Ok, this week, I have another idiom for you:
"to make one's toes curl"
What does it mean?
Apparently, this idiom has different meanings in different countries. In Britain and Australia, it means to make someone feel embarrassed or ashamed for someone else, while its meaning in America is to frighten or shock somebody.
Where does it come from?
The origin of this idiom isn't really clear. The only source I could find states that the first time "toe-curling" was used in the sense of embarrassment has been in 1962 in a Jamaican newspaper. The source suggests an American origin.
My two cents:
I strongly believe this idiom has either two different sources (one in Britain and one in America) or it originated only in Britain and has been adopted into American English with a shift in meaning.
Language ... the bridge of communication, the magic creator of worlds, the brush and paint of authors. Language is magic. It gives us power. It is something you just have to love.
Actually, it has another meaning too. In some instances, saying "She made his toes curl"... or "he made her toes curl..." is an idiom meaning that the sex with the person was really, really good. Promise! I'm not making it up! LOL
ReplyDeleteHey Michy, thanks for adding the other meaning! :D
ReplyDeleteLove,
Saoirse
Actually, the first time I ever heard the phrase "made my toes curl", it was with regards to the quality of kissing. I had not heard the other meanings you presented... but I can see how the phrase could be very regional!
ReplyDeleteLark, thanks to you too :D
ReplyDeleteLove,
Saoirse
I agree that the meaning mostly reflects the sex appeal of another person. Perhaps that is only in the USA.
ReplyDeleteSo maybe the meaning in the US has recently undergone change...interesting! Thanks for your comment too, Glory :)
ReplyDeleteNot so much recently - I mean, I'm 40 and I remember giggling about it when I was a kid and I know references to it in several pop culture movies too. My mom is in her 60s, and I asked her about it and she said, Yup, she remembers it from an old Happy Days episode too, about a kiss so good your toes curled.
ReplyDeleteSo I think it's a long-standing one... most frequently these days I've heard it or seen it online in reference to 'orgasm' itself - that having a really good orgasm makes your toes curl and I've seen it for oral sex on a man - "Blowjob so good his toes curled..."
So... LOL But then again, I loooove idioms, and find them fascinating. I love the humor of people who take idioms more literally, and frequently am amused reading translated work and seeing how idioms get confused.
Content spinners take people's writing and run them through word substitution spinning software. So 'make your toes curl' would come out literally substituted like this: facilitate the upward turning of the appendages of the foot.
I get such a kick over those things!
Michy, thanks again for your comment (and correction). Then, it indeed seems as if both meanings in the US have come about at around the same time...while it is really interesting that the sexual meaning is far more widely known and used but not mentioned at all in the sources I found.
ReplyDeleteWhat really surprises me every now and then is when I find out that an idiom has exactly the same wording in two different languages, and the same meaning too. It always makes me wonder at first if it's just a bad translation of someone not recognising an idiom until I look it up...