Half:
To go off half-cocked means to start something without full
preparation. The cock referred to is the one used to set the hammer of
a gun. At half-cock a gun won't fire properly since the setting is one
which is supposedly secure.
Ham: To be a ham actor is to be an inferior actor with, perhaps, lots
of gesticulations but little else. There are many suggested origins for
the expression:
1. that 19th century make-up was removed with ham fat.
2. that a touring troupe of American actors in the mid 1800s, known as
Ham's actors from the name of their leader, was the basis.
3. from the popular minstrel song "The Hamfat Man", about an inept
actor.
4.a play on the word "amateur".
5. that down-at-heel actors had played Hamlet in better days.
Hand: To get the upper hand means to come out the winner in a situation
, but what about the "lower hand", which must be there in order to have
an upper one? Robert Henrickson's "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase
Origins" states:
"It would seem on first thought that this expression derives from the
way kids choose sides with a bat in sandlot baseball. Two players,
usually the best two by general agreement, participate in the choosing.
One puts a hand around the bat near the fat end, then the other puts a
hand around the bat just above his hand. This goes on, hand over hand,
until the bottom of the bat is reached and there is no room for another
hand. The last hand on the bat wins the contest (although the loser
does have the chance to delicately grasp with his fingertips whatever
little wood is left and twist it around his head, winning if he can
hold on to the bat while doing this three times). The winner, in any
case, gets to choose first for the first player on his team and the
picks are made in rotation thereafter. Perhaps this sandlot choosing
popularized the expression 'getting the upper hand,' 'getting the best
of someone,' but the phrase apparently was used long before the age of
sandlot baseball. It probably derives from an English game of chance
that has been traced back to the 15th century and was played in the
same way as the sandlot choosing contest."
If you reject an offer or idea 'out of
hand,' you do so without hesitation, but what was in the 'hand' in the
first place? This phrase has several different meanings, the oldest
meaning 'out of control.' Shakespeare used the phrase in this sense. It
origin seems to come from when failure to keep a firm grip on the reins
results in a team of horses being 'out of hand.'
The OED says: "3. out of hand. a. At once, immediately, straight off;
without premeditation, suddenly; extempore." The above analogy fits
very well with this.
Handle: To fly off the handle; see Fly.
Hands down: To win hands down is to win easily. The saying comes from
horse racing where a jockey, if he is winning comfortably, can afford
to drop his hands and let the horse run without further urging.
Hang out: "Where do you hang out" is a colloquial way of enquiring
where someone lives or passes their time. To the present day pubs and
hotels advertise their presence with signs hanging outside. The
allusion here is not difficult to see.
Hanky panky: To get up to some hanky panky implies some sort of
underhand dealing or cheating. I can't find a certain origin, but the
expression has been compared with Hocus Pocus, the start of a mock
Latin phrase used by conjurers with the object of distracting the
audience from any slight-of-hand. Our word Hoax is probably derived
from this mock-Latin and Hanky panky possibly a variant.
Hard up: If someone is hard up then they are pressed for cash, just
like the ships which originated the phrase were pressed by the wind. In
sailing ship days, when a vessel was forced by stress of weather to
turn away from the wind, then the helm was put hard up to windward to
alter course. By analogy, someone is hard up if they have to weather a
financial storm.
Harp on: To harp on about something is to continue with a theme that
has lost its relevance and interest to others involved in a discussion.
Its origin is self evident when it's realised that the original saying
was: To harp forever on the same string.
Hat: If something happens at the drop of a hat then it happens
suddenly, almost without warning. This saying comes from the American
West, where the signal for a fight was often just the drop of a hat. It
may have an Irish origin, based on something like "he's ready to fight
at the drop of a hat" which in turn may be followed by "roll up your
sleeves" or "take off your coat" i.e. items of clothing are involved in
the start of fights. However, a more likely origin comes from the days
of fair ground boxing competitions. Here the public were invited to try
their skill against the resident pugilist. In those days all men wore
hats. In order to indicate willingness to enter the fray a man in the
crowd would throw his hat into the ring. Since he was then bare-headed,
he was easily identified as he made his way up to the ring.
He's
been "knocked into a cocked hat" is an expression used to describe the
situation after someone has been beaten in a battle of skills. I have
found three completely different suggested origins, one of which I
don't find very satisfactory. It is based on the early days of sailing
when a ship's position was charted by marking three plotting lines on a
map. The ship should be at the junction of all three but, since
navigation was in its infancy, the lines often produced a little
triangle. The ship was reckoned to then be in the middle of the
triangle. The triangle itself was known as a cocked hat after its
resemblance to the common three-cornered hat of the times. On this
basis the expression originally is said to have implied a sense of
uncertainty, of not knowing where you were.
Another explanation comes from nine-pin bowling. In certain forms of
the game three pins were set up in a triangular shape. The rest were
set up around and the object was to knock these down and leave the
three standing. The three reminded people of a three-cornered or cocked
hat.
The third explanation suggests that the cocked hat of the 18th century
was merely the 16th century Puritan hat with the brim rolled up or
cocked into a triangular shape. This was a dramatic change which later
took on the inference of defeat.
It's
old hat is applied to something that's out of date; not new;
unfashionable. The expression is said to come from the fact that hats
go out of fashion rather quickly, long before they are worn out. Not
very good I'm afraid, but it's the only explanation I could find.
