When I’m out & about, I often say something lightly that elicits gazes of perplexion upon the hearers complexion. Hence- UNDER MY OWN STEAM. Anyone out there familiar with this one? Let me know, thanks.
Wrong Way, Write Way
Walter Hitt is writing as if it doesn't matter.
I use that one myself at times. I do remember it although I seldom hear anyone say it.
Mmmm — I don’t say it, but I assume it means “using my own resources” or “fending for myself.”
I saw a nice little essay by Calvin Trillin recently that pointed out that the expression “all thumbs” has become obsolete now that young people can text lightning-fast using only those digits.
Know it! – thinking about it, probably don’t use that much. Go and ‘blow off steam’ is still in use in this house (ever heard a large boiler do that? 🙂
Technology has neat corollaries in colloquialisms (I’m quite used to getting perplexed gazes by now… 😉
Steam has its share, as does electricity. Probably slowly added/displaced by today’s new technology.
Surely originates fairly straightforwardly in the age of steam: either locomotives or ships. The Oxford English Dictionary has Joseph Conrad using the phrase in 1912. There’s also to let off steam; to run out of steam; to build up steam. I suppose we now move all this stuff over onto electricity: to pull the plug on; to spark; to power down.