A

A Dime a Dozen: a metaphor meaning plentiful and cheap, as in a dime (just 10 US cents) would pay for 12 units of whatever was concerned. The term probably originates from the USA in the 19th century when fruits and vegetables were in season and plentiful, and so were sold for a “dime a dozen.” Perhaps not as cheap as all that though; a dime in 1850 would be worth around USD $2.95 (2016 value). Still, even today that’s not expensive for 12 good quality pieces of fruit or vegetables!

A Gray Area: something not certain, and possibly not trustworthy. ­Perhaps a slightly unfair reference to the color gray, being neither white nor black and so unclear and rather vague, the term has been in use since the mid-20th century and is used to describe something that is not ­certain, and possibly not trustworthy. For example, “there is a large gray area between what is legal and what is not.”

A Lemon: not a piece of citrus fruit, but a word used to describe a product or service that doesn’t work, for whatever reason. Common examples of “a lemon” include a car that is always breaking down or has manufacturing faults and investments that fail to make money. No one seems to know exactly why the word “lemon” has come to describe such bad things, but it’s probably connected with the lemon’s bitter, sour taste.

A Life Saver: not literally someone or something that saves your life, but a metaphor for some good luck or timely help that will get you out of a potentially difficult situation in your business or social life.

A Month of Sundays: a phrase meaning a long time, possibly never. A month of Sundays wouldn’t really be that long, however; 31 weeks, only around seven months or so. The expression has been in use in English since the mid-18th century—possibly longer.

A Pain in the Neck: a source of irritation. It can also be a pain in a ­number of other body parts—most of which are considered rude! Origins are unclear but likely to be from the USA, from about 1900 or so.

A Piece of Cake: something that is very easy to do, perform, make, and so on. The term originates from the USA in the late 19th century when cake was given out as prizes for competitions that were very easy to win. (Certainly does not originate from cooking/baking, though, unless you’re an expert!)

A Toss-Up: (also “tossup”): a reference to the tossing of a coin to see whether “heads” or “tails” will win a dispute, in the USA around the mid-18th century. The term now can be used to describe a time when a choice must be made among alternatives, or even as an adjective describing a place, event or political situation that’s doubtful in some way—for ­example, “a tossup county” (meaning one in which there are no clear election favorites).

Above and Beyond: a reference to the act of putting in extra effort, work, time, and so on without expecting reward. This is tautology, really, because the two words mean almost the same thing, but are used together in this expression to emphasize their point.

Act Out: to perform in the way that an actor does or a reference to ­people in business who are “acting out” a role that they may not necessarily be good at or qualified for. It’s also used in role play training exercises, where you “act out” the role of an angry customer, bossy colleague, bullied coworker, and so on.

Act Up: an American expression meaning to make a fuss, get angry, or otherwise misbehave. The term is commonly used to describe what children do sometimes, especially at very inconvenient moments, but can also happen in the workplace and so needs to be dealt with. It can also be used when talking about a machine, medical condition, car, and so on that is being troublesome, for example, “the laser printer is acting up again.”

Advertorial: a contemporary marketing communications hybrid. Essentially it is a paid advertisement that is produced in a publication or ­website so that it looks like an article, in supposedly “editorial” style. Most advertorial pieces are badly written and do no favors to their authors.

All Ears: listening and concentrating totally on what someone is saying. Apparently the term was first used back in the 18th century.

All and Sundry: (or Various and Sundry): everyone or everything connected with the person or occasion. The term has a very long history, going back as far as the 1400s, and according to some experts its roots go back even further via Middle and Old English. A contemporary example is: “When she got engaged she rushed to tell all and sundry her good news.”

Analytics: a relatively new word for statistics. It usually refers to the statistics you get from systems that analyze things such as your website traffic, online sales, clicks, and so on.

Anchor: a presenter or journalist (mainly in television news and some documentary programs) who stays in the studio and leads each section, handing over to reporters or other media people who are out reporting from the actual place where the news story is taking place. The word anchor is used because of its original meaning, the “anchor” of a ship (a huge hook that is dropped to the bottom of the water to attach itself to something and so prevent the ship from moving).

Angels: a term frequently used to describe individuals and organizations with money who look at new/renewed business proposals and decide whether or not to invest some of their money in those opportunities.

Annual Leave: holidays or vacation. The term usually is used by more formal businesses and professions because it sounds more, well, ­formal! It probably comes from army jargon where being “on leave” is a term that has been used in several English-speaking countries for many years.

Arbitrage: a profit big businesses hope to achieve by buying an asset and selling it immediately at a higher price. It is usually done when there are strong price differences between buying and selling, and only works out well once in a while.

Arrangement: in the music business, it is how a simple song concept is developed and expanded for various instrument parts and vocals (singing parts). An arrangement can consist of music created for a few guitars and a solo singer, right up to an arrangement for an entire orchestra.

Asset Stripping: when company A buys company B, and then sells off at a profit as many parts of company B as it can. Once that is done, company A is likely to sell what is left of company B for very little and with no thought to its brand values, employees, or customers.

At the Drop of a Hat: quickly and easily. The term is from the USA in the 19th century when races or other competitions were often started by someone either waving or dropping a hat. Given that all involved had to get moving very fast, the expression came to mean to do something quickly and easily, for example, “he would come over to help you at the drop of a hat.”

At the End of the Day: a phrase which means “finally.” Popular in the late 20th century when there were several such phrases circulating in business which, being longer than needed to express a simple point, were said to give the speaker a little more time to think about what they were going to say next.

At This Moment in Time: now. This is another example of a long phrase when just one word will do. As with “at the end of the day,” in the late 20th century this phrase also was popular as a way of “buying time” to figure out the point they were actually going to make.

Autocue: teleprompter. Like many other words which have crept into English as brand names, the brand name “Autocue” is now widely used to describe any electronic prompting device speakers use so they can read from a script, but not appear to be using any help. A one-way screen is used to reflect the text on the speaker’s side, but from the other side it is invisible. In TV or video this screen is placed over the camera, and for a live speech one or two of these screens are placed on the lectern. The speaker can control the speed at which the text scrolls through. Look out for these screens the next time you see a very senior politician giving a speech—although not all politicians use Autocue.

B

BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) (no doubt pronounced, as an acronym, as “bee-hags!”): a term used to describe a goal or objective in business that is very ambitious and will make the business concerned really stretch itself, but is a goal that will inspire everyone to work hard to achieve it.

BOGO: an acronym that stands for buy one, get one, usually either free or at a reduced price, such as half off. This is a common type of ­special offer you see in grocery stores and other places where fast moving ­consumer goods (FMCG) are sold.

BPM: initials that stand for business process management, which is a particular program that monitors and supports a business’s functions. It is enshrined in a number of different software packages to make the process happen, hence BPMS (Business Process Management Software).

Baby Boomers: the generation of people born just after the end of World War II (up to about 1965), when their parents had recovered from the fear of war time so thought it was safe to bring more children into the western world—hence a “boom” of babies. These “Baby Boomers” now are getting old but still have a lot of influence on things such as investments, pensions, health care, and so on.

Backing Track: in the music business, refers to the recording of an entire song without the vocals, as you might have with karaoke! Often singers will sing along to a backing track when there isn’t room or enough money to pay for a group or an orchestra. The word “backing” comes from the same root as “background,” combined with “backing up” or supporting the main element.

Bad Apple: a metaphor based on the horticultural sense that having one bad apple in a collection of good ones has the ability to make all the others rot in a short space of time. That’s how the metaphor works: one “bad apple,” for example, a negative or disruptive member of a team, employee, supplier and so on, or even an inappropriate policy within a project, can be enough to cause a lot of damage to the overall organization or activity. The term may originate from religious sermons preached in the USA in the 19th century.

Baker’s Dozen: an old-fashioned term for the number 13, and often a euphemism for a quantity or entity that delivers a bit more than it needs to. Supposedly this originates in medieval times when bakers added an extra loaf—or even two extra loaves—to a dozen (12) of bread, just in case someone might take them up on delivery quantity in weight terms—in which case they would be penalized.

Bald Men Fighting Over a Comb: some kind of conflict or argument about something that really doesn’t matter very much. If you think about it, bald men fighting over a comb (when they haven’t even got any hair to use a comb on) is a silly and pointless exercise. That’s why it has become an expression used in business and also in politics to describe unimportant issues.

Ballpark Figure: an approximate figure, not an exact one. Originally from the USA where in its popular game, baseball, the playing area is called a ballpark.

Bandwagon Effect: the inclination of people to join in with a popular idea or trend. Years ago, a bandwagon was a trailer on which a circus band performed. People who jumped on it were thought to want to be part of the show, but of course most were not good enough. In modern business, when a company tries to follow or copy a current fashion or trend—probably without being able to do it well—we call that the “bandwagon effect.” The late British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith made a very true statement about seizing business opportunities when he said, “if you can see the bandwagon, it’s too late.”

Bandwidth: the capacity or ability to achieve something. The term was borrowed from digital technology and telecommunications of the USA in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Batting on a Sticky Wicket: dealing with a difficult situation. The term derives originally from the British game of cricket. In that game it refers to damp and muddy circumstances which make the game very difficult to play.

Bear in Mind: remember or consider. This terms goes way back to Middle English, but today uses the more common meaning of “to bear” which is to carry, or maintain. For example, “although the problem seems hard to deal with right now, bear in mind that we have faced it before and in fact the solutions are quite easy to implement.”

Bear with Me: please have patience. This term relies on the earlier meaning of the word “bear” which in Shakespeare’s day meant “to have patience with,” as in this quote from Julius Caesar “Bear with me: My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar. And I must pause till it come back to me.” Today, we use it when we want people to have patience with us while we explain something, or sometimes to ask people to trust us to deliver.

Beat Box: in the music business, a contemporary term that describes a machine that creates various different percussion rhythms through a loud speaker. Portable versions are used by street musicians and other musicians who are not supported by someone playing an acoustic drum kit.

Beat It: leave quickly. The term has been immortalized by many famous people, perhaps the most famous of whom is the late Michael Jackson whose song of that name and inspiration were truly iconic. However, back here in the real world it can mean a number of other things for example, a way of saying how one accomplishment “beat”—i.e. won over—another, plus various culinary/cooking terms which probably aren’t required here.

Beggars Belief: something difficult to believe or place confidence in. Although in modern times we think of beggars as a plural noun for someone who begs, to “beggar” started off in the 16th century as a verb meaning to make poor, or to drain value/resources from. So if something beggars belief, it greatly reduces the value of what you might believe about that particular thing, or to put it simply, makes it hard for you to believe something. For example, “that ridiculous statement of his beggars belief.”

Begs the Question: to require, or at least ask for, further explanation, for example, “her repeated absence from work begs the question of whether she should be asked to resign.” The term’s origins go all the way back through Latin and Greek to Aristotle himself, and its meaning changed several times along the way. It first began being used with its current meaning in Shakespeare’s era, as with “beggars belief.”

Benchmark: a definite, reliable point from which to measure the growth or progress of a project or activity. The term derives from the engineering industry and was originally used by surveyors to describe the chiseled marks made in stone structures. They could then put an angle iron in those marks to make a “bench” to accommodate a leveling rod, knowing that the rod would be in the exact place each time it was used.

Best Bang for Your Buck: (also “bang for your buck”): the best value for your money. A lovely American expression! Without looking at the, er, perhaps “naughty” connections with this expression, all it really means is when it refers to something that is the best value for money you can get. As you probably know, a “buck” is a dollar, and the “best bang” refers to the best value. Simple, really: the best value you can get for your money, whether that’s on a personal level or applying to your business, any business, or even a major corporation.

Best of Both Worlds: the idea that you can gain from more than one source, circumstance, or opportunity (usually if there are two), at the same time. No one seems to know where the term originates, and in any case it’s a little vague. An example might be “I’m able to enjoy my work as it’s also my hobby, which means I benefit from the best of both worlds.”

Best of Breed: used originally to describe the first prize winner in a ­single-breed class at a dog show. From the late 20th century onwards it became used commonly in the computer industry, to describe the best available software of one particular type. Today its use has spilled over into other areas of business.

Beyond Help: hopeless. Someone or something negative that is “beyond help” is assumed to be out there alone, with any help either impossible, or flatly refused.

Beyond the Pale: outside/beyond safe limits. In this case the word pale refers to an upright wooden stick, several of which strung together form a type of fencing known as paling. So if it’s beyond the pale, it means it is beyond the safety of the surrounding fence.

Big Apple: an affectionate nickname for New York City, USA. There are many suggestions as to why this came about, including rather whimsical ideas such as wealthy families having to sell apples in the streets of New York during the great depression, jazz musicians referring to their performances as apples, slang used by stable lads working with race horses, and even apples as a euphemism for an elite brand of prostitutes in New York City. However most historians attribute the term to a sports writer on the New York Morning Telegraph, John J. Fitzgerald, who decided to refer to New York as The Big Apple in each of his horse-racing columns possibly inspired by the stable lads!

Big Cheese: an important person, often referring to the boss of a ­business, chairman, CEO and other similar leading positions. Probably originates from the USA in the very early 20th century when cheese-making was an up-and-coming skill, and physically huge whole cheeses were made for marketing and display purposes.

Big Picture: an overview, or a general view of a whole situation. This term is said to come from the days before television when you would go to the cinema (movies) and watch a number of things—often short films or even news, plus advertising, and so on—before the main film was shown. This main film was known as “the big picture.”

Big Ticket Item: a product that is being sold at a high price, and also may represent a higher than normal profit margin. The term refers to the “ticket” or label you’ll find on many goods for sale, and a “big ticket” has enough space in which you can write a large number—in other words a high price.

Big Wig (bigwig): an important person. Its origins can be traced back to the 17th century in France, when King Louis XIII started going bald at a young age and so decided to wear a wig. Over the ensuing years this turned into a fashion and by the reign of King Louis XIV, anyone who was in Europe was wearing a wig the bigger the better, or at least your wig’s size would signify how important you were. Looking back on illustrations of those wigs today, we can see that some were ridiculously large. Fortunately, the wig fashion is no longer with us—but the term survives.

Bird Brain: term that rather rudely assumes birds are stupid. Although a little old-fashioned now, it is still used to describe someone who is either stupid, superficial, or both.

Bite the Bullet: to take a decision or action which is difficult and perhaps not likely to be popular with others, but is necessary for the good of all. Comes from a very old expression used before the days of anesthetics, when patients were told to “bite the bullet” (usually a real bullet!) to stop them from screaming when the doctors performed an operation on them.

Bite Your Tongue: to stop yourself from saying something that you would really like to say. The origin is unclear, but the phrase is also a synonym for the term “hold your tongue.” Example: I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of him, but I had to bite my tongue.

Bitter Pill: a decision or action with unpleasant consequences. Normally used as in, for example, “although the company’s merger initially was a bitter pill for staff to swallow, today all seems to be working well.” The origins of “a bitter pill” go back a long way and refer, in those days, to “pills” that really were bitter and tasted horrible, unlike our modern tablets and capsules. The term was first given major public prominence in this quotation from Jane Austen’s novel “Mansfield Park” (1814): “Mrs. Rushworth will be very angry. It will be a bitter pill to her.”

Black Friday: the Friday after the USA’s Thanksgiving Day which falls on the fourth Thursday of November. There are a number of theories on why it’s called Black Friday, but the most popular is that people in Philadelphia named it because it caused unreal disruption to traffic on what is usually still the Thanksgiving holiday. Anyway, because most people in the USA take that day off, it’s a superb opportunity for retailers to offer amazing deals on goods. And because Black Friday is pretty close to Christmas, Hanukkah, and other gift-giving dates, it capitalizes on these holidays to drive even more traffic.

