Oar:
If someone puts an oar in during a discussion or argument then they are
interfering. The words are part of a longer phrase which is never used
these days; it should be "to put an oar in someone else's boat". The
expression is recorded in 1542 in an elaborate, but never-the-less
recognisable form in a translation of a work by Erasmus. "Whatsoever
came in his foolish brain/ Out it should were it never so vain/ In eche
man's bote would he have an oar/ But no word of good purpose, lesse or
more."
Offing: In the offing is a means of saying that something is imminent.
It is a nautical term used to indicate that a ship out at sea is
actually visible from the shore i.e. off shore, in the Offing, not far
from port and due to arrive in the near future.
Ointment: A fly in the ointment is something that gets in the way; an
encumbrance; a hindrance to the outcome. There are many possible ways
of describing this type of difficulty but why fly and why ointment? The
answer almost certainly lies in the Bible. The book of Ecclesiastes
(10.i) includes "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to
send forth a stinking savour...."
OK: If something is OK then it is acceptable. There have been numerous
suggestions as to the origin of this one. Some believe it came from the
abbreviation of Orrin Kendall biscuits, which American soldiers ate
during the civil war. Others say OK is short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian
port that American sailors praised for its rum. Another legend suggests
the word comes from Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was
said to have signed treaties with his initials. Others say that it
stands for 'All Correct.', but then why not 'AC'? Yet others suggest
the French "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from
the ravages of the open sea.
What is known is that OK first appeared in print in the spring of 1839
in the Boston Morning Post. By that stage it must have been a well
established phrase and was further popularised in the election campaign
of 1840 when Martin Van Buren, a native of Kinderhook, NY, popularly
referred to as "Old Kinderhook" - OK for short - stood for re-election.
'OK' was widely used and abused by both sides.
There are words like OK in many other languages. In the West African
language of Wolof, "waw kay" means "yes." In Choctaw, "okeh" means
"indeed", or "may it be so". Of course, there's also the Scottish "Auch
Aye"!
The truth is that no one knows the origin. The US civil war biscuits
are ruled out because they came into being 25 years or so after the
phrase. It probably comes from several sources.
Incidentally, the earliest example of the use of the letters 'OK' can
be seen at the Science Museum in South Kensington (London) where they
can be found as an impression on early scientific instruments to
indicate that they were calibrated at the Royal Observatory at Kew.
Posted on the SHU Phrase message board on 14 Nov 2005 was the
following, seemingly giving documentary proof to the All Correct/Old
Kinderhook origin:
"OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to
many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate
for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a
joke of sorts.
OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before
that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston
newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in
parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the
humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for All Correct,
the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally
spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations
owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for
re-election. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was
nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently
suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referred
to it.
On the receipt of a pin with the slogan, O.K. had this comment:
"frightful letters... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van
Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of
the late election, All Correct‚.... Those who wear them should bear in
mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions... to make all
things O.K."
Onions: To know your onions means to know what you're talking about; to
be an expert in a particular field. I can't find a derivation, but it's
not hard to imagine that this comes from the hobby of vegetable growing
where a particularly successful gardener, who produces outstanding
produce, including onions, would have this said about him.
However, in June 2003, Michael Quinion offered the following on his
World Wide Words web site
"The crucial fact is that the expression isn't British but American,
first recorded in the magazine Harper's Bazaar in March 1922. It was
one of a set of such phrases, all with the sense of knowing one's
stuff, or being highly knowledgeable in a particular field, that
circulated in the 1920s. Others were "to know one's oats", "to know
one's oil", "to know one's apples", "to know one's eggs", and even "to
know one's sweet potatoes" (which appeared in a cartoon by T A Dorgan
in 1928). You may notice certain similarities between the substances
mentioned, most being foods and most having names that start with a
vowel."
Ox: My giddy ox is an expression of mild surprise at a situation that
seems stupid or outlandish, The saying is now somewhat outdated but it
is based on the saying "to play the giddy ox" which, in its day, meant
to behave in an irresponsible or over hilarious manner. This saying in
turn came from a time when an ox was regarded as an even more stupid
animal than now. Such use is seen in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of
Windsor (V,v)
