LUNAR LORE

To The Moon And Back: The Stories Behind 10 Sayings Involving The Moon

Credit: Mark Tegethoff

Romance, delusions, and time measurements. All of these loom behind the idioms involving the Earth’s natural satellite. The moon has been a source of inspiration for poems, stories, and songs since ancestral times, its image recurring in our language as a symbol of beauty, grandeur, and ambition. Why have we attributed so many different meanings to it? In this article, we’ll explore some well-known and some more obscure idioms involving the moon, shedding light on how they came to be and why they have persisted.

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We all know that this phrase is used to describe events that happen very rarely. But what is a "Blue Moon"? Nowadays, we use the term to refer to the second full moon that we can see within a calendar month. Since moon cycles last about 29.5 days and months last around 30, it is unusual for a month to include two full moons. According to NASA, this phenomenon occurs once every two to three years.

The line was first used metaphorically in 1821, in Pierce Egan’s play called Real Life in London. However, this first use might have been referring to the more literal phenomenon of the moon appearing visibly blue because of atmospheric events, like fires or volcanic emissions.

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If some of these idioms sound like they belong in an illustrated nursery book, it’s because they do. Describing someone in a state of delight as being "over the moon" began in the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle," which first appeared in records in the 16th century.

The rhyme’s brief lyrics are cryptic, and historians can’t agree on their meaning. But the image it features of a cow jumping over the moon was memorable enough to give birth to the idiom. It became widespread in the 20th century, often used in British English to express giddy happiness or joy.

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It is unclear how or when this expression originated. But we know it gained popularity in the mid-20th century, that is, during the space race era. Some believe that the saying gained momentum after the successful Apollo moon landings, as it served as a motivational slogan. The phrase is used to encourage others to accomplish great things, or to describe someone's ambition of "reaching for the moon."

A sibling expression is "shoot the moon," or "hit the moon," which refers to achieving a challenging feat. In card games, "shooting the moon" describes strategies by which players aim for high or low scores.

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Beware of someone who promises you the moon, be it a partner, a salesman, or a politician. The expression serves as an accusation of a charlatan or a liar pledging to accomplish extravagant or impossible acts. The use of the line dates back to at least the early 20th century, when, again, influenced by the space race, many began fantasizing about reaching the moon, exploring it, and harnessing it. Alternatives to this saying are "promising the Earth," "the world," or "the stars," each one as unattainable as the last one.

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This one too originated in children’s literature. Born from the habit of competing for hyperbolic measurements to express the size of one’s love. "I love you to (name of a far-off place)" was already a popular construction before Sam McBratney’s book solidified this particular line.

Guess How Much I Love You was published in 1994. In it, a little hare and his parent take turns stretching their arms wider and wider to show their love for each other. Eventually, the distances start measuring from "I love you all the way down the lane as far as the river" to the little hare’s "I love you right up to the moon." After he falls asleep, the parent whispers, "I love you right up to the moon… and back."

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The expression might be old-fashioned or theatrical, but we all understand it. As a synonym for a "long time ago," it can either refer to a daily moon or moon cycles. In either case, the expression is usually chosen to dramatically refer to a time many years in the past.

We know that, for millennia, the appearances of the moon have been used to track time. In fact, the words "moon" and "month" share very similar roots; in Proto-Germanic language, they were menon and menoth, respectively. Tracking a full moon cycle thus came to mark a full month. "Many moons ago" is a reference to an ancient way of counting days and weeks.

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This construction might be the opposite of "promising the moon." When someone is "asking for the moon," they are demanding an unachievable or some unreasonable, high-value goal. It’s used to describe impractical fantasies or whims.

Just like "promising the moon," it is a hyperbolic idiom. It might have been born in the 1800s, with slight variations. Its use can be found in Charles Dickens’ 1852 Bleak House as "crying for the moon" and in William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1860 Lovell the Widower as "wishing for the moon."

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Believing that someone "hung the moon" means to see them as impressive or godlike, capable of superhuman feats, like having been the one to hang the moon. This is an expression used to describe great admiration, believing a person can do no wrong. It’s an exaggerated way of expressing high regard.

Unusual or outdated as it is, the idiom caught on in the U.S. during the 20th century. Its origin is unclear, but it was first recorded in Randolph & Wilson’s gallery of folk speech called Down in the Holler. In it, they compare the expression "she thinks he hung the moon" to "she thinks he’s God’s own cousin."

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The resemblance between a full moon and a cheese wheel is not something that modern cartoonists invented. It’s an image that has lived in the collective unconscious for centuries, at least. The comparison was already mentioned in The Proverbs of John Heywood, dated from 1546. There, Heywood wrote the expression "to make one believe the Moon is made of green cheese." Since then, the saying has been used to accuse blatant lies or deceptions, often said with sarcasm to point out that the truth is far from what was just said.

