Idioms for Greener Prospects

Yes, we are back to continue with the theme of understanding idioms better in a fun way, the emphasis being on fun! Let’s begin…

1. Can’t see the forest for the trees-

What the blimey does it mean, are not forest made of trees? Then by a logical process of thinking, should not seeing trees be equivalent to seeing the forest? Yes, we know it is not to be taken literally, but who comes up with these mental acrobats, would love to have a word or two with these bunch of ‘creative souls’!
The idiom simply means you are unable to understand the situation clearly because you are too close to it.
Well the origin of this idiom lies in Bath (not the bath), a place in England. Trust the English to come up with weird idioms and even weirder names! Well, getting back to the origin, there was a bloke named John Wood , who was an architect. He designed a concourse of houses. There was a tree planted directly in front of these houses, and it grew quite large. So people began to exclaim: “You can’t see the forest for the tree!”.

E g – Treebeard , the ent, couldn’t see the forest for the trees, as he suffered loss of friends , but  he was ultimately pivotal to the fall of Isengard and Saruman.

(Ent are the talking giant trees from J R R Tolkien’s magnum opus “The Lord of the Rings”. Treebeard was the oldest Ent )

2. Primrose path – 
   Wonderful! Finally, some respite from the ghastly idioms! No, is it not? You don’t say so..
   It simply means pursuit of pleasure even though it may bring disastrous consequences.
   Well dash it !
   The origin lies in Hamlet , yes it is Shakespeare again!
   The idiom was coined by Shakespeare in his famous play Hamlet in 1602, where Ophelia advices her brother not to reject the righteous path because it is arduous and reject the pleasure filled path of sin.

E.g. Professor Moriarty continues on his primrose path, what facilitates him is his diabolical nature which allows him to commit crimes without losing sleep.
(Prof Moriarty is a criminal Master mind in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

3. Cut down the poppies –
   Well, are not they illegal to grow? Are we trying to become jailbirds now? Well, well!
   Poppy flowers are very bright red coloured and they stand out, so one fine day a Roman Emperor Tarquin got a brilliant idea to remove the heads of poppies to demonstrate how captive people should be treated. What a benevolent soul!
   Cut down the poppies means to criticize people who stand out from the crowd.

E.g. Mr Darcy was a firm believer and follower of cutting down poppies, that is until he met a certain Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
(Mr Darcy is a haughty and aloof protagonist in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, he was a stickler for conformity, decorum and general mannerism)

4. In the tall cotton – 
   Are we talking about someone wearing tall cotton? Even if we were, why not just cotton, why tall cotton? Oh, we mean the cotton plant when we refer to cotton! That clears a lot! 

The term ‘tall cotton ‘ originates from rural communities in the antebellum (pre civil war in America) South, which meant the crop was good. This idiom generally means a successful or prosperous time.
E.g., Being able to grow rice and barley in the deserted island put Robinson Crusoe in tall cotton.

(Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by Daniel Defoe, where Crusoe gets shipwrecked and stranded on a deserted island and the story narrates his attempts to make a life for himself)

This article has been authored by Priya Shegaonkar, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.