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Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean
Phrases, idioms, and clichés—why do we say the things we say? Watch Your Tongue explores weird and wonderful everyday sayings and what they reveal about us.
Do you ever wonder why you shouldn’t have a cow but you should seize a bull by its horns? Who has the better reputation in language—cats or dogs? Do you sometimes feel that our speech is all smoke and mirrors or that our expressions simply make no sense?
In Watch Your Tongue, award-winning author Mark Abley explores the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language. With wit and subtle wisdom, he unravels the mysteries of these expressions, illuminating the history, tradition and stories behind everything we say. Pulling examples from Shakespeare’s plays to sports team names, ancient Rome to Twitter, Abley shares samples and anecdotes of the eccentric ways that we play with, parse, and pattern language.
Why do so many companies use fruit for their brand names? What do politicians mean when they say they’re going to “drain the swamp”? Why does English use chickens to signify cowardice? Abley dives into the history and psychology behind these examples and countless others, unpacking their significance (and sheer absurdity) to show how our language developed, where it is headed, and what we can learn about ourselves from it.
Whimsically illustrated, easily browsable, and full of catchy sidebars, Watch Your Tongue celebrates how we amuse ourselves with words and what our sayings reveal about the way we see the world.
Do you ever wonder why you shouldn’t have a cow but you should seize a bull by its horns? Who has the better reputation in language—cats or dogs? Do you sometimes feel that our speech is all smoke and mirrors or that our expressions simply make no sense?
In Watch Your Tongue, award-winning author Mark Abley explores the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language. With wit and subtle wisdom, he unravels the mysteries of these expressions, illuminating the history, tradition and stories behind everything we say. Pulling examples from Shakespeare’s plays to sports team names, ancient Rome to Twitter, Abley shares samples and anecdotes of the eccentric ways that we play with, parse, and pattern language.
Why do so many companies use fruit for their brand names? What do politicians mean when they say they’re going to “drain the swamp”? Why does English use chickens to signify cowardice? Abley dives into the history and psychology behind these examples and countless others, unpacking their significance (and sheer absurdity) to show how our language developed, where it is headed, and what we can learn about ourselves from it.
Whimsically illustrated, easily browsable, and full of catchy sidebars, Watch Your Tongue celebrates how we amuse ourselves with words and what our sayings reveal about the way we see the world.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published October 30, 2018
9 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Mark Abley
22 books25 followersMark Abley is a Rhodes Scholar, a Guggenheim Fellow, a husband and a father of two. He grew up in Western Canada, spent several years in England, and has lived in the Montreal area since the early 1980s. His first love was poetry, and he has published four collections. But he is best known for his many books of nonfiction, notably Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages and The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood, and a Fragile Mind.
His new book, Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail, describes his travels across west and south Asia in the spring of 1978. Mark kept detailed journals during his three-month journey, allowing him to recreate his experiences from the standpoint of a much older man.
In 2022 Mark was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Saskatchewan for his contributions to the literary community.
His new book, Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail, describes his travels across west and south Asia in the spring of 1978. Mark kept detailed journals during his three-month journey, allowing him to recreate his experiences from the standpoint of a much older man.
In 2022 Mark was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Saskatchewan for his contributions to the literary community.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 30, 2018
Watch Your Tongue is one of those books I really struggle to rate. I wanted to read this book based on its blurb which states: "Whimsically illustrated, easily browsable, and full of catchy sidebars, Watch Your Tongue celebrates how we amuse ourselves with words and what our sayings reveal about the way we see the world."
As someone whose job requires being able to explain the proper way to use idioms and, in some cases, what those idioms mean, I thought this would be a great resource for me! I had expected an almost dictionary-style book where various idioms would be listed and explained.
Instead, this is written in a way that loosely groups various expressions into chapters discussing how some idioms came to be. Although some of the material is interesting to read, much of it won't come as a surprise to native English speakers, and some of it is written using a rather advanced style, so it will be out of reach for many younger readers.
Unfortunately, I think that for all but the most advanced non-native English speakers, this book would be nearly completely inaccessible since some of the idioms aren't even explained, it's just expected the reader will be familiar with their meanings. In addition, as the book lacks an index of any sort, and the chapter headings aren't all that intuitive, it's nearly impossible to go back to find a specific idiom if you *do* want to refresh yourself on its meaning.
