The Roots of Everyday English Expressions: The Bible & Folk Tales

Learn where common English expressions come from. People have always believed in the strangeness of life and the power of religion. In fact, many English expressions come from folk tales and the Bible, and we’ll go over some in this class. For example, learn why people say “knock on wood” to avoid bad luck, or what “Hail Mary” means in football and everyday life. This lesson is perfect for English learners who want to understand simple and everyday expressions. Watch and discover the stories behind these phrases, and how you can use them in your own conversations. https://www.engvid.com/everyday-engli...

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In this lesson:
0:00 10 Expressions from Superstitions
1:21 knock on wood
1:47 jinx
2:09 Hail Mary
3:41 deja vu
4:41 bible thumper
5:42 Murphy's Law
6:24 the blind leading the blind
7:08 the writing is on the wall
7:55 chasing rainbows & pot of gold
9:42 a fly in the ointment
10:49 fall by the wayside

TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everybody, welcome to www.engvid.com, I'm Adam.
In today's video, I want to share with you some expressions, some common expressions
in English.
But what makes these particular expressions interesting is where they came from, their
source.
So, most of these are from either superstition or from the Bible, believe it or not.
People quote the Bible quite often.
Many people don't realize they're quoting the Bible, but they are.
So, first of all, what is a superstition?
A superstition is a type of belief that is not really based on anything.
It's just a story that happened that was popular many, many, many years ago, and that parents
told their kids, who told their kids, who told their kids, and people started believing
it even though there's no scientific reason to.
I'll give you an example.
Some people believe that if you break a mirror, you will have seven years of bad luck.
Some people think that if you see a black cat crossing in front of you, you should spit
or you will have bad luck.
So, these are types of superstitions.
So, I'm going to give you a few expressions that are based on superstition that people
use all the time.
We're going to start with "knock on wood".
So, I don't have any wood here, but I would knock on wood after I say something positive.
So, I say, "Oh, I think my son is going to be accepted into Harvard.
Knock on wood."
Now, if there's a piece of wood somewhere, most people will knock and say the expression
"knock on wood" because what they want to do, they don't want to jinx what they just
said.
To jinx something is to bring bad luck on it.
So, you want to avoid the bad luck, so you knock on wood and then you're safe.
Why?
Who knows?
Some old story became a superstition and people accepted it.
"Hail Mary".
"Hail Mary" is from a religion, not necessarily the Bible.
It's a name of a prayer.
"Hail Mary, full of grace", etc., etc.
Now, what's interesting about this is I'm not actually talking about the prayer.
I'm talking about football, American football.
And the "Hail Mary" pass is something that is popular in the sport.
A "Hail Mary" pass generally happens near the end of a game or near the end of a half,
and one team is behind in points.
So, they're running out of time.
They don't have enough time to slowly move up the field, so they try a "Hail Mary" pass,
which means trying to pass all the way across the field and hope that the catcher, the person
who's supposed to catch the ball catches it and gets the touchdown.
Now, people...
This is...
This started in the NFL, in football.
Now, people use this anytime that they need to do something desperate, in business, in
social life, anything.
When you're running out of chances, when you're running out of time and you're desperate,
you'll do a "Hail Mary".
You'll basically fire everybody to save money.
You'll hire somebody, a professional, even though he costs too much, but it's a "Hail
Mary" pass.
You need to do something desperate in order to score the touchdown, in order to succeed
in what you're trying to do.
So, good expression.
To have "deja vu".
Now, technically not English, but we use it in English all the time.
To have "deja vu" is to think you've seen something before, or you've done something
before, or you've experienced something before, and when you're doing it now, it seems very,
very familiar, like you've done it before, maybe even in a past life.
So, in a past life, you ask the prettiest girl in school to go on a date, and now you're
going up to her, and for some reason, you feel like, "Wait, I've done this before."
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