Thursday, December 1, 2016

Big idioms

Big idioms

The word big appears in many idioms. Here are a few.

Back in the 1600s, Louis XIII went bald. Bummer for him, as folks of the time believed a hirsute man was a powerful man. His answer to his problem was to wear a wig. Soon, wigs became tres cool in court. They grew and grew in importance & sheer mass. In time, the most glorious wigs required internal scaffolding (I don’t make these things up). Of course, only the wealthiest & most powerful could afford the most absurdly tall wigs. By the time the 1700s came along, the high & mighty became known as big wigs or bigwigs.

The big cheese didn’t get big until it crossed the pond in 1910. Previous to that (in merry old England), the word cheese was used to mean the best or first rate, (though in recent times cheese & cheesy have come to mean the opposite) But the idiom meant first rate when it arrived in the USA. By the 1920s, the big cheese shifted to mean the boss or the important person.

On a related note, a person who thinks highly of him/herself is said to have a big head. This idiom meaning conceited appeared in 1850.

The idiom big band came about in 1926 and doesn’t refer to the size of the band as much as the sort of music the band in question plays. Typically, a big band consists of one to two dozen instrumentalists (& sometimes a vocalist or two) playing swing music of the 1930s and 1940s.

Since the 1800s, important issues have been big deals & we’ve had big fish in a small pond. People who talk a lot have been big mouths since 1889, and big business is a term we’ve been using since 1905. Since 1909 we’ve called New York the Big Apple, though it took until 1970 for New Orleans to become the Big Easy. People have been able to mess up big time or make the big time since 1910, a prison or jail has been the big house since 1915, & we’ve had big shots since 1929. The idiom Big Brother was born in 1949, big bang came about in 1950, & big ticket showed up in 1956.

It’s a big world out there, folks! Here’s hoping you’ve got something to say about all this bigness. If so, please do so in the comments section.


Big thanks to this week’s sources: phrase finder, etymonline.com, the OED, & wordnik.com.


5 comments:

  1. I did not know where "bigwig" came from, but that makes sense. I once wore a big wig in a play and it was a lot of work. They must have had neck aches all the time.

    Do we know why New Orleans became the Big Easy or NYC became the Big Apple? Funny descriptions of cities.

    You have covered the topic bigly, Mr. Monger. :-)

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    1. Howdy Anne - It appears the Big Easy wasn't the Big Easy until 1970 when James Conaway wrote a novel titled *The Big Easy*. As to the Big Apple. There are enough conflicting theories I decided not to wade into them. Thanks - once more - for coming by.

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  2. Fascinating! I love the whole bigwig thing. Thank God men don't relate hair to power any more. Or do we? Maybe only if it's big and orange.

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    1. Hey Christine - an intriguing theory you've suggested here. Thanks for coming by.

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