In the end, this book isn't what I hoped it would be and I'm not really sure who the target audience would be. Most people I know who would appreciate this discussion aren't going to learn much from the book, but the writing is too advanced to teach those who would like to learn more. I'll give this 2.5 stars rounded up, but with extreme reservation.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a DRC of this book.
As someone whose job requires being able to explain the proper way to use idioms and, in some cases, what those idioms mean, I thought this would be a great resource for me! I had expected an almost dictionary-style book where various idioms would be listed and explained.
Instead, this is written in a way that loosely groups various expressions into chapters discussing how some idioms came to be. Although some of the material is interesting to read, much of it won't come as a surprise to native English speakers, and some of it is written using a rather advanced style, so it will be out of reach for many younger readers.
Unfortunately, I think that for all but the most advanced non-native English speakers, this book would be nearly completely inaccessible since some of the idioms aren't even explained, it's just expected the reader will be familiar with their meanings. In addition, as the book lacks an index of any sort, and the chapter headings aren't all that intuitive, it's nearly impossible to go back to find a specific idiom if you *do* want to refresh yourself on its meaning.
In the end, this book isn't what I hoped it would be and I'm not really sure who the target audience would be. Most people I know who would appreciate this discussion aren't going to learn much from the book, but the writing is too advanced to teach those who would like to learn more. I'll give this 2.5 stars rounded up, but with extreme reservation.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a DRC of this book.
October 27, 2018
Watch Your Tongue explores idioms and popular phrases that most of us use daily without much thought to their origins. Throughout the book Mark Abley shares tidbits of wisdom that makes for an entertaining read that the average Joe and the avid wordsmith will both enjoy.
The book is broken down into several topics (animals, feelings, foreign idioms, religious, Shakespearean …) and describes the history of some popular and not so popular idioms. Language is constantly evolving and Abley doesn’t waste any time diving in to explore the history of ubiquitous idioms but be forewarned, once you start reading this book, you’ll start noticing idioms everywhere.
It’s a quick read that can be picked up in fits and spurts and Abley has gone the extra mile to help readers understand the origin of English idioms. To make a long story short, the descriptions are informative as well as entertaining and may keep you up burning the midnight oil with Abley’s humour and so many idioms and phrases that it’ll boggle your mind. So, give it a whirl … you may just find yourself adding idioms to your everyday conversations willy-nilly (how was THAT for idiom overload!?!).
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The book is broken down into several topics (animals, feelings, foreign idioms, religious, Shakespearean …) and describes the history of some popular and not so popular idioms. Language is constantly evolving and Abley doesn’t waste any time diving in to explore the history of ubiquitous idioms but be forewarned, once you start reading this book, you’ll start noticing idioms everywhere.
It’s a quick read that can be picked up in fits and spurts and Abley has gone the extra mile to help readers understand the origin of English idioms. To make a long story short, the descriptions are informative as well as entertaining and may keep you up burning the midnight oil with Abley’s humour and so many idioms and phrases that it’ll boggle your mind. So, give it a whirl … you may just find yourself adding idioms to your everyday conversations willy-nilly (how was THAT for idiom overload!?!).
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
January 22, 2024
"Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean" by Mark Abley
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
PRINT: © 10/30/2018; 978-1501172281; Simon & Schuster; 272 pages; unabridged. (Hardcover info from Amazon.com)
*DIGITAL: © 10/30/2018; 9781501172298; Simon & Schuster Canada; 272 pages; unabridged. (Kindle info from Amazon.com)
AUDIO: Not found in this format.
FILM: Not that I know of.
SERIES: No
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
SELECTED: I was listening to a podcast called "Way With Words" and one of the hosts mentioned this book. It sounded intriguing. I wasn’t able to find an audio version, so went with the Kindle version.
ABOUT: Idioms, sayings, clichés and the like are listed in an organized manner. Most, if not all are explained as to their meaning, and to the extent the author could find origins, those are included.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: So many of the phrases were so well known to me that I confess to periodic boredom, but still, I learned things and the bits on “plastic words” and on clichés were quite good.
AUTHOR:
Mark Abley. Excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Mark Abley (born 13 May 1955) is a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and nonfiction writer. Both his poetry and several nonfiction books express his interest in endangered languages. He has also published numerous magazine articles. In November 2022 Abley was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Saskatchewan for his writing career and for his services to Canadian literature.
A Rhodes Scholar, Abley settled in Montreal in 1983, where he has since based his career. His memoir of his father, The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood, and a Fragile Mind, appeared in 2019. His newest book is a work of literary travel, Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail (2023).”
