Rusty Saber: Clichés crop up often but lack originality

As you may have guessed, this Rusty Saber is about clichés, those hackneyed phrases that muscle their way into our everyday conversations.

We don’t get very far in communicating before cliché-tossing begins. The above clichés are from the sports world, yet they crop up in all sorts of nonathletic discourse.

I’m ready to “get this show on the road.” Today, I “hit the ground running.” Yes, I’m ready. “Truth be told,” “I was born ready.” Clichés, “bring them on,” “the more the merrier.”

I don’t know if there is a way to determine the most-used cliché. It might be just a “ballpark figure” on my part, but “my money is on” the ever popular “think outside the box.” So many proudly boast of being outside-box thinkers. I’ve never understood what might be in the box and why anyone would want to think inside or outside the box.

I wonder if the thinking box is related to the “the first crack out of the box.” Come to think of it, that one doesn’t make any sense, either.

The cliché “the phone has been ringing off the wall all day” has little meaning today, yet it is a nearly universal description of a busy telephone. You would have to “look high and low” for a modern telephone mounted on a wall. For sure, you might have to go to “the ends of the earth” to find a phone that actually rings. The computer noises of today’s phones are not rings.

Clichés fill in nicely as advice. We all know from the sports world that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” In order to “close the deal” you need to “get

cracking.” “If you know what’s good for you,” you need to “get it in gear” and “strike while the iron is hot.”

People who are “sharp as a tack” like to be” on the cutting edge.” This would be good unless being on the cutting edge causes a slide down a “slippery slope.”

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew” is probably good anti-choking advice. An even better suggestion is don’t “cut off your nose to spite your face.” Considering what your face would be without your nose, this you don’t want to do. Put it on the things-to-avoid list with “fall on your sword.”

Even buses contribute to the lexicon of clichés. For starters, there’s “start the bus, the game’s over” and “get on the bus, Gus.”

Should you want to cast blame on someone else, you “throw him under the bus.” For the one landing under the bus, it would probably be “a bitter pill to swallow.”

If you’re feeling “at the top of your game,” I would “bet the farm” that you are “hitting on all cylinders.” It’s a “no-brainer” you are “as cool as the other side of the pillow.” Remember what they say, “if the shoe fits, wear it.” For you, this indeed may be your time to “go for it.”

Out of the sporting world into the masses come such clichés as a description of bad news: “He took it on the chin.” The time may come at work where one needs to “take one for the team.” “A slam dunk” has moved from basketball to the general vocabulary.

“That’s par for the course” has meaning for folks who may never have touched a golf club.

If all clichés featuring animals were listed here, this column would far exceed this space. Samples: “the cat’s out of the bag,” “cool cat,” “when the cat’s away, the mice will play,” “lead a dog’s life,” “dog tired,” “dog and pony show,” “horse around,” “horse of a

different color,” “sly like a fox,” “a rat fink,” “rat race,” “monkey around,” “weasel out,” “a snake in the grass,” “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” You get the idea.

I must admit that writing about clichés has been a “piece of cake.” I could go back and try to cram in more clichés, but that might just “open up a new can of worms.” Besides, you know the old cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.[[In-content Ad]]