I was thinking about the phrase ‘The pot calling the kettle black’. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)
What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?
I think that many historic trades have been automated to the extent their old terminology is obscure but lives on in idioms.
“To the bitter end” (bitter end meaning the lose end of a rope, from rope-working - not entirely extinct but obscure). Perhaps that one could be “To the edge node”!
“Strike while the iron is hot” (from blacksmithing, again not entirely an extinct craft but largely replaced by automation). Maybe “Cross while the light is green?”
Wow, great examples! I never realised that first one had a historical meaning. I suppose even without the context it still makes sense because of the adjective ‘bitter’.
I wonder if any common sayings nowadays will catch on and become long lived idioms in the future?
Drinks like coffee and tea can become bitter when you get down to the dregs. That’s what the first saying makes me think of.
Same with distillation, you get the heavies that you don’t really want in your drink so you end the process. Ie the bitter end.
The bitter end isn’t loose, it is bitten to (tied to) the windlass. Let the line out until there are no turns left on the windlass
That’s very good.
All the horse ones because we don’t use horses anymore. There a ton of them.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Who tf gets a gift horse?
Saddle up. Who tf has a saddle?
Hold your horses. Who the fuck has horses to hold?
Get off your high horse. Who tf has a high horse?
Beat a dead horse. WTF.
Quit horsing around. You’re really putting the cart before the horse.
Edit: sorry, gotta go. I need to see a man about a horse.
Great examples! ‘champing at the bit’ also comes to mind. I think cars fill in pretty nicely as a horse substitute. ‘Saddle up’ has ‘buckle up’. Hold your horses has ‘Hit your brakes’. As for gift horses… ‘Don’t look a gift car under the hood?’ Hmm doesn’t quite work
“Don’t check the resale value of a gift car” maybe
But presumably a gift horse is worth something as long as it walks. This summer my kid got a “gift car” and it was critical look at both the undercarriage and the resale value. Thank goodness he was only out the cost of a tow and mechanics inspection
I dunno. Yamiks still beats on horses… In both ways.
I’m sure there’s something there with e-scooters. Get off your segway max extreme and get down here. Don’t look at the speed regulator of a free scooter. Hold onto your brakes? Idk I’m just spitballing here
To update replace all with car.
Dont look under the hood of a gift car.
Buckle up.
Hold your engine.
Get out of your limousine.
Turn the key on a drowned engine.
You could still use Hold your horses because the car has horse power. Pressing the brake pedal literally holds your horses.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Don’t check the dipstick of a gifted car.
They have the same meaning that you’re trying see if the horse is healthy and the car’s engine is in good condition.
whats the point of a modern replacement? idioms connect us across time and when they really have not modern sense (which there is enough understanding of cookware I don’t think we hit that with pot and kettle) then it becomes an interesting backstory.
No real reason, just something to talk about while we all wait around to die really 🤷. I agree with your sentiment - the stories and imagery behind old idioms actually make them more interesting, I dont think they’ll be going anywhere soon!
To be funny is why.
went from hell and back, obviously it has a very christiany origin to it as is moving heaven and earth.
“Pulling my leg.” Meaning you are making something up/joking at someones expense.
It does not have any real connection to the present. The idiom came about in the mid-19th century. There’s two competing theories theories about how it came about. The prevailing theory is that pick pockets, particularly child pick pockets, would pull on people legs to distract their mark. The darker theory is that it was related to pulling someone’s legs when they were hanged in order to finish the ordeal if they didn’t die from the initial drop.
Great example! That one is so ingrained that I never even realised it didn’t make literal sense! Maybe a modern replacement could be something like ‘You’re hiding a camera’
Cap
Wearing metas?
I donlt know if its literal origin doesn’t make sense to a modern person, but I think that most people still get the literal meaning of “pot calling the kettle black” is still understandable, so…
We still use “penny-wise and pound-foolish” in the US. We haven’t used the pound since we seceded from the British Empire, and we just ended minting of the penny.
The saying apparently predates the US by about 200 years.