From inside the digital book:
“MARK ABLEY, Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, is an awardwinning poet, journalist and author. His books include The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English and Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, which was nominated for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Abley lives in Montreal, Quebec. MarkAbley.com”
GENRE:
Nonfiction; Language
SUBJECTS:
Sayings; Idioms; Clichés; Language
DEDICATION:
“For all the teachers who give their students the chance to find joy in words.”
SAMPLE QUOTATION:
Excerpt From: “Can a Leopard Change Its Spots”
“A cliché is a figure of speech that discourages original thinking. It stops ideas in their tracks—or it guides ideas along a single well-worn track. The literal meaning is relevant: in the early nineteenth century, a cliché was a method of printing an engraving, using a solid plate of metal. That plate had the name “stereotype.” Being a duplicate from the outset, a stereotype would perpetuate an original form without allowing any change. Both these terms were originally French, a fact that English speakers have done their best to ignore. (Ernest Bevin, a British cabinet minister, once rejected a draft speech by saying “This will not do . . . It just goes on from clitch to clitch.”) Printers in the past used clichés and stereotypes to provide for the mass reproduction of images. In our own time, politicians, governments and corporations often find the mass reproduction of stock phrases to be a very useful tactic.
Songwriters are fond of clichés, too.
• • •
Nineteen seventy was a good year for popular music. From “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to “Lola,” from “Big Yellow Taxi” to “My Sweet Lord,” memorable songs poured out across the airwaves of the English-speaking world. A number of them spoke directly or indirectly about pressing topics of the day—gender issues, spiritual quests, pollution, the Vietnam War. (Many of them were about sex, too.) But despite their quality and their impact, only a few of the best songs of 1970 approached the sales figures racked up by a young country singer named Lynn Anderson. Her version of “Rose Garden” was a country-pop crossover hit with a catchy tune and a set of lyrics made up almost entirely of clichés.
Think I’m exaggerating? Then consider the following phrases, all of which the song invokes:
Sharing the good times. Promising the moon. Sweet talk. Still waters that run deep. Smiling for a while. Looking before you leap. Dreams of silver platters and diamond rings combine with the recurrent image of a rose garden to create a familiar backdrop for the secondhand emotions on which, then and now, Top 40 radio thrives.
Few pop songs are immune to clichés. But while many songs include a few clichés, “Rose Garden” contains little else. Even on a single hearing, its lyrics are as routine and reassuring as a double cheeseburger with french fries on the side. They offer no challenges, raise no questions, incite no debates. The song serves up the verbal equivalent of high-carb comfort food in words that are neither abstract nor original. “Rose Garden” was massively popular. Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt—it can also breed large record sales.
Apart from their role in paying songwriters’ mortgages, clichés have their uses. In his book Words, Words, Words, the linguist David Crystal mounts a shrewd defense of them: “They can fill an awkward gap in a conversation. They can be a lexical lifejacket when we are stuck for something to say . . . Think of the required politeness of regular commuters on a train. Think of the forced interactions at cocktail parties. Or the desperate platitudes which follow a funeral. These are the kinds of occasion which give clichés their right to be.” These are solid practical justifications. But I think the power of clichés goes deeper.
At a time when many of us feel the world is spinning out of control, clichés offer a little much-needed consolation. If Earth could seem a nerve-racking planet in 1970, how much scarier it is today. Clichés and platitudes deliver a quick hit of Valium to the wounded soul. What goes around, comes around. The rest is history. It is what it is.”
RATING: 3.7 stars.
STARTED-FINISHED
12/15/23-1/21/24
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
PRINT: © 10/30/2018; 978-1501172281; Simon & Schuster; 272 pages; unabridged. (Hardcover info from Amazon.com)
*DIGITAL: © 10/30/2018; 9781501172298; Simon & Schuster Canada; 272 pages; unabridged. (Kindle info from Amazon.com)
AUDIO: Not found in this format.
FILM: Not that I know of.
SERIES: No
SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
SELECTED: I was listening to a podcast called "Way With Words" and one of the hosts mentioned this book. It sounded intriguing. I wasn’t able to find an audio version, so went with the Kindle version.
ABOUT: Idioms, sayings, clichés and the like are listed in an organized manner. Most, if not all are explained as to their meaning, and to the extent the author could find origins, those are included.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: So many of the phrases were so well known to me that I confess to periodic boredom, but still, I learned things and the bits on “plastic words” and on clichés were quite good.
