The Village Idioms Can Say a Lot About Sports

An idiot is someone who cuts you off in traffic.

An idiom is something entirely different.

An idiom is a phrase or proverb that often has a hidden or historical meaning, such as “bury the hatchet” or “let the cat out of the bag.”

While searching the bookshelf for my hard bound of “Simms to McConkey,” the real-life story of the New York Giants’ 1986 Super Bowl run--which I try to reread every year around the holidays--I stumbled upon a 1996 edition of the “Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms.”

It’s a terrific read, as Larry King would say, and author Marvin Terban really “hits the nail on the head” in explaining the origins of more than 600 sayings.

We’d thought we’d bring the author’s work “up to date” by adding modern sports applications to familiar phrases:

By Hook or by Crook

Meaning: By any means possible.

Origin: Dates to the 1300s, when people used to steal objects with long hooks.

Sports: The Oakland Raiders’ Mission Statement.

Sitting Duck

Meaning: Someone likely to be attacked and unable to put up a defense.

Origin: Duck hunters who sneak up on unsuspecting fowl.

Sports: Mighty Ducks’ management asks Craig Hartsburg to take a seat.

Back to Square One

Meaning: Return to the beginning because nothing is working.

Origin: Board games in which players have to go back to the start.

Sports: UCLA Coach Steve Lavin reviews game tape against UC Irvine.

Clam Up

Meaning: Refuse to talk.

Origin: Two halves of a clam are very hard to pry open.

Sports: USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett outlines media policy during coaching search.

Mad as a Hatter

Meaning: Completely crazy.

Origin: Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

Sports: Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks.

Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

Meaning: To take on a task that is more than you can accomplish.

Orgin: Dates to ancient China.

Sports: What can happen in a prizefight involving Mike Tyson.

Blind Leading the Blind

Meaning: People who don’t know something trying to explain something to someone who doesn’t know it either.

Origin: Biblical.

Sports: Donald Sterling takes Bob Daly to lunch.

Can’t Hit the Side of a Barn

Meaning: Terrible aim.

Origin: Popularized by early 1900s sportswriters describing pitchers who couldn’t throw straight.

Sports: Popularized by Keith Olbermann’s mother after getting conked in head by Chuck Knoblauch’s errant toss.

Catch You Later

Meaning: See you at a later date.

Origin: 20th century expression in which the verb means to capture or take hold.

Sports: What Jose Canseco says to a fly ball.

From Soup to Nuts

Meaning: The whole thing from beginning to end.

Origin: 20th century expression in which any food served at the beginning or end of a meal stood for the whole thing.

Sports: “The Dennis Rodman Story.”

Goody Two Shoes

Meaning: A person who thinks he or she is perfect.

Origin: 18th century nursery tale, “The History of Little Good Two-Shoes.”

Sports: What a Wisconsin football player says when he receives more than one shoe at a discount rate.

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Meaning: To be as good as your neighbor.

Origin: Taken from a 1913 comic strip of same name.

Sports: What no female track competitor will do for the next decade.

That’s the Way the Ball Bounces

Meaning: That’s the way life is.

Origin: Derivation of “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Sports: Derivation of Bill Buckner’s worst nightmare.

Turn Over a New Leaf

Meaning: To correct one’s behavior.

Origin: In the 16th century, book pages used to be called leaves.

Sports: What the San Diego Chargers might do if their quarterback stops turning the ball over.

Blow Your Own Horn

Meaning: To praise yourself.

Origin: The Romans used to toot horns to welcome back war heroes.

Sports: Working title for Bobby Valentine’s biography.

Dime a Dozen

Meaning: Very common and inexpensive.

Origin: Phrase coined from a plentiful minting of 1786 ten-cent pieces.

Sports: The price Cincinnati Bengal owner Mike Brown would like to pay for players.

Dull as Dishwater

Meaning: Uninteresting.

Origin: Charles Dickens used the phrase in describing something boring and tedious.

Sports: The Cleveland Browns.

Eat Your Words

Meaning: To have to take back what you said.

Origin: Likely an offshoot of “eat crow.”

Sports: Beano Cook predicted Ron Powlus would win two Heismans.

Eleventh Hour

Meaning: At the latest possible time.

Origin: Biblical.

Sports: What hour an average major league baseball game will end in the year 2005.