Watch This Fascinating Video To Learn Where 42 Popular Phrases Come From

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If you’re not interested in language or history, go ahead and bail out of this video immediately. You will be bored to tears by its content and will never be able to get the time back. If, however, you have a little bit of nerd inside you and love learning hot and quirky facts about the words we use on a regular basis, you’re going to want to fire this clip up.

Put together by the geniuses over at Mental Floss. The footage features host John Green outlining the origins of forty-two different idioms. From Peeping Tom to bury the hatchet to cup of tea, the author/ YouTube host criss-crosses in a lot of different directions and ultimately produces what feels like a slightly upgraded version of America’s Secret Slang, which is a very big compliment.

It’s hard to narrow down a single favorite from the list, but if I had to pick one, I’d probably say to win hands down, which apparently traces its origins back to horse racing. If one of the racers is so far ahead of the others, the jockey is able to ease his hands off and still win without pushing the horse. Therefore, the animal wins hands down and another phrase is added to the lexicon.

Mental Floss is always a big fan of the English language and the history of everyday items. In the past, the channel has offered videos on drink origins, misquotes and grammar mistakes. You can check out the last of those options below…

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.

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