AUTHOR:
Mark Abley. Excerpt from Wikipedia:
“Mark Abley (born 13 May 1955) is a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and nonfiction writer. Both his poetry and several nonfiction books express his interest in endangered languages. He has also published numerous magazine articles. In November 2022 Abley was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Saskatchewan for his writing career and for his services to Canadian literature.
A Rhodes Scholar, Abley settled in Montreal in 1983, where he has since based his career. His memoir of his father, The Organist: Fugues, Fatherhood, and a Fragile Mind, appeared in 2019. His newest book is a work of literary travel, Strange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail (2023).”
From inside the digital book:
“MARK ABLEY, Rhodes Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, is an awardwinning poet, journalist and author. His books include The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English and Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, which was nominated for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Abley lives in Montreal, Quebec. MarkAbley.com”
GENRE:
Nonfiction; Language
SUBJECTS:
Sayings; Idioms; Clichés; Language
DEDICATION:
“For all the teachers who give their students the chance to find joy in words.”
SAMPLE QUOTATION:
Excerpt From: “Can a Leopard Change Its Spots”
“A cliché is a figure of speech that discourages original thinking. It stops ideas in their tracks—or it guides ideas along a single well-worn track. The literal meaning is relevant: in the early nineteenth century, a cliché was a method of printing an engraving, using a solid plate of metal. That plate had the name “stereotype.” Being a duplicate from the outset, a stereotype would perpetuate an original form without allowing any change. Both these terms were originally French, a fact that English speakers have done their best to ignore. (Ernest Bevin, a British cabinet minister, once rejected a draft speech by saying “This will not do . . . It just goes on from clitch to clitch.”) Printers in the past used clichés and stereotypes to provide for the mass reproduction of images. In our own time, politicians, governments and corporations often find the mass reproduction of stock phrases to be a very useful tactic.
Songwriters are fond of clichés, too.
• • •
Nineteen seventy was a good year for popular music. From “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to “Lola,” from “Big Yellow Taxi” to “My Sweet Lord,” memorable songs poured out across the airwaves of the English-speaking world. A number of them spoke directly or indirectly about pressing topics of the day—gender issues, spiritual quests, pollution, the Vietnam War. (Many of them were about sex, too.) But despite their quality and their impact, only a few of the best songs of 1970 approached the sales figures racked up by a young country singer named Lynn Anderson. Her version of “Rose Garden” was a country-pop crossover hit with a catchy tune and a set of lyrics made up almost entirely of clichés.
Think I’m exaggerating? Then consider the following phrases, all of which the song invokes:
Sharing the good times. Promising the moon. Sweet talk. Still waters that run deep. Smiling for a while. Looking before you leap. Dreams of silver platters and diamond rings combine with the recurrent image of a rose garden to create a familiar backdrop for the secondhand emotions on which, then and now, Top 40 radio thrives.
Few pop songs are immune to clichés. But while many songs include a few clichés, “Rose Garden” contains little else. Even on a single hearing, its lyrics are as routine and reassuring as a double cheeseburger with french fries on the side. They offer no challenges, raise no questions, incite no debates. The song serves up the verbal equivalent of high-carb comfort food in words that are neither abstract nor original. “Rose Garden” was massively popular. Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt—it can also breed large record sales.
Apart from their role in paying songwriters’ mortgages, clichés have their uses. In his book Words, Words, Words, the linguist David Crystal mounts a shrewd defense of them: “They can fill an awkward gap in a conversation. They can be a lexical lifejacket when we are stuck for something to say . . . Think of the required politeness of regular commuters on a train. Think of the forced interactions at cocktail parties. Or the desperate platitudes which follow a funeral. These are the kinds of occasion which give clichés their right to be.” These are solid practical justifications. But I think the power of clichés goes deeper.
At a time when many of us feel the world is spinning out of control, clichés offer a little much-needed consolation. If Earth could seem a nerve-racking planet in 1970, how much scarier it is today. Clichés and platitudes deliver a quick hit of Valium to the wounded soul. What goes around, comes around. The rest is history. It is what it is.”
RATING: 3.7 stars.
STARTED-FINISHED
12/15/23-1/21/24
November 12, 2018
I love words and expressions. So many of them roll off our tongues without us even thinking about the origins. Abley utilizes Shakespeare to help parse phrases or explain the mysteries of idioms and expressions for things like “drain the swamp” to why we say we are “chicken” when we are scared. If you enjoy the history and psychology behind where and how our language developed, you’ll love reading this book. Full of catchy sidebars and illustrations, it’s a fun prop to read aloud at the dinner table.
