Monday, September 1, 2008

So Many Expressions

Okay, so I know this blog was originally about knitting, and now it seems to be about all things chicken. I'm assuming the novelty will wear off a bit, and I will start knitting again...

In the meantime...Neil and I were talking about how many expressions are derived from our poultry friends. Here a list of a bunch. Please add to the list.

-chicken/ chicken hearted (acting cowardly)
-strutting like a rooster (showing off)
-cocky (I guess pretty much the same as above)
-hen party (a party for women only, especially one that is organized for a woman who is soon going to get married)
-hen pecked (a husband who suffers from a nagging or domineering wife)
-laid an egg (to fail to make people enjoy or be interested in something) Anyone know why this has negative connotations?
-egg head (again, anyone know the origin of this one?)
-crowing (announcing something great)
-cock-eyed (this is to do with how a rooster sizes up a potential threat. They won't look directly at the foe, preferring to try and seem nonchalant and look straight ahead. All the time they are trying desperately to see via their peripheral vision.
-chicken feed/scratch (a very small amount of money, especially money that is paid for doing a job)
-coming home to roost (if you say that chickens are coming home to roost, you mean that bad or silly things done in the past are beginning to cause problems)
-a bad egg (someone who behaves in a bad or dishonest way)
-a good egg (a person with good qualities such as kindness)
-egg someone on
-a chicken and egg situation (a situation in which it is impossible to say which of two things existed first and which caused the other)
-have egg on your face (to seem stupid because of something you have done)
-a nest egg (an amount of money that you have saved)
- put all of your eggs in one basket (to risk losing everything by putting all your efforts or all your money into one plan or one course of action)
-as scarce as hen's teeth (to be very difficult or impossible to find)
-be no spring chicken (to not be young any more)

2 comments:

knitica said...

chicken head (unintelligent or forgetful/flighty)

naomi dagen bloom said...

martha,

you are not surprised that i am very taken with your new chichenness or chickotopia.

when i started my blog i looked for other chick related ones. that's how i found that crafty woman in portland, www.angrychicken.com.

appalled by your voter card! wish i'd known since we've been doing voter registration and would have told people to expect something weird. as it is, we give them number to call if they do not receive card in 20 days.

this is going to be a tough one. ron and i always wear our buttons. made big switch to mac computer. my first one-to-one class was with a nice kid about to turn 21, not registered. brought one to him; carry them always.

it was a shock to see lindsay in the cage--oh, no! she seems to share your sense of humour. glad you could get to the country. we go to portland on friday and it will be wonderful for many reasons--noise reduction one of them.

just recalled that baltimore has chicken-clucking contest for kids. if i find my photos, will send you jpeg. lindsay could start practicing.

yours, naomi