British English is dense with set phrases, and a good many of them are opaque to visitors who know every individual word. Here is a working selection, and where some of them come from.
The ones about not making a fuss
The largest category, and the most British:
- “Mustn’t grumble.” The standard answer to “how are you?” from anyone over sixty. Means things are not good and will not be discussed.
- “Could be worse.” Same function.
- “It is what it is.” Resignation, with no intention of acting.
- “Least said, soonest mended.” Do not raise it.
- “I won’t keep you.” Said at the start of a conversation that will last twenty minutes.
- “No harm done.” Considerable harm may have been done.
Weather and time
- “It never rains but it pours.” Troubles arrive together.
- “Cast ne’er a clout till May be out.” Do not shed clothing until May — or possibly until the may blossom appears, which is the older and more likely reading.
- “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.” Genuinely has some meteorological basis in mid-latitude weather systems.
- “Nice weather for ducks.” It is raining heavily.
The ones people get wrong
Several familiar proverbs are half-quotations, and the missing half reverses the meaning:
- “The exception proves the rule.” Proves here means tests, in the older sense preserved in “proving ground”. The exception tests the rule; it does not confirm it.
- “Blood is thicker than water.” Widely quoted to mean family outranks everything. There is a persistent claim that the original was about the blood of the covenant outranking the water of the womb, which is almost certainly a modern invention — but the phrase’s early uses are less family-centred than the modern reading.
- “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Pope wrote “a little learning“.
Where they come from
- The sea. Britain was a maritime nation and the language shows it: by and large, taken aback, the bitter end, three sheets to the wind, touch and go, show your true colours, groggy, above board.
- The King James Bible. The powers that be, a fly in the ointment, the skin of my teeth, a labour of love, the writing on the wall.
- Shakespeare. A foregone conclusion, the be-all and end-all, wild goose chase, in a pickle, break the ice, good riddance.
- Farming and hunting. Barking up the wrong tree, make hay while the sun shines, at the drop of a hat, run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
Regional sayings
Many phrases are strictly local and cause blank looks elsewhere. Yorkshire supplies “there’s nowt so queer as folk” and “where there’s muck there’s brass”. The North East has “why aye”. Scotland offers “lang may yer lum reek” — long may your chimney smoke, a wish for prosperity — and “we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns”, meaning we are all the same underneath.