Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Back "into the swing of things"

Hello all! Did you miss Slang-o-Rama?? My apologies for the long (unannounced) hiatus. Chalk it up to life.

But I and Slang-o-Rama are baaaack and getting into the swing of things.

Turns out this phrase, which I guessed might date to the 1920s or so, goes back to the 19th century. According to Christine Ammer's The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, get into the swing of things, which means "become active, make progress" dates to the late 1800s.

The online Free Dictionary offers a bit more from Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches (I need that book for my reference shelf!) "This expression appears to be a nineteenth-century change on being in full swing (already very active in something), dating from the sixteenth century. An early use cited by the OED is by Thomas Huxley in 1864: 'I shall soon get into swing.'"

So, there you go! Let's get back on track and get to swinging and slinging some weekly slang, shall we?

Image by 4040952 from Pixabay