Nature & Language

Plant person or not, you will love these 10 botanic-related idioms

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Individual words combined in a certain way result in metaphorical phrases with a new meaning, different from the one they have by themselves. These phrases are called idioms and can originate from different contexts and situations. In this case, we have cherry-picked 10 expressions related to plants and flowers that will make you want to go outside and smell the roses!

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Some people are direct and get to the chase, and others take their time to say what they have to say. When we need to discuss something important with one of the latter and they keep beating around the bush instead of getting to the point, it can be really annoying, don't you think?

But who would have thought that this expression we use every day without giving it a second thought is actually related to nature? The first written record dates back to 1572. It appears in a text by the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne, although it was probably a metaphor used regularly at the time. Apparently, it has its origins in a game of bird hunting. Beating is the practice of striking plants with a stick to make the birds come out of hiding and thus catch them in flight.

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When we are faced with a conundrum or have to make a life-changing decision, it is sometimes difficult to figure out what’s really important. We are probably focusing on a specific, small aspect of the problem and fail to see the big picture. When this happens, a good friend will ideally help us gain some perspective and say: "You can't see the forest for the trees!" —Fun fact: in Old English, for was used in the sense of "on account of", "because of"—.

This proverbial idiom originated in the 16th century and makes perfect sense: back then, before cities took over, people's contact with nature was an everyday thing. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it first appeared in 1546 as part of the works of English writer John Heywood.

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Imagine a small animal running from the clutches of a large predator. The only thing in sight is a tall, fragrant tree. If it can climb up to the top, it will be safe, but the beast will still be waiting below with sharp teeth. This is how the idiom up a gum tree came to mean to be in a predicament or in a problem that is difficult to get out of.

Its origin is not so clear. Some etymologists suggest it is a phrase that appeared in Australia, where gum tree is the common name for the Eucalyptus. Others found records from the early 19th century in the United States. There was even a folk song called "The 'possum up the gum-tree" that stood the test of time only as a popular expression.

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According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, wither means "to become dry and sapless" or "to lose vitality, force, or freshness". When we leave fruit abandoned on the vine, it goes to waste, and to be honest, the same thing happens with all aspects of life.

The idiom wither on the vine —an equivalent of _die on the vine_— is used to express that something failed to be implemented or dealt with because of neglect or inaction. The Oxford Dictionary says it probably originated in the biblical image of a withered vine as a metaphor for physical or spiritual impoverishment.

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To continue with trees, fruits, and biblical references, this proverbial idiom means that a person's character should be judged by their actions —and the results of those actions— and not so much by appearances, prejudices, or what they have to say about themselves.

This parable appears in at least two different sermons in the New Testament. From Matthew 7:15-20: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit."

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Gardens usually have a positive and pleasant connotation. But for some reason, to lead someone down the garden path means to deceive or mislead. Like many of the expressions that are orally transmitted from generation to generation, we cannot be sure of the exact origin of this one. However, there are some theories.

According to legend, this idiom has its roots in England at the beginning of the 20th century. Apparently, it had to do with men being led into the gardens to get engaged to young ladies covered by veils that hid their faces completely. In any case, one of the earliest written records of this phrase dates back to 1926 and belongs to British writer Ethel Mannin. In her text Sounding Brass, she refers to women leading men up the garden for the purposes of seduction.

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These two idioms have a similar meaning. Shrinking violet is used figuratively to describe shy and introverted individuals, while a wallflower, in its colloquial sense, is a shy or unpopular person who usually remains on the sidelines of social activities.

The expression shrinking violet was probably coined in the United States, although there is no certain theory to explain the connection between these beautiful, vibrant flowers and shy people. One of the earliest written records is a sarcastic newspaper article from 1870 that mentions a shrinking violet businessman from Pennsylvania accused of stealing public money. Real wallflowers, on the other hand, are perennial herbs that grow on cliffsides and walls, hence the name. In this case, it is easier to see the analogy.

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We can tend our garden with love and dedication, but weeds can still sprout out and damage other plants and flowers. When this happens, the course of action is to get rid of these intruders as soon as possible to stop them from growing further. In life as in gardening, when we see a problem on the horizon, it is best to address it before it becomes more serious. This is when the expression nip it in the bud comes in handy.

The bud is the early stages, the undeveloped part of a plant. If you cut it —or nip it— before it springs up, you are avoiding future troubles. In the 16th century, this phrase was used literally. Over time, it became a common idiom that we use every time we find an issue that is best to tackle at an early stage.

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This one has a bit of a dark meaning but, at the same time, it allows us to think about death in a slightly more pleasant and positive way. After all, a little bit of dark humor never hurts. Let's not beat around the bush; pushing up daisies means to be dead and buried.

The origin of this idiom is not too clear, although there are records of analogies between daisies and death coined by romantic poets such as John Keats. The first written mention of this expression in its current form is from a 1917 poem by Wilfred Owen. On the other hand, we know it was a widely used metaphor during World War I.

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You probably already know the meaning of this idiom, and the truth is that it is pretty straightforward. But since it is one of our favorites, we thought it was a good idea to bring it to the gardening table. To plant the seed of suspicion means to cause someone to have doubts —often in an indirect manner— or to introduce someone to a worrisome idea that wasn't there before.

The origin of this expression is totally unknown and has different variables: to sow the seed of doubt, to plant a seed in one's head, etc. Interestingly, to plant the seeds (of something) is also used to describe an action done to ensure a certain outcome in the future, especially an unfortunate one.

