927. Whether you're a bird brain or a wise old owl, you'll love this week's episode as we fight an uphill battle to understand a language filled with metaphors.
927. Whether you're a bird brain or a wise old owl, you'll love this week's episode as we fight an uphill battle to understand a language filled with metaphors.
| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/uphill-animals/transcript
| The "Uphill/Downhill" segment was written by Samantha Enslen, an award-winning writer who runs the writing and editing agency Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
| The "Animal Idioms" segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com
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Whether you're a bird brain or a wise old owl, you'll love this week's episode as we fight an uphill battle to understand a language filled with metaphors.
Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff. This week, we'll answer a fourth grader's question about the phrase "It's all downhill from here," and then we'll explore some fun animal idioms.
Is It 'All Uphill from Here'? Or 'All Downhill from Here'?
by Samantha Enslen
Here’s a question from Henry.
"Hi, Mignon. I'm Henry, a fourth grader from Buffalo, New York. Last night, my dad and I were reading the sixth book in 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' by Lemony Snicket. [In this series] the narrator defines words or phrases as the children are about to start. Climbing up a very high staircase, the doorman jokes, 'There's one good thing about this staircase: it's all uphill from here.' The narrator defines 'it's all uphill from here' as meaning things will get better in the future. However, I find conflicting definitions online, and most say it means things will get worse. What does 'it's all uphill from here' really mean?”
Henry asks a great question, and one that's trickier than you'd expect.
Here's the story.
If we look at the phrase “it's all uphill from here” logically, it should mean that things are getting difficult. Imagine riding a bike. When you're headed into an uphill climb, you know that things are going to be rough.
In the same vein, logically, “it's all downhill from here” should mean that things are getting easier. You're coasting downhill, wind in your hair, your feet resting on the pedals. Everything is easy-peasy.
Except, when it comes to these two phrases, nothing’s easy. Here’s the problem.
Phrases that include the word “up” tend to have a positive connotation. When we upgrade our software, we’re switching to a better version. When you have the upper hand on someone, you have the advantage. The upper crust of society are fancy folks who live in the highest social strata. If you tend to look at the upside of things, you’re an optimist. And if things are on the up and up, everything’s legit.
In contrast, phrases that use the word “down” tend to have a negative connotation. For example, if you're sad, you may be down in the dumps. Someone who's impoverished could be down and out, down at heel, or down on their luck. If you’re facing an epic fail? That means everything is going down the drain, or down the tubes.
Because of our long history with phrases like this, we start to see why someone would think that “all uphill” might be good, and that “all downhill” might be bad.
To add one more layer of complexity, the word “downhill” itself is what's called a Janus word. That means it has two equal but opposite meanings. One definition of downhill is “easy.” The other is “progressively worse.”
Wow.
Considering this, you can see why the phrases “it's all uphill (or downhill) from here” can cause a lot of confusion. If you're going to use them, especially in writing, the safe thing to do is add context.
For example, don’t send your friends a text saying: “We just took Rover to the veterinarian. It's all downhill from here.”
Your friends might start freaking out! Is your puppy sick? Is he going to die?
To reduce everyone's stress, add context. For example, you could say something like this: “We just got back from taking Rover to the vet. Great news: it’s all downhill from here! He just needs one more week of antibiotics, then he’s good to go!”
That sounds better, right?
So that's your public service announcement for today. Don't assume readers will know what you mean if you say something is “all uphill” or “all downhill” from here. Add a little context to help everyone understand your meaning. And thanks for the question, Henry.
That segment was written by Samantha Enslen, an award-winning writer who runs the writing and editing agency Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com.
—
Why We Use Animal Names to Refer to Human Behavior
by Valerie Fridland
Have you ever squirreled something away to use later, pigged out on M&Ms, or been a bit of a chicken? Very likely you have, but did you ever think about why we have a tendency to use animal names for human behaviors?
