheffield Hallam University web site, as
follows:
In "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume 1,
A-G" by J. E. Lighter (Random House, New York, 1994), it says:
"CORKER n. 1. A hard or finishing blow; (hence) (obs.) that which
settles an issue…2.a) a stiff drink of liquor…b) a person or a thing of
extraordinary size, effectiveness, quality, etc; a remarkable person or
thing…c) an attractive young woman; knock-out. 3. Baseball, a fly
ball…"
Thus it seems that "corker," used as a thing of effectiveness or
quality, gave rise to the other uses. First recorded in 1891.
Cotton on: To cotton on to someone is to adhere to them, perhaps when
not wanted; or to eventually understand an idea or intention, again
perhaps when this is unwelcome. The origin here is nothing more than
the fact that cotton thread seems to stick to almost anything and can
be difficult to dislodge. The saying is recorded in a play as early as
1605. Clearly the saying is a lot older
Course: In due course; this phrase indicates that something will happen
at the appropriate time, but only after other events have occurred and
not before. I can't find an origin for this one, but I suspect that it
too is naval. The appropriate course can only be set when all necessary
preliminaries have been completed and not before. However, if we
consider that the word “course” comes from the Latin “cursus”, meaning
literally “running”. We speak of “the course of time”,
meaning the “running” or flow of events.
