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Cliches and Other Words to the Wise
Medieval man may not have had the thrill of flinging Frisbees, but they had a worthy counterpart, the challenging sport of batfowling. A rare nocturnal sport, batfowling consisted of going into a forest or shrub-laden area and beating birds senseless with a bat.
Batfowlers sought sleeping birds for their prey, but being true sportsmen, they didn't want to kill a defenseless bird. So before whacking it with the bat, they were kind enough to wake the bird up first, by stunning it with a harsh light, rendering the bird blind and temporarily helpless. "Sensitive" batfowlers caught the birds in nets rather than using the Darryl Strawberry approach.
Sometimes, though, the birds proved to be uncooperative, selfishly sleeping in bushes where they were invisible, instead of marching forward and offering themselves as ritual sacrifices. So batfowlers engaged servants or boys, known as beaters, to literally beat adjacent bushes to rouse flocks of sleeping birds. As the stunned birds awakened and fled in panic, they would be attracted to the torch or lantern and be socked into unconsciousness by the batfowler.
Although the person today who beats around the bush might not have violence on his mind, he similarly conceals or avoids the real thing that concerns him. While he might pretend to be interested in the bush, he might be more interested in the bird, or worm, lurking inside.
Why Does All Wool and a Yard Wide Mean "Genuine"?
Fraud in the marketplace is hardly a twentieth-century invention. In 1464 England passed a law regulating fraudulent practices in the selling of woolenmaterials. Disreputable fabric salesmen still foisted off adulterated products as "pure wool" and shortchanged customers on measurements in the late nineteenth century, for this is when this phrase was coined. All wool and a yard wide originally meant nothing more than that a customer was receiving what was promised.
Why Does Back and Fill Mean "to Vacillate"?
Back and fill always sounded more like a disco step than its actual meaning, which has a long nautical tradition. In sailing, backing means to let the wind blow sails against the mast. Filling means to let the wind blow the sails toward the bow. Backing and filling means alternating having the sails "filled" with wind and then allowing the wind to escape by hauling "back" on the stays.
Yes, backing and filling impedes the movement of the ship, but sometimes this is necessary. When tacking a ship, a navigator might want to keep the boat in the same place. If the tide is running with the ship but the wind is against her, backing and filling is the usual tactic to steady the boat, even if this results in alternating movements forward and backward. Backing and filling is also a way to let the tide take control of the movement of a boat, especially when negotiating through narrow channels or rivers where banks, wharfs, or other objects stand as dangerous obstacles.
Why Do We Say an Outlaw Is Beyond the Pale?
In the twelfth century, the Norman conquerors of England decided to set their sights on neighboring Ireland. They managed to capture much of the area around Dublin and some other coastal cities. For protection from Irish attacks, the Normans (later, the English) fenced off their property with pales (from the Latin palus or "stakes."
The region around Dublin became known as "the pale," and pale became a noun signifying any territory. The expression beyond the pale was originally applied to an untamed Irishman but was clearly popularized by the Rudyard Kipling story of the same name.
