Idioms and Violence
Wars and
abuses seem to be a good breeding ground for
idioms and
languages. What follow are some examples.
In the
English Civil War the city of Coventry was a
Parliamentary stronghold. When
Oliver Cromwell's
army took
Royalist prisoners, they sent them to
Coventry, where if they escaped
execution, they would have a difficult life being shunned by the local people. So to be "sent to Coventry" is to be ostracised and ignored by everyone as a punishment.
When someone is "marooned", he is cut off from the
civilization with no means of returning home. In the XVII century the word "maroon" was first applied to runaway
Negro slaves who, being
fugitives, made their new homes in places as inaccessible as possible.
If you are "sold down the river" you get a bad deal. This phrase comes from the practice of
American sugarcane plantation owners of getting rid of troublesome slaves by selling them to other landowners lower down the
Mississippi.
It is often forgotten that some children were seized in
England and sold to plantation owners to work as servants in America. Thus, the word "
kidnap" is composed of kid (boy) plus nap (steal).
It is not longer used the word "
petard" except in the phrase "hoist with his own petard", the sad
fate of that man lighting the fuse.
The expression "when
balloon goes up" indicates that events are becoming critical. In both
World Wars barrage balloons were used to deter low-flying enemy
aircrafts. If a balloon was sent up, it meant that air attack must be imminent.
In November 1990
Margaret Thatcher "met her Waterloo": she was defeated in the
election of the
Conservative Party leader, and so resigned as
Prime Minister. In the Battle of
Waterloo the Napoleon's army was routed by Wellington's and Blucher's forces. It was the end of
Napoleon, who
abdicated four days later.