Queer
street: To be in
queer street means to be in financial trouble. The origin here is said
to be the habit of traders putting a query (?) against the name of
customers with suspected financial problems. In 1811, however, the
saying only implied that something was wrong or improper. There was no
sense of financial element then. What it does say is:
'Wrong. Improper. Contrary to one's wish. It is queer street, a cant
phrase, to signify that it is wrong or different to our wish.'
I have also been told that the expression may come from
‘Carey
Street', a street in the legal section of London but, of course,
there's no such sense in 1811, nor is there even any mention of 'Carey
Street'.There is, however, an entry in Brewer's which says that 'to be
in Carey street' is to be bankrupt. The bankruptcy court is situated
there. It seems that 'Carey street' is more recent than 'Queer street'.
Rabbit: To rabbit on is to carry on talking, often about trivia and to
the annoyance of others. The saying comes from rhyming slang. Rabbit
and pork stew used to be a popular stew. "rabbit & pork"=talk.
Rain cats and dogs: If the rain is teeming down the it's said to be
raining cats and dogs. This seems to be an odd way of describing
weather. The expression first appeared in print in 1653. ("It shall
raine.....dogs and polecats").
There are three possible origins, one of which goes back to Norse
times.
In old Norse weather lore the cat was related to rain and the dog to
the wind. If this were the origin then it is likely that the words
would have appeared in print before 1653.
The second suggestion puts the basis in the Greek word Catadupa,
"cataract" or "waterfall".
The final idea suggests that the drainage of medieval streets was so
poor that cats and dogs frequently drowned during a heavy downpour.
Swift's "Description of a City Shower" (1710) gives a good idea of what
it was like. It's worth repeating.
"Now, from all parts the swelling kennels flow/ And bear their trophies
with them as they go/..../ Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all
drench'd in mud/ Dead cats and turnip tops, come tumbling down the
flood."
You may take your choice. The argument continues.
Rain: If someone is as right as rain, then they feel fine. Why rain?
I've not found a definitive answer. However, of the limited suggestions
that I've found, only two stand up. One, that the phrase means just
what it says and that farmers welcome rain. However, since the phrase
is first recorded only in 1894 and rain is not always welcome,
especially at harvest time, I think this unlikely - it would have
entered the language much earlier if this were the origin. The other
suggestion is that the phrase is merely alliteration and 'as right as
reason, restitution, rebellion, research, etc, et, etc' would be
equally valid. 'Rain' happened to be settled on.
To support the above, the Times Q&A column of 14 Nov 2005
offered the following:
'According to Partridge, "right as rain" is but one of several "right
as" phrases. The OED offers "right as a trivet", but trivets are no
more. Brewer suggests that rain is right because it is good for growth.
Alliteration occurs likewise in "fit as a fiddle", "nice as ninepence",
"happy as a hunter" and "pretty as a picture". W. Nicoll,
Canterbury'
Rap: It's not worth a rap is said to imply that something is of such
low value as to be almost worthless. The Rap in this expression was
used in Ireland in the 1720s. Small change was in very short supply and
the vacuum was filled by counterfeit copper halfpenny pieces. These
counterfeits were known as raps. They soon fell to something like a
quarter of their supposed value.
Rat: To smell a rat is to be suspicious of a situation. It comes from
the days when rats were common pests and carriers of disease. Dogs were
prized for their ability to smell out and destroy them. A dog which
began to sniff around might well have smelt a rat, and this idea was
transferred to a person who was suspicious of something.
Red: If someone is in the red then they are overdrawn at the bank. In
pre computer times bank statements showed a positive balance in black,
hence In the Black, and a negative one in red. This type of statement
was produced up to the 1960s, but the advent of computerised print-outs
meant that it was difficult to print red and black on the same sheet
(impossible until the development of the colour printer). As a result,
the red was replaced by "OD" for "Overdrawn", but we still said that we
were In the Red when OD appeared.
Red letter: A red letter day is a special day, one to be remembered. In
olden days some of the Saints' Days were celebrated with extra
festivities; these special days were indicated in the Church calendar
with red letters.
Red tape: A load of red tape is a way of describing something that is
over full of bureaucracy. Charles Dickens is believed to be the first
person to have used this phrase - it certainly appears in David
Copperfield, which was published in 19 episodes from 1848-50. The red
tape is the tape (in fact pink in colour) used to tie up bundles of
official papers. I suspect that the expression was known before then
and CD was the first to put it in print.
Rigmarole: What a rigmarole
describes a situation that seems excessively complex and where it is
difficult to see the wood for the trees. This 700 year old expression
began life as The Ragman Roll, a document with many pendant seals given
to King Edward I in 1291 by Scottish noblemen. Each nobleman signed a
deed of loyalty and the King affixed his seal. All the deeds were
eventually joined together to produce The Ragman Roll. The Roll is kept
in the Public Records Office in London and is 12 metres long.
Riley/Reilly: To lead the life of Riley/Reilly is to live in the lap of
pleasure and luxury. There's no generally accepted origin that I can
find, other than that it somehow relates to Irishmen. However, there is
one distinct possibility that goes back to the time of the Victorian
music hall. One of the popular songs of the time was about an Irishman
named O'Reilly who dreamed of making a fortune and then leading a life
of luxury. The song was called 'Are you the O'Reilly' in which the
audience joined in the chorus, ending up with the last line which was
'Cor blimey, O'Reilly, you are looking well'. My earliest certain
reference to the actual phrase is in a 1919 song 'My name is Kelly',
clearly based on well established usage.
