the times | Wednesday January 26 2022 17
News
Many old-fashioned sayings are so
perplexing to the average Briton that
they are at risk of being sent to the
knacker’s yard, according to a survey.
More than 2,000 people aged 18 to 50
were given a list of quintessential
British phrases and asked if they under-
stood or used them.
The survey found that almost 80 per
cent of respondents had never used or
did not understand the phrase “casting
pearls before swine”, which indicates
that it is a waste of time to offer help to
someone who will not appreciate it.
The phrase, which comes from the
Bible, refers to Jesus telling followers
not to share his teachings with those
who will misuse them.
Despite the polarising effect of Brex-
it, 70 per cent had not heard of or used
the phrase “nail your colours to the
mast”, which means to declare one’s
beliefs openly. This stems from 17th
century naval battles when sailors low-
ered their flags as a mark of submission.
There are fears that expressions like
“cold as a witch’s tit” could become
jack blackburnTMS
[email protected] | @timesdiaryKeir turns
a blind eye
Labour’s deputy leader is open
about tensions with her boss but
Angela Rayner says she won’t let
Sir Keir Starmer look at her in
meetings. Not too much should be
read into that: shadow cabinet
meetings still take place over
video call, and Rayner keeps her
camera off as she can’t stare at a
screen. “I have a trauma-induced
cataract,” she told The Political
Party at the Duchess Theatre.
“The glare can give me
migraines.” It is unclear if Starmer
knows this but he has never once
requested she turn her camera on.
Rayner remarked: “I really can’t
imagine Keir saying, ‘I want to see
more of you, Angela’.”In yesterday’s piece on MPs whose
surnames suit their constituencies,
we made a glaring omission. Gerald
Gouriet, a reader, writes: “Might I
suggest that Braintree is aptly
represented by James Cleverly?”injured party
Boris Johnson is not the only
prime minister to have had
trouble with a Downing Street
birthday party. During the Libya
crisis, David Cameron returned
from making a statement of great
import only to find that he’d been
locked out of No 10. “My son had
blown the candles out on his
birthday cake, the fire alarm went
off and I was stuck outside the
building because the door went
into lockdown,” he said. A
lockdown? Rare that one of
those should curtail a
Downing Street party.As the Omicron variant
forced people to isolate
over Christmas, few
thought about how that
was affecting prisons.
They, like any other
sector, were struck
by staff absences.It meant that the prison chaplain
and former inmate Jonathan
Aitken’s Christmas Day sermon at
Pentonville had a novel message.
He told inmates: “My advice to you
is to try and escape today because,
if you succeed, you’ll only have me
coming after you.”heart of the matter
Audiobooks are a new way of
passing the time in hospital, but be
careful what you listen to. The
comedian Jenny Eclair recently
went in for an operation and chose
a highbrow novel. “It was a good
book, long-listed for the 2021
Booker Prize,” she says in
Waitrose’s Weekend magazine.
During her recovery, her nurse
told Eclair that her vital signs were
causing some concern. The
comedian insisted that it wasn’t a
medical issue but a coincidence.
“The book did contain some
saucy passages,” she says. “These
seemed to coincide with every
time the nurse came in to take my
blood pressure.”working-class zero
Working from home is one thing,
but working from other people’s
homes has rarely been popular. In
Best of British magazine, Jackie
Newark recalls her three weeks as
secretary for the novelist Barbara
Cartland, whose house was a less
than welcoming environment.
Before being repeatedly attacked
by Cartland’s pekinese dogs,
Newark was told off for arriving at
the front door and was sternly
told to use the “tradesmen’s
entrance”. Cartland’s keen
enforcement of class divisions
was perhaps her fightback
against falling standards.
Previously, in the 1960s, a
radio interviewer asked the
novelist whether class
barriers had broken
down. “Of course they
have,” said Cartland,
“or I wouldn’t be
sitting here talking to
the likes of you.”Britons are no longer as keen as mustard on old sayings
Laurence Sleator obsolete or be misconstrued by a more
sensitive younger generation. More
than 70 per cent of those surveyed had
not heard of or used the saying, which is
a reference to the mythical cold blood
and skin of a witch and used when
somebody is very cold.
Ellie Glason from the research
agency Perspectus Global, which com-
missioned the poll, said: “It’s interesting
to see from our research, how language
evolves and changes over the years. It
would seem that, many of the phrases
which were once commonplace in
Britain, are seldom used nowadays.”
In the age of social media and misin-
formation, the phrase “know your
onions” — to be very knowledgeable
about a subject — is at risk of becoming
obsolete, with 68 per cent of respon-
dents having never heard of or used it.
It is believed the phrase began as refer-
ence to the lexicographer Charles
Talbut Onions, who was an editor of the
Oxford Dictionary of English.
The classic proverb “a stitch in time
saves nine” was unfamiliar to 60 per
cent of respondents. It is used to suggest
that taking the time and effort to do
something well initially will save fur-
ther effort later. It is thought to have
originated from sewing enthusiasts
urging people to repair holes in cloth-
ing as soon as possible to avoid applying
nine stitches when the issue gets worse.
With the continuing scrutiny of
alleged Downing Street parties, the
government might be relieved that the
phrase “couldn’t organise a piss up in a
brewery” is dying out, with 50 per cent
of respondents unaware of the saying.
The phrase is used to criticise someone
for being particularly disorganised.
Despite reports of people telling the
police about their neighbours’ alleged
lockdown breaches, 56 per cent of thosesurveyed had never heard of or used
the phrase “curtain twitcher”.
A beloved phrase for fans of the
Channel 4 comedy Peep Show, “tickety-
boo”, was unfamiliar to almost 60 per
cent of respondents. This is used to sig-
nal that everything is fine and correct.
In a possible sign of changing atti-
tudes to mental health, the phrase
“Mad as a Hatter”, referring to the char-
acter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonder-
land, was unfamiliar to half of
respondents.
There is, however, some hope for
such expressions, as 73 per cent of those
surveyed believed that it was a shame
when phrases died out.Most endangered
Pearls before swine..........................78%
(never use the phrase)
Nail your colours to the mast.....71%
Colder than a witch’s tit..................71%
Pip pip.......................................................70%
Know your onions.............................68%
A nod is as good as a wink..........66%
A stitch in time saves nine...........64%
Ready for the knacker’s yard.....62%
I’ve dropped a clanger...................60%
A fly in the ointment........................59%