Credit: Federico Di Dio photography

It’s also known as "howling at the moon." In both cases, it implies that some complaint or discussion is futile. The origin of the phrase is linked to folklore and the belief farmers developed that wolves and dogs tended to bark at the moon. In reality, the reason why a dog might be more likely to howl during a full moon is simply that there is more light outside, which can trigger their excitement. The expression became popular to describe the efforts of someone wasting their energy on attempts to change someone’s mind or revert a situation through words.

TIME WARP

10 Technologies That Are Way Older Than You Think

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In the fast-paced world of technology, it's easy to assume that all our gadgets and gizmos are creations of the digital age. However, some inventions have been around longer than you might think, standing the test of time and continuing to shape our world.

Prepare to be amazed as we unveil 10 technologies that seem to defy the boundaries of time!

Credit: Brett Jordan

Date invented:c. 250 BCE

Believe it or not, the ancient Parthians might have been the first to experiment with primitive batteries, over 2,000 years ago. A set of artifacts known as the Baghdad Battery, consisting of a ceramic vessel, a tube of copper, and an iron rod, have led scientists to speculate that the three items could potentially be an early galvanic cell, likely used for electroplating or similar purposes.

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Date invented:1843

A staple of offices and workspaces everywhere, only recently replaced by cheaper and more efficient systems, the fax machine actually predates most modern office equipment by over a century. Scottish inventor Alexander Bain patented the first fax machine in 1843, allowing images and handwritten messages to be transmitted over telegraph lines.

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Date invented: c. 1832

While we might have been told that electric cars are the future - and they might be! - they are certainly nothing new! The concept has a long history, dating back to the 19th century. Designs for electric motors were proposed by numerous inventors of the time, including Benjamin Franklin. In the 1830s, a Scottish inventor named Robert Anderson created one of the earliest electric carriages, powered by a set of non-rechargeable batteries.

Credit: Onur Binay

Date invented:1965

Before smartphones made touchscreens ubiquitous, they were a futuristic concept straight out of science fiction. However, the first finger-driven touchscreen was developed in 1965 by Eric Johnson, an engineer at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, England, paving the way for modern touchscreen technology.

Credit: Bram Van Oost

Date invented:c. 1980s

The idea of cars that can drive themselves may seem like a recent innovation, but researchers have been experimenting with autonomous vehicle technology since at least the 1980s. Among these first attempts, Carnegie Mellon University's Navlab project, initiated in 1984, was one of the earliest efforts to develop autonomous cars. One of the vehicles produced under the Navlab project even managed to steer itself almost all the way from Pittsburgh to San Diego.

Credit: Helena Lopes

Date invented:1945

Although strictly speaking even a humble abacus could count as a computer, modern computers - capable of performing complex tasks and calculations through electric circuits - are still fairly old, being conceived during the first half of the twentieth century. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), completed in 1945, is often considered the world's first electronic general-purpose computer, marking the dawn of the digital age.

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Date invented: 5000 BCE

Did you know that central heating is almost as old as agriculture? Heating systems using underground pipes or hot air vents were found at numerous Neolithic archaeological sites. In the city of Rason (present-day North Korea), an ancient heating system called ondol was found in 5000-year-old dwellings. Later on, the Ancient Romans also pioneered central heating systems with the hypocaust, a form of underfloor heating that was extensively used in Roman baths and villas, providing luxurious warmth even in the coldest months.

Credit: Victoriano Izquierdo

Date invented: c. 1st century CE

I know it sounds hard to believe, but the world's first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century CE. The machine could dispense either holy water or wine in exchange for coins. A complex lever system allowed the mechanism to be fairly similar to what we are accustomed to today. Talk about an ancient form of convenience shopping!

Credit: Sigmund

Date invented:Early 20th century

The resurgence of 3D movies in recent years may feel like a modern trend, but the concept has been around for over a century. The first 3D film, "The Power of Love," was released in 1922, and it used red-green anaglyph glasses to create the illusion of depth on the silver screen.

Credit: Patrick Hendry

Date invented: c. 213 BCE

Heat rays might sound like a weapon from a sci-fi movie, but they have roots in ancient times. The first one to come up with a device that could concentrate thermal energy in a distant point was no one other than the famous Greek inventor Archimedes. His heat ray device is said to have been used to burn attacking Roman ships during the Siege of Syracuse (c. 213–212 BC). Although the exact system he devised was lost to time, modern reconstructions speculate that it must have utilized a set of mirrors or reflecting surfaces to cause fires aboard the attacking ships.