The secret weapon that shows skilled use of language

By Steve Finan

November 19 2022, 5:19am

The World Cup starts tomorrow, which is great. I played football for years, have a season ticket for my club, and have written 10 books about the game. Let’s hope for a memorable tournament like Mexico 1970, or Italia ’90.

I hope the World Cup sounds good too, with insightful contributions from game summarisers and pundits.

There is much to be said for having former footballers giving expert analysis. But not all are as adept in the art of explanation as they were when connecting foot with ball. You might say the distribution of commentating skill is a curate’s egg.

Isn’t that phrase, “a curate’s egg”, interesting? It is one of my favourite idioms.

The use of idiom is a secret weapon in language. It is a shortcut to brilliance. Weaving in apt idiom lifts all prose.

Anyone who uses idiom well can be regarded as a good writer.

Interestingly, “curate’s egg” has changed meaning. Nowadays it means a mix of good and bad, though I have always leaned towards a hint of more bad than good. But perhaps that is just my interpretation.

In the 19th Century the phrase described something entirely bad, but described (out of politeness or expediency) as good.

I like idioms that carry some history, or are a little obscure, or (most especially) make reference to things otherwise long forgotten. “Close, but no cigar” is rarely used, or understood, these days. Nor is “the whole nine yards”, “Short shrift”, or “sleep like a top”. I can’t recall when I last heard “to drive a coach and horses through”, which means to render ineffective.

Anyone wrapped up against the cold was described as “Nanook of the north”, “from pillar to post” is a tactic in the sport of real tennis. “Not pulling your weight” was originally a rowing term. Doolally was, and still is, a town in India (Deolali). It was where troops suffering mental breakdowns were sent.

Indeed, even for older folks phrases like “Buggins’ turn”, “double dutch” and “la-di-da” have gone out of fashion. And you probably aren’t allowed, on pain of death, to refer to a “dolly-bird” any more, so I won’t.

I wonder which modern terms might survive as idioms? “Unexpected item in bagging area” for a frustrating surprise? Or a Putin-inspired “special military operation” to describe something that didn’t go to plan?

There simply has to be an idiom coined along the lines of “a Truss and Kwarteng” to denote bad judgment leading to a situation that spirals out of control.