Humble Pie and Cold Turkey: English Expressions and Their Origins

by Caroline Taggart

Caroline Taggart explores the often surprising origin and use of individual words, such as 'love' to mean 'no score' in tennis, as well as many of the short phrases that add richness to our language. From terms whose roots lie in ancient civilizations to those taken from biblical, military or domestic settings, she explains why we might be galvanized into action, curry favour or seek the limelight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Language

192 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2023

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

[Kimberly Desaulniers]

Interesting read about common expressions. I picked it up on and off over several months, it wasn’t a read straight through book for me.

[Cheryl]

Ever wonder where a phrase or a certain word came from? This book gives you a rather good collection of such. Rather interesting to see how phrases evolve overtime to mean something, quite possibly, totally different than first intended. Examples through the age just are given. It was a fun read

[Gen Doutwaite]

I though the conversational style of writing was really engaging that the format using bold and italic words helped me understand the context and content better.

I would recommend. Only reason it isn't 5 stars is because at times I found it hard to digest. There is a lot of history shpeals in it which was fine but at times got to much for me in one sitting.

[Inge]

This’ll be a great book to browse through occasionally, or whenever someone uses an expression you haven’t heard of (the index will be very helpful!). It reads accessibly too, but even though the author does try, this won’t be a book you casually sit down to read.

[Wendy Lovatt]

Somewhat interesting but not sure how accurate the content is. I do like to know how some words and phrases have come to be, why we say what we say.
The author misquotes Jesus’ words in a Bible verse (by omission, -the second half of a verse from Matthew 5:16, so the meaning she put forward is quite wrong and misleading (pg 24-25 of her book).
If that example is clearly wrong, what of the other content?

[Jeff Thompson]

A mildly entertaining look at the derivation of common English phrases and expressions such as those in the title. Mostly pretty obvious stuff, but readers might find a couple of "Oh really?" moments. Probably more interesting if you are learning English as a second language. More akin to a series of magazine columns than an etymological study.

[Kaitlin]

Not quite a book that you can pick up and read, but this book is filled to the brim with interesting linguistic titbits - and it would suit a dinner party which veers into the idiosyncrasies of the English language, where it could be brought out with aplomb and used to while away a companionable few hours.

[Jdetrick]

This is an interesting look at where certain words and phrases come from, but I'm finding that books like this that throw a bunch of mostly unrelated subjects at you can be hard for me to read because it's difficult for me to get invested. The author does an admirable job of trying to put some structure and a throughline on these vignettes, but there is no real way to make a story out of this.

[Eve Markley]

Delightful! I like the fact that this book has an index in the back so you can look up particular phrases. It was an interesting bonus for me that the book was written in Britain. Many of the expressions explained in the book are alien to me or different from the expressions used in the USA.

I’ll be keeping this one around for reference.

[janet wakefield]

This is a good book on the explanation of expressions.
It is always nice to read a book that helps to refresh your memory on how and why we use the phrases we use when speaking or writing.
Examples:
Acid Test, Albatross Around Your Neck, Berserk, Corny, Olive Branch, etc.

[Lisa Montgomery]

I certain do not consider myself a linguist, but I do love these little tidbits about phrases we all know and love. This edition takes a look at the variety of words and phrases we use every day, but had not the least idea of their origin. I read a few each day.

[Georgia]

This felt like a bathroom book.

2/10

[annalee ✨]

Really interesting—would make a cute coffee table book. It didn’t go as in-depth as I would have liked, but I still enjoyed it.

[P]

It was an entertaining read. I had no idea that a lot of commonly used expressions come from the Bible.

[Cara Meredith]

Little hard to gulp down when it altogether lacks a plot.

[Chris]

Egh

[Tina]

🥱

I’ll stick to Robwords on YouTube.

[Sophie Crane]

What an education! A fascinating journey through the origins of sayings and expressions that casts a whole new light on the things we say today and where they originate from.

[Annamarie Ogunmola]

This was interesting, but I feel like I didn't really get an explanation for at least a third of the phrase mentioned.

[Pia]

I really wanted to love this but it read like when someone corners you at a party and they’re a bit tipsy and they talk at you for 45 minutes.

[Campbell]

A lot of the word origins were fairly obvious, and those that weren't were quite boring. Possibly would've been more interesting spread out over multiple weeks, but I only have a few days before I need to return it to the library.

[Alex Visser]

Leuk, grappig, leerzaam. Niet helemaal geschikt om in een lange zit te lezen.