Since animals and humans have co-existed and often feared each other for thousands of years, maybe it makes sense that we would assign certain characteristics to those animals based on our experiences with them. When we notice squirrels busily storing away multitudes of acorns, pigs eating anything and everything, and chickens fleeing at early signs there might be danger, it certainly doesn’t seem like such a stretch to see ourselves in some of those tendencies. And after all, who knows what animals are saying about us behind our backs with their barks, meows, and oinks?
When we compare animal behaviors to human behaviors, it actually says more about us than it does about the animals. We're looking at them through our own eyes, and using metaphors to describe actions that are really just natural for them. So when we call pigs "gluttonous" or chickens "weak and scared," we're actually just projecting our own values onto them. By making these comparisons, we're just showing how we see ourselves in these animals.
Since most people think of animals as being worth less than humans — despite how you might feel about Fluffy — many of these animal terms end up being quite negative (for example, snake, weasel, and rat). Indeed, humans have long used animal terms to dehumanize and degrade ethnic groups who they feel are beneath them (for example, calling people dogs, apes, and ants). So, in exploring the history of how some of these terms came to be, we will probably learn a lot more about the humans who use them than the animals that inspired them.
Living in a dog eat dog world
Not surprisingly, one of the animal names that has often been used to describe human behavior is man’s best friend, the dog. What is surprising, given the way we call them fur babies and buy them sweaters today, is that, when we use the word "dog" to refer to people, we clearly haven’t always held them in high regard.
When you call someone a dog, it usually isn’t considered a great compliment, and we’ve been using “dog” in this derogatory way for centuries. In fact, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, we first find such contemptuous use as early as the 11th century where the word "docgena" [doc-yeh-na] was used to describe the people who brutally tortured a 4th century deacon, St. Vincent, who refused to renounce his faith. Clearly not a positive portrayal of what it is to act like a dog.
Now, interestingly, although the word "dog" is very common today, its etymological history is a little murky. In Old English, the Germanic word "hund" was the generic way to refer to our companion canines, and the word "dog" appears to have been a rare term used to refer to a particular type of powerful, fierce, and darker-colored hund. The earliest version of the word, "docga," only appears once in writing in Old English, in that story about St. Vincent, and it's hypothesized to have come from the word "dox," an Old English adjective describing a dark or dusky color. People started using the word more commonly and generically in Middle English where it appeared as "dogge," though, according to the Middle English Dictionary, it was most often used in an unflattering and insulting way. But regardless of where it came from, dogs were clearly viewed as more utilitarian than cuddly in these earlier times, and they were prized for their hunting prowess and coarse nature, spawning the negative sense we mean when we say someone is acting like a “dog” today.
Another set of creatures that have taken on more than their fair share of negative press are weasels and their kin, badgers. Compared to weasels who are anthropomorphized as two-faced and deceitful, badgers have it pretty easy, only being maligned as annoyingly relentless in pestering you about that trash you need to take out or that colonoscopy appointment for which you are overdue, but both creatures have gotten a bad rap in terms of the behaviors they have come to represent.
Although weasels have a reputation for sneaking into coops and killing chickens that don't belong to them, they are just trying to keep themselves fed. But their voracious appetite sometimes led them to literally bite off more than they could chew, and this tendency to kill and then store dead animal bodies for a later meal didn’t help their image much (especially with the farmers owning the aforementioned chickens). This behavior is a pretty smart one from the perspective of long-term survival, but, in the social world of humans, considered pretty murderous. Thus, weasels showed up as the bad guys in animated films like Disney’s "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" from 1949. And the rest, as they say, is history, at least in terms of our beliefs about those with weasel-y natures.
Now, the association of badgers with pestering or annoying behavior comes not from natural badger tendencies per se, but from a more disturbing and very human activity – the sport of badger baiting, which was very popular in 19th century Britain. In this event, badgers were led into boxes or barrels that were open on one side and dogs were set upon them. It's not quite clear whether it's the dogs’ tenacious pursuit of the trapped badger or the badgers’ tenacious defense of their lives that inspired this association, but, either way, it certainly does not speak well of the humans who organized it. Not surprisingly, the dogs and/or badgers often met a bad fate, which is likely the origin of the term “to badger [someone] to death.”
