Idiomatic Phrases

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Dr. Goodword
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Idiomatic Phrases

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:18 am

Some of the phrase we use in day-to-day English are outrageous: to fly off the handle, to climb the walls, the coast is clear (even inland). Why do we say these things?

If the curiosity contains more than one word, this will be the forum to air it.
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M. Henri Day
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Postby M. Henri Day » Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:58 pm

To a sufferer from an acute attack of kidney or gall stones, «climbing the walls» is less a metaphor than a very down-to-earth description of a most uncomfortable reality....

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?

KatyBr
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Postby KatyBr » Sat Feb 26, 2005 8:03 pm

passing a stone is no joke!

Katy

M. Henri Day
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Posts: 1141
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE

Postby M. Henri Day » Sun Feb 27, 2005 8:05 am

One of the things we learned as interns was to distinguish between two kinds of pain in acute abdominal cases - that in which the patient held him/herself rigid and unmoving, and that in which the patient, often quite literally, «climbed the walls». Stone passages were the canonical example of the latter, perforated ulcers of the former....

Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?

KatyBr
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Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Sun Feb 27, 2005 2:14 pm

Re: The coast is clear...

I see an image of children playing out the story from the matenee they just saw saying self-importantly, "The coast is clear.... " when trying to escape the bad-guys on the other team. (oh silly me, the kids are way too sophisticated for this these days, even the 6 yr olds)


It's just an expression like "Houston, we have a problem", or "Make my day" That is overused and said thoughtlessly.

Katy


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