Hello.
This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Rob.
And I'm Sam.
Can you wait
a second, Rob?
I have
to spend a penny.
What!
You're going shopping
now, are you?
We're just
about to start the programme!
No, no, I have to ... you
know, 'spend a penny'.
Haven't you heard that
expression before?
Spend a
penny means 'go to the
toilet'.
It's an old idiom
from the days when it
cost a penny to unlock the
door of a public toilet.
OK, I see.
Well, you're
showing your age there,
Sam - most young people
today wouldn't know what
that phrase meant, and
there aren't many public
toilets left
nowadays anyway.
Language changes fast,
and new words and phrases
are being created all
the time.
In this
programme, we'll be
learning some modern
idioms - new expressions
that have been introduced
to English through the
internet, TV and social
media.
And of course,
we'll be learning their
meanings a well.
Great, I'm 'raring
to go' - another idiom
there.
But first, as
usual, I have a question
for you, Sam.
Many
well-known idioms come
from the world of sport,
for example 'throw in
the towel' which means
'give up', or 'surrender'.
But which sport does
the idiom 'throw in the
towel' come from?
Is it:
a) football?
b) tennis?
or c) boxing?
I think I know this one.
It's c) boxing.
OK, Sam.
I'll reveal
the answer at the end
of the programme, so
just hold your horses
for now!
Ah, another idiom there,
Rob - hold your horses
meaning 'stop and think
for a moment'.
That's an
idiom that Gareth Carrol
might teach his university
students.
Dr Carrol is
the author of a new book,
'Dropping the Mic and
Jumping the Shark: Where
Do Modern Idioms Come From?'
He became interested in
idioms when he realised
that he didn't know many
of the expressions his
students used in their
everyday speech, modern
idioms like 'jump
the shark'.
Here is Gareth Carrol
telling BBC Radio 4
programme, Word of Mouth,
about one source of
many modern idioms -
the movies.
So, Groundhog Day I think
more or less has the
meaning of 'déjà vu' now,
and it's completely
embedded in the language ...
actually, that's probably
one of the first phrases
that got me thinking about
these modern idioms in
the first place because
it is so ubiquitous,
it's used in a huge
range of contexts, and
one of the things
that made me sit up
and take notice is,
I had a number of
students who know the
phrase, Groundhog Day,
but had no idea
it was a film.
In the film Groundhog
Day, the main character
wakes up to live
the same day over
and over again.
Gradually, the movie
title itself became
an idiom, Groundhog
Day, meaning 'a situation
in which events that
have happened before,
happen again in exactly
the same way'.
It's
similar in meaning to
another expression -
déjà vu.
When phrases the movies
develop into idioms
it's often because
they are ubiquitous -
they seem to
appear everywhere.
And one of the ways
they appear everywhere
is, of course, the
internet.
Here's
Gareth Carrol again,
telling more to
Michael Rosen,
presenter of BBC
Radio 4 programme,
Word of Mouth.
The vocabulary of the
internet, even the
word 'internet', is
relatively modern ...
the idea of breaking
the internet is
now a phrase I think
people would use and
recognise, so something
that causes such a
stir online that
metaphorically so many
people rush to a
website that it
threatens to bring it
down, something
like that ...
In the early days we
had 'go viral' which
has stayed with us,
hasn't it?
Yeah, so the idea of
something going viral
is certainly very much
in the vocabulary
now ... But things like
Twitter have leant
sort of phrases, so
the idea of first-world
problems, meaning sort
of ironically things
that we complain
about but actually,
compared to other
parts of the world,
may well be
relatively minor, that
started life as Twitter
hashtag, for example.
Another modern idiom
is breaking the
internet - causing so
much excitement about
something online that
too many people visit
the website at the same
time, making it crash.
Social media outlets
like Twitter have also
created their own
idioms, including
first--orld problems -
a trivial problem that
does not seem very
important when
compared to the serious
problems faced by
people in poorer parts
of the world.
If you don't know some
of these idioms, don't
worry.
Unlike general
vocabulary, a native
speaker's full
knowledge of idioms
takes longer to
develop, usually at
around the age of
thirty to forty.
Meanwhile, you can
still rely on classic
English idioms, like
'pull my leg', 'kick
the bucket', and 'throw
in the towel' - which,
I think, comes from
the sport of
boxing.
Rob?
Yes, in my question
I asked which sport
gave birth to the
phrase 'throw in the
towel', and Sam's
answer was correct!
Well done!
The idiom
'throw in the towel'
comes from boxing
where the coach of
losing boxer would
literally throw a
towel into the ring
to surrender.
OK, let's recap the
rest of the idioms,
old and new, that
we've learnt today.
To spend a penny is
an old-fashioned way
of saying 'go to
the toilet'.
Groundhog Day describes
a situation in which
events that have
happened before, happen
again exactly
the same way.
If something is
'ubiquitous', it seems
to appear everywhere.
The modern idiom 'break
the internet', means
to cause so much
excitement about
something online that
you make the
website crash.
And finally, a
first-world problem is
a problem that does
not seem very important
when compared to the
serious problems faced
by people in poorer
parts of the world.
Unfortunately for us,
our six minutes are up!
Bye for now!
Bye bye!