I was recently asked about this expression. Wikipedia lists several versions of the term used around the world; nine countries use “storm in a glass of water.”  The expression is used to describe a small event exaggerated out of proportion, or making a fuss over a trivial matter. The Phrase Finder proposes that the phrase probably derives from the writing of Cicero in about 52 BC, “He was stirring up billows in a ladle. “The Duke of Ormond’s wrote in a letter in 1678, “Our skirmish seems to be come to a period, and compared with the great things now on foot, is but a storm in a cream bowl.” The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1830 included the description, “Each campaign, compared with those of Europe, has been only…, a storm in a wash-hand basin.” The American “tempest in a teapot” is used in very few other countries, but apparently has a Scottish origin. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1825 demeaned a poet by writing, “What is the tempest raging o’er the realms of Ice? A tempest in a teapot!”

The term, “Lame Duck,” is being mentioned frequently in the news about Congress. The term is used to describe elected officials still serving in office, but are not slated to continue. It is frequently believed that the officials are in a weaker position, but there is another contention that a politician can make stronger decisions because they are no longer posturing for the next election. According to blurtit, the term was coined in the early 18th century to describe a broker on the London stock exchange who defaulted on his debts. “Horace Walpole is said to be the first man to have originally used the words in writing about the broker.in 1761, and the line was…”Do you know what a Bull and a Bear and Lame Duck are?”

I’ve heard this expression many times, and understood it to mean someone was frustrated or not feeling well. However, I asked myself “what is a sort, and why would someone find themselves out of them?” I found a detailed explanation in World Wide Words.

“The most common story about this phrase refers to the printer’s word sorts for the individual metal characters in his boxes of type, so called because they have been arranged, each into its own compartment, with all of one kind together. It would obviously be a substantial inconvenience if a printer were to run out of a sort during composition. The problem with this story is that the figurative expression out of sorts is recorded much earlier than the printers’ term.” A second idea is that the saying came from saying that a pack of playing cards hadn’t been shuffled. The author isn’t convinced about this origin, and instead thinks the origin derives from Latin. “The Latin original of our word sort was applied to a piece of wood that was used for drawing lots…it developed into the idea of one’s fate, fortune or condition…It survived until shortly after Shakespeare’s time, until about the point that out of sorts is first found.

President Obama recently characterized what happened in the November elections as a “shellacking” of the Democratic Party. Word Detective explains that shellac was introduced in the 17th century for use as furniture polish. The slang became a description of very drunk, badly beaten, or vanquished. The word detective proposes that those meanings “comes from the fact that shellacking is often the last step in furniture manufacture, so when someone is ‘shellacked’, he or she is absolutely, positively finished and done.”

Charles Earle Funk, author of “A Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions, The Origin & Development of the Pungent and Colorful Phrases We All Use,” explains the title in the Foreword. His mother would say with a toss of her head, “as independent as a hog on ice” when she “…saw a pompous person strutting down the street, a girl leading the way to a restaurant table without the head waiter’s guidance, a young man with hat atilt jauntily striding along…” “She meant cockily independent, supremely confident, beholden to none.” The author recounts the many literature sources he searched for a clue about the origin and meaning of the expression, and also consulted with experts on hogs. He learned that the smooth pads of a hog’s feet don’t allow the animal to walk on ice. The hog will often have to be dragged off the ice before it attempts to move. He also found that the curling stone is called a “hog” on occasion, and speculates that might have something to do with the origin of the expression. Regardless of the origin, the meaning can be as the author’s mother intended, a description of someone or thing that is awkward or helpless, or used to describe someone who is idiotically independent. Mr. Funk describes his efforts to research the expression in several pages, and you should find a copy of his book if you have further interest in this or the hundreds of other expressions it describes. I bought a used copy from Abebooks.com.

In this “Expressions” blog we offer brief essays on the origination of common expressions, addages, maxims, epigrams, and aphorisms.  I’ve developed an interest in colorful sayings, and reinforced that interest when I bought a book, “A Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions,” by Charles Earle Funk from Abebooks.com. I will use that book extensively for this “Expressions” blog, and will be certain to explain the expression included in the title.