This week: phrasing, part the second. Then, footnotes and a little bit of trivia to get us out. Let’s get to it.
Remember the movie Robin Hood? No, the Disney version. The one where Robin and Marian are foxes, Little John's a bear, and the evil Prince John is a maneless lion? Right. That one. Something I've always wondered about: Is Prince John using the idiom "to coin a phrase" correctly? In one of the early scenes in the movie, PJ is in his coach, talking his chancellor about how many taxes he's going to collect. He says something like, "Taxes! Tax the poor to feed the rich, to coin a phrase." Now, I don't think that's exactly how the idiom is meant to be used. But I'm not sure. So, this week we're going to dive in and find out.
Let's begin with a quick recap. Last week we came up with a grammatical definition of phrase: small chunks of meaning that are self-contained, somewhere between the single idea contained in a word and the layers of nuance and complexity inherent in a sentence, which is why we see them used so often as catchphrases and stock phrases.
Stock Phrase
Stock just means to keep something ready or on hand. Presumably then, a stock phrase is just a phrase you like to keep in your head, ready to be used at a moment's notice. In other words, there is a thought that we find easy to express not through a word or a full essay but with just a couple of words put together in a particular order. This method of organizing information is so convenient and well-understood that we stockpile it for occasional use. Fair warning though, use a stock phrase too much and you might end up with a cliche.(1) But what about the opposite? Where’s the line between unique one-time-only phrasing and a stock phrase? For my money, it’s a catchphrase.
Catchphrase
If a stock phrase is something used by everyone to show that they belong to a group, a catchphrase is tied to an individual. It's that one particular phrase that that one guy says, you know? '(2, 3) But, just like a stock phrase, one reason catch phrases become popular is that they become a way of quickly expressing an idea that is too big for a single word but too small for a full sentence. These days, we tend to think of them as hokey and old fashioned, like a stand-up routine from the Borscht Belt. (Take my wife…please!) The thing is, we all have catchphrases. Think about your closest circle of friends: are there phrases you associate with a single person? Doesn’t have to be funny or witty, just something that reminds you of someone? Catchphrase. Of course, some people are just better at coming up with memorable lines. They can really turn out a good phrase.
Turn of Phrase
This article traces "turn of phrase" back to the 1500s, and makes an educated guess that it came from calligraphy. As in, to write with a fine turn of the pen became to speak with a fine turn of phrase, where turn in the first example is more literal and shows the same evolution we see over and over where the literal becomes figurative almost overnight sometimes. And so, someone who has this gift of making a fine turn of phrase comes up with wholly new catchphrases and even stock phrases sometimes. When they put these new expressions together, they coin a phrase.
To Coin a Phrase
The coin in this idiom is meant literally, at least originally. Coin, as a verb, traces its roots back to the 14th century, meaning "to make coins” (I’m simplifying. Like, a lot.) From there, its use evolved to making other physical goods, like the metal die to make coins, and then to more abstract concepts, like making new words. Curiously, the actual idiom "to coin a phrase" doesn't appear in English until the 1840s. Perhaps more interesting is that, while it did mean, as I had thought, to create a new phrase, it quickly evolved again to be used, "something said before using a popular expression or before saying some variation of an expression" (Source: theidioms.com), which, to me, feels a little nails-on-the-chalkboard. Almost like how literally can now mean figuratively. (4) Shudder.
Disney's Robin Hood debuted in 1973. So, in less than a century, we see "to coin a phrase" evolve from being used to note a brand-new phrase in the making to being used ironically, to denote the use of a cliche or banal phrase. That’s not at all uncommon. And I’m sure a deep dive into a corpus study could tell us when the shift became pronounced (thesis idea! You’re welcome!) but for now, it’s enough to note that I was wrong. Prince John used “to coin a phrase” ironically or sarcastically, just like everyone else. To coin a phrase.
Footnotes
What I actually find fascinating about stock phrases is not their etymology but the fact that not only do we all have them, but we will adopt the ones of the people around us. It's a tribe-building tool that ties directly into how language works: we use language to describe the world around us to others and using shared stock phrases, whether that's jargon, lingo, patois, technobabble, or any other collection of in-jokes and observational tools, is a very good way of being part of the group.
This is one of the things that gets people into trouble. When someone tries to use a stock phrase that may have a history attached to it to show that they are a member of the group only to find that the group is not ready to let them be that deeply a part of it...well, problems arise. Just read the news and you'll see it in action everywhere.
My favorite illustration of catchphrase comes from the 90s sketch comedy show, The State. One character, played by Dan..., routinely says "I wanna dip my balls in it!" and then produces two golf balls from his pockets. As the sketches go on, the occasion in which he uses the catchphrase become less and less fitting even while the clamor of his friends for him to say his catchphrase becomes ever more pronounced. The whole series of sketches points out how silly and how strange catchprases are and how quickly they can evolve. And that "I wanna dip my balls in it!" became an in-joke of a stock phrase just adds a layer of delicious, delicious irony.
Look, I know I’m supposed to be all about language change and freedom of expression and descriptive grammar practices but this one gets my goat. Just, grr.
Trivially Yours
The character of Allan-a-Dale, the minstrel rooster in Disney’s Robin Hood, was voiced by Roger Miller, who had a number 1 hit on both the Country and Easy Listening charts with the song, “King of the Road.” (Check Mental Floss for more trivia about Robin Hood.)
Stay curious,
J