T:
If something "fits to a T" then it's perfect for its purpose. The
allusion here is said to be with a T square. This piece of apparatus is
so accurate that a precise right angle fits it perfectly.
However neat this suggestion is, there is another possible origin,
based on the fact that the saying was in use in the 17th century,
before the T square was invented. This one suggests that the T stands
for "Tittle", a minute and precisely positioned pen stroke or printer's
mark, such as a dot over an 'i'. A tiny brush stroke was all that
distinguished the Hebrew letter "dalet" from "resh". "Tittle" was the
word chosen by Wycliffe to translate references to this tiny difference
in his version of the New Testament. Thus the mark was perfectly suited
to its task.
Tab: To run (up) a tab relates to unsecured credit. Publicans would
often give credit to regular customers and the drinks would be marked
up 'on the slate' - literally a slate as in a board for writing in
chalk - so that when paid, the customer had 'a clean slate' again.
'Tablet' is another word for a writing slate - in other words 'a tab' -
so unsecured credit is on the tab or on the slate or (thirdly) 'on
tick' where loans would need to be paid back each week to the tally-man
who kept 'a tally' of the money owed. Tally-men would often record
payments on small sticks on which they would tick-off payments made.
the customer and the lender would both have sticks and they could be
compared to make sure that they 'tallied' with each other. Thanks to
'Lewis' on the SHU Phrase Forum for this. For an alternative
explanation for 'on tick', see below.
Tables: To turn the tables on someone is to get your own back on them.
The original table was either a backgammon board - called a table in
16th and 17th England or a chess board. In either instance it was
possible for a player, in certain special circumstance to turn the
table and put himself at an advantage.
Tacks: To get down to brass tacks is to get on with things in a
positive manner; to get to the heart of things. There are several
possible origins for this saying, the simplest being that it is merely
rhyming slang; brass tacks = facts.
More romantically it is possible that the origin is from the old time
drapers' shops. These sold cloth off the roll and by the yard. A yard
was actually marked out on the counter with brass tacks. When the deal
was concluded and the purchase about to be cut the roll was laid
against the marks i.e. down to the brass tacks.
A further suggestion is that the tacks were those used in upholstery.
Any renewal of the fabric meant that the piece of furniture had to
stripped drown to the brass tacks.
Tar: To spoil a ship for a ha'porth of tar is to produce a less than
perfect result to a job when a minimal amount of extra effort would
have resulted in a much better finish. The origin here is clearly
nautical; old wooden ships had their seams sealed with tar and they
would leak unnecessarily if too little were applied. The comparison is
clear.
In 1811 the expression was: "Don't lose a sheep for a halfpenny worth
of tar". Tar was used to mark sheep.
Incidentally, the colloquial name for a sailor Jack Tar has the same
basis as far as tar is concerned. "Jack" is a name commonly used for
men in general such as in "Jack of all trades" or "every man Jack of
them". The origin of Jack goes back to French where the name for a
peasant is Jacques Bonhomme in turn from Jacque a leather jerkin worn
by peasants. The diminutive "jacket" lives on in English today.
Tears: If someone is accused of weeping crocodile tears then they are
reckoned to be showing hypocritical, rather than genuine, sorrow. They
saying goes back to the times of ancient Greece and Rome and is based
on the fact that a crocodile has a small duct in the corner of each
eye. This duct automatically releases "tears" when the animal opens its
jaws wide. It is not too fanciful to imagine that the beast is crying
as it devours its victims. Pliny and Seneca both give fanciful accounts
of crocodile tears.
Teeth: To escape by the skin of your teeth means to have a very narrow
escape. The phrase comes from the Bible in Job,xix,20 and reads: My
bone cleaveth to my skin, and to my flesh, I am escaped with the skin
of my teeth. Since there is no skin on the teeth, then the narrowness
of the escape is obvious.
Tell off: see Tick
Tenterhooks: To be on tenterhooks is to be tense or under strain. The
saying is based on the use, in olden days, of hooked plant seed heads,
like large burrs, inserted into a wooden frame on which freshly woven
cloth was stretched to stop it shrinking. The frame was called a
Tenter, from Latin tendere, "to stretch". Later the hooks were replaced
by metal ones; however the cloth was still said to be on tenterhooks.
A Tenter was also an instrument of torture but, since it doesn't seem
to have had any hooks, it probably isn't the source of the saying.
Thick: As thick as thieves is a saying used to mean that people are in
very close collusion. It is based on a French saying "like thieves at a
fair", which is an easily understood way of implying collusion. The
adapted English form was first used by the author Thomas Hook in "The
Parson's Daughter" (1833).
Third. If you're given the third degree, then you're severely tested.
Why 'third'? What about the first two? The expression relates to a
Freemasonry ceremony of raising a person to the status of a Master
Mason. The First Degree is an Entered Apprentice, the Second Degree a
Fellow Craft. The Third Degree (Ceremony) is a more demanding
undertaking than the former two. The expression spread to many other
walks of life.
Thread: When you thread your way through a crowd then you are using not
only a very old saying, but a very old way of finding your way out of a
maze. In the 1390s the word Clew or Clue meant a "ball of yarn or
thread". Two centuries later clues began to be used to guide people
"threading" their way out of mazes; hence the modern use of these two
words.
Thumb.
A rule of thumb is used to express a way of giving a rough estimate for
the size and/or complexity of something - 'as a rule of thumb you can
say that hares are quicker than rabbits'. Folk lore says that this
comes from the alleged English ruling that a man could beat his wife
with a stick, as long as the stick was no thicker that a thumb. There's
no real evidence to support this and it's most likely that the phrase
merely describes the thumb size as a useful, but not very accurate, way
of estimating things.
Thunder: If someone steals your thunder then they take credit that
properly belongs to you. The expression was coined by the playwright
and critic John Dennis (1657-1734). He discovered that the sound of
thunder could be mimicked by rattling a sheet of tin. This he used for
dramatic effect in one of his own plays. The play itself was not well
received but the idea of the tin was widely copied. Dennis was very
annoyed and is alleged to have said: "See how the rascals use me! They
will not let my play run, yet they steal my thunder!"
