One Reddit user recently discovered a miniature world inside an old bottle while cleaning their yard. The long neck of the bottle creates the impression that you’re peering into an amazing world.
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Image credit: photograph by kidgalaxy on reddit

At times, discovering a hidden world is simply a matter of whether we bother to peer inside what seems to be an old beer bottle. Idioms and idiomatic expressions are much like this bottle. They tell us stories of all kinds. Yet, these stories often go undiscovered in classrooms, where learners are busy making lists of ‘phrases that add colour to the language’, often biting off more than they can chew.* The chances of actually remembering these phrases (let alone using them) remain slim unless learners take the time to peer into the ‘bottle’ and explore the hidden world up close. (*Origins: This saying dates back to 1800s America, when people often chewed tobacco. Sometimes the greedier people bit off too large a chunk – hence the warning not to bite off more than they could chew.)

Step 1. Warm-up: Letting the Cat out of the Bag

Play the Riddliom Challenge – ask students to guess the idiom. 

Have students discuss the meaning of the expression ‘let the cat out of the bag’, and why, out of all the animals, the cat is used in this phrase. Discuss possible origins and whether similar expressions exist in their language or culture.

Step 2 – Etymology

Provide students with the comic handout and ask them to fill in the captions. Award +1 point for creativity!

comic with captions

Download the handout

Compare the students’ captions, then play the video comic to check their answers.

Step 3 . Confessions of an Idiom

Play the video and challenge students to spot and list as many idiomatic expressions as they can.

Discuss the expressions they spotted and ask them to come up with everyday phrases or simple alternatives that could be used instead. 

Have students complete the following idiomatic expressions using the words from the table.

Download the worksheet.

Play the video and have students watch to see if they got the expressions correct.

Follow up with a group discussion to review the meanings and compare them to similar expressions in their native language.

Guessing game.

Split students into two groups/small teams and ask them to come up with the possible explanation of the origin of the following idioms. The team that gives a correct or most plausible or creative answer gets two points. The team with more points wins.

The skeleton in the closetA secret source of shame, potentially ruinous if exposed, which a person or family makes efforts to conceal.

The expression has its origin in the medical profession. Doctors in Britain were not permitted to work on dead bodies until an Act of Parliament permitting them to do so was passed in 1832. Prior to this date the only bodies they could dissect for medical purposes were those of executed criminals. Although the execution of criminals was far from rare in 18th century Britain, it was very unlikely that a doctor would come across many corpses during his working life. It was, therefore, common practice for a doctor who had the good fortune to dissect the corpse of an executed criminal to keep the skeleton for research purposes. Public opinion would not permit doctors to keep skeletons on open view in their surgeries so they had to hide them. Even if they couldn’t actually see them, most people suspected that doctors kept skeletons somewhere and the most logical place was the cupboard.

Clean slateIf you start something with a clean slate, then nothing bad from your past is taken into account.
In “the olden days” a person with a credit account in a small store was said to buy things “on the slate”. The storekeeper would keep an account of the person’s transactions written in chalk on a sheet of slate. When the account was settled, the slate was wipen clean, preparatory to starting again.
Shooting fish in a barrelAn effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success.
Before the days of refrigeration, fish were packed and stored in large barrels. The barrels were packed to the rim full of fish. Any shot that entered the barrel would hit at least one of them. Thus nothing can be easier than shooting fish in a barrel.
Calling one’s bluffForcing somebody to admit the truth.
The expression “calling your bluff” comes from poker, where you “call” a game to see someone’s actual cards.
In the lime lightAt the centre of attention.
“Limelight,” which is also known as “calcium light,” was used as stage lighting for years after being discovered by Goldsworth Gurney in the 1820s. Gurney was employed by the Surrey Institute as a lecturer in chemistry and philosophy. On the side, he did a bit of experimenting of his own. He invented an “oxy-hydrogen blowpipe,” which works by introducing a jet of oxygen and hydrogen to a flame, making it extremely hot. He found that introducing a small chunk of lime (the stone, not the fruit) to the flame resulted in a blinding white light that could be visible for miles.
To spill the beansTo give away a secret or to confess.
The term spill the beans derives from the electing of a council member in ancient Greece. Each council member would vote with either a white bean (yes) or a brown bean (no), and these would secretly be put into a jar, and no one would know which way the members voted. However, if the jar was knocked over causing the beans to spill out, the proportion of yes and no votes could be seen.
Don’t cry over spilled milkGetting upset over certain things, like spilled milk, is not going to fix it.
Why cry over spilled milk? The origin of this saying most likely sprang from fairy lore. In order to attract fairies to a house, or appease the resident sprites, laying out food and cold creamy milk was common. Whenever milk was spilled, it was considered an offering to the fairies. Because of the difficulty in feeding a family, normally wasting food was frowned upon, but the wastage of milk was always overlooked as an offering. If the person spilling the milk was reprimanded, the scolder was seen as unwilling to give this gift. This was thought to anger the fairies and bring bad luck upon the house.
Beat a dead horse To bring up an issue that has already been concluded; something that’s considered to be pointless.
This phrase may originate with horse racing, where horses are sometimes “beaten” by their riders to get them moving faster. Depending on the rules, a jockey usually has access to a riding crop (a miniature whip), and this is used to slap the horse on the thigh. The horse responds either by running faster, or not at all if it’s too tired. While there is much controversy involved with how race horses should be treated, the purpose of “beating” horses during a race is to make them go faster. On the other hand, if the horses were dead, then there wouldn’t really be much of a or point in beating them. Thus, the pointlessness of beating a dead horse would eventually go on to apply to other things.

Extension activities:

Riddlioms project: Have you students make drawings of their favourite idioms, google their etymologies and make a short video presenting their findings.

Useful resources:

Online Etymology Dictionary

Wordorigins.org

Word Detective

Other idiom related activities:

RIDDLES AND IDIOMS: RIDDLIOMS

CREATING A CHRISTMAS IDIOMS SCAVENGER HUNT

HALLOWEEN IDIOMS

6 Comments

  1. My students loved the video and even caught a couple clues I didn’t see.

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