Clichés

Over 1500 Phrases
Explored and Explained

By Betty Kirkpatrick
St. Martin's Press, $19.95

ISBN 0312154941

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Review by Katherine Wyrick

Eureka! Everything you've always wanted to know about clichés but were afraid to ask can now be found in the daddy of all reference books, "Clichés: Over 1500 Phrases Explored and Explained." I've been looking for a book like this my whole life, and at long last I've found it -- better late than never.

Actions don't always speak louder than words, and this book proves it. Clichés constitute a powerful facet of our language, and a more ubiquitous one that you might at first think. Some try to avoid clichés like the plague, not realizing all the while that they routinely employ them.

The $64,000 question is, however, "What is a cliché?" Answering this might well be opening up a can of worms, but Betty Kirkpatrick really knows her onions and has left no stone unturned in her research. Has the author bitten off more than she can chew? Perhaps. But I assure you that you'll understand the origin of hundreds of clichés before you can say Jack Robinson. She's dotted her i's and crossed her t's, this one has. Kirkpatrick's explanations are short and sweet, sometimes delving into the dim and distant past in a search for meaning. Who knew that there were so many various and sundry categories of clichés? It leaves one wondering whether our entire vernacular isn't just one large group of tired phrases.

What, exactly, were the kids on the playground saying when they taunted "Little pitchers have big ears?" What did my fiery seventh grade Irish math teacher really mean when he shouted in a thick brogue, "You children are going to fall by the wayside if you don't do your homework!"? What was my father trying to tell me all those years as he ended each phone conversation with "Keep your nose to the grindstone?" Boy did I find out. But I discovered more . . . lots more.

Our personal favorites:

"bald as a coot"
"a damp squid"

"no can do"

• "lick and a promise" (". . . a hackneyed phrase meaning a superficial wash or clean, as The boys would never think of washing their necks. They just give their faces a lick and a promise. In origin it may refer to a cat quickly licking itself clean.")

• "no names, no pack drill" (" . . . a catchphrase cliche meaning that one is unwilling to give a name to anyone, such as someone who is guilty of something, as It wasn't Jim who stole the money. I know who it was, but no names, no pack drill. The expression is military in origin, probably dating from the late nineteenth century . . .")

• "beer and skittles" (We thought it was Saturday night dinner, but it is actually "an idiom cliché meaning a life of ease and enjoyment. . . . He thinks that the life of a student is all beer and skittles. . . . The game of skittles is associated with beer, since it is often played in pubs.")

"for all intensive purposes"
"various asundry"
"one fail swoop"
"make ends meat"

"Not my aisle" (A hackneyed phrase meaning not my area of expertise. Often spoken with disdain.)

©1997, ProMotion, inc.

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