Well, in fairness to the guides at places such as Stratford-Upon-Avon, I’m sure they’re not consciously deceiving their visitors. Giving someone the cold shoulder can end up making you feel decidedly sorry for yourself, a study has revealed. - OK: Why do I say “OK”? - Pitch Black: Why do we say something is “pitch black”? To search for a specific phrase, put it between quotation marks. I’ve been reading your web site for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from New Caney Texas! Fun Folk Etymology Origin of Cold Shoulder Required fields are marked *, You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

. In a later novel of his, Scott wrote “I must tip him the cold shoulder, or he will be pestering me eternally”, which again has nothing to do with cold mutton. It is said that guests who were desired were offered hot meals in many households, where less desired guests were given a part of a cold shoulder of meat. As a writer’s quip, that’s mildly funny. 400+ pages of science questions answered and explained for kids -- and adults. Why do I say “OK”? In food-related origins of the phrase, the term shoulder refers to a shoulder of mutton or other meat. This site is working in affiliation with Amazon.com (for USA visitors) and Zazzle. Your comments frequently make an invaluable contribution to the story of words and phrases in everyday usage over many years. Hayes. Dated June 1839 in a letter to the editor in the New England newspaper The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier: "... eminent individuals and his cabinet advisers turned "the cold shoulder" to their ambassador, for his independent act upon this occasion. We deeply appreciate the erudition and energy of our commenters. b.) Is this correct or is it just another unscrupulous tour operator’s way of fooling those of us who are interested in such things as etymology? Within a few years of Scott’s publication of The Antiquary, “cold shoulder” was turning up in novels by Thackeray and Dickens, and soon became a popular English idiom. As information dispensed to trusting tourists, it’s just plain annoying. Scott uses the phrase twice:  “The Countess’s dislike didna gang (didn’t go) farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther” and, later on, “I must tip him the cold shoulder, or he will be pestering me eternally.”  Both instances clearly refer to snubbing someone by turning one’s back,  showing them your shoulder as you turn away in a display of emotional “coldness.”. We will examine the meaning of giving someone the cold shoulder, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences. [3][2][4], One source claims that the explanation of the expression is due to a very literal action: keeping one's back towards, or in the least a shoulder between, a person one was trying to avoid. This website is also an affiliate with Zazzle, AllPosters.com and Cafepress, and runs adverts from Google Adsense. This is the universal language of dismissal and rejection. Scott’s use of the phrase suggests that it has its origin in body language. There’s a great story in circulation that when guests came over to dinner, if they were welcomed, they would be given a delicious plate of steaming, hot food, aimed to please and impress. See other articles in the etymology category including: Tweet, facebook, pin, instagram, reddit and everything else! If you have any ideas for "Why do I"s, or if you'd like to write a guest post, or if you just want to say "hi! As the above implies, the story you’ve heard about “give the cold shoulder to” (meaning “to show indifference or disdain to”) is nonsense, and the phrase has nothing to do with cold and inferior cuts of meat being used to rid the house of tiresome guests. ", you can contact me at, Why do we say something is Gobbledygook? This expression is a mistranslation of the Latin phrase dederunt umerum recedentem from the Book of Nehemiah 9.29 from the Vulgate Bible, which actually means "stubbornly they turned their backs on you", which comes from the Septuagint Bible's Greek equivalent ἔδωκαν νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα. The fact that “shoulder of mutton” was a real dish led to numerous literary puns tying the meat to the gesture (“The cold shoulder is not a palatable dish,” London Illustrated News, 1884). It’s just that tourists expect neat stories about the places they’re visiting, tour guides need to say something, and no one likes to look a gift horse in the mouth. Origin and Definition of Gobbledygook. So we know the meaning of cold shoulder, but what is the origin of the cold shoulder phrase? It has been used as a description of aloofness and disdain,[4] a contemptuous look over one's shoulder,[9] and even in the context of a woman attempting to decline the advances of an aggressive man. "[4], Despite being repeated in several non-academic (non-scientific) books of etymology, the common explanation that the phrase stems from serving a cold shoulder of mutton or other meat to an unwanted guest is an incorrect folk etymology according to linguists. Your email address will not be published. Fun Folk Etymology Origin of Cold Shoulder (which is sadly likely not to be true) There’s a great story in circulation that when guests came over to dinner, if they were welcomed, they would be given a delicious plate of steaming, hot food, aimed to please and impress. Neither eating nor food is expressed in the passage, but the phrase is presented in a rather allusive way. Giving cold cuts of meat is far from insulting in most circles even today. [10] Overall, it remains widely popular as a phrase for describing the act of ignoring someone or something, or giving an unfriendly response. This Slang page is designed to explain what the meaning of give the cold shoulder is. [4] The phrase also appears in one of Scott's later works, St. Ronan's Well and after the 1820s it had traveled to America. The More likely Etymology of Cold Shoulder. If however the company was not wanted, a passive aggressive, subtle way of letting them know this was by giving them cold food, and even more insulting was to give them cold, poorman’s food, such as the inferior meat cut: a cold shoulder of mutton. A list of slang words and phrases, idioms, jargon, acronyms, and abbreviations. It first appeared in print in 1816 (quite a bit after Shakespeare’s day, by the way) in Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Antiquary. This was supposedly a way of letting someone know that they had outstayed their welcome. What does OK stand for? Why give a cold shoulder of mutton when you can ward off unwanted guests with gruel-like slop or a plate of raw turnips? Note: [8], The expression "cold shoulder" has been used in many literary works, and has entered into the vernacular. where "cauld" is the equivalent of cold and "shouther" means shoulder,[7] which is further supported by contextual usage in The Antiquary. Why do we say something is “pitch black”. The first textual use of the phrase in 1816 made no reference to food at all, and reveals other potential origins of the phrase. There is also a commonly repeated incorrect folk etymology Why do we say someone is “in the limelight”? Dear Word Detective:  After reading your article regarding the phrase “sleep tight,” I  wondered if perhaps I have been deceived by tour guides in Stratford-Upon-Avon in the UK. [11], "shoulder – Origin and meaning of shoulder by Online Etymology Dictionary", "Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, ŭmĕrus", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cold_shoulder&oldid=947638913, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, A phrase also coined by Sir Walter Scott, ", This page was last edited on 27 March 2020, at 15:33. Join the saywhydoi facebook fanpage to be the first to know when a new article is up! "Cold shoulder" is a phrase used to express dismissal or the act of disregarding someone. This is the easiest way to find a column on a particular word or phrase. The first recorded use of the expression was in 1816 by Sir Walter Scott in the Scots language, in The Antiquary. Just wanted to say keep up the great job! saywhydoi.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com & amazon.co.uk. Since Scott is the first to use the term cold shoulder, and since he is known for coining other phrases like “lock, stock and barrel” it is likely he was the first to coin the phrase “cold shoulder”. As the above implies, the story you’ve heard about “give the cold shoulder to” (meaning “to show indifference or disdain to”) is nonsense, and the phrase has nothing to do with cold and inferior cuts of meat being used to rid the house of tiresome guests.

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