WRITTEN TRANSCRIPTION OF THE PODCAST:

3 Funny English Idioms and Their Origins

Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to get better in their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today, I am coming to you with a shorter but nice episode where we’re going to uncover the mysteries behind some expressions and idioms in English and explore their origins. I know that many of you enjoy learning new idioms and expressions so I figured – why not include it in the podcast as well?

Get ready for a linguistic journey filled with surprises…

Number one: Jumping on the bandwagon

Have you ever heard this expression? I will give you an example in a sentence:

After the success of the new diet trend, many people started jumping on the bandwagon, hoping to achieve similar results.

Do you know what it means? It is used to describe someone who adopts a popular trend or belief, often without much thought, usually also because it is very popular at the moment.

But where does it come from? Well, back in the 19th century, politicians would literally jump on a bandwagon to join a parade or campaign rally. These bandwagons were decorated with banners and followed by music to attract attention, and jumping on one was a way for politicians to show their support and get more votes.

Number two: Going Cold Turkey

This one is very strange, isn’t it? Have you ever used this one? I will show you, again, how we can use this one in a sentence: 

After years of smoking, John decided to quit cold turkey. That is why he threw away all of his cigarettes.

So what does it mean? …. it means quitting something without preparation and usually very suddenly. But why do English speakers say that? It actually comes from the world of drug addiction recovery. When people stopped using drugs and wanted to recover suddenly, one of the symptoms that they got was goosebumps on the skin. If you don’t know what goosebumps are, they are the small things on your skin that appear when you are very scared or very cold. In Czech, we call it “husí kůže”.  These goosebumps were very similar to the skin of a cold turkey. So that is why we use this idiom. 

Number three: Barking up the wrong tree.

What does it mean? Let me give you an example:

Sarah accused Tom of stealing her phone, but she was barking up the wrong tree because it was actually hidden in her bag.

Can you get the meaning? It means to be wrong about the reason for something or trying to do something in a way that will not work. This expression originated in the world of hunting. Hunting is an activity where people go into forests and fields and try to kill for example deer or foxes with guns. Hunters are very often accompanied by dogs. Sometimes it could happen that the dog was trying to catch some animal that climbed up a tree and the dog would bark at the base of the tree. Sometimes it could happen that the dog didn’t see the animal properly and went to an incorrect tree… so it was literally barking up the wrong tree. 

Okay, did you know all of these expressions or are some of them new for you? Let me know. Also, if you enjoy these types of episodes, where I talk about idioms or vocabulary, write me a message on Instagram or send me an email and I will make sure to create more of these.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and don’t forget that you can find the transcription and vocabulary list in the notes. Please give it a five-star rating if you liked it and I will see you next time, bye-bye.