Blamestorming: a rather sarcastic way to describe people’s reaction to a failure of some sort, and their attempt to say it was not their fault. Related to the term brainstorm.

Blue Sky Thinking: ideas of what could be achieved if you didn’t have any business-based limits or restrictions. This idealistic thinking can allow for more creativity—and possibly the identification of ways to reduce the limits or restrictions. The “blue sky” refers to a sky without clouds, therefore clear and bright….

Boil the Ocean: to overdo something, usually without there being a good reason to do so. It can also refer to expectations of achieving far greater results from an activity than are reasonable in the circumstances. For example, if a group of people think they can conduct a survey of several hundred employees in the space of a few days and analyze the data as well, with minimal resources, they could be said to be boiling the ocean. This has become something of a cliché in modern business, but you still hear it frequently.

Bookworm: someone who loves books, or at least that’s how the term is used in contemporary circles. In fact, though, back in the 17th century or so bookworms were real worms that inhabited books. That’s undoubtedly where the current use of the term originates.

Bottom Line: the real point, or final conclusion, of a business deal, ­project, problem, and so on. The term is used in accounting, bookkeeping, and finance. It’s on the bottom line of calculations that the true, total cost or amount is found.

Brain Dump: pretty much what it says, although that’s a bit basic. Essentially it’s what happens when someone “dumps” or transfers a lot of information to you or someone else; something you may find difficult to take in all at once. However, it’s something you may need to take on if you are new to a job or role in business.

Brainstorm: the act of people getting together to come up with ideas for a project, solutions to problems, and so on. Some people find this a bit offensive because it suggests mental illness. However, it is used a lot—as a noun and a verb.

Break a Leg: an expression of good luck to a stage performer. A lovely term based on the superstitions of everyone who works in theater, acting, and so on. Essentially this is what you say to someone or something that is about to go live in theater, movies, and so on, instead of saying “good luck” which for some reason better known to Shakespeare has connections going back to the incredibly bad luck that was seen in his play Hamlet—plus many of his other tragedies. Or at least that’s what my actor friends tell me. But much as nontheatrical types might think this is woo-woo, bear in mind that many actors are very superstitious. So if you have friends in this business who are about to open in a new play or other theatrical enterprise, make sure you just say “break a leg.”

Bring the Drawbridge Down: open up to other people’s and businesses’ ideas. In ancient European countries, important people (and their equivalent of important businesses) lived in castles. Many of these people had enemies so they dug deep trenches around their properties and filled them with water so the bad guys would have a lot of trouble invading their properties. To get into the properties, you had to go over a “drawbridge” which was a bridge that could be lowered or raised depending on who wanted to come in. So in modern terms to “bring the drawbridge down” means to—let others come into your business and share what might work for you both.

Brown Goods: a consumer marketing term developed in English speaking countries to describe electric and electronic goods. Such goods are now almost certainly not brown, but black, brushed chrome, and other more 21st century-appropriate products! However, the term is still in common use and originates not from the brown wooden furniture of the 20th century, but from the plastic and often pseudo-wooden casings enveloping television sets, music playing devices, and other similar electric/electronic goods consumers bought in those days. Also see White Goods.

Brownie Points: a slightly sarcastic way of describing things people do to impress their bosses or customers, without those things necessarily being of much value. This term comes from the scouting/guiding culture developed by Baden-Powell, and refers to the points participating girls gained from achieving various goals as set by the adults.

Buck: monetary currency. The literal meanings of the words “buck” and “bucks” are numerous, but when they’re used as a slang term for the ­dollar, the meaning is thought to come from the very late 18th century in the USA. For some years prior to that a “buck” was a deerskin, and deerskins were widely used as a form of money for trading. The first documented evidence of a trade being made of some whiskey in exchange “for five bucks” was seen in 1748.

Bullet Points: a series of online and offline text, presentation slides, video images. Bullet points are an alternative to numbered lists. This presents the points in a way that does not suggest any order of importance. You can use symbols such as dots or arrows, but the conventional shape makes the dots look like bullets, or indeed bullet holes.

Burn the Candle at Both Ends: a fairly self-explanatory metaphor meaning to overexert yourself, for example, “what with working very long hours and also enjoying a very lively social life, he really was burning the candle at both ends.” Interestingly enough, the original meaning of the term was different, going back as far as the 17th century in France and into the 18th century in Britain. In those days candles were expensive and essential to daily life, and to burn a candle at both ends meant you were being wastefully extravagant.

Burn the Midnight Oil: to work very long hours on something, for example, “I was really burning the midnight oil to complete that report on time.” The term comes logically from pre-electricity days when if you stayed up late at night to work you would need to burn oil in your lamp, so you could see. Probably the first recorded use of the term was by British writer Francis Quarles, in 1635.

Bush Telegraph: fast sharing of information, usually by word of mouth. The term would not pass a political correctness test in the modern world. However, its origins in Australia suggest “any system of communication in which the natives of a jungle or bush region transmit news rapidly, as by runners, drum codes, or smoke signals,” according to Dictionary.com. It’s unlikely that this method of communication is still rampant in modern day Australia.

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): a polite euphemism for the total rethinking of a business’s purpose, existence, and value, requiring owners and major stakeholders to re-examine everything starting with a “blank sheet of paper” and working up toward a new model that reflects the organization’s needs now and in the future. This term originates from most English language markets from the late 20th century onwards, and although it was very popular at that time is still in common usage today. The term has also been seen by many as a polite euphemism for the need for a company to downsize causing the loss of jobs through redundancies.

Bust Someone’s Chops: to pester and nag at someone, presumably to get them to do something. This is almost street slang, but still may well be heard in business circles! Contrary to what you might think it does not mean to hit someone in the face but rather to pester the person into an action, as in “OK, I’m doing it now. Don’t bust my chops.” Origins are sketchy but “bust” has become a well-known slang alternative to “break,” and “chops,” which means the lower part of your face, could go back into history. This is from the fashion for men, starting in the 19th century and still seen today, to grow large sideburns that are shaped like a mutton or lamb chop (cut of meat).

Busy as a Bee: an old-fashioned term describing someone who is always on the move being “busy,” although not necessarily achieving more for that fact. The analogy is thought to have been used first by the British poet Chaucer back in the 15th century, in a line from his “Canterbury Tales”— “In wommen be; for ay as busy as bees.”

By Heart: to memorize something so you can then recite it from memory. The term’s origins go back to the Ancient Greeks, the Middles Ages, plus a few, when people assumed that the heart was not only the physical center of the human body but also the mental center. So to learn something “by heart” was erroneously ascribed to the heart rather than to the brain as it we now know it should be.

By the Skin of Your Teeth: something you achieve by just very narrow margins. Despite this being a very understandable ironic metaphor in business today—we all know that there is no skin on our teeth—the term’s origins go back to the Book of Job in the Bible, in which Job is subjected to terrible trials by Satan, to be relieved finally by God.

By the Way: a term that means as an aside. It has become so commonplace in the English language that it mainly slips under the “why” radar. However like many English phrases, it has an interesting and very long history. Shakespeare used the term in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1590): “Lets follow him, and by the way let us recount our dreams.” Essentially, even to this day, it means as an aside, or “by the (mainstream) way.”

C

C-Suite: an affectionate slang term for the senior directors/vice presidents and other top people in an organization. It’s said to originate from the fact that many of the senior job titles in a company start with the letter “C”—for example, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technical Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer, and so on. Also see Chief Officers.

CMS: initials standing for Content Management System. This is a 21st century term that can mean anything from a very simple spreadsheet to one that involves a huge operation. A CMS usually will be used to support a company’s marketing and some customer service functions.

CRM: initials standing for Customer Relationship Management. Once again, this can be anything from a simple Excel spreadsheet to a huge piece of software, depending on the size of the business. Normally it’s used to monitor and support interaction between the business and its ­customers throughout their relationships, to develop onwards sales opportunities, and to track and resolve any arising problems.

Cannibalization: the process of creating a new product, service, or upgraded version by putting together parts/ideas from an older product or service the company offered. Based on the concept of cannibals who supposedly eat other humans to survive.

Can’t Make Head Nor Tail of It (also can’t make heads or tails of it): you can’t understand something at all, and/or you find it horribly confusing. Apparently the Roman politician Cicero once wrote “Ne caput necpedes” (neither head nor feet) when he was confused about something. More recently (from about the second half of the 17th century) people began using the term closer to its present form, but no one is sure why we refer to “head nor tail.” Logically though, this must mean top/bottom, beginning/end, or two sides of the same coin.

Can’t Stand It: ’dislike something intensely. The word “stand” seems to have a very wide variety of roots starting with Sanskrit, followed by Old Irish, Greek, Latin, Old High German, Middle Dutch, Old Saxon, Old English, and Middle English!

Carry On: to behave badly, or alternately, to continue in a positive way. The meaning of this term varies according to where you are, and can be used in more than one way. One meaning of “to carry on” is a slang term for behaving badly, especially in North America. However another use of the word, mainly by the British, means to keep going in a positive way. This was made famous during World War Two with that now-iconic poster, “Keep Calm And Carry On,” meaning to be brave, try to relax, and get on with life despite the fear and constraints of war.

Cascade: a verb used to describe the way information or instructions are passed down the management levels, often right through to base-level operatives. It comes from the original meaning of the word which (as a noun) is a waterfall, or a series of stepped waterfalls, or (as a verb) the action of water moving downwards in this way.

Cash Cow: a business venture that did not cost very much to set up, but now provides ongoing profit. Comes from the idea that the profits from selling milk exceed the cost of keeping and feeding the cow.

Cat Nap: a short sleep or rest that you take during the day. Cats are known to sleep a lot, mainly during the day which is probably where the term originates. However, some people say that it goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians who regarded cats as sacred creatures and who probably copied their cats’ sensible desire to rest for short periods—especially during the heat of the day.

Catch 22: a term is used to describe any problem where you can’t move forward because of conflicting circumstances. The term is based on the meaning of catch that’s connected with a problem or delay, and comes from the famous novel by Joseph Heller and the ensuing movie. In ­Heller’s novel, the Catch 22 referred to contradictory bureaucratic rules during World War II that meant soldiers were stuck one way or another between regulations. Catch 22 for example, If every teaching job demands previous experience, it’s impossible for you to gain enough teaching experience to qualify.

Catch On: an idea or trend that is taken up by a number of people. In some ways this term was the forerunner of today’s expression “to go viral.”

Champion: used as a verb as well as a noun when referring to someone who takes on a project or other activity and is mostly responsible for it. To champion (verb) a cause, means to act as a champion (noun) for it.

Chief Officers: contemporary term referring to the board-level heads of various departments within a business. These titles are often used today instead of more traditional terms such as Vice President, Director, and so on, and are nearly always abbreviated, for example,

• CEO: Chief Executive Officer
• CFO: Chief Financial Officer
• COO: Chief Operating Officer
• CTO: Chief Technical Officer
• …and so on.

Cherrypicker: a term used in television and filming to describe a type of crane fire fighters and construction workers use to enable people to reach high places, with a platform at the top. Videographers can mount a camera and move it around at high level to film from different angles. The word comes from an imaginary machine that raises you up so you can pick cherries from high up on the tree! Cameras mounted on cherrypickers now are gradually being replaced by drones.

Chew Out: slang for telling someone off or reprimanding them, for example, “my boss chewed me out because I had forgotten an important client meeting.” Rumor has it that the expression became popular in the US Army during World War II, when superiors’ act of shouting and talking when telling someone off, reminded them of someone chewing vigorously.

Chew the Fat: to chat and talk about relatively simple things with friends, family, or colleagues. The expression probably goes back to the days when people—especially sailors—discussed everyday things with their friends and colleagues while chewing on tough, fatty meat over their meals. In a business context it means talking in a relaxed, informal way with colleagues and clients/customers.

Chicken Out: withdraw support or commitment. It seems people have been regarding chickens as fearful, spineless birds since Shakespeare’s time when, in Cymbeline in 1623, he wrote “Forthwith they flye Chickens, the way which they stopt Eagles.” (Mind you, if you have seen an angry rooster defending his ladies in the farm yard you will disagree with this sentiment.) Anyway, today someone who “chickens out” of a promise, agreement, and so on., is letting you down and/or backing out, possibly because they lack the courage to go ahead with it.

Chill/Chill Out: a comparatively recent slang term meaning to relax and stop fussing, with the word “chill” being a close relative of “cool” as in “cool down.” However, there is nothing new about the origins which go back prior to 900 AD, as far as the Middle English chile and Old English ci(e)le, cele meaning coolness.

Chinese Whispers: used to describe information/gossip being passed around a company or other organization and with each incarnation, the facts become increasingly altered and distorted. Originally this was a game for children, whereby the first child is given a phrase to say. The child then whispers it into the ear of the next child and so on until the last child has heard it. The last child then repeats the phrase, or at least what he or she thinks the phrase was. But more often than not by the time the whispering has got to the final child, the phrase has become something quite different, which can be very funny. The game exists in many countries and is called by a variety of names, but this version is thought to originate in Britain in the 20th century, where people believed that Chinese languages were impossible to understand and translate.

Chip on Your Shoulder: used to describe the attitude of someone who is particularly sensitive and irritable about something and will argue and become offensive if another person mentions it. Explanations for the origins of this term vary quite a lot, but one common denominator seems to be a trend in the 19th century for two people arguing. One would place a chip of wood on his shoulder, inviting the other to try to knock it off. Hence the old joke about someone who was “a perfectly balanced person: they had chips on both shoulders.”

Clam Up: to suddenly stop revealing information about something. The reference is thought to come from the behavior of clams, the bivalve mollusks that are very quick to shut their shells when threatened—and are reluctant to open up again until the danger is past.

Close of Play: from the cricket term which means the end of the day’s game. In business it means the end of the business day which varies from country to country but in western cultures is usually between 17:00 and 18:00 hours, or 5 to 6 p.m.

Cloud-based Computing: computer activity involving information that exists on servers (storage) far away on the Internet, rather than on your own local servers or other computer storage. The benefit is that you don’t have to spend money on buying and running servers and so on of your own.

Cock a Snook: an expression meaning you don’t like and/or don’t take seriously whatever or whoever is being discussed at the time. This is mainly a British expression which the Americans call “the five-fingered salute.” You place one hand vertically at a 90° angle to your face with the tip of your thumb resting on the tip of your nose, and with your fingers erect and waggling. Origins are very vague. A “snook” is a promontory of land that sticks out which could resemble your hand when it’s in place, and “cock” could refer to the way your hand resembles a cock’s (rooster’s) comb.

Coffee Break: a stop during the working day when you may enjoy coffee, tea, and/or a snack before getting back to your duties. The meaning of the word “break” as a noun, as it is here, is a stop or interruption in an otherwise continuous process. In the UK, it’s often referred to as a “tea break,” although coffee is gradually replacing tea as the drink of choice in many businesses, especially in the south of England.

Cold Feet: to a response to becoming afraid or suddenly having second thoughts about something you previously were going to do. There are various examples of where the term has been used in literature over the last 200 years or so, but no one knows when it was used for the first time. It may just be related to the fact that if your feet become cold, you probably don’t want to continue walking forward! Example: “I was going to go parachute jumping, but I got cold feet at the last minute.”

Consumer Durables: a marketing term that refers to substantial manufactured goods that people buy and use, and expect to last for some time—for example, cars, kitchen appliances, and so on. The term comes from the middle part of the 20th century, largely from US marketing circles.

Content: a contemporary term meaning anything from written text to full-scale video productions used to populate websites, marketing campaigns, and so on. Considering the hard work and creativity that people put into creating “content” it seems a little disrespectful, but until someone comes up with a better word, it seems we’re stuck with it.

Continental Seating: a way of setting out the seats in a theater without a “central aisle” (a gap running down the middle of the seating) but leaving enough room for people to move along between the rows of seats. The term is used in describing seating for theater, conferences, and business presentations.

