Kicking the Bucket at the Drop of a Hat: The Meaning and Origins of Popular Expressions

by Caroline Taggart

Don’t be down in the dumps if you can’t cut the mustard when asked the definition of certain phrases—this down-to-earth guide is just the ticket. This collection contains some fascinating and remarkable stories about our best-loved and most colorful phrases and shows the huge range of sources from which they originate. From advertising to the Ancient Greeks, from the military to meteorology, Kicking the Bucket at the Drop of a Hat takes us on a wonderful journey through our language’s history. With more phrases than you can shake a stick at, this collection will bring home the bacon for any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a love of language.

224 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

I was an editor for 30 years before Michael O’Mara Books asked me to write what became I Used to Know That. I think its success took everyone by surprise – it certainly did me – but it led to my writing a lot of other books and finally, after about three years, feeling able to tell people I was an author. It's a nice feeling.

Until recently the book I was most proud of was The Book of London Place Names (Ebury), partly because I am passionate about London and partly because, having written ten or so books before that, I finally felt I was getting the hang of it.

Now I have to confess I’m really excited by my first venture into continuous narrative. For A Slice of Britain: around the country by cake (AA) I travelled the country investigating, writing about and eating cake. From Cornish Saffron Cake to Aberdeen Butteries, I interviewed about 25 people who are baking cakes, biscuits and buns that are unique to their region, part of their heritage – and pretty darned delicious. The Sunday Times reviewed it and described me as ‘engaging, greedy and droll’, which pleased me enormously.

Reviews

[BookWithAView · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in parts, particularly since I studied English Language at college.
However, go slowly. There’s a lot to take in and my eyes did droop if I read in big chunks.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of short pieces tracing the origins of common phrases and expressions. We dipped into the book for a few nibbles between longer read-aloud sessions. A few aha moments, but as with a lot of books about word origins there many entries that never got closer than a guess. Taggart writes with a nice light style, though, and on the whole the book was a fun read.

One more to add to my growing collection of "Have I really been saying that wrong for sixty years and nobody corrected me?" words. Are you on tenderhooks waiting to find out what the word is? Well, you are wrong. The word is "tenterhooks". A tenter was (maybe still is) a piece of equipment used in weaving and it had hooks on it that held the strands of fabric under tension.

This was book # 29 on our 2017 Read-alouds List.