As I said last week, one of the most appealing aspects of Agatha Christie's writing are her colourful dialogues. And there is nothing more colourful than idiomatic phrases. They add interest to your language and are, well, just fun! Let's look at 5 idiomatic phrases from 'The Body in the Library'. 1. Chapter 6 - Colonel Melchett tended toward a blunt brutality. "No good crying over spilt milk," he said sharply. "The girl's dead, strangled. You're lucky that she wasn't strangled in your hotel. This puts the inquiry in a different county and lets your establishment down extremely lightly. But certain inquiries have got to be made, and the sooner we get on with it the better. You can trust us to be discreet and tactful. So I suggest you cut the cackle and come to the horses. Just what, exactly, do you know about the girl?" Originally 'Cut the dialect and come to the horses', this was a favourite saying of Alexander Ducrow, a famous early 19th century equestrian, circus rider and great showman. He believed that in a show the most important thing was the action, not the dialogue and his favourite part of the show naturally the part was with the horses. By 'dialect', he meant dialogue which in our version has been replaced by 'cackle' literally meaning a raucous cry of a bird like a hen or a goose but as birds are often associated with women, the meaning is extended here to indicate a group of women laughing or chatting loudly. So the whole phrase basically means 'Stop wasting time chatting and get down to action'. 2. Chapter 9 - "Oh, yes, Harper, it's all perfectly possible. But there's still one thing to be done. Cherchez l'homme." "What? Oh, very good, sir." Superintendent Harper tactfully applauded Melchett's joke, although, owing to the excellence of the colonel's French accent, he almost missed the sense of the words. 'Cherchez l'homme' is a variant of the expression 'Cherchez la femme', which comes from the novel 'The Mohicans of Paris' by Alexandre Dumas. Literally translated as 'Look for the woman', it means that if there is something a bit unusual about a man's behaviour, there's quite often a woman behind it. The phrase became a cliché in popular fiction and appears sveral times in Agatha Christie's works. 3. Chapter 11 - Sir Henry was wondering, as he went upstairs, just what had induced the sudden urgency of his friend's message. Conway Jefferson was not the type of man who sent urgent summonses to anyone. Something quite out of the usual must have occurred, decided Sir Henry. Jefferson wasted no time in beating about the bush. 'To beat about the bush' means to avoid talking about what is important, digressing, being indirect or evasive. The term originally comes from bird hunting. Hunters would literally beat the ground surrounding bushes to encourage birds to come out from their resting or hiding places, so that they could be taken by other hunters. Some saw the bearting as a waste of time instead of getting down to the real job of directly taking the birds. 4. Chapter 15 - "It sounds to me the kind of village domestic problem that is right up Miss Marple's street. She's very sharp, you know." The superintendent smiled. He said, "I'll say you're right. Nothing much gets past her." If something is just or right up your street, it is the kind of thing you like or know about. For example, if you like classic novels, lostinclassics should be right up your street (or alley in American English)!. Your alley or street is your home territory and so something to be comfortable with. 5. Chapter 15 - "I don't know. Before Ruby Keene came on the scene I happen to know that he had left his money between Mark Gaskell and Mrs Jefferson. I don't see why he should now change his mind about that. But of course he might do so." Superintendent Harper agreed. "You never know what bee a man is going to get in his bonnet; especially when he doesn't feel there's any moral obligation in the disposal of his fortune. No blood relations in this case." If you 'have a bee in your bonnet' about something, that thing, however small, is bothering or worrying you so much that you cannot forget about it. A bonnet is an old-fashioned hat that was tied under the chin. Imagine how annoying it would be to actually have a bee inside your hat! This phrase is more than 500 years old, evolving from the original, 'have a bee in your head' in Gavin Douglas's Aeneis, 1513. I have a bee in my bonnet about the recycling system in my building. The bins are only open at certain times, but the test of the day they are locked. The lady who lives on the ground floor has taken charge of the situation. But who gave her the keys? Who made her in charge? Why? I am talking about this with all the neighbours. And you? Do you have a bee in your bonnet about anything at the moment?
When you have to talk to someone about something delicate do you beat around the bush? Is this article right up your street? Write your answers in the comments and don't forget to tell me if you find any other interesting idiomatic phrases as you read!
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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