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Have you been guilty of letting the cat out of the bag? Or did you spill the beans? How many have turned a blind eye to something? Well-known phrases baffle some, especially the young who don’t hear them that often anymore. There are fascinating stories behind many ever day phrases.

We all know that turning a blind eye means pretending not to see something. Generally, we think of terms of wrongdoing when we turn a blind eye. But where did this phrase come from? Research finds it dates back to 1801.

Admiral Horatio Nelson sailed into battle as the commander of a British naval ship. Staring down a much larger enemy fleet, Nelson’s commanding officer ordered him to withdraw. But Nelson refused to walk away.

Instead, he is said to hold up a telescope to his blinded eye and declare, “I really do not see the signal.” In the end Nelson won the battle and thereby giving us a new phrase.

Nelson’s 1809 biography brought the witticism to light when it phrased Nelson’s reply this way: “You know Foley, I have only one eye and I have a right to be blind sometimes… I really do not see the signal.”

The first time the use of the phrase ‘turn a blind eye’ appears in print is 1823. Irish diarist Martha Wilmont wrote, “Turn a blind eye and a deaf ear every now and then, and we get on marvelously.”

We all do our best not to let the cat out of the bag about any surprise party. But how did cats come into the picture? The phrase dates back to Medieval England and customers browsing market stalls looking for piglets. Piglets were sold in a sack at the time. However, unscrupulous sells would often sway out the piglet for a cat.

So if you bought a bag that contained a cat instead of a piglet, you’d know you’d been conned. The first printed use of the phrase comes in 1760 when a magazine wrote, “We could have wished that the author… had not let the cat out of the bag.”

One wonders why everyone didn’t just take a quick peek into the bag to see what they were buying. This relates to the phrase ‘a pig in a poke’. A poke was a type of bag so the phrase warned people not to buy something until they actually saw what they were buying or ‘buyer beware’.

Every so often you might have a great idea but somebody jumps ahead and steals your idea for themselves. Or they stole your thunder. Can’t hardly believe this relates to a real thunderstorm. Actually it dates back to the theater and it really does relate to thunder.

Back in 1704 a literary critic John Dennis attempted playwriting. His play ‘Appius and Virginia wasn’t a hit. However, he found a marvelous method for making thunder rattle the theater. After the play closed a competitor literally stole his thunder. The innovation brought the heath of Scotland to life in Macbeth.

Dennis was furious. He reportedly roared, ‘Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder.”

Ever hear the phrase “the real McCoy”? It refers to an inventor who revolutionized the railroad industry, even though the railroad companies refused to hire him as an engineer.

Elijah McCoy was born to parents who fled slavery on the Underground Railroad. McCoy trained in Scotland as a mechanical engineer. When he moved to the U.S. in 1866, he couldn’t find a job in his field. Railroads would only hire him as a laborer.

His hands-on experience led him to invent a lubrication device that saved time and kept steam engines operating longer. Soon, every locomotive had McCoy’s ‘oil drip cup’. Rivals tried to duplicate the cup but none matched “the real McCoy’. Eventually McCoy was able to save enough money to start his own company and began manufacturing his inventions.

Hopefully you have the real McCoy and haven’t let the cat out of the bag lately. Do your best not steal anyone else’s thunder.