Cool as a Cucumber: composed and self-assured—as well as fashionable. It’s interesting to see how the word “cool” has varied in meaning over time. Previously and simultaneously “cool” meant and means slightly cold, for example, the temperature is quite cool outdoors today. However, how people use it today in a slang fashion actually was first published in one of John Gay’s poems back in 1732, as in “I cool as a cucumber could see the rest of womankind.” The reference to cucumbers is thought to be purely because cucumbers always feel cool to the touch.

Copy Cat: someone who copies another person’s behavior or even their work. It’s thought to have come from people watching kittens copy the behavior of the mother cat. Probably the oldest known use of the term was in 1896 in “The Country of the Pointed Firs” by Sarah Orne Jewett. However, some experts believe the term’s origins go back a lot further than that.

Core Competency: basically, what you are best at doing in your work—or what your original training and experience is. The term can also be used to describe the same thing but for a company or other organization. The original word in the USA was “competence,” but Americans like to make words longer! “Core” here refers to the center of what you do.

Couch Potato: a 20th century expression meaning someone who sits around on the couch (or sofa, settee, chesterfield, armchair, etc.) watching TV and being lazy. It was coined, so we’re told, by Tom Iacino from California, who founded a group to counter the rising popularity of exercise and healthy eating in the 1970s. The reference to “potato” may be due to the fact that potatoes are tubers, and in the USA a slang term for television is “the tube.”

Covering All Bases: making sure you have made all necessary preparations and have thought of everything you need for a project, task, or other activity. This US term that emerged in the first half of the 20th century is likely from the game of baseball, although some people think it comes from American military terms.

Crocodile Tears: an unconvincing show of emotions by a person who is doing something for effect and not from sadness. This term is based on an old myth that some animals spill tears when they’re eating, which was discounted until the early 21st century when scientists ran tests using alligators and caimans (close relatives of crocodiles) and found that many of them do express tears when eating. This is not due to sadness (hence the term) but is possibly connected with the animals’ breathing while chewing, swallowing, and so on causing their tear glands to empty into their eyes. So the ancient crocodile observers many not have been wrong, after all.

Crowd Sourcing: obtaining funding and other support from a large group of people (a “crowd”), usually on the Internet. The term was first referenced about 2006.

Cry Over Spilt Milk: to worry about and regret something unfortunate that has happened and can’t be repaired or put right. For ­Example, “My kettle is broken beyond repair so there’s no point crying over spilt milk—let’s just buy a new one.” There are various theories about where the term originates, mostly in literature, the oldest of which is in ­Paramoigraphy by James Howell, from 1659.

Cry Wolf: to throw up repeated warnings and dramas of little importance, so that people pay no heed when eventually a real problem crops up. To “cry wolf” comes from one of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop was a slave and storyteller said to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BC. One of these tales was “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” in which a shepherd boy “cried wolf” often to get attention from local people who would think a wolf was about to attack the flock and so come running to help him. Not surprisingly, after a number of these false alarms the local people stopped taking him seriously. But when eventually his flock truly was attacked by a wolf and he cried out again, no one responded, and he had to deal with the consequences.

Cubicle Monkeys: people who work for most of their careers in a cubicle within an open-plan office. As you can imagine it’s rather insulting and suggests that the “cubicle monkey” is not capable of doing anything more important. The term was popularized by a series of business terms “explained” by the US newspaper The Washington Post during the latter half of the 20th century.

Cup of Joe: a slang term meaning a cup of coffee. One theory about the origin of “joe” is that it refers to the average person, like “guy,” “chap,” and so on. Another theory which seems to be more likely, is that it’s an abbreviation for Josephus Daniels—Secretary of the US Navy—who in June 1914, a couple of months after the USA joined the Allied Forces in WW1, banned alcoholic drinks on all US Navy ships. As the next most interesting choice of drink was coffee, and Josephus was blamed for the change, sailors started referring to their new drink as “a cup of joe.” In the 21st century, the term “Joe” has become associated with computing and Internet branding.

Cut Corners: to shorten or save money by omitting important steps. This term is almost a literal description of its meaning—instead of following the proper route along a road or around an arena, you cut across a corner to shorten a route. However in so doing you’re not completing the course properly, which is why the metaphorical use of the term means to do something on the cheap, leaving out potentially important steps, to make it shorter or easier. Possibly one of the earliest uses of this term was by Mark Twain back in 1869, in “The Innocents Abroad.”

Cut Some Slack: to ease up on expectations for a person or people who genuinely are trying their best, but need some additional—and possibly unforeseen—support so they can complete their mission without further stress. The shipping term’s origins come from a good few hundred years ago. To “cut some slack” or more usually to “give some slack” was all about tying a ship up to a pier manually and took teams of workers using mooring lines. The procedure involved one line being pulled to bring the ship close to the dock, while at the same time to relieve the strain the other line was released—“given slack.”

Cut the Mustard: match up to expectations; succeed. If something doesn’t “cut the mustard,” it doesn’t match up to expectations … in other words, a failure. This term comes from the UK and is still used widely there, although its use has spread to other English language cultures and the hot and sharp taste of mustard gave rise to the term “as keen as mustard” in the latter half of the 17th century. Ironically (or perhaps not!) the English type of mustard sold in North America even today is branded “Keen’s Mustard,” but whether or not that’s a deliberate attempt at branding humor is not for debate here. With “cut the mustard,” the story goes that the term comes from East Anglia in England where mustard was grown extensively and consisted of tall, tough plants which were hard to cut down. This seems a more likely origin for the term, which found its way from England to colloquial use in the USA at the tail end of the 19th century.

Cut to the Chase: to get on with something without wallowing in anything likely to delay the key points. Allegedly the term comes from the very early days (early 20th century) of Hollywood silent films when the “chase”—usually where the good guys chased the bad guys—was the culmination of all excitement and drama, hence where the real action took place rather than the build-up to it and/or other supporting sequences. “Cut to the chase” would be the director’s instruction to the film editor, signaling the start of a high point in the movie’s story and a move away from the less exciting/interesting content.

Cut Your Teeth: a metaphor meaning to learn something effectively, more usually but not always in a practical sense. The original term comes from about the 16th century in England, when it was (and still is) used to describe when a baby’s first teeth appear and “cut” through the gums.

Cutting Edge: anything that is leading others in technology, design, and so on. This metaphoric term is derived from the cutting edge, or sharper side of a knife blade.

D

Damp Squib: an occasion, activity, product, event, meeting, training course and so on that does not live up to expectations and is, basically, disappointing or even a total a failure. The term is sometimes said as damp squid, but as squid are marine animals they need to be damp to survive! A squib, on the other hand, is a kind of firework and as you know, if fireworks get damp, they tend not to work properly or at all. The first known use of the term goes back to the early 19th century in England.

Dead Tired: very tired, almost to the point of feeling “like death.” An exaggeration, of course, the word “dead” goes back before AD 950, to Old and Middle English. In recent years it has also come to mean, in a slang way, “very” or “extremely”—both of which also qualify the word “tired.”

Dead Wood: old, outdated practices, systems, or people who are not performing properly. In a literal sense, it’s the wood in a forest or copse that has died back and which needs to be removed to tidy the place up and allow the living plants to flourish. As a metaphor in business and other contexts, to “cut out the dead wood” means to remove that which is outdated or underperforming.

Deep Pockets: extensive wealth. As you can imagine, this refers to people or organizations that have plenty of money (so they need “deep pockets” to carry it in) to invest in activities. These individuals and organizations are usually free to do whatever they want in investment terms. But at the same time they may be more likely to take the blame—and the financial loss—if they invest in something that doesn’t work out.

Diddly Squat: little or nothing. Can be used as these two words, or just as “diddly.” Thought to have started out as “doodly squat,” this slang term comes from the USA in the early to mid-20th century and has its origins in fairly undesirable sources! In business, an example would be: “I was horrified to learn that the new executive knew diddly squat about content management systems.”

Dirt Cheap: very inexpensive. On the assumption that dirt—or earth, soil—is very cheap because it’s so freely available, anything that is “dirt cheap” is very cheap indeed. The term was first used in the early 19th century and replaced another term meaning the same thing, “dog cheap.”

Do Not Bug Me: don’t bother me. Perhaps unfairly, bugs—slang for “insects”—are considered a nuisance and someone bothering you can be compared with an annoying mosquito or other bug. There are suggestions, also, that the word “bug” may be an abbreviation of a longer word which means to sodomize, but that interpretation of “bug” is unsubstantiated..

Doesn’t Bat an Eyelid: shows no emotion or surprise. We know that when people are surprised, shocked, or otherwise keenly interested in or upset by something, their eyes tend to blink more than normal. So when someone “doesn’t bat an eyelid” it means that whatever has just been said does not cause the person to blink more as if surprised, shocked, and so on. Beware though: people who don’t “bat an eyelid” can be trained to not do so, even when you share surprising/shocking information with them.

Doggie/Doggy Bag: a container in which you can take home your leftovers from a restaurant meal, supposedly for your dog, but also possibly for you, instead. The term became very popular in North America but is now widely used in all the main English language markets. There are alternative suggestions that “doggie/doggy” could be a version of an old word from the region of East Anglia in England, which is “docky”—meaning lunch. As a metaphor you may hear the term used in business or public service: if you “take home a doggie bag” you may be removing things unlawfully, or at least against the rules, from the workplace.

Don’t Have a Horse in This Race: to have little or no interest or investment in an issue. Obviously, the term is from the horse racing world which translates in business terminology as an expression of lukewarm, if any, interest in the project being discussed. It could refer to a spectator who hasn’t bet on the race concerned, or perhaps on a horse owner who doesn’t have a runner in that race.

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover: don’t make a decision based only on initial appearance. This sensible metaphor from the 20th century tells you not to judge people, things, business proposals, or pretty well anything on the strength of your first impression.

Dot the Is and Cross the Ts: to be very careful and precise in whatever you are producing. The term comes from the way people write using cursive (joined up) handwriting, when usually you write out the word in full and then go back to put dots over any “i” letters and cross ay “t” letters. Its origins are unclear but one of the first public usages of this term was in a magazine article by William Makepeace Thackeray in the mid-19th century.

Double Edged Sword: a business proposal, circumstance, or other issue which is likely to be beneficial in some ways but also has drawbacks. If you imagine a sword that is sharp on both edges, this could be both an advantage and a disadvantage. The metaphoric term is thought to come from an Arabic phrase, and probably was used in English from around the 15th century onward.

Double Standard: any policy, rule, or other instance which offers advantages to one group of people while at the same time delivering disadvantages to another group. Essentially, it’s a rule or expectation which is morally biased and unfair to some. The term has come into use in the mid-20th century,

Downsize: reduce the size of an organization, often as a result of shrinking market factors. This contemporary term originating from the USA is frequently used to describe staff reductions that result from making the organization leaner. The more positive alternative is referred to as “upsizing.”

Drag Me Down: make me unhappy, or in business, especially, to be brought down to a lower level of seniority or respect than you’re entitled to. Dragging down is often associated with a bad idea, an inept coworker, or something undesirable emerging about your past. Origins are unknown, but the metaphor is clear enough to understand.

Draw a Line Under It: to stop working on or worrying about something so you can move on to new work. Here we need to go back to our days at school when once we had finished writing an answer to a question or doing a math sum, we would draw a line under it in our school book to show that we had finished it.

Drill Down: to bring a discussion, meeting, or conversation down to the very important basic points (without wasting time on things that don’t matter so much). The term probably is borrowed from carpentry, construction, or oil field activities.

Drive Crazy: to frustrate. Here we must assume we use the word “drive” in its earlier, premotorized sense when herd workers literally would chase their animals with whips, shouts, dogs, horses, and anything else that would get the beasts running in the right direction. If someone or something, therefore, “drives you crazy,” you will have become crazy as a result of being driven by them, or it.

Drive Up the Wall: to annoy or irritate. As in “drive crazy,” presumably using “drive” in its preindustrialization sense of a herd worker driving animals. This time it’s used with a lovely, funny metaphor of someone becoming so distraught they climb the nearest wall in sheer desperation, or at least frustration.

Drones: very small people-free aircraft that are piloted remotely from the ground. These are used for a number of purposes but in media terms, drones are fitted with either still or moving picture cameras. The advantages of using drones in this way give photographers and film/TV people a lot more freedom to film wherever they want—there’s no need to find somewhere to park the large truck needed to use a cherrypicker (see the aforementioned). And of course drones are much cheaper to hire than a big cherrypicker truck. Additional uses of the term include similar flying devices that verify special information for GPS and other purposes, and some larger types can even deliver packages. Finally, the word “drone” can be used to describe a lazy worker, based on the way in which male bees—also called drones—leave the hard work to others and only exist to fertilize the queen.

Documentary: a type of movie/film, or television/video program that tells the true, factual story of a place, person, event, problem, or other topic of interest. The term probably comes from the fact that to “document” something means to record it exactly as it is or was. “Docudramas” or “dramadocs” are the same true stories but that use actors to convey some of the information about the people involved.

Dramatization: . the portrayal of any story—often a text-only story—as a play with actors. In business, training films or videos sometimes use dramatized demonstration in short sections to show how the training point can work out in real life. It’s often a very useful way of helping to train staff in sales and customer care roles.

Drop the Ball: to make a mistake or miss out on an opportunity. The term comes from the games of (American) football (not soccer) and rugby, in which dropping the ball by accident or through carelessness can be a disaster for the team concerned. Someone who “drops the ball” in business makes a mistake or suffers from an oversight, often just when things are going well for the person and the organization.

Drown Out: to replace one noise or conversation with another, louder noise or conversation. The word “drown” has its origins in late 13th ­century English.

Ducks in a Row: the necessary preparations for a new or extended activity, or to tidy things up when there has been an upheaval, and so on. The origin of the phrase is argued; some say that it comes from the way a mother duck lines up her baby ducklings in a neat row to waddle along behind her. Others say that it comes from the word “duck” when used to describe an easy pot in the game of pool, and if you’re lucky you can line up the other balls appropriately and so have “all your ducks in a row.” Another theory is that it comes from the row of mechanical ducks that appears for you to aim at in fairground shooting galleries; and yet another theory is that if you are a hunter you can line live ducks up and so kill more than one at a time with your gun. Wide choice, but the most popular currently is the first, that is, the mother duck and her ducklings.

Dynamic: energetic (adjective) or relationship (noun). This word has been used as an adjective for many years, but now is used as a noun as well. As an adjective, it means energetic or connected with a lot of activity. As a noun, it means the act of being energetic, but also can mean the type of relationship there is between two or more people, or two or more organizations. For example, “ the dynamic of your relationship with your mother is different from the dynamic of your relationship with your boss.”

E

Elephant in the Room: a fact or idea that everyone recognizes but no one dares to discuss. This term comes from the English way of being shy about discussing problems that exist, but are uncomfortable to talk about. The idea is that if there is an elephant in the room everyone knows that it’s there, but because it is so big and important no one dares to talk about it. The business interpretation is, for example, a meeting when everyone knows that the company is in trouble (which is the “elephant in the room”), but no one dares to mention that and keeps talking as if everything is okay. The phrase’s origins, however, are very vague. Some experts believe it actually comes from journalism in the USA in the mid 20th century, whereas others suggest it goes back to the 19th century in British social commentating.

Elevator Pitch/Speech: a very short speech that you give about yourself or a product/project/service you represent. The word “elevator” (or “lift” as it’s called in the UK and some other countries) is used because the phrase was based originally on what you could say about yourself to someone in the time it took for the two of you to go up to the top floor of a building in a lift/elevator. A “pitch” is probably taken from baseball in the USA where it means a throw of the ball by the “pitcher” toward the “batter.” A short speech like this is also called a “30/45/60 second pitch.”

