The term means that each person pays their own part of a bill. Goradio.com writes that the origin was from a feud between England and the Netherlands, and the English used “Dutch” in several phrases that had negative connotations. Examples were “Dutch courage” (meaning cowardice or someone gaining courage by getting drunk) and “Dutch treat” (which indicated that someone was too stingy to give a treat). “Going Dutch” therefore originally indicated that someone was too miserly to pay for someone else’s meal or other things in an evening out.

This expression was used in the Farmer Island web site to describe the appropriate age for readers of our book “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils: The Farmer Island War.” Wikipedia says that the expression was made into a song made popular by Frank Sinatra in 1953.

Etymology Online says this expression means a “remarkable person or thing…” and its origin was “…perhaps from an old song, ‘Dandy Jim of Caroline’ (1840s).” I was disappointed with the lackluster description of the origin, but decided to stick with it because “A Jim Dandy” was the headline of the sports report about Colorado State University’s victory in the “Mile High Showdown” football game over Colorado University September 1, 2012.

The book “Hog On Ice & Other Curious Expressions” by Charles Earle Funk explains that “hell- bent” is an American term to meaning to go all out “regardless of consequences.” Edward Kent was campaigning to be governor of Maine in 1840 after serving one term and losing the next election. His Whig party used the campaign slogan “hell-bent for election.” Their victory song mentions “On, have you heard how old Maine went? She went hell-bent for Governor Kent.”

Word Detective (per the Phrase Finder) doesn’t seem to be certain about the origin of this expression except to say it began “around 1974” and indicated “out of touch or unavailable.” A more common phrase, which I might use in the future, is “out of the loop.”

There is no doubt that the “thumbs up” signal today means success or approval. However, thumbs either up or down was used by spectators of Roman gladiators to signify a fallen competitor should be dispatched (i.e. put to death). Hiding their thumbs by folding them into their closed fingers signaled they thought the competitor should be spared.

A version of the “thumbs up” signal is used by one of the young pigs in my new book “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils: The Farmer Island War,” that I wrote with the help of our four grandchildren. In this entertaining book, one of the young pig used “hooves up” to substitute for “thumbs up” to indicate success in developing a weapon that could be used to defend the farm. Follow the continuing adventures of the pigs at our web site.