And how about our fondness for calling out feckless or sinister sorts as rats or snakes? Again, it's related to how humans have come to view rats and snakes as dirty, diseased, dangerous, and (for snakes at least) slippery. Probably not a very fair assessment of animals who are simply trying to live their best lives as well as ignoring the fact that snakes are actually quite helpful at getting rid of annoying pests like, well, rats. Likewise, squirrels, pigs, and chickens with their respective acorn collecting, voracious eating, and running away are just trying to not starve or become someone else’s meal, though we again tend to view their behaviors as more intentional and in a negative light.
What becomes clear as we consider the history behind our animal-to-human metaphorical language is that we have a great tendency to view the behavioral traits of animals through a very human-centered lens – and this generally ends up making us the ones that look like the bad guys.
That segment was written by Valerie Fridland, a professor of linguistics at the University of Nevada in Reno and the author of "Like Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English." You can find her at valeriefridland.com.
And finally, I have a familect story from Michelle.
"Hello, Grammar Girl. This is Michelle from Boston, Massachusetts, with a familect word for you. I was amused to learn that another listener has the word 'keecoo' in his familect, meaning ‘cookie.’ Our middle daughter, Eliana, as a toddler part of a similar word: 'cockoo.' But 'cockoo' means either a cookie or cracker. In British English, the work 'biscuit' serves this purpose, but biscuit is more of a bread roll in American English. So we use the word 'cockoo' instead. It also can mean dog treat, according to our border collie who just got rewarded with the dog treat for recognizing the word. Thank you for your podcast."
Thank you, Michelle! And here's a little aside. You may have noticed that Michelle said that "biscuit" can mean either cookie or cracker in British English, and I thought that was interesting. It scratched at my brain a bit because I thought I had heard something different. So I looked around, and wow is this more complicated than I'd imagined. I did a poll on Mastodon, asking for responses from only British people, and the results were almost evenly split. 41% of respondents said a British biscuit is only a sweet cookie, and 45% said a British biscuit can be either a cookie or a cracker (and 14% of the respondents said it is something else). I got many, many comments with many different explanations. It turns out there was even an entire episode of the podcast "Pants in the Boot" (which I listened to) just arguing about what "biscuit" means in British English. I think maybe what I'd call a cracker is usually a cracker in British English, EXCEPT when it's a specific kind of cracker called a "water biscuit" or possibly when talking about "cheese and biscuits." But honestly, I still don't know. At this point, I'm not sure anyone knows. And please don't call or write to me about it.
But if you want to share your familect, call the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL. Call from a nice quiet place, and we might play it on the show.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast, and thanks to the team. Our audio engineer Nathan is Semes, and our director of podcasts is Adam Cecil. Our marketing associate is Davina Tomlin, and our ad operations specialist is Morgan Christianson, whose favorite dessert is flan. Our digital operations specialist is Holly Hutchings, and our intern is Kamryn Lacy.
And I’m Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. That's all. Thanks for listening.
The following was not included in the audio but is included here for reference.
Sources for the Uphill/Downhill segment:
Ammer, C. (2013) American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Allen, R. (2006) See various terms starting with down and up. Allen’s English Phrases. Penguin Books.
downhill, uphill. Merriam-Webster Online. https://www.merriam-webster.com/
Sources for the Animal Idioms segment:
Gasiorowski, P. (2006). The etymology of Old English *docga. Indogermanische Forschungen, 111, 275-284.
Goatly, A. (2006). Humans, animals, and metaphors. Society & Animals, 14(1), 15-37.
“dog, n.1". OED Online. March 2023. Oxford University Press. https://www-oed-com.unr.idm.oclc.org/view/Entry/56405?rskey=6YnAS0&result=1&isAdvanced=false (accessed March 14, 2023).
"badger." Etymonline.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/badger (accessed March 14, 2023).
"Why Do Weasels Have a Bad Reputation?" PBS. February 19, 2020.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/the-mighty-weasel-why-do-weasels-have-a-bad-reputation/ (accessed March 14, 2023).
"dogge." Middle English Dictionary. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED12304/track?counter=1&search_id=23227246 (accessed March 14, 2023).