Embedded In: the firm incorporation of an idea or practice. The literal meaning of “to embed” comes from the late 17th century and means to establish something firmly within something else. Although originally this term—later on—may have been used to describe stones being embedded into cement, today in business and other areas it’s used figuratively to describe—for example——a method or process that is introduced and included into an existing way of doing things.

Empowerment: power given to make decisions. The word implies that a person has been given power to make decisions, even if it’s only at a lower level. In business today—especially in the western markets—empowerment is taken very seriously. To what extent it actually works in business practice is debatable. However, it is a very important term for people who work in HR/personnel, and for the people helped by those services.

Energize: to introduce and/or encourage enthusiasm—often further enthusiasm—for a project, sales effort, individual product or service, and so on.

Engage: to connect or involve. This contemporary term and its derivatives (engagement, engaging) can have several meanings, varying from a promise to marry, to the hiring of an employee (although to “engage” a worker is seen as a rather old-fashioned way of putting it, dating back to the first half of the 20th century). Today, in business and also in the public sector, all variants of this tend to mean to connect with and obtain the participation of, as in “it’s essential to engage the active support of patients if we are to properly advance this research” and “members of the focus group were fully engaged with the client’s plans for the product’s future…”

Evangelist: someone who promotes their message to other people. The word is taken from the Christian religion where it is used to describe one who preaches their religious message to others in hopes of converting them. Now the word is used to describe people in business and other ­nonreligious activities who actively promote a way of doing things, a cause, a business objective, a charity, and so on.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: a term used to promote optimism even when things look bad. This lovely old-fashioned term aims to uplift and cheer up people and issues that have been rained on from those same clouds. It was the British poet John Milton who first used the term in Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle in the early 17th century. How he used it was, “Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” Milton’s clouds with silver linings have been quoted in literature (and in business) ever since.

Excuse My French (also “Pardon my French”): a phrase used an apology for the use of inappropriate language. The rather silly term is used by people who swear/use a rude word, probably by accident, and then realize they may have offended someone as a result. It comes from a time in Britain where hardly anyone spoke French and so the swear word in question was assumed to be like a foreign term. The author Michael Harrison used it in his book All Trees were Green in the 1930s, in the phrase “A bloody sight better (pardon the French!) than most.” However some say the term’s origins go back farther, when British people would use French expressions but feel they should apologize as not many people would understand. This rather pointless usage goes back as far as the early 19th century.

Explicate: to explain. Unlike pretentious new words which have sprung up in recent years which essentially are fancier versions of their originals (e.g., “conversate” rather than “converse” or even “talk”) … dear old “explicate” has origins going back quite a long way. It’s said that the term originates from the 1530s, from Latin explicatus, past participle of explicare “unfold, unravel, explain.”

Eye on the Ball: focus that is on important issues and not be distracted. This is another phrase taken from the sporting world, anywhere from soccer to baseball to cricket to golf. In all of those sports, it’s important to keep your eye on the ball while you’re playing.

Eye Line: where someone is looking, as in television, film, or video.

F

FMCG: initials that stand for Fast Moving Consumer Goods. These are goods or products usually at a fairly low price per individual item, that sell quickly and in large numbers in retail stores.

Face Time: face-to-face conversation. In today’s world of digital communications and live online video, this rather silly word just means sitting down with someone in “real life” and using the time for a (real) face-to-face discussion. The word also has been used by Apple to describe their app which allows you to see the people you are talking to via your phone, tablet, and so on,

Far Cry from: a considerable distance away from, either literally or metaphorically. The term’s origins are vague, but common sense suggests that the term refers to something that is barely within shouting distance. In business, you might hear the term used as in for example, “the marketing agency’s projection of how well their inbound campaign would work probably is a far cry from the reality, given their somewhat inaccurate forecasts.”

Feel at Home: feel comfortable, relaxed, and appreciated, as you would in your own home. It’s a term you may hear in connection with your arrival into a new job, or perhaps when you join a networking group or a customer’s team.

Fender Bender: a US/Canadian expression meaning a light, nonserious road traffic collision. In the USA a “fender” refers usually to the frontal-­side bodywork of a car: in the UK and other English language countries this is called a “wing.” In some cultures where English is spoken, a “fender” can also mean a mudguard on a four-wheeled or two-wheeled vehicle.

Finger Lickin’ Good: the tagline of the ubiquitous Kentucky Fried Chicken brand, and a term that often is applied—perhaps humorously or ironically—to business issues in which a description of brand superiority is called for. The term is based on the notion that you eat the food with your hands, and because it tastes so good you will lick your fingers to gain the best possible taste and value. Not something that appeals to the more precious of gourmet gurus but something many people do.

Fire-Fighting: tending to immediate pressing matters. This simple metaphor refers to fire fighters who usually so busy putting out fires they haven’t got time to attend to other things. In business, fire-fighting usually means that a company is so busy solving urgent problems, it hasn’t got enough time to run the business as it should.

Firing on All Cylinders: working efficiently and effectively. This metaphor, taken from internal combustion motors/engines in the automobile world, describes a person or organization that is working well and powerfully.

Fishy: suspect or questionable. This term goes back to the late 15th century in Britain and other countries when fish, given inadequate food conservation facilities, would give off a disgusting smell within a couple of days or so of being presented to its potential consumers although some vendors probably would try to sell the outdated fish. Hence why “fishy”—as a smell in those days, and as a metaphorical “smell” today—is still a term that describes something suspicious, unsafe, or even unlawful. And the other comparative point is that fish—when alive—are slippery, which is often used in a metaphoric way to describe people and companies in business whose ethics are questionable.

Fit the Bill: to fit into the required conditions, criteria, and/or circumstances. This term is often is used in relation to your suitability for a job, project, contract, and so on. The origins here are a little uncertain but may be related to 19th century British interpretations—both in theatrical terms (fitting into the bill of a theatrical offering) as well as business terms, where a “bill” was related to a “bill of fare” or, in today’s parlance, a menu.

Flabbergasted: utterly dismayed, shocked, surprised and/or any combination thereof. The term’s origins are a little vague but some say it goes back to the late 18th century in England where someone in literary circles decided that “flabbergast” was a popular word in the southeast, possibly derived from combining the words “flabby” (probably meaning older and less au fait) and “aghast” (meaning horrified, going back to English roots in the 13th century).

Flunk Out: to fail, not perform, or otherwise not attain what you want. This term is said to come from US jargon related to school and university. Now it is used quite widely to describe someone or something that fails to work.

Fly Off the Handle: to lose your temper. This lovely term originated in the USA (although it could originate from almost anywhere else) and refers to the way the head of an axe can fly off its handle, especially if used wrongly. The idea of the term goes back to the mid-19th century US literature.

Fly on the Wall: an unseen observer. The term often is used to describe a style of documentary TV or video program where the camera acts as an unseen observer of the reality that the program or film is sharing, as would a fly observing things from its place on a wall. Usually there is little or no commentary or narration (see the following) other than what is needed to introduce the program and link its parts. The filming is carefully edited so that it speaks for itself. The term is also used in reference to silent observation of a situation. Example: “I sure would love to be a fly on the wall at the closed session board meeting.”

Foot the Bill: to pay a bill yourself. Some say that this term’s origins come from the way that the “foot” of something—let’s say being the “foot” designated to pay for an event or other activity. However it’s more likely that it originates from an early 19th century use of the word “foot” meaning to add up and put the total at the foot, or bottom, of an account.

From the Horse’s Mouth: a truth that comes from a reliable, basic source. This expression emanates from the 19th to 20th centuries and possibly few decades or so beforehand. In the last couple of centuries in both the UK and the USA—as well, possibly, as in other English language cultures that championed and dealt with horses—we see how the metaphor began. In horse trading, the horse’s age (critical in determining its value) could be camouflaged by various guises. However looking into its mouth, where the state of its incisor teeth can clearly be seen and would be hard to fake, would give people a reasonably accurate estimate of its age—hence the truth coming from the horse’s mouth.

G

Gagging (Gag) Clause: wording that restricts a person or company from talking about an agreement. To gag someone is to put something over his or her mouth to prevent speech. A gagging clause in a business, employment, or other contract means that the person or company who signs it is not allowed to talk to anyone else about whatever is in that contract.

Game Changer: a factor that can alter the outcome of a decision. The expression is loosely taken from the world of sports and means anything—or anyone—that causes a major change to the overall outcome of the game. It’s used in a casual sense whereby the game changer might be stroke of luck or an unforeseen challenge. It is also used to describe an individual who acts as a catalyst for (usually positive) change. Finally it is used to describe an entire company or other organization that “changes its game” by completely altering its business plan, and even product/service range, in order to keep up with changing times, benefit from new technology, cure failing profits, and so on.

Game Plan: what an individual, team, or business uses to organize and carry out a project or campaign. This is another sporting term, mainly from the USA that applies in various team sports such as baseball, ­American football, and ice hockey. It is what it says; the way a particular game should be played by your team, depending on your knowledge of the opposing team and any other useful information. Game plans, whether in sport or business, need to be flexible so as things move forward you can make changes if you need to.

Gardening Leave: a sarcastic way of describing efforts by a company to keep an employee away for a time—usually until his/her notice or contract runs out. In such situations, the company often is worried that the employee, having being fired or made redundant, will be angry and do something harmful to the business. The irony is in the word gardening, suggesting that the employee is getting paid leave to look after his or her garden at home.

Gatekeeper: a person who is paid to check out who you are and what you want before allowing you access to the important person you need to contact. The word is taken from old English “stately homes” and business establishments where you don’t get onto the grounds without the person who works at the “gate”—in other words, the main entrance—approving you and letting you in.

Generation X, Y, Z and so on: references to those born in certain time periods. Sociologists, as well as marketers and economics experts categorize people born into recent, different generations by their age and characteristics. “Generation (Gen) X” people were born between about 1965 and 1979, and now are a marketplace for businesses selling to those well established in their careers. “Generation (Gen) Y” (also called Millennials) people were born between about 1980 and 1994, and marketers target these young workers’ unique needs and wants. Older members of Generation (Gen) Z, born from about 1995 to 2014, are beginning to enter the workforce and their adult lives.

Gerrymander to create new boundaries of electoral regions in the United States, in a way that favors one particular party and is disadvantageous to another. It can also be used as a noun to describe an act of gerrymandering. This all started back in the early 19th century when the then Governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, redrew (or “redistricted,” as the term goes) the electoral boundaries of his state. Amusingly when the “redistricting” was complete the map of Essex County in Massachusetts looked like a salamander (a lizard-like amphibian). Local wits at the time thought it entertaining to combine the two words and created a grotesque cartoon of a salamander-like monster which was published in the Boston Weekly Messenger. The term “gerrymandering” stuck and is still used to this day.

Get Go: the very beginning of something. Its origins are unclear but it’s thought the term was first used in the USA in the late 1960s, possibly by African Americans to begin with.

Get into a Flap: become unnecessarily agitated or upset about something that normally shouldn’t warrant it. The term’s origins are not easy to find, but common sense suggests it could come from the way chickens in a farm yard flap their wings excitedly at the slightest provocation.

Get into Bed With: a situation in which two companies or other organizations work together closely on a project or other activity. The term is derived from the personal world to infer having a sexual relationship with someone. It’s often used in a slightly rude way, when the person using the term does not really approve of the partnership.

Get the Ax (or Get the Chop): to be stopped suddenly and very firmly. The term is used to describe budget items that are cut as well as employees that are fired or let go. There are numerous variants of this slang idiom with origins going back to the 19th century in the USA.

Get the Ball Rolling: (also “keep the ball rolling”): to initiate an action. This term is said to date back to US elections in the first half of the 19th century, when President Martin Van Buren ran for re-election against General William Harrison and John Tyler from Virginia. It’s said that one main slogan that assisted Harrison in clinching victory was “to keep the ball rolling.” To further promote his campaign Harrison also instigated “victory balls” made of leather and tin and reaching about 10 feet in height, which he then arranged to be rolled across his territory for about 300 miles. Much as Harrison claimed the phrase, however, it seems it goes back to earlier days in the late 1700s, when it was used in a game called “bandy”—a type of ice hockey played in Europe, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. In either case, it’s critical to “keep the ball rolling.”

Gig Economy: a method that companies use to get work done by hiring freelancers or contractors on a self-employed basis, rather than hiring salaried or waged employees. The term derives from the word “gig” that musicians use today to describe—a self-contained performance for which they get paid a finite sum of money. Depending on your point of view this can either be seen as a practical or a risky way of doing business. There is less permanent involvement and far fewer taxes and benefits to pay for the company, and a sense of “being your own boss” and professional freedom for the individual. On the other hand, gig employment does not guarantee staff loyalty for the company and offers no job security to the individual. “Gig” as a word that seems to have a colorful history. It’s variously said to come from the old French word giguer, from an early Italian dance form, or possibly from late 18th century English when the word “gig” meant a flighty girl and things that whirled—which could be the link with today’s meaning of impermanence! The word was adopted by jazz musicians probably from the early 20th century in the USA, and is still widely used by jazz and other musicians today.

Give It a Shot (also “give it a whirl” and other variants): to try to achieve something even if you may have doubts about accomplishing it successfully. Origins are vague but some believe the term may be from 16th ­century military expressions, when the term “give it your best shot” meant to get the best shot amongst your soldiers to tackle the enemy accurately. Later on the word “shot” became used to mean “try,” roughly from the 18th century onwards, and its use was closely connected with sports such as billiards and boxing.

Give My Word: make a promise. Related terms include “give my word of honor,” and earlier “my word is my bond.” Many experts say the origins could be in the Bible, taken from the parable about the centurion. It’s worth assuming, too, that before the days of written contracts business deals were sealed on the strength of participants’ “word of honor.”

Give the Green Light to: approve or sanction. This simple metaphor refers to green traffic lights, or in other words signaling that something should start off and go ahead. Traffic light metaphors have become ­popular in many English language markets in the early 21st century with various large organizations operating “red, amber and green” systems by which to allocate performance and other priorities.

Glass Ceiling: a barrier you can’t see, but that stops certain groups of people—especially women—from getting ahead in their work or business because other, more powerful groups don’t want them to. The idea comes from the fact that glass is transparent, and you can’t go up much higher in a room than the ceiling.

Gloves Are Off: normal expectations for civil and ethical behavior are suspended. The term is taken from the sport of boxing, in which padded gloves are worn to avoid players causing too much injury to each other. However when the “gloves are off,” there is nothing there to protect them. Another theory is that in past centuries most men would wear gloves while going about their daily business; but if a physical argument was threatened, they would take off their gloves before getting into a fight. In business and other circumstances, when “the gloves are off” it is a time when anything goes—overt disputes and dirty tricks are used, people’s feelings are offended, and sometimes even illegal things are done.

Go Ballistic: to erupt, usually in ferocious and excessive anger. The term derives from ballistic missiles which are explosive in nature. Interestingly, though, the term has been around since the late 18th century when it meant anything connected with thrown objects, which in turn came from the Greek ballein, which meant “to throw.” Ballistic missiles were first set off in the mid-20th century, and the term “go ballistic” became widely used by the early 1980s.

Go Dutch: a way of splitting the bill when you go out for entertainment, meals, movies, and so on., whereby each person pays only for themselves. The supposed origins of this term vary widely, but the most frequently seen theory is that the term goes back to the Anglo-Dutch wars in the 17th century when relations between the two countries were poor, to put it mildly. Another interesting idea is that the term refers to a “Dutch door” which is split horizontally into two equal parts, like a modern stable door. A less amusing, but probably more likely origin is that in the Netherlands it is very common for people to “go Dutch” when going out for meals, drinks, business entertaining, and so on.