February 11, 2019
When I started to read this book I though I am not going to enjoy reading this book. I thought I might not even want to finish reading the book. But, i decided to keep reading. And the book got more interesting for me as I kept reading. I had heard a lot of the idioms in the book and it was fun to learn their history. I also liked learning about idioms from around the world. This year I am going to improve my book reviews. I hope. It probably wont happen. Oh, well.
August 14, 2023
I want to like this book, but I just can't get into this. I can occasionally read a page or two. I have always found idioms interesting, but this book seems to have very little explanation of origins or etymologies, which is what I find more about idioms. Instead, this is like a fast stream of consciousness from one idiom to the next. I haven't finished the book, but I'm no longer trying to read it, so I'm marking it as finished on Goodreads.
March 25, 2020
Meh. There's some interesting stuff in here, but it was kind of rambling and didn't seem to have a clear objective. Sometimes he just stated idioms that fine from a specific field, and then occasionally he'd throw in an etymology. I would have preferred a lot more of the etymology and a lot less of a random disconnected list of idioms.
July 2, 2020
A great read as far as the meanings of various idioms go, but I was hoping for more explanation of where the sayings came from. Not sure why I thought this would be the case, as the cover expressly says it will be about what they mean. Nevertheless, I did learn enough new tidbits to make me seem smart at parties.
October 1, 2022
Some interesting stuff, but mostly listing idioms with only a fraction of them explained.
As a different reviewer said, this is too advanced for newer English speakers, and there's no index to look up an idiom later.
As a different reviewer said, this is too advanced for newer English speakers, and there's no index to look up an idiom later.
February 5, 2024
This is a very interesting book about all of those idioms we so love to use. For a writer this is a convenient reference to ensure that you are using an idioms correctly. I also like the history behind the idioms.
February 10, 2019
A fun history of idioms in English, filled especially with Canadian and Montreal terms, which I appreciate.
February 28, 2019
This book contains a comprehensive list of idioms organized by topic or theme, with explanation on origin etc
April 25, 2019
A humorous and wonderfully informative look at English idioms; I know have more respect for the humble, yet wonderfully evocative, idiom...where wouldn’t language be without them?
November 23, 2019
The dad-jokiest book I'll read all year!
January 9, 2020
English idiomcy abley explicated. (consider Wagner's music)
September 9, 2025
Numerous lol moments along with plenty of historical references and fascinating expressions.
August 11, 2019
This is a perfect book for those who love says and idioms and want to know their origins or a little bit more about them! This is a great book to read casually, you can read bit of it here and there over time. I especially liked how it had a Canadian focus for many examples, which is something I don't come across too often!
November 29, 2018
I would have preferred more in-depth discussions of interesting idioms, rather than just cramming as many of them into a chapter as possible. There were so many, one after the other, that it was difficult to take anything substantive away from this book. It was overwhelming.
May 16, 2024
For many years Mark Abley had a column about words in the Montreal Gazette, in which he addressed pet peeves, grammar police, the changing nature of the meanings of specific words in English and so on. This book expands on those columns, with chapters dealing with idioms about time, body parts, fear, animals and many other ways in which words and phrases are used to describe deeper feelings and attitudes. In addition to the text of each chapter, he includes seven sets of sidebars that are marked with funny illustrations: “combing the giraffe” (foreign idioms); “donkey’s hind leg” (outdated idioms); “household names” (idioms from names); “it is written” (biblical idioms); “merchant of words” (idioms from Shakespeare); “spoonfuls of sugar” (language trivia); and “tomatoes on your eyes” (nonsense idioms). There’s something quite nice about ending the year with a trivia book that one can dip in and out of at leisure, especially one that is both as whimsical and thought-provoking as this book is; loads of fun and highly recommended!
September 29, 2018
Mark Abley knows the English language so well! In his latest book, Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean, Abley moves flawlessly from simile to metaphor and explains clearly how these, sometimes hilarious but always recognizable, idioms originated. His research goes as far back as the Bible and the ancient Romans. This reviewer was amazed at how much impact Shakespeare has had on our use of everyday sayings. But don't think that Abley is stuck in a dusty library somewhere, his knowledge base is completely up-to-date and includes the effects both Trudeau and Trump have had on our language.
If you were ever in doubt that the English language is constantly changing and evolving this book will change your mind!
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you were ever in doubt that the English language is constantly changing and evolving this book will change your mind!
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews