Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 137. The noun phrase today is hot
potato. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says something is a
hot potato or someone is a hot potato, it is usually a difficult issue that
people try to avoid talking about usually because there is a lot of
controversy around it. Okay. Let's continue.
Hot potato is a noun phrase derived directly from an older idiom which is
still used today. The idiom is to drop someone like a hot
potato, which basically means to leave or
abandon someone quickly especially because he or she is trouble or too
unpleasant. Okay. Good. Let's continue here. The reasoning behind hot potato is that a
cooked potato is very hot to the touch. So if you touch it with your hands it's very
hot. It almost burns your hand and potatoes remain hot longer than other food
because of their water content. Because of the water that's in it and thick skin. So the
combination of thick skin and the water content lets the potatoes stay hot a lot
longer. The idea is that if one had a hot potato in their hands he or she does not
want to hold on to it too long and would want to pass it on to another person as
quickly as possible. Here you take it. No you take it. No you'll take it. Kind
of like that idea. All right. This is also directly connected to a children's a
game called "hot potato" that involves passing an object usually a beanbag. Like
a small beanbag of course on as quickly as possible to another player while the
music is playing. If a child is caught holding the object
when the music stops, he is out. It's very similar to another game that
we've often played like musical chairs. Where everybody walks around these
chairs and when the music stops everybody sits down and usually they
always took one chair away so one person will end up not being able to sit down
that person is out. So it's a very similar idea to that. Okay. Let's continue here.
And we got three examples. Okay. Example number one. If a politician is in a swing
state. You know , sometimes it can go for one party, sometimes he could go for the
other party. That's what we mean by a swing state. He often tries to avoid
controversial topics such as abortion gun control etc. like a hot potato
because no matter what he says, he's going to probably make somebody angry,
because those are some more controversial topics. Now if he was in a
state where obviously one party you know easy the for against that he could
speak that way you know, more freely or more easily because he knows the
majority of people would probably still vote for him. But if he wants to try you
know, to get some people like independents or in-between, he might be careful. He
wants to you know, he treats those topics like a hot potato. He tries not to to
touch them or get involved in them at all. All right. Number two here. We
especially use like the idiom his new girlfriend started acting controlling
and demanding , so he dropped her like a hot potato . Like oh no she's too much
trouble. Goodbye. Or number three here. That
athlete used to be a big supporter or maybe even a sponsor for that company
but after the scandal broke they dropped him like a hot potato or he became a hot
potato and they had to get rid of him. Yeah. Because suddenly he became
controversial. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it, I hope it was clear. I
hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.