Go for Broke: to put everything and every effort into something no matter what the risk. This term would appear to come from the betting/gambling world. Indeed, it’s said to come from Hawaiian dialect meaning “to wager everything” in craps games but was adopted by American Forces in World War II as a motivational motto in the armed conflict with Japan.

Go Viral: to become widely shared. This contemporary expression refers to items posted in social media that, despite being aimed at a specific audience initially, get shared very widely—in fact in many cases right across the Internet with millions of shares. It seems that the earliest reference to “going viral” in England, at least, was when the term first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1989, where it was said to mean “the rapid spread of information.” It’s probably true to say that the idea of going viral is related to the way in which viruses—whether medical or digital—can spread very rapidly and exponentially.

Go Whistle (also “go whistle for it,” and other variants): to forget about whatever you’re hoping to achieve. Used in context, people saying it are implying that you may as well “go whistle” for it—you won’t get it from them. Much as this term has been popularized in the 21st century by British politician Boris Johnson, in fact it has been around for several centuries in the English language. It seems the earliest mention of something along the same lines was in popular use in the mid-15th century in ­Britain. Shakespeare used the term, too, in The Winter’s Tale in a quote by Clown, the shepherd’s son.

Gobbledegook: written or spoken words that are garbage, rubbish, gibberish … incomprehensible nonsense. The term is said to originate from the USA in the 1940s.

Golden Handcuffs: a payoff agreement with a separating employee so that he or she will not go to work for competitors. This type of arrangement is often made with senior people in a company who decide to leave. The company might offer attractive money terms so they do not go to work for the company’s competitors—or even, for anyone else during a period of time.

Golden Handshake: a polite way of describing a business bribe, although in most countries this form of bribe is legal. Usually the term is used to describe a sum of money given to someone who retires early … especially if the company wants him/her to go. Sometimes it can help persuade someone to join the company: in that case it also can be called a “golden hello.”

Goody Two Shoes: a person who deliberately portrays himself/herself as good, pure, innocent, and so on to gain favor. It seems this term goes back to a children’s story that was published in the late 19th century in the USA, called “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes.” No one is sure who the author was and many arguments still take place about who it might have been. However, its legacy lives on and the term’s use has spread not only across North America but also across the other main English language markets.

Grain of Salt (also pinch of salt): an idea or promise that is not taken too seriously. To “take something with a grain/pinch of salt” is to appreciate what someone is saying, but realize that it may not be quite what it seems—an exaggeration, perhaps—so you need to view it in what you judge to be the right context and proportions (not necessarily those of the person sharing it.) The origins here go back many centuries in fact to Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, 77 AD. In those days not only was food assumed to taste better with “a grain of salt,” but also the salt content was more likely to save you from being poisoned. (True: even today salt in appropriate quantities is a very effective antibacterial treatment.) The ongoing logic here, then, was that if were you to take an opinion, piece of information, or other “fact” with a “grain of salt,” you were less likely to be poisoned if it turned out to be wrong.

Grand: one thousand units of currency. Quite apart from the literal meanings of this word, it is in common usage in most English language areas as a slang term for one thousand units of money. It is said to have come into use in the USA in the early 20th century, being shortened from the phrase “a grand sum of money,” which indeed one thousand dollars certainly represented. In today’s money (at the time of writing), $1,000 in the year 1900 would be worth somewhere around $27,000! The term remained in North America for a few decades; but during World War II when US and Canadian forces came to the UK, the word “grand” become a common nickname for a thousand pounds, too. It spread to other English language markets from there.

Grandstanding: speaking and showing off to an audience, even if in so doing you could be harming yourself or your organization. The term usually applies to politicians but also to anyone who tries to attain unearned fame by doing something to attract attention, whether as a speaker, performer, entertainer, or whatever. This idea originates from the first half of the 19th century in the USA when, we assume, grandstands were being built and used by increasing numbers of groups for sports, and other activities.

Granular: finely detailed. This late 20th—early 21st century term is used in business to describe information in very fine detail, comes from the rather more humble origin of its literal meaning, that is, lots of very tiny grains, for example, granulated sugar.

Grasping the Nettle: to be brave and decide to solve a problem you know will be very difficult.. The term comes from the stinging nettle plant, common in Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and western North America. If you touch or “grasp” this plant it really hurts your skin. This expression is akin to “bite the bullet.”

Graveyard Shift: a night shift or other work timing that is considered socially undesirable. This is an Americanism that dates back to the early 20th century. However prior to that in Britain, rumors suggest that the term dates back a lot farther, when people short of money worked “the graveyard shift” to help dig up coffins at night, as the graveyards—even then—were becoming overcrowded. Making additional room in graveyards at that time—and let’s not go into how it was done—involved workers toiling surreptitiously, hence “the graveyard shift.”

Gray Matter: your brain! Popularized by Agatha Christie in her portrayal of Hercule Poirot, the Belgian super-detective whose “little gray cells” solved numerous heinous crimes, the term still remains a reminder of what you need to use to work out pretty much anything. Of course there is a solid foundation to this term, as according to most scientific sources gray matter is a major component of the central nervous system.

Greek to Me: something you can’t understand. This expression should embarrass English speakers and warn English-as-a-second-language speakers, too. There is nothing wrong with Greek: only that as an English speaker you might find it hard to pick up the language, especially as its alphabet is different from that of the English language. (Mind you that’s true of Russian and numerous other languages worldwide as well.) If something is “all Greek to me” it means you don’t understand a word of it.

Green Room: a hospitality room for guests. In television, radio, and ­theater, this term refers to a hospitality room where guests waiting to appear on camera or stage can wait comfortably for their turn to be interviewed or go on set. The origin of the term is not really known, although many theories exist. The most likely is that in early days the “green rooms” were offstage areas used for actors in a theater play, painted in a green color which was supposed to be relaxing and easy on their eyes after they had been working in the very bright, harsh theater lights.

Green Screen: a technique of filming a person or thing in front of a green (or blue) background in a television or video studio. You then replace the background electronically with any other image you want—a city, a beach, a mountain, and so on. This uses a color filtering process known as Chroma key.

Green Thumb/Fingers: used to describe someone who understands how plants work and knows how to grow them effectively. Someone with a green thumb (USA) or green fingers (UK) is someone skilled in horticulture. According to a certain James Crockett, “it comes from the fact that algae growing on the outside of earthenware pots will stain a person’s thumb (and fingers) if he or she handles enough pots. Hence, a person who is always working with flower pots has a green thumb.” Another notion is that the term came from the reign of King Edward I in England. It seems he liked peas and employed a few servants to shell them when peas were in season the servant who was judged to have the “greenest fingers” won a prize. Who knows!

Guestimate: a simple combination of two words: guess and estimate. As you can imagine, “guestimate” just means an estimate that’s based on what someone feels, rather than anything more definite..

H

Hands—On: directly involved. This term is often used to describe a ­person—usually a senior person—who wants to do some of the actual, practical work in a business as well as managing it. You also may hear “hands off,” which is the opposite.

Hardball: aggressive and without mercy. The term is from the US game of baseball. People will tell you many stories about the origin of this term, but it probably comes from the difference between softball where the ball is about the size of a grapefruit and is padded with soft material so it doesn’t hurt too much when it hits you … and hardball, the type of ball used in high-level baseball games that is smaller but harder and certainly would hurt if it hit you.

Heads-Up: information sharing or a warning. The term is said to come from two sources. One, is the “heads-up” military term going back 200 years or more, where soldiers were told to keep their “heads up” so they would see what was happening in battle. The second source is in the US game of baseball, again—from many years ago—when the team members fielding (waiting some distance from the key players to catch the ball and throw it back into the center area) were told to keep their “heads up” so they knew exactly where the ball was at any time. In modern times to give someone a “heads up” means to give them a warning, or share some news with them that they didn’t know.

Heavy Lifting: hard work. Most dictionaries categorize this term as slang, although as it’s a perfectly respectable term derived from industrial sources it’s hard to know why. Today it’s a metaphor for hard work, as in for example, “the marketing team took credit for the new proposals but the real heavy lifting was done by the research department.”

Hit the Ground Running: to begin work on something very quickly, without having to go through much training or introduction. Imagine that you have picked up a very lively cat, which starts moving its legs as if running while still a couple of centimeters above the floor. When you put it down, it runs away immediately. This contemporary metaphor is used to describe either a business or more usually a person who can begin work on something very quickly.

Hit the Hay (also, “hit the sack)” go to bed. In many countries in the 19th and early 20th centuries the mattresses people slept on consisted of sacks stuffed with hay. So to “hit the hay/sack” means to go to bed. A slight variation on this is that before you could get comfortable on your hay sack, you needed to hit it hard with your hands to make it level and evenly spread. So perhaps “hitting the hay” can mean to get ready for bed, as well as to go to it.

Holistic: having an all-encompassing view point. This term is borrowed from the contemporary medical world, and more usually the complementary medicine side—especially Eastern medicine. In this context it refers to treating patients as a whole being, rather than addressing individual symptoms and body parts as we see with western medicine, although the holistic approach is becoming more common in western countries too. In business, the term has spilled over into general usage when referring to dealings with problems, customers and other important considerations—in other words viewing things from an all-encompassing point of view, rather than looking at specific issues.

Horses for Courses: selection of a suitable solution for a particular ­problem or purpose, so as to avoid failure. This metaphor is from horse racing and the equestrian world and points out the benefit in selecting the right solution for a given problem or challenge rather than risk failure by applying the wrong solution. The metaphor is that you wouldn’t use a thin, delicate Arab horse to pull a cart, and you wouldn’t use a heavy draft horse for dressage or racing.

I

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: advice meaning to not change a process or system if it is still working well. This lovely old-fashioned American expression means you should not interfere with something that is working because that may make it go wrong.

In a Nutshell: in brief summary form. It’s easy to see why this metaphor came to be used, because anything that can be fitted into the very small shell of a nut must be concise and very brief. Perhaps surprisingly, therefore, the term has very early origins. We’re told that Pliny the Elder first used it in Natural History back in AD 77: that allegedly was then translated into English in the very early 17th century by Philemon Holland. Various other writers used the term (or variants of it) over the centuries until the present date, not least of whom was Shakespeare in Hamlet, and William Makepeace Thackeray in The Second Funeral of Napoleon in the mid-19th century.

In the Loop: informed. Some people think this is about the 2009 movie, but its meaning is simple. If you think of a group of business people working together, you’re working in a loop—in other words, a rather wobbly circle! To keep someone in the loop means to keep them connected into your business group by keeping them informed.

In the Red/Black: these terms come from the time when a company’s accounts were all done by hand. Putting it simply, this meant that the numbers written in red were about money being lost, and numbers written in black related to positive money. Mostly now these terms are not used, but in some accounting software they still are.

Ivy League Universities: eight prestigious universities founded early in US history. If you have graduated from one of these US universities you will be seen as very well qualified. But what makes them so special? Actually the universities concerned originally were brought together into this group because of sporting achievements, not academic ones. It’s only in relatively recent times that they have become known for their academic excellence. These days, a graduate from one of the eight universities in this elite group gets a lot of attention, and kudos. As for the name itself, no one can be sure of its origins, although one popular theory is that it comes from the Roman numeral IV, that is, the four original universities of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth. Today there are eight universities in the Ivy League:

1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. UPenn
4. Princeton
5. Columbia
6. Cornell
7. Brown
8. Dartmouth

J

Joined-Up: intelligent consideration of a problem that includes all relevant facts. The term thinking about a complicated problem in an intelligent way that includes all the important facts: thinking about a complicated problem in an intelligent way that includes all the import- ant facts: thinking about a complicated problem in an intelligent way that includes all the important facts: comes from the term joined-up writing, which properly is called cursive. For children, learning how to do “joined-up writing” is a major step forward in their early education. The term describes a way of doing something in which all the separate parts make sense together and work well with each other. In business the term also can be used sarcastically to describe a process that works better after a period when it wasn’t very good! An example of that is “joined-up thinking.”

Jump the Gun: act prematurely. The term, originally used in sports contests that are started by firing a gun, it implies doing something too soon, especially without thinking carefully about it. In the sports context, if someone running in a race jumps the gun, they start running before the gun has been fired to start the race. The term applies in business to situations in which action is taken too soon.

K

KPI: initials for key performance indicator—a way of measuring a business’s success, failures, and general performance. KPI is a very popular method in contemporary business and rightly so, as this indicator has become widely respected in the 21st century as a means of judging performance: not just within individual organizations, but also within entire industry groups, and beyond.

Kaizen: A Japanese word for “improvement.” “Kaizen” is a way of working in a business so that all employees know what’s going on and share an equal responsibility to make ongoing improvements to their work, service, products, and so on. For more information, please check out the Kaizen Institute online.

Kick the Bucket: to die, pass away. The rather cruel term has been associated with the way in which suicide victims may stand on a bucket (pail) so as to hang themselves, kicking the bucket away to complete the terrible job. However, the Oxford English dictionary disagrees. It believes that the use of the word “bucket” is archaic here, and refers to a beam from which a most unfortunate pig is hanged by its feet, in preparation for slaughter. Either way, not a nice expression.

Kickback: a bribe. A kickback is an unofficial (and often illegal) payment of money to someone who can influence your business success, to make sure that the desired action is taken. It can also refer to an unofficial commission paid to someone who passes on a business deal that’s advantageous to you.

Knee-Jerk Reaction: a quick, impulsive reaction by a person or company. This contemporary term is taken from the test your doctor does to check your reflexes, by tapping your leg just below your knee to make your lower leg kick out—which usually your body will make it do involuntarily—without your thinking about it beforehand, and whether you want it to or not.

L

Landscape Format: an image in which the horizontal edges are longer than the vertical edges. Landscape is the rectangle shape common to television screens and many photographs where the horizontal edges are longer than the vertical edges. Portrait or upright format, is the other way around. The word landscape means a view usually over countryside which naturally has much longer horizontal edges, hence the metaphor here. A portrait is a painting, picture or photograph of a person which, as you know, nearly always has longer vertical edges and shorter horizontal edges.

Lateral Thinking: a way of solving problems by using imaginative, nontraditional approaches. The term refers to thinking that doesn’t immediately depend on reasoning and works through ideas that aren’t necessarily arrived at using older, traditionally-accepted logic. For this notion we have Maltese physician, psychologist, author, inventor, and consultant psychologist Edward de Bono to thank from his 1967 book Six Thinking Hats.

Leading Edge: best or first in a given industry. The term comes originally from the airplane industry and refers to the areas of an airplane’s parts that first meet the airflow, so their design and construction are very important. Today we hear about “leading edge technology,” which is based on the original airplane meaning but also makes extra use of the word “leading” … because that also implies “best,” or “first in its industry.” So we also have “trailing edge,” which is opposite the leading edge but is still important in terms of continuing the processing of the airflow. This latter term is also used as a metaphor in business when describing after-effects and secondary issues.

Lean Manufacturing: a way of making products with as few add-ons and peripheral issues as possible. The benefit of this strategy is that the company focuses on making the original item to as high a quality standard as possible. The ultimate goal of the process is to increase the company’s profits.

Learning Curve: the process of learning a new concept or subject matter. The term comes from the curve you see on graphs, especially those that start at the bottom and work upwards. This term is used in business and other ways to describe someone, or a company, that is getting better (or needs to get better) at what it does; for example, “I’m interested in bookkeeping, but because I have only just started my course I am still at the bottom of the learning curve.”

Leave No Stone Unturned: to conduct a thorough investigation. As you would expect, this term means to be extremely careful and even pedantic about researching or carrying out a project. It’s a term often used to describe the way governmental bodies and law enforcement agencies are supposed to conduct investigations and other procedures. Although today we can see exactly how this metaphor works, it’s interesting to note that it originated in the mid-16th century. We’re told that it was all about an ancient Greek general who buried a large treasure after being defeated in battle. People searching for that treasure consulted the Oracle of Delphi, who advised them to look under every stone. And we must assume that they found it…

Level Playing Field: a competitive business situation in which all sides have an equal chance of succeeding. The term comes from sports such as soccer, football, rugby, cricket, and so on, where an uneven playing field can mean one team has a greater chance of winning.

License to Print Money: a situation in which an individual or ­company discovers a highly profitable way to make money and uses that to extremes. Such an individual or company would be profiting so much, it would be as if they had been given “a license to print money” rather than having to earn it themselves.

Lip Sync: to move the lips silently in synchronization with a recorded soundtrack. While the term applies broadly in TV, film, and video production as well as in live performances, it is also sometimes used to describe the difference between narration (see definition) where a human voice is heard but not seen “over” the pictures, and when we see someone talking to the camera. Lips obviously are what you see moving when someone speaks, and “sync” is short for “synchronization,” which refers to things that happen simultaneously. In the old days actors would often rerecord their words in a studio after filming had taken place somewhere else, to make sure the sound quality was as good as possible. They would do this while watching the pictures of themselves, and the process was called “lip syncing.” With today’s digital techniques, that’s normally not necessary but you still see movies—usually on airplanes—where the sound doesn’t really match the pictures, so making the sound “out of sync.”

Lipstick Index: An economic indicator based on the theory that consumers turn to less expensive indulgences, such as lipstick, when they feel less than confident about the future. In keeping with this index, lipstick sales tend to increase during times of economic uncertainty or a recession. Though this is a term that many women find offensive because it singles out female consumers’ buying habits, it is still used to describe the way that consumer trends behave in times of financial problems. It is said that this term was first used by the chairman of Estée Lauder cosmetics when he observed that lipstick sales increased in times of financial hardship.

Liquid: a financial term describing cash and/or assets that can be sold easily. Often a company that’s in trouble will go into “liquidation,” where all available assets are sold off, usually at low prices. The resulting income can then be set against the company’s debts. The term’s origins come from the medieval Latin liquidat—“made clear,” from the verb liquidare, and liquidus.

Long in the Tooth: old. This term can refer to people, businesses, ­methods, technologies, and more. The term comes from the sometimes disputed view that people, horses, and possibly other creatures experience growth of their teeth as they get older, so showing longer teeth. ­Modern dentistry—both human and equine—suggests that it’s the way gums recede as we get older that creates this impression, for both humans and horses. It’s said that use of this term could go back several centuries, but it was William Makepeace Thackeray who wrote, in 1852, “She was lean, and yellow, and long in the tooth; all the red and white in all the toyshops of London could not make a beauty of her.”

Low-Hanging Fruit: business opportunities that are easy to gain. The term comes from the fact that (real) fruit which is growing low on the tree or bush is much easier to pick than fruit that is higher up and so more difficult to reach. It infers that businesses should take advantage of opportunities that are easy to win, perhaps to get a new project or business initiative started faster and more easily.

M

MBWA: Management by Wandering Around. This sarcastic term refers to a style of business management which involves managers wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace(s), at random, to check with employees, equipment, or on the status of ongoing work. Emphasis is on the word wandering as unplanned movement within the workplace, rather than organized systematic, scheduled times for manager interaction.

Malware: destructive, rogue software that can find its way into computer systems and cause a lot of damage. The term combines two words: “mal” (bad) and “ware” (software).

Master Shot: a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from an angle that keeps all the players in view. This main framework of a section of a film or video starts off with a wide view of a particular scene—let’s say a TV studio where a presenter (see later definition) is sitting at a desk along with one, two, or more people to be interviewed. The first of these master shots is also called an “establishing shot.” The director will then add in some closer shots of individuals, plus “cutaways” (inserted pictures) of images that complement or explain what is being talked about. Every now and again the director will go back to the master shot, especially when there is a change of topic or, in the case of drama (fiction), an especially tense or important point in the story.

Marzipan Layer: a layer of management which lies just below the top team in an organization. This expression comes from a British cake recipe that contains dried fruit, alcohol-like brandy, and other ingredients. This recipe often is used for Christmas cakes, as well as cakes to celebrate weddings, christenings, and more. When preparing such a cake you normally cover the basic cake with a layer of marzipan—an almond-based mixture—and then cover that with a conventional sugar-based icing.

Meltdown: a failure leading to major disaster. This unfortunate term is borrowed from the nuclear power industry of the 20th century, when a “meltdown” in a nuclear plant meant the melting of a major part of a nuclear reactor leading, potentially, to disaster. Today the term is used as a metaphor in psychiatry and other mental health disciplines to describe the major breakdown of a patient, and in business as a metaphor for a major disaster.

Methodology: method—the way a process or project is developed, organized, measured, and so on. The term originated from the USA where adding syllables to earlier words is seen as growing those words’ importance…

Mezzanine Financing: an extra layer of money that is used in addition to the original investment, to help a business to grow more quickly, to pay for a new project, and so on. The word “mezzanine” typically means an extra floor that’s built halfway up a very tall space, or in industry, halfway up a warehouse or other big building. The word comes from the French and Italian usages in the early 18th century: from Italian ­mezzanino, diminutive of mezzano meaning “middle,” and from Latin medianus meaning “median.” Often, a mezzanine floor looks like a very large balcony.

Milking: to get as much money, favors, publicity, and so on, from an action or event. This term comes from “milking” a cow. On a farm, this process is about how you get as much milk as possible from your cow. In business it means getting as much as possible from a person, company, or even an occasion like a public holiday or a news story. For example, “the actress milked her news story for as much publicity as she could.”

Mindset: way of thinking. This is a contemporary word made from “mind” and “set” (a way of being).

Miss the Boat: missing an important and critical opportunity. The term is of uncertain origin, but common sense suggests that it became important in the days when travel by boat was the main way of getting from points A to B in long distance terms, at least. “Missing the boat” before air and high-speed rail travel existed could be disastrous, as in the case with today’s business use of the term.

Mission Statement: a written goal for a company: what it stands for and what it aims to achieve.

Movers and Shakers: people who get out there and make things happen rather than sit and wait for others to do it. This term was first used by poet Arthur O’Shaughnessy in his 1874 poem Ode.

Moving the Goalposts: making things more difficult and/or complicated during a project, but usually expecting the same results in the same time, and for the same price. This is yet another term from football, soccer, and rugby. If you were to move the goalposts during a game of football, it would be very unfair for some if not all the players, because it would change the rest of the game, probably making it more difficult; an unfair thing to do.

Multidisciplinary Team: a group of people from several different ­professional specialties (“disciplines”) all connected by a common objective, meeting and working together. The term is used commonly in some governments, and in hospitals and other medical organizations.

Mushroom Management: a mocking term used to describe the running of a company in an autocratic, rigid way. Two basic versions of what this gardening-based term means are very alike, with one ruder than the other. Both are comparisons between how to grow mushrooms and how not to manage a company—usually where managers do not communicate with staff. Here is the more polite version … “mushroom management” means to keep employees in the dark and shovel dirt all over them. Which works well to grow mushrooms…

N

NDA: initials that stand for nondisclosure agreement. This is a legal document that some companies require their employees and/or suppliers/contractors to sign. Anyone signing an NDA may not share the information specified in the agreement with anyone outside the company concerned. The NDA usually lasts for a given number of years, often for much longer than the work relationship does.

NIMBY: an acronym that stands for not in my back yard, which has been used to describe the attitude many people have regarding initiatives that may seem very good in general, but that they wouldn’t want happening in their own neighborhoods. In a business context this term is also used for companies and other organizations that may pay “lip service” to new initiatives but who would not, at the end of the day, approve of them because they are scared of the unwanted changes they might bring. According to Wikipedia, the term was popularized in the 1980s by British politician Nicholas Ridley, who was Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment … the NIMBY acronym has also been used by social scientists since the early 1980s to describe the resistance of communities to land use and the locating of controversial facilities.

NSFW: initials that stand for not safe for work. Originally this was used as a symbol to warn readers that whatever you were writing about was “not safe for work” because it might upset your boss or your company generally. Now, though, the term is used to mean that what you have written is not appropriate for any specific group—particularly for children.

Narration: the words spoken on a television or video program, usually played over pictures so you can’t see who is talking. Narrating is basically story-telling without seeing the story teller. It’s often called “voice-over narration,” because the sound of the voice goes “over” the pictures.

Netiquette: the proper way to behave when you’re using the Internet—especially when communicating with other people on social media, discussion forums, and so on. The term has been put together in recent years by combining Internet and etiquette, with “etiquette” meaning the proper way to behave.

No Holds Barred: no restrictions on the way things should proceed. The term comes from the sport of wrestling, around 1940, when a “no holds barred” match meant that competitors were free to use whatever “holds” they wanted.

No Sh*t, Sherlock: a sarcastic way of saying you think the person speaking is rather stupid and doesn’t understand things. You may not hear this term in formal meetings, but you may well hear it in casual business conversations. You may recall Sherlock Holmes, the famous (fictitious) British detective written about by the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock was, of course, a brilliant detective.

Not-for-Profit, Nonprofit: an entity that is somewhat of a halfway-house between an ordinary profit-seeking enterprise, and a charity. This ­contemporary term as used in the UK and other countries refers to an organization that pays its employees like a business would, but instead of reinvesting profits for the benefits of share/stockholders, uses such ­profits to invest in further good things for its primary beneficiaries. Increasingly such organizations are being established across many ­markets—not just English language ones—as a means of delivering a fair and effective ­service in various socially-sensitive areas.

O

Off Camera Interview: A very useful way of getting a nervous person to speak naturally on a video or TV program. The “interviewee” (person to be interviewed) sits in front of the camera and the interviewer sits facing him or her, close beside the camera. The camera starts rolling and the interviewer has a relaxed, natural conversation with the interviewee who looks at the interviewer while talking, not at the camera. If you watch TV news you will see this technique used a lot. Although the interviewee may be a little nervous to start with, a good interviewer can make them forget about the camera and talk as if to a friend over a cup of coffee. Afterwards, when the program is edited, obviously the interviewer is not in sight and the questions s/he asked are cut out, so leaving an edited version of what the interviewee says.

Offshoring: moving a part or all of a company’s business to another country. The movement does not necessarily have to be off its ocean shore, as the term suggests. An example of offshoring is when a company in, say, the UK, moves its telephone call center to India, the Philippines, and so on because wages and salaries are lower in those countries, so cutting the costs. The term also has connections with the vehemently debated issue of “tax avoidance” (still legal in many countries but regarded as morally despicable, as opposed to “tax evasion” which certainly is not legal). To say that “offshoring” is a sensitive term would be to put it mildly.

On Message: completely in line with the company’s position. If you write something for your business that is based completely on your whole ­company’s policy and brand, that writing is “on message.” The term also is used in politics when a politician gives a speech that does not deviate from the official party policy.

On Stream: in the process of operation. The term is most likely an expression from the manufacturing world in which “on stream” means a product which is currently available and “streaming” through a design, engineering, manufacturing or distribution process. The term also can be used to describe services and facilities similarly being used now. So a product or service that is due to “come on stream soon” is about to be launched.

On the Fence: not yet committed to giving support to one side or the other in a dispute. Despite its very understandable meaning—and use—today, the term has been around since the days of Middle English (12 to 16th centuries) and became especially well used from the 19th century onwards.

On the Same Page: in agreement. This is a nice way of saying “we understand each other,” especially when people are not “on the same page.” The term originates from books and reading.

On Boarding: the process of incorporating new employees into an organization’s culture, ethos, way of doing things, brands, and so on. Apparently the term has been in existence since the 1970s, but has only become popular since around 2010, mainly in the USA which started an overall trend of making such processes seem more human and friendly. The origins are thought to lie in an earlier term connected with boats and planes, whereby you “get on board” or “board the aircraft” that is, you embark or enter it.

Once in a Blue Moon: The term is based on the fact that now and then there are two full moons in a calendar month. The adjective “blue” has been linked to the way that the moon can look blue when there are ash particles in the atmosphere, for example after a volcano has erupted. However, the origin is more likely to come from the Old English (5th to 11th centuries) word belewe which had two meanings: “betrayer,” and “blue.” Prior to this time and before the Gregorian calendar was reconfigured, the church calculated the date of Easter based on the moon’s cycle that particular year. When a “blue moon” happened to occur before the end of Lent, church officials warned their parishioners that it was a “betrayer moon”—so it was not yet time to end their fasting.

One-Trick Pony: an individual or company that has been successful only with one product or service, and so far has not produced anything new to add to its original success.

The term probably comes from the circus, where in a cheap act, a pony might only be able to do one special thing or trick.

Ongoing Situations at This Moment in Time: now. This is one of the most laughed-at clichés of the latter half of the 20th century in English-speaking countries, when the US-induced fashion for creating long words and phrases out of practical short ones became superbly popular. So awful was this cliché that it became a standing joke from the last dregs of the 20th century—not only in the USA but also in most of the other English language markets. Amazingly, you will still hear the term used from time to time; usually when the person using it is stalling for time while thinking up what really needs to be said.

Open-Book Accounting: an arrangement in which two or more ­businesses openly share all details of their financial and trading accounts. In more traditional business deals, these details are normally kept private.

Open-Door Management: a way of managing an organization where by managers and directors keep their “doors open” so staff are free to go in and discuss anything that they want to with the senior people.

Out of Left Field: unexpectedly, odd, or strange. Once again this term comes from the US game of baseball. The “left field” is farthest away from the bases. So anyone throwing in from the left field has the most difficult job to do. In business, the term can also refer to an action that may be difficult to achieve or make successful.

Outsource: a contemporary term meaning to allow certain business functions to be done outside the company by external providers. In some cases it’s more cost-effective to do this rather than attempt to perform the function in-house.

Oxbridge: a portmanteau term combining Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England, seen to be the UK’s equivalent of the early US Ivy League Universities. These two English universities claim uniqueness in that their teaching structure differs from campus-based education, instead relying heavily on the college and tutorial systems which have been in place for centuries.

P

Pack Rat (also “Packrat”): someone who hoards and keeps everything and can’t bear to throw anything away. The term used in the USA since around the mid-19th century is derived from the animal that takes small objects back to its nest and hoards them there. It can also be used as a verb, as in for example, “he pack rats old newspapers saying he will read them again one day.”

Pain in the Neck/Bum/Butt/Ass: slang and vulgarism meaning something or someone who is a nuisance or worse. The metaphor comes from an actual pain in whichever body part is named, and how irritating and unpleasant that can be! All originate from the USA and “pain in the neck” is thought to have been introduced around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries as a more polite version of the other variants.

Pan Out: work out over time or in practice. This term supposedly came from the 1800s when gold miners in North America would look for gold nuggets in their “pan” of soil, which they would scoop up from rivers … hoping to make a lot of money! A current example is, “this project will pan out over the next five years.”

Paradigm: a model, set of forms, framework, set of beliefs, and so on. This word has an interesting history going back to the late 15th century, and is a combination of late Latin and Greek meaning either to “show side by side,” or “to show.” Having been part of the scientific community’s jargon for some time, in the late 20th century and early 21st century the word also was taken up by the business community. A “paradigm shift” is a substantial change in the way an organization behaves or does business.

Parameter: a variable (a fact or element of business that can change) that businesses need to help calculate how a process or project will work out. This became a very popular term in the 1990s when conducting business in the English language. People often use this word when they really mean perimeter, which is the outer limit or edge of an object, piece of land, etc.