Until I looked it up I thought it was about the literal colour of the pot and the kettle. I even thought there might be racist undertones 😅. What’s a good replacement for ‘Pennywise and Pound foolish’? Maybe ‘Steam saler, LootBox whaler’
“Loses dollars to chase cents” is the closest thing I’ve heard.
‘Steam saler, LootBox whaler’
this is a good one 🤣
I’ve also heard “would step over a dollar to pick up a penny”.
On a similar note: “in for a penny, in for a pound”
“Did you bring the (evening newspaper) with you?” I’ve used this in different countries, the newspaper referred to is one which historically was sold in the afternoon, not morning. And I ask it of anyone who comes to work late. Now, at least here, all the newspapers come out in the morning, so I just get confused stares.
“Extra extra read all about it.” Said because it was an extra leaflet to the daily newspaper published later in the day.
That sounds like a great candidate for a modern replacement if I’ve ever heard one! What’s something that you can only get at night these days? Seems like everything, especially information, is 24 hours now. Maybe someone more creative than me could chime in?
There’s tons of replacements, they’re not directly equivalent but equally snarky: “Hey part-timer” “Half day?” “Stop by for some coffee?”
Hurried right over after dessert, then?
Well, you’re early for tomorrow!
I’ve heard some variations on that before.
FYI this can still happen on liquid propane stoves, so not totally lost to time.
Maybe “Kill two birds with one stone”, because who hunts with stones anymore?
As a software dev I’ll offer ‘Kill two bugs with one patch’ as a replacement.
99 different bugs in the code, 99 different bugs. You take one out, patch it away, 463 different bugs in the code 🎶
bugs
Touché!
I prefer “Get two birds stoned at once”
My fav replacement for this one is “feed two birds with one scone”, I don’t remember where I heard it but it always makes me smile
(Don’t feed bread to birds tho lol)
I prefer stone two birds with the same joint.
“it’s a twofer!”
I think I remember seeing a PETA post years ago that suggested “feed two birds with one scone”
Yeah that one bugs me. I can feed multiple birds with one scone easily. I’m putting in too much effort here, but this recipe has the macronutrient mass of a single scone at 90g. The average crow weighs about 300-600g. I chose it because it’s a common bird that would be interested in scone and that people like to feed, that’s on the bigger end of birds people feed (outside waterfowl). One crow isn’t eating nearly a third of its mass in one go, a sixth maybe. Songbirds aren’t even getting close to that.
Killing two birds with one stone implies some skill or fortune. You wouldn’t say it to describe picking up tomorrow’s groceries with today’s. Feeding two birds with one scone is only difficult or fortunate if those birds are geese, and even then I assume the only reason two managed to get their bills on that thing is because they’re fighting over it.
Also scones are terrible for the health of birds as are all breads. It’s frankly on point that peta would be dumb enough to make their animal friendly term equally as harmful to animals.
“Have your cake and eat it too” doesn’t really make sense. Cake is not rare or expensive enough that simply possessing it feels good. If you have cake, all you want is to eat it.
The italian version, “you want a full barrel and drunk wife” illustrates the same situation much more clearly.
I was confused by this one too, but then I thought about it in the context of a wedding cake; you want to have it as a beautiful thing to show off to all of your guests, but you also want everyone to enjoy how good it tastes as a desert. You can’t have both simultaneously, so you have to pick
That’s because it’s backwards. Should be “eat your cake and have it too”
Ted, is that you?
Even flipped, it’s still weird in English with “Having cake” meaning “Eating cake” in most contexts anyway.
Better stated as “… and still have it”, come to think of it.
this actually finally makes the phrase mean what it means without a bunch of explanation
Also wanting to eat your cake and have it too is supposed to imply you’re like a toddler having a tantrum because you’re just coming to terms with the rules of object permanence: a person playing peekaboo or hide-and-seek can disappear and still come back, but if you eat your cake it will be ALL GONE!!!
Mouselemming thank goodness you’re still here. I scrolled up and you disappeared for a second, I was so worried!
There’s a reason that is seen as greedy and foolish.