How did "google" become a verb? Everyday words we owe to scriptwriters

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Ever caught yourself rolling your eyes at "spam" or a "Debbie Downer"? Guess what —those aren't just words; they're pop culture legends that were screen-born. These 10 everyday terms started as TV or movie dialogue jewels and leaped into our conversations, becoming universal labels for both old and new ideas. Let’s see how many of these words started as plot-critical concepts —and stuck!

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Spam existed decades before the internet was even invented. Although back then it only referred to the pork-and-ham processed meat sold in cans (an abbreviation of "spiced ham"). The product had been circulating and consumed since 1937, when, in the 70s, the British group Monty Python made history with a sketch from their show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It was about a bar catering to Vikings, where every dish included canned meat, prompting the servers and customers to chant "spam" repeatedly and annoyingly.

The sketch became so popular that the cultural reference stuck in people’s minds. By the time electronic mail was born —and with it, tons of unsolicited, junky, repetitive messages — people already knew what to use the word for.

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Even though intrusive journalists have been around for centuries, meddlesome photographers didn’t have a label until the 1960s. In Federico Fellini’s famous movie La Dolce Vita, there was an iconic character named Paparazzo. He was a freelance photographer who relentlessly followed celebrities to capture sensational images. His actions represented a new type of aggressive journalism that was emerging at the time, focused on capturing the private lives of public figures.

Over the years, Fellini revealed that he chose the name Paparazzo for the character because it sounded like a "buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging." The word is universally used today and even has the derivation "papped", for subjects that have been caught on camera by such photographers.

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By now, we are very used to new technologies swiftly becoming verbs. Even the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepts "DM" as a verb and a noun. There was a time, though, when the verbification of tech wasn’t so obvious. One of Google’s co-founders, Larry Page, first used the search engine’s name as a gerund in a 1998 mailing list, where he signed off: "Have fun and keep googling!"

However, the verb gained widespread popularity thanks to a 2002 episode of the famous show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In it, a character asked Buffy if she had "googled" someone: the new term confused the others in the room. While the verb was likely emerging in many people’s vocabulary simultaneously, that scene helped solidify it for the masses. The American Dialect Society proceeded to choose the verb "google" as the "most useful word of 2002."

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It was the show Saturday Night Live that conceived this character who would get along with "Negative Nancy" and "Bob Bummer." In an episode that aired in 2004, comedian Rachel Dratch portrayed Debbie Downer, a woman who went to Disney World with her friends but was incapable of feeling joy and instead kept bringing up depressing topics.

The character was introduced along with a mocking jingle explaining her influence on her social group. The sketch was so celebrated that it became a recurring series in SNL, and the expression caught on. "Downer" had been in the English lexicon since the 19th century, but the idea of attaching it to a name to trademark the pessimistic attitude happened entirely in the scriptwriters’ room.

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"Bucket list" has existed for decades to refer to unfinished business, or pending issues in ongoing projects. But it wasn’t until the 21st century that the term was given a new meaning for its association with the expression "kicking the bucket". A "bucket list" then came to signify a series of experiences a person wants to have within their lifetime.

The concept was popularized for the masses thanks to the success of the movie The Bucket List (2007). In it, the terminally-ill characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman teach the audience the value of fulfilling life’s wishes and whims. The touching concept then entered the vocabulary of millions around the world.

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Although previously used to refer to computers, the term "core memories" only began to apply to humans thanks to an animated movie. In Pixar’s Inside Out (2015), the memories inside a girl’s mind are illustrated as a colorful system of orbs. The most treasured of those are called "core memories" and are created whenever the girl lives a deeply moving experience that helps solidify her identity.

Since the movie’s release, "core memories" has become a popular phrase on the internet, where people share real or imagined experiences to refer to events that left lasting impressions on their psyche and personality.

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We now use "catfishing" as the name for a type of online fraud: cases of financial or romantic deceit, where a fake online persona is created to lure victims. But, have you ever wondered how catfish —the fish— became tangled with these affairs?

In 2010, a producer called Nev Schulman released a documentary showing how he had been tricked in this way. One of the men interviewed about the case compared the event with a fabled deception from the fishing industry: placing an "impostor" catfish in a tank full of cod during shipping. The idea gave the documentary its title, and eventually led to a reality TV show of the same name, further cementing the concept's fame.

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This is another expression that was once used informally in some social groups as slang. An early instance of its use was recorded in a 1956 interview with Louis Armstrong. However, it was in the ‘90s that the apologetic motto caught on massively. It’s believed that it became internationally widespread because of its casual inclusion in a scene from the 1995 movie Clueless. In it, the protagonist swerves in one of her first driving lessons, and softly apologizes with a quick "Oops! My bad!".

Although it has sparked debates over its grammatical correctness, "my bad" is now used in informal conversations as a synonym for "sorry" or "my fault."

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Funnily enough, it was the show Friends that popularized the concept of "the friend zone." In the middle of the first season, which aired in 1994 to an audience of roughly 24 million viewers, Joey explains to Ross that romantic relationships hardly ever evolve from long-standing friendships. He introduces the expression with: "You are in the friend zone. You are major of the zone."

The term was quickly adopted and later used in other popular media, such as books and movies. Eventually, the words were verbified and also transformed to refer to both parts of the equation: the "friendzoner" and the "friendzonee."

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This term, broadly used in psychology nowadays, originated in honor of Gas Light, a British play by Patrick Hamilton. In the play, a man attempts to manipulate his wife by slowly deceiving her and making her doubt her own mental sanity. One of his strategies is to dim the gas lights in their house little by little, but insisting that he hasn’t touched them when she accuses him.

This tactic, the most symbolic of the character’s actions, gave its name to the play and the subsequent 1944 film adaptation. The story became a classic example to illustrate this particular form of manipulation, which is now universally referred to as "gaslighting."