Pass the Buck: place blame or responsibility on another. The term is probably from the mid-19th century in the USA. At that time a “buck” was not slang for a dollar, but was a device used as a marker in the card gambling game of poker. The “buck” would be passed from one player to the next in turn, supposedly to minimize the risk of cheating, and share the responsibility of dealing the hand fairly among all players. However if the next player in line did not want to take responsibility for dealing, they could “pass the buck” along to the next person—hence the term’s present use to describe the act of passing responsibility on rather than taking it on for yourself. Hence, “the buck stops here” which means the point where the conclusion of a game (or business action, political responsibility, etc.) took place. Interestingly, some historians say that the original “buck” was often a knife with a handle made from a deer antler, hence its nickname of a “buck.” Later on, silver dollars were used as markers, and many believe that here lies the origin of the word “buck” as a nickname for the dollar!

Pathway: process or course to follow. In the medical context it means the process a patient goes through from their first visit to the local doctor, on through hospital and the system until treatment has been completed. The term also is used in nonmedical activities.

Pay Dirt: a potentially valuable business windfall, discovery, development. The expression is from the mid-19th century in the USA when gold miners “hit pay dirt” when they found some gold while sifting through soil, sand, and so on.

Pay Lip Service: pretend to agree with something while privately feeling indifferent or not agreeing with it. The origins of the term are hard to define; some say it comes from 16th century English when paying “lip labor” to something meant the same thing. Others, however, suggest it goes back to the Bible for example, “By saying I liked his proposal when in fact I thought it wasn’t very good, I paid lip service to it to keep the peace.”

Pick It up and Run with It: take up an idea, proposal, and so on and develop it further. This contemporary expression is mainly used in North America. We can assume that it comes from sports like American football, rugby, and so on where the rules allow a ball to be picked up by a player who then runs with it as far as possible!

Piece of Cake: something that is very easy to do. The term’s origins are vague, but some experts believe it originates from the (British) Royal Air Force in the 1930s, when an easy mission or flight was known as a “piece of cake.” Others say its origins are somewhat earlier, in the late 19th century, when cakes were allotted as prizes. A 1936 example from Ogden Nash’s Primrose Path: “Her picture’s in the papers now, and life’s a piece of cake.”

Ponzi Scheme: a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. The Ponzi scheme generates returns for older investors by acquiring new investors. The fraud was first devised by American Charles Ponzi way back in 1919 in Boston, Massachusetts. The scheme starts with a few investors, then attracts new investors whose money you pay back to the earlier investors, and you keep going this way. It works okay for a while, but once you run out of new investors, you’re in trouble. This term is sometimes used when people are talking about Pyramid Schemes (see definition).

Potluck: that which is randomly available. To take “potluck” means to take a chance on what’s available, for example, “we weren’t sure what type of van we could rent to transport the office furniture, but we were happy to take potluck from the rental company.” The term’s origins go back to the 16th century when to “take potluck” when invited for dinner meant you would eat whatever had been cooked in the pot that day. Later on in the 19th century and especially during the great depression of the 1930s a “potluck meal” was one where each guest brought a dish of food so that a complete meal was formed collectively.

Pound the Pavement: to seek a job by walking from option to option in a city. Mainly used in 20th century western markets, the term has largely been relegated to metaphorical use in the light of more high-tech options, for example, LinkedIn!

Preaching to the Choir (or to the Converted): telling one’s audience what they already know, thus wasting everyone’s time, rather than focusing on new and more relevant issues. This is a 20th century term referring to preachers in North America who would preach to people who were already in the audience and had heard the message instead of preaching to prospective converts.

Precariat: people whose lives are precarious because they have little or no security or expectations for future jobs, which obviously affects their welfare. The primarily British term is borrowed from economics and sociology, and its use—unfortunately—is growing as more and more working people fall into this relatively new “social class.”

Presenter: someone who acts as the main spokesperson for a television or radio program or business session or training. In the visual versions the presenter may be seen describing what’s happening in the program, perhaps interviewing people, or narrating (see previous) some parts. The word itself is pretty easy to understand: the presenter “presents,” or hosts, the program.

Proscenium Arch: the main arch structure above the stage in a theater, parallel with the edge of the stage that’s nearest to the audience. The word “proscenium” comes from both Latin and Greek going back about 500 years, and means the entrance to a tent, porch, or even the stage itself.

Pull My Leg: to tease or joke with me. While still in use, the term is now considered rather old-fashioned. However, it was not always so light-hearted, and various theories are quoted about its origins. For example, people were employed to pull on the legs of offenders being hanged in England in the 18th century (so they would die faster), and thieves in Victorian London supposedly would pull people by the leg to trip them, so making them easier to rob.

Pull Off: slang term meaning to achieve something against odds that you might not be successful. The term is said to originate from the USA when used in sports reporting.

Pulling Your Weight: showing the capability to contribute properly to a business project or other activity. The term originated from the sport of rowing, where someone who “pulls their weight” contributes appropriately to the success of the row. It was originally used in England in the late 19th century when rowing was becoming a much-followed river sport.

Punch a Puppy: do something that will make you very unpopular, despite it perhaps being a good thing in the long run. This rather nasty term originated in the USA in the early 21st century.

Punching Above Your Weight: trying to achieve something when you don’t have enough knowledge, skill, experience, power, money, and so on, to be successful. The term comes from the world of boxing, when a boxer tries to fight successfully with a heavier boxer who is certain to be stronger and more powerful.

Pushing the Envelope: going beyond (or at least trying to go beyond) a project’s limits to see what more you can do. We are not talking here about an envelope that you use to post a letter. In this case it refers to a “envelope” which acts as a sort-of container for whatever you’re working on, and its limits are as far as you can go.

Pushover: something (or someone) who is easily defeated, or at least brought under your control, that is, easy to “push over.” It’s from the early 20th century in American usage, originally expressed as “push over,” but now telescoped as so many other modern terms are.

Pussyfoot: to tread carefully and lightly over a potentially sensitive subject. An obvious connection here is the way in which cats tread gently, carefully but often with surprising effectiveness toward their ultimate goal. Once again, this word originates in the USA and has been in use there from the latter part of the 19th century.

Put the Cart Before the Horse: to get your priorities in the wrong order so as not be able to tackle a business problem from the right direction. The term has been around in Britain since the early 16th century. Despite the fact that many industrialized countries no longer use horses and carts for anything other than recreational transport, the metaphor is still strong. And in developing countries where equid transport is still used, the metaphor applies similarly.

Put Your Foot in Your Mouth: make an embarrassing mistake either in spoken or written contexts. The phrase to “put your foot in it” goes back to the 18th century in Britain. Without going into graphic detail it would seem that the term referred to stepping in something ordure, or at least equally unwelcome. Over time this metaphor evolved into a number of derivatives including “put your foot in your mouth,” “having foot-in-mouth disease,” and even “put your foot in your mouth so much that your shoe is becoming chewed.” All mean roughly the same: an embarrassing gaffe.

Pyramid Scheme: a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products or services. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit; as such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal. A closely related term, multilevel marketing (also known as MLM, Network Marketing, or [erroneously] Referral Marketing) is a usually legal strategy that some direct sales companies use to encourage their existing distributors to recruit new distributors by paying the existing distributors a percentage of their recruits’ sales; the recruits are known as a distributor’s “downline.”

Q

Quantum Leap: a sudden and very large jump from one state of being to another. Originating from the world of physics, it means about the same thing in business. Example: A company or person who has become very successful overnight has made a “quantum leap.”

Queensbury Rules: when a proper, approved way of behaving is preferred (but perhaps not actually respected or used!) The term comes from England around the middle of the 19th century, when the Marquess of Queensbury established a code of rules to be used in the popular sport of boxing. The rules weren’t written by him, but by a Welshman by the name of John Graham Chambers. Today these rules still, essentially, govern the proper ways in which to go about the sport of boxing. However in more recent times the term is also used in a cynical way. For example, “The company gained many new clients despite not exactly competing according to the Queensbury Rules.”

Quid: a slang term for the British Pound, always used in the singular—for example, £20 = twenty pounds, but twenty “quid.” Surprisingly, as it is known to be slang, its origins most likely stem from the Latin quid pro quo, or “something for something”—an exchange for something of roughly similar value. There are other theories about the word’s origin including the word cuid, a term supposedly used by Gaelic-speaking Irish troops serving in the British Army many years ago and meaning a possession, thing or, indeed, a sum of money. However, today the consensus is that “quid” is from the Latin.

R

Railroad: to force, or at least to press, a project or process through to rapid completion, often without proper concern for people and places that might be adversely affected by it. The term is thought to originate from the days in the 19th century when railroads (railways) were being built at quick speed in many countries.

Rain Check: a postponement due to unforeseen circumstances. This term—sometimes shown as one word—comes from the USA and was used when a baseball game had to be called off due to bad weather. Ticket holders were given a “rain check” so that they could come to another game entry free. It was first used around 1880 and became an official part of baseball jargon about 10 years after that.

Raining Cats and Dogs: raining heavily. There are several theories about the origin of this term, but the one which recurs most frequently is that hundreds of years ago, domestic pets like dogs and cats used to sleep and hide in spaces right under the thatched roofs of houses. When it rained, these dogs and cats were said to be washed out of the (obviously not water-proof) roof space, or at least would depart at high speed to find better shelter. A parallel theory suggests that the term comes from an ancient obsolete word, catadupe, which meant “waterfall.”

Raising the Bar: increasing the standards. The term generally is thought to refer to the high jump competition in field and track athletic events, when “raising the bar” demands more strength and talent from the competitors. In business it means much the same: to raise the standards. This can refer to upgrading the quality of a product or service, or to the standards required by new employees, and so on.

Raising the Game: taking a business, process, or project to a higher level, along with some increased risk. As a metaphor from gambling, especially in poker, it refers to raising the betting, and thus making the game more difficult, more important, and more risky.

Rank and File: the less senior members of a group, organization, company, and so on. This comes from military terminology traced way back as far as 1590 in Britain, when soldiers (excluding officers) would march out in “ranks” and “files” which described the columns and lines of their formation.

Reach Out: contact or communicate with. This term has become popular recently because people seem to be working on much more personal terms, which is very nice and friendly. In its original sense, to “reach out” literally means to make an effort to contact someone who might need your help. However, now the term just means to “contact” … for example, “I am reaching out to you to share our latest prices on ….and so on.”

Red Herring: an action or other ploy used to divert attention from the main issue, or in a somewhat less unpleasant way a set of circumstances which have no real relevance to the matter in hand. Red herrings, being fish, are assumed to be smelly. As such they have been used through history as a means of diverting the attention of scent-hunting dogs, for example, when tracking down an escaped prisoner or other undesirables, by distracting the dogs from the real scent. The use of red herrings for this purpose did not go unnoticed by American investment bankers in the 1920s, when they used the term to describe preliminary prospectuses offered to investors that they felt could be inadequately prepared, and so misleading.

Referral Marketing: (also known as relationship marketing) a type of marketing achieved by promoting products or services to prospective clients via referrals given face to face or at least by word of mouth. The process usually is facilitated through networking events and meetings where participants get to know, like and trust their peers, so ensuring that any referrals are of the highest quality and aptness.

Reinvent the Wheel: waste time on unnecessary activity. This term refers to the huge achievement humans enjoyed when the wheel was invented, which led to the development of many other more advanced inventions. Now, in business it usually is used in a negative way to say something isn’t worth bothering with. For example, “We need to review our system, but we do not need to reinvent the wheel.”

Remanufacturing: rebuilding or restructuring a product so it can be resold. When an older product has become worn out or out of date, often it can be rebuilt so that it’s almost as good as new again. Usually the process is more complex than a simple repair, which is why the term “remanufacturing” has become the right way to describe what is done. An example of this would be the cartridges we use in our computer printers: remanufactured ones are usually of good quality and cost less than new ones.

Revolving Door: a place or organization in which people tend to enter and leave constantly. In the architectural world, a revolving door is a pivoting entrance door for excluding drafts from the interior of a building and allowing people to enter and exit at the same time. Originally this term was used to refer to people and processes that moved around both public sector work and private sector work. Today, the term is frequently used to describe an organization or time period in which employees do not remain in a position for more than a short amount of time before they leave, thus requiring the position to be filled frequently.

Right Size: (also downsize, upsize) to make the size of your organization or work staff appropriate for your business needs. Downsize is to make the organization or staff smaller so as to be leaner and more competitive; upsize refers to making it bigger to encompass growth.

Ring Fencing: safely saving a sum of money to be used only for one purpose. This is a very old English term meaning to protect your property or land by putting up a strong fence all the way around it—in a “ring” (complete circle). In business today, the term can also be used in referring to other assets, support from people, and so on.

Rip Off: a dishonest deal or action. The term can also be used as a verb meaning to deal dishonestly, for example, “to rip someone off.” It seems the term “rip” was first used as far back as the 12th century in Britain, and became popular again in the early 20th century. However, the term “rip off” is from African American slang from the USA in the 1960s.

Rise and Shine: a pleasant euphemism for getting up out of bed and being happy to do so. It’s said to originate from a line in an early 17th century Bible, and also is said to have been used as a military order telling soldiers to get up and shine with good humor and energy. (And possibly shine their boots before breakfast, too.)

Rock the Boat: to disrupt or otherwise cause a problem for a project or process which is otherwise proceeding well. The overworked word “rock” has had many meanings over the last century or so, and those are over and above the word’s literal meanings as a noun (a large stone) or a verb (to sway back and forth). Its transformation into a brand new type of music in the 1950s/1960s—“Rock ‘n’ Roll,” now shortened to “rock”—started a number of new, parallel trends. Most common current uses are “to rock,” for example, something that “rocks” is something that’s very trendy and fashionable and also “to rock” as in what someone fashionable is wearing, for example, she “rocked” a denim jacket to complete her outfit. The term “rock the boat” refers to what happens if you make a boat sway back and forth in the water! In the business sense this means to upset the balance or progress, as in this for example, “The changes were being implemented easily so we did not want any last minute additions to rock the boat.”

Role Play: act in the role of someone other than oneself. This term comes from the world of theater where actors play roles. It is especially common in the training industry where trainees are asked to act in the role of someone other than themselves, for example, an employee pretending to be a customer in customer service training. The term has been used widely in English speaking business and mental health cultures since the second half of the 20th century.

Run It Up the Flagpole: to try out something new and see how people like it. The term comes from the phrase “let’s run it up the flagpole and see who salutes” … in other words if it were in, say, an army camp, to raise up a flag and see if any soldiers think it’s important enough to salute it.

Run-of-the-Mill: ordinary, common, not of great interest. The term was originally used to describe the first run of items produced in a mill, before anything has been sorted into good and inferior categories. It has been used as a metaphor for ordinary, unspectacular goods, processes, and so on in English language areas since the early 20th century.

Run Rings Around: to be superior, or to outclass. If you “run rings around” colleagues, it means you are far better at the job than they are. Sadly, the term has rather unfortunate origins in the blood sport of hare/jack rabbit coursing which has now been banned in the UK and some other countries. When being chased by the whippets and greyhounds, hares are known to run in circles around the dogs to confuse them and so make an escape. Used as a metaphor, this term was said to have been particularly popular in Australia and New Zealand from the late 19th century onwards.

S

Safe Pair of Hands: someone or something you can trust to look after your project, product, service, and so on, In recent years the term has come to mean not only “safe,” but also a bit boring … in other words “safe” but not offering any new or interesting thoughts.

Salami Tactics: The gradual piecemeal removal or scaling back of the opposition. Because “salami” (an Italian sausage) needs to be sliced to be eaten, the term “salami tactics” refers to business or political tactics that slice away at the opposition until it goes away.

Satisficing: to make do with a lower standard of success, quality, efficiency, and so on This can be due to a number of business reasons. The word itself may have been formed as a combination of “satisfactory” and “suffice,” especially given the way that in the USA simple terms currently are being expanded in general usage with a view, hopefully, to enlarging their impact.

