March 26 already? Left Coast Crime in Denver has come and gone (and what a wonderful mystery conference it was!) and March is nearly over, with only one lone Slang-o-rama entry from early in the month posted.
But I have an excuse: I've been under the weather.
Which means, I now have an idiom to explore with you...
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Under the weather, which means ailing or ill (and also can mean suffering from a hangover or being drunk), dates from the early 1800s, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. The expression, notes Ammer, presumably alludes to the influence of weather on one's health.
Farmers Almanac online suggests this phrase has a nautical origin:
...On the high seas when the wind would start to blow hard and the water became rough, crewmen and travelers would go below deck and down to their cabins in order to ride out the storm and avoid becoming seasick. In this way they literally retreat to a location “under the weather.”... According to Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions, by Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey, the term in its entirety is “under the weather bow;” they tell us the weather bow is “the side [of the ship] upon which all the rotten weather is blowing.”
For me, it isn't the weather that is the culprit but some unknown virus that is racketing about my respiratory system and making me miserable. I believe I will follow the general nautical advice to retreat and hunker down, until the (internal) storm subsides...
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| Incoming virus storm! Image by Monoar Rahman Rony from Pixabay |
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