Thank you Unabomber
You cannot have a cake in your possession and also eat that cake. Once you eat it, it is gone.
I cannot possess cake without eating it
Technically its not gone, just inside you.
Oof ouch my bone satchel
When I was a kid, I remember asking my mom about this phrase because it made no sense to me. Why in the world would one even want a cake if they weren’t going to eat it? What is the point?! (I have always been particularly fond of cake — eating it, that is — who cares if it’s pretty if it tastes good?)
According to legend, some people have what’s called “deferred gratification”, by which they drive pleasure out of knowing that they will get to eat the cake later.
I don’t get it either. I think it’s a myth.
But maybe you will someday in the future…
But I want it now!
Just desserts is another one.
I’m only half joking when I say this could be the modern replacement. I’ve caught both myself and the S.O. using “no take only throw” in conversation, often about unreasonably demanding people.
Ted Kaczynski has entered the chat.
(to do something) “on your dime,” i.e. at your expense - A reference to public coin operated phones, which for a long time cost 10c/a US “dime” coin per call.
Inflation by the late 70s had made the single dime call a thing of the past, but USD20c was still possible, and inflating phone fees in the 80s required increasing amounts of coinage. Public pay phones were decimated when mobile phones gained popularity and are virtually extinct today in the US.
“on your card” might be a more modern version, but cards are slowly disappearing with NFC phone payments.
On your tab.
Similar to when you “drop the dime” on someone, i.e. using a dime to call the cops on a payphone. Although in my lifetime, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone but Bradley Nowell use that phrase.
Ohhh, that’s where “dime you out” comes from.
“Picking up the phone” makes sense because you will probably pick it up to answer or dial. “Hanging up the phone” doesn’t really happen so much anymore but we still do it all the time.
“Burning the midnight oil”
Good one! I would offer ‘Draining the house battery’ as a replacement but it doesn’t really have a ring to. Maybe ‘You’ve been living in low blue light mode’. No that’s even worse! somebody help me here 😅.
“Staying up past your bedtime” is about as close as I can think of, off the top of my head.
using solar at night
“yer using solar at night, ain’t ya boi”
that’s more of a ‘you’re a dumbass’ than a ‘you’re a hard worker’ tho, innit?
Never getting your phone on the charger?
24/7 bandwidth draw?
Ignite the midnight petroleum.
A stitch in time saves nine.
This refers to a time when clothes were hard to come by and often homemade. If they tore, a small tear could be fixed with one stitch of needle and thread, but if let go too long, it would take many more stitches to repair a bigger rip.
Change your oil (or tires) in time, or change your car.
This is still relevant, please take care of your clothes.
Dollars to donuts originated in an age when a dollar could buy a considerable quantity of donuts. Inflation has since reduced the literal interpretation of the expression to nearly even odds.
Also donut shops overcharge. Donuts used to be super fucking cheap. That’s why they’d be next to the coffee pot at every function, and in the work break room. Now they want like $2 a donut. It’s dough that’s been boiled in grease. And they get to reuse the grease for many boilings. C’mon.
I’d bet you dollars to RAM…
Also, I enjoy etymology. To me donuts will always be doughnaughts. (Naught meaning nothing or zero. Essentially zeroes made of dough.)
I came here for this comment. Thanks OP.
In 2026 it’s literally Donuts To Dollars.
Time is a flat, fried, circle drenched in chocolate frosting and filled with cream!
Chocolate-flavored frosting
I saw this as a screenshot somewhere today, I think it kind of fits the theme: https://www.threads.com/@beaukorylak/post/DYez23dDppv
“One bad apple will spoil the whole barrel” desperately needs to be replaced because nobody has experience with storing apples in barrels so when Michael Jackson subverted it they took it unironically and now many people think it means the opposite.
I’m not techy but something about one line of bad code can jank the whole program?
“A bad link breaks the chain” maybe. Or “one bug causes an infestation” for the idea that you can’t just solve the initial problem once it gets bad, it spreads if not dealth with
Maybe if we just apply “you find one cockroach, there’s a million in the walls” to the same problems like bent police and corrupt politicians…
