By Herbert Vego
WHO has not heard or read that idiomatic expression?
We often stumble upon it on Facebook whenever somebody pledges his love to a spouse, a lover, a parent, or anyone else.
“I love you to the moon and back” is much easier to remember than saying, “I love you 768,800 kilometers long,” which is the round-trip distance between the moon and the earth.
The idiom is relatively new. But having caught fire, it would infect the next generation.
An idiom is a group of words in current usage having a meaning that is not deducible from those of the individual words. Using them is an important technique in transmitting “visual” thoughts to an audience.
“To rain cats and dogs” is now a common substitute for “to rain very heavily”; just as “over the moon” which means “extremely happy”.
Some idioms should be used sparingly and only when the context of the sentence would allude to the real meaning. You don’t say “I am head over heels in love with you” unless you are talking to someone you wish to marry or partner with.
Another feature that identifies an idiom is its fixed meaning, which means that people cannot just decide to make up their own. Thus, the idiom “pull your socks up” means “improve the way you are behaving”.
Or it may have a literal meaning when so intended.
Many idioms originated as quotations from well-known writers like Shakespeare. For example, “at one fell swoop” comes from his play Macbeth and “cold comfort” from King John.
Idioms may have been altered from an original word. The “catfish” used to refer only to fish with whisker-like barbels around the mouth. But now it may refer to a person who sets up a fake personal profile on the internet.
Some idioms are typically used in one version of English rather than another. For example, the British idiom “a drop in the ocean” (a very small part of something big) becomes “a drop in the bucket” in American English. However, globalization through film, television and the Internet has resulted in less distinction between idioms of different varieties of English.
The English language is made up of over 1.5 million words which can have a variety of different meanings. When one says, “The farmer plowed the fields,” it is literal.
“The ship plowed the waves” is an idiom which understandably refers to an ocean liner’s tough navigation along a hostile ocean.
When somebody adds insult to injury, he makes a bad situation worse.
“An axe to grind” is a dispute with someone.
A “blessing in disguise” is a perceived misfortune unexpectedly turning into a fortune.
To go back to square one is to start all over again.
When somebody “beats around the bush,” he avoids speaking directly about something.
To “come hell or high water” is to face a risky or difficult situation.
A “devil’s advocate “refers to someone who takes a position for the sake of argument without believing in that particular side of the argument.
A “flash in the pan” is something that looks promising in the beginning but fails in the end. This idiom could describe the “war on drugs” by the previous administration.
We opinion writers try to avoid being charged with libel by ending an item with “Your guess is as good as mine.” It challenges the readers to form a thought or opinion that the writer desires.
By the way, why do some netizens oppose House Bill 6398 aimed at creating the P275 billion Maharlika sovereign wealth fund to be sourced from employees’ contributions to GSIS and SSS? Is it because they would rather have somebody pay P203-billion in overdue estate taxes?
Your guess is as good as mine.
-oOo-
‘LAPID FIRE’ COMING BACK
THE murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid (Percival Mabasa in real life) is no deterrent to the return of “Lapid Fire” to radio station DYBL, simulcast on video via YouTube and Facebook five nights a week.
By insistent public demand, his younger brother Roy Mabasa is taking over the talk show starting either today or tomorrow. I am sure because we chatted about it.
“May inaayos lang pong important details before we proceed,” he said.
I saw the video-taped teaser of the come-backing show, where he greeted, “Magandang gabi, Rodrigo Duterte.”
Avid listeners of Percy will remember how he would end each episode with a “magandang gabi” to whomever he had denounced.
In a number of TV guestings, however, Roy humbled himself, “Hindi ko kaya ‘yong ginawa ni Percy.”
It would interest us Ilonggos to know that Roy, who had been an ace reporter of the Manila Bulletin until he quit in November 2021, used to visit Iloilo City to see his best friend, our late fellow columnist Sammy Julian.
