The origin of set expressions in modern English

The sources of modern English phraseology are extremely versatile, which means that the language is characterized by a strong tendency of forming newer and newer collocations alongside with the figuralization of the meanings of the meanings, of their lexical elements. In accordance with their etymology, all English set expressions can be subdivided into two large groups:

1. those of the English origin (native English set expressions);

2. borrowings, which are further subdivided into:

   1. interlingual,

   2. introlingual.

A special group comprises those units, which may be named foreign phraseological insertions. As a result a more detailed classification of idioms may consist of 4 principal groups:

1) idioms of the English origin:

a. idioms reflecting English customs (baker’s dozen – first appeared in the language of bakers because according to the old English tradition bread-sellers received from bakers 13 loafs instead of 12, the 13^th one being their profit, which wasn’t considered honest),

b. idioms, associated with the peculiarities of English life (bluestocking – a Blue Stocking Meeting was a literary society of the 18^th century London because the scientist Benjamin Spellingflith always appeared in it in blue stockings),

c. idioms, where personal names are used (a good jack makes a good jill («у хорошего мужа и жена хороша»),

d. idioms, associated with beliefs and prejudices (a black sheep – in old times a black sheep in a herd was believed to be marked by devil),

e. idioms, associated with astrology (to curse one’s stars, to be born under a bad star, etc.),

f. idioms, associated with the real historical events (as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb («если суждено быть повешенным за овцу, почему бы не украсть ягненка») – according to an old English law the theft of a sheep was punished by hanging),

g. idioms of terminological origin (to cut the painter («обрубить канат») – originates from the marine terminology; to hit below the belt – from the boxer’s language),

h. Shakespeare’s idioms (many modern English idioms from the writings of the past, but their majority are linked with the name of the greatest English playwright: a fool’s paradise, the green-eyed monster (jealousy), to one’s heart content);

2) interlingual borrowings:

a. Biblical loans (sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, a millstone about somebody’s neck, a wolf in sheep’s clothes and many more),

b. foreign loans, coming from Antique mythology (the apple of discord, a labour of Sisyphus, the thread of Ariadne),

c. French borrowings (after us the deluge, appetite comes with the eating, the fair sex, the game is not worth the candle),

d. German borrowings (blood and iron, speech is silvern, silence is golden, storm and stress),

e. Spanish borrowings (the fifth column, to tilt at windmills),

f. Russian borrowings (the sick man of Europe – a European country in a financial crisis);

(Apart from the above the English phraseology contains some borrowings from Danish, Dutch, Italian, Chinese and Arabic.)

3) introlingual borrowings (mainly from the American English: time is money (comes from “Advice to the young tradesman” by B. Franklin), to sell like hot cakes, to sit on the fence, to spill the beans, to look (feel) like a million dollars);

4) foreign insertions (mainly Latin and French phrases, which are never translated or modified: terra incognita, ad hoc, status quo, curriculum vitae (c.v.), enfant terrible).

The principal way of borrowing idioms is translation or calking, whose cases may be:

1. direct translation (make believe, vicious circle from French, divide and rule from Latin),

2. semi-translation (on the qui vive)

3. idioms, imitating the foreign semantic structure (by all that’s blue («черт возьми»), May Day (from French m’aider -- “help me”)