whether it's when pigs fly or it's
raining cats and dogs idioms have always
fascinated me because they are literally
defined as being a phrase that has
nothing to do with its component like
when you say you're giving someone the
cold shoulder your shoulder doesn't
suddenly change temperatures so where do
it eum's get their meaning hello welcome
to nerdyandquirky here's some cool
history on three idiom origin learning
was turning a blind eye meaning ignoring
something it all started off with this
British Admiral Horatio Nelson now
Nelson was basically a rocker you know
not call him in the middle of Trafalgar
Square he's on top of it now something
to know about Nelson is that in 1798
during the Battle of the Nile he got
injured he made this huge fuss about it
saying I am killed remember me to my
wife and the ship's doctor was like not
your good just blind in one eye now fast
forward to 1801 during the First Battle
of Copenhagen Admiral Nelson and Parker
were leading the attack against the
Danish forces and they could only
communicate through the flag remember
that flag nothing was on the front line
leading the charge with Parker further
behind now Parker was notably more
cautious and signaled Nelson to
disengage and in his turn Nelson held
the looking glass up to his blind eye
and said I really do not see the signal
and succeeded to attack which is such an
awesome bad move and if you think so to
smash that like button or just ignore me
like Nelson ignored Parker but to be
fair to Parker his vision of the battle
had been obscured by gun smoke he said
he issued the signal for Nelson's sake
if he is in the condition to continue
the action he will disregard it if he is
not it will be an excuse for his retreat
and no blame can be imputed to him but
either way ignoring the order was a
right move since the British went on to
win the battle and coined a new idiom in
the process now instead of ignoring
something what about we ignore someone
when you give someone the cold shoulder
you may have heard the popular story
that back in the day upon receiving
again who gave them a hot meal but if
that guest was uninvited or they had
overstayed their welcome you couldn't
just tell them to leave because that's
rude and in this hypothetical situation
you're British so everything needs to be
past of a grand new so instead of
offering the guest
roast you offer them a cold shoulder of
mutton if a cheap cut of meat chilled to
imperfection the perfect way to say
please leave and it's a good story
totally relatable for every party host
who doesn't know how to get people to
get out but there's another possibility
that it was just sort of made up because
the first foolish Hornig uses of the
term came from Sir Walter Scott novels
now this dude was a trendsetter in
literature he point phrases like going
berserk the apple of my eye and come in
cheap and he never explained where he
pulled the frames from so if you really
want to know the origin of the idiom
you're going to need to figure out
resurrection first next we talk biting
bullets and let me tell you most sources
have it wrong but before that it's false
is that this video is sponsored by a
maze an amazing YouTube channel and
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Alice a passive communicator would go I
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it's up to me here's the plan and just
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amazed Oh RG okay back to the video by
simple rate news doing something you've
been avoiding the popular story is that
during the American Civil War while
patients were undergoing surgery or
amputation they had to bite on something
to distract from the pain and stop
themselves from biting their tongue off
basically you either die of injury or
bite the bullet and take the surgery
however that story doesn't quite add up
because by the American Civil War basic
anesthetics were already in place so
patients could just be unconscious
instead of biting anything however if
you rewind the cloth to about a century
earlier you'd find in the 1796 edition
of Frank roses a classical dictionary of
the vulgar tongue a definition for
nightingale
it's a soldier who as a term is things
at the Halbert it is a point of Honor in
some regiments among the blended years
never to cry out or become nightingales
whilst under the discipline of the pack
of nine-tails to avoid which they cheat
a bullet so instead of distracting from
the pain during surgery in start
inviting bullets to stay silent during
punishment which honestly is another
situation I wouldn't mind avoiding so
that was just some cool history on idiom
origins now what about you guys
what idiom are you curious to learn more
about I might use it in a future episode
if you want to keep on learning check
out this video I did on eleven
interesting word origins or this video
about why we think gingers don't have
souls if you like ghoulish we consider
hitting like share and subscribe but
either way have a lovely day