Jack Albert. Red Herrings & White Elephants. The Origins of the Phrases We Use Every Day

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016. — ISBN 9781843581291.Red Herrings and White Elephants is an essential handbook for language-lovers of all ages.In the course of a day, we all use many examples of what is known as an idiom. Idioms are words and phrases which those of us with a native English tongue take for granted, as we have grown up to recognise their meaning. That is despite the words being used having absolutely nothing to do with the context of a conversation we are having.
For example, if I explained I am writing this preface ‘off the cuff’, you would immediately recognise it as an unprepared piece being written in one take (which, by the way, it is). But why do I call that ‘off the cuff’ when it has nothing to do with my cuffs, much less being either on or off them?
If I suggest everything in this book is absolutely true, I can emphasis that statement by insisting every word in here is ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’. Again, we all know that means it has come directly from the source of information and is therefore reliable.