The Time Capsule: Idioms muddy the English language waters

Sue ran a Chinese restaurant in the Merle Hay area of Des Moines. Several co-workers and I went there for lunch often enough that we became acquainted, and found her to be a witty and cheerful lady.  On the wall near the cash register was a sign saying “Idioms Not Allowed.”  

Initially we assumed she was making an insensitive demand and had misspelled a word.  Jokes were made as to who among us should leave. There came a day when Sue overheard a remark about the sign and set the record straight.  “Idioms,” she said.  “I hate idioms.  The most confusing thing for me learning to speak English was your idioms. I still won’t use one.” 

I’d never given this a thought, but as Sue explained she made sense. We speak in idioms (an idiom being a series of words that, taken together, have a figurative meaning entirely different than they do individually). We take them for granted, could hardly conduct a conversation without.      

Imagine being Sue, or anyone learning our language, watching the news and hearing a police officer say they were “looking for a needle in a haystack.” Sue said the first time she heard this expression she wondered how anyone could be so foolish.  Why would Des Moines police officers waste time looking for a needle? Where did they find a haystack to search in? 

Another that gave her a problem was “barking up the wrong tree.” She envisioned someone doing this and wondered if many Americans were so irrational. 

“Raining cats and dogs” was absurd.  “The worm has turned” made little sense, and having “ants in one’s pants” was just foolishness.  What, she wondered, was so filthy about being rich?  Were there really, in this otherwise civilized country, “party poopers?” 

Once we’d learned of Sue’s dislike for idioms, we teased her with them.  “Sue, would you take a penny for your thoughts?”  We’d tell her the fried rice was worth a “pretty penny,” or perhaps even a “plug nickel,” ask if she cared to put in her “two cents worth.”  The egg fu young was “out of this world.”       

I once asked Sue if there were idioms in China. There are. She cited a few, speaking in her native language. Saying something that sounded like “an ru shi pan,” she explained it to mean “solid as a rock.” 

So why, I asked, if idioms were common in China, did she find them upsetting here?  Because English, especially as spoken in America, is difficult to learn even without the idioms. The word “bow,” she said, was a nightmare.  It has multiple meanings. She named a few, then referenced the word “bough,” as in the limb on a tree. It was impossible to know, by hearing someone speak the word, which meaning was intended. 

I can understand her frustration, and hope that by now she’s gotten the hang of it.     

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.