Scalable: capable of being easily expanded or upgraded as needed. The term originates from the 16th century in the UK when it meant capable of being climbed, for example, a mountain. From the 20th century onwards in business, it has been taken to mean the ability of something to grow or expand without much trouble or upheaval.

Screwed, Screwed Up: a metaphor for being damaged, or when something has happened to cause failure. We must assume that the term (which is officially classed as slang) originates from the nature and usage of a screw, which is tightened by turning it around on its thread until it has fastened something. There are various other slang terms that use the word “screw,” and most of them are vulgarisms connected with action of “screwing” which, of course, also can be used as a euphemism for the sex act. However, there are more innocent usages of the word, for example, “to screw up a sheet of paper” meaning to crumple it up in your hand ready to throw away. In business, an example would be, “The sale of the company screwed up the engineers’ plans to create a new model of the motor.”

See Eye-to-Eye: to agree. This term has its origins in the Bible, and its meaning hasn’t changed in the meantime. It means to agree, or if used in the negative way, to disagree for example, “no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t see eye to eye with my co-worker about the right way to handle the new project.”

See You Around: a casual farewell statement used when there is no firm expectation of meeting again. The term is of indeterminate origin, and rather vague in meaning, too. When you are parting company with someone and want to hint that your next meeting may not be worth planning firmly, to say “goodbye, and see you around” suggests exactly that. It’s probably best to avoid using this in a business context.

See You Later: another casual farewell statement which almost means what it says, but without specifying what “later” means. The term can mean later in the day, or in more of a slang way, can mean see you much later—for example, days, weeks, and so on. It is not as negative in sentiment as see you around.

Self-Starter: someone who is self-motivated. This term might be a metaphor from the early days of automobiles when the first electric starter motors were built into cars (before then, you had to start the motor by turning a crank!) However it’s easy to see how this applies to people. Someone who is a self-starter doesn’t need to be told to do things; s/he knows what to do to get started, and gets on with it.

Shake a Leg: to hurry up. It seems this term was first clearly defined in New York magazine (USA) in the early 20th century and is thought to have come from references in both the UK and the USA to dancing, back in the 19th century. We must assume that when dancing, if you “shake a leg” you need to do it quickly…

Shape Up Or Ship Out: an admonition to perform better or depart. It seems to have originated in US Navy forces during World War II in the 1940s. There are a number of variants in terms of what it meant: some say it was an order used when people were underperforming. Others say it was used as a threat for people who didn’t behave in a suitable military manner: anyone not performing was liable to be sent overseas (i.e. “shipped out”) to a combat zone.

Shoot from the Hip: to react very quickly to something, without necessarily the right amount of accuracy and planning. In the North American Wild West (19th century) cowboys and others carried their handguns in hip holsters slung from their belts. The fastest possible way to shoot was to tip the holster up and fire the gun from within it (leather holsters had convenient holes through which the end of the barrel protruded). Needless to say although this was quick, it was usually far less accurate than if you removed the gun from the holster and took careful aim, hence the metaphor as is used today.

Short on Cash: without much money. The term is common across all English speaking regions, and there are several variants on this, for example, “strapped for cash,” “light on cash,” and so on. It’s worth remembering that the word “cash” here does not necessarily mean the paper/metal form of money: it can also refer to your bank balance and other liquid (see entry) assets.

Singing from the Same Hymn/Song Sheet: a situation in which everyone is mutually informed about a task. In many religions and of course in choirs where people sing together, often people will share the words and music from the same piece of paper or page in a book. In business and other areas, using this phrase means that everyone is aware and informed of the same information so that you are all able to work together effectively.

Sink or Swim: succeed or fail, solely on your own merits. The origins of this term go way back in British literature. A similar term, “float or sink,” was shared by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. And William Shakespeare used it exactly as it is now, in his play Henry IV part one, written at the end of the 16th century.

Skeleton Crew: bare minimum number of people needed for a job. The term was originally used by the Navy to describe a much smaller crew than normal—the minimum required to keep a ship afloat. The term is now used to describe any operation that is being run by a minimum number of personnel. Contrary to some people’s beliefs this has nothing to do with graveyards and ghosts: it’s based on the concept that the very minimum needed to represent the human form, is its skeleton.

Slam Dunk: something that is a certainty, or at least bound to happen. The term comes from the sport of basketball; it’s when a player actually jumps up and puts the ball into the net by hand (rather than throwing it)—hence it’s certain to score! The original term was “dunk shot,” thought to be based on the slang word “dunk” meaning to douse a cookie or cracker into your drink to make it softer before eating it. That goes back to around 1960. The term changed to “slam dunk” when it was first used by announcer Chick Hearn of the Los Angeles Lakers, in the early 1970s. Today it’s used widely in business and other spheres. 

Slipped My Mind: totally forgot about something that should have been remembered. Thoughts vary on the origins of this term, but it’s easy to see why it came into common usage in English. If something “slips your mind” it means that you have totally forgotten about something you should not have forgotten about. It’s widely used in all English speaking countries, throughout all conversations including those within the business world.

Snowball: to grow as something progresses. As much as this is a contemporary word today (in countries where snow falls), surprisingly it stems from Middle English in the late 14th century. Its literal meaning is a ball of snow, rolled up in your hands; the more you add to the snowball, the bigger it becomes. As a metaphor and a verb, if something “snowballs” it means that it grows as it progresses—sometimes very quickly. For ­example, “our small campaign to promote the charity has snowballed, so it’s now reaching much larger audiences than we anticipated.”

Social Enterprise: an organization that uses business techniques to make money, but only in order to address human problems and devise solutions for them. Having developed over the last few decades in the USA, the UK, Europe and parts of Asia, the term has been described as a company that “does charity by doing trade.” Also see Nonprofit, Not-For-Profit.

Social Media: forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. This is a contemporary umbrella term covering the various social and social/business Internet communication platforms such as Facebook, YouTube (video/audio only) LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Google Plus, Pinterest, SnapChat, and various others. Social media exists only online (on the Internet); and apart from offering purely social contact, also offers business connection opportunities through various groups on the platforms. LinkedIn is entirely business-oriented and is the most popular online marketplace mainly for white collar (see entry) recruiters and job seekers.

Social Networking: the action of communicating via social media. This term, contemporary as in the very late 20th into the 21st century, often is confused with “social media.” Here, however, the term means the action of communicating in the social media and building semisocial relationships with individuals and companies which may grow into business relationships in due course, once mutual trust, respect and liking have been established.

Solutioning: the act of solving a problem or other issue. This is a new verb based on the noun “solution.” It’s not certain who turned it into a verb but it’s likely to be the USA!

Speak Your Mind: say what you think. This contemporary expression in the USA and other English speaking countries means to speak what is going through your mind and although—in a business context—you may be asked to “speak your mind,” given the politics within some businesses you may need to moderate that if you want to stay in your job…

Spill the Beans: to reveal information which you shouldn’t necessarily do, at least not at that time. Folklore says that this term harks back to ancient Greece where people voted on a proposition by dropping white beans into a pot if they approved, black beans if they didn’t, and someone knocking the pot over, unsurprisingly, was “spilling the beans,” thereby potentially revealing the result too early and messing things up. However, many discount that theory and it was only in the early 20th century in the USA that the term came into its contemporary usage.

Spread Like Wildfire: spread extremely quickly. This is another contemporary English language term that is self-explanatory, assuming you know what wildfire is, which—in case you don’t—is any type of highly volatile fire that spreads alarmingly and is hard, if not impossible, to bring under control. This is often used to describe rumors which, in the business world or that of politics, can spread as fast as uncontrolled wildfire does, or even faster.

Squaring the Circle: attempt to change a very difficult issue. Because “squaring the circle” is almost impossible in mathematical terms, in business the term is used to describe very difficult or even impossible business circumstances.

Squeaky Clean: totally ethical and moral. This contemporary English language term comes from the business of hairdressing. (Yes, really.) When you have washed your hair and rinsed it properly, the gentle noise it makes when moved can be a “squeak” or a slight, high-pitched clicking sound. This term then is used to describe issues, projects, people, policies, and so on in business and politics that are totally clean and not vulnerable to criticism or suspicion.

Stakeholders: individuals or groups that have an interest in a business’s success. A “stake” is usually a long stick which people stick into the ground, to show where the boundaries of their land are. It’s from this process that the use of the word “stake” has come to mean ownership—you “stake out” your piece of land. In business, “stakeholders” can include not only employees, but also customers, contractors, suppliers, share/stock holders, landlords, and so on.

Stand Up and Be Counted: to be brave enough to outwardly promote your opinion in front of other people, even if they don’t agree with you. This old fashioned expression is still used in business today.

State of the Art: any process, product, service and so on that is the most recent and most advanced in its field. We’re told that this term goes back to 1910 when it was used to describe the latest technology for gas turbines. The phrase has become something of a cliché in recent years, mainly because people have started to use it to describe just about anything that is current and up to date.

Steal a March On: to get an advantage over a competitor or rival. It originates from military use in England back in the early 18th century when it meant to move (we presume, by marching!) troops around secretly, usually at night, to give an army an advantage over its enemy.

Stick to Your Guns: to keep to your beliefs, principles, and so on no matter what. The term comes from British and American English from the 18th century when anyone in a battle or even an argument, given that more and more people had access to weapons, had a choice in a disagreement whether to “stick to their guns” or, presumably, to depart.

Stick With: to keep to your belief, idea, opinion, and so on. The word “stick” means to adhere, cling, be pasted to. In business, to “stick with” your (whatever) is fine as long as you are convinced it is valid, but bear in mind that people who “stick with” their notions, no matter what, can be seen as a bit stubborn and unwilling to think outwardly.

Stir Crazy: restless or frantic because of confinement, routine, and so on. This term originally referred to people who were physically confined in almost impossible circumstances and literally became mentally ill as a result. It dates back to the early 20th century when prisoners would become mentally unbalanced as a result of lengthy incarceration, and was based on the slang term “stir,” meaning “prison,” first used in the mid-19th century. Now the term is used as something of an over-­statement to describe those who have experienced either physical or emotional constraint and frustration in their job or their personal life, and have not yet been able to resolve them.

Straw Poll (or Straw Vote): a casual and unofficial vote to see how members of a group, company, or other organization feel about a particular issue. There are several notions as to the origins of this term, but the one that seems mostly commonly accepted originated in the UK and the USA. To establish the winner of a poll like this, several strands of straw were cut up at random. An appropriate number of strands were held up in the hand of the adjudicator, and contenders chose a straw from his/her hand; the winner was whoever pulled the longest straw. Hence another, related term when you “get the short straw,” means you are stuck with the lesser or least favorable choice.

Streamline: to make an organization or system more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods. This term was developed in the 19th and 20th centuries to describe the undisturbed flow of air, fluid, or other relevant substance from one point to the other. Today the term is still used widely as a metaphor for such undisturbed flow … within business, it suggests smooth progress.

Stubborn as a Mule: to be very stubborn and so unwilling to accept a new concept, idea, and so on. As a contemporary simile, this is rather unfair. Mules (a cross between a donkey and a horse) tend always to be hard-working pack animals and are only stubborn when asked to bear ridiculous burdens in ridiculous circumstances, as they are so often in countries where pack animals are treated badly. However, the myth about mules being stubborn continues, and so does the simile. The term’s ­origins are uncertain, but it’s reasonable to assume that it goes back to ­premotorized days when equid transport was common.

Stumped: unable to come up with an answer or solution to a question posed. The term is derived from a number of different sources including the sport of cricket ... the ultimate end of a tree which has been cut down … and several more. The most likely derivation, however, is from cricket. The “stumps” are the three upright posts that hold the “bails” (two small pieces of carved wood that sit horizontally across the top of the three parallel stumps), and all together comprise the “wicket” which the batsman hopes remains intact! This s/he does by hitting the ball away when it’s thrown. The opposing team scores if the batsman misses and the ball dislodges the wicket. The opposing team also scores if the batsman accidentally dislodges the wicket. Stumping, or being stumped—that is, for the wicket to be hit—is a way of getting rid of a batsman. And when the umpire says “stumps,” it means the play is over for that day.

Symbiosis: a relationship between two people, groups, or organization in which each party is dependent upon and receives reinforcement, whether beneficial or detrimental, from the other. The term is derived from the Greek of the 17th century; this word has become very popular since the second half of the 20th century to mean—basically—a convenient (or inconvenient but unavoidable) relationship between two otherwise disparate parties. It was popular in the 20th century in psychiatry and psychoanalysis circles, but right now the term is used in business as a nice way of saying two entities may have or do have reasons to work together.

Synergy: when the value of several things working together is worth more than if you add up the value of the individual things working separately. That sounds very confusing especially to someone who is a non-native English speaker. The word “synergy” is used a lot in business and can describe a good relationship between you and someone else, where the combination of what you do and what they do, together, could lead to better things than you and the other person could achieve individually.

Supply Chain: a system of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Much as this may seem a simple term, in fact it can refer to a very complex and lengthy process. It’s a system that involves various resources—from individuals to entire organizations—that essentially get a product or service from whoever makes it, to the end customer/user.

Sweetheart Deal: an unusually favorable contractual arrangement. Making what can be a rather cynical use of the English lovers’ term “sweetheart,” this type of deal in business is one which offers extremely favorable terms to the organization to which it is offered. This can be in terms of a mere agreement, or a more far-reaching deal. In a cynical sense of the term, it can refer to agreements and deals which benefit the agreeing parties rather more than, perhaps, the parties which may be affected by it. More often than not, a “sweetheart deal” involves large sums of money which make it difficult to refuse for those parties invited into it.

T

Takeaway: knowledge, learning, new ideas, and so on that you “take away” from any kind of information or training input. If you live in England, the term “takeaway” is synonymous with fast food that you buy over the counter and “take away,” that is take home or elsewhere to eat. In Scotland such a meal is more usually described as a “carry out” and in many parts of North America as a “take out.” Other English language countries tend to use one of those, or variants thereof. In business you can see the connection with the fast food interpretation. For example, “The main takeaway from Friday’s meeting was how the new incentive scheme will impact us individually.”

Talking the Talk, Walking the Walk: doing what one says he/she will do. The term originates from the 20th century in the USA when it began to be used as a modern extension of older phrases such as “talk is cheap.” Now the meaning is that people concerned either do, or should, put their “talk” into practice.

Talk to the Hand: a rude expression of dismissal. This term of vague origins is thought to come from the west coast of the USA in the very late 20th century, when someone who really does not want to hear what you have to say raises the palm of one hand at you and says, “talk to the hand.”

Talk Turkey: get down to the important issues, perhaps bypassing peripheral stuff and just getting to the point. Not surprisingly, the term is derived from early US origins and is said to have come from conversations between Native American people and European settlers way back when. The term was first discussed openly in the USA during the 19th century. We should assume, perhaps, that “talking turkey” was all about discussing really important issues at that time. It’s worth considering that turkey (wild), in North American early days, represented an important source of food: and, perhaps, an important bargaining point.

Teetotaler: one who abstains from drinking alcohol. Many of us—especially those of us “‘spellingly’ challenged”—might ascribe this word to people who only drink tea! But that difference in spelling is a warning here. In fact, the “tee” here is much more likely to be a full spelling out of the letter T, and have come from “temperance” activists in the 19th century in Britain and North America.

Tear Apart: disrupt, divide, or separate—literally, to rip apart. This unfortunate contemporary English language term can mean to utterly destroy, and often is used to describe destruction of ideas, concepts, projects, and much more. Definitely not a term any business or other organization wants to deal with.

The Blue Economy: a movement started by Belgian Gunter Pauli, inspired by the relatively self-sufficient ecosystems of the oceans, whereby a healthy economy can be run by using and recycling the resources that are already in place. Pauli’s book, “The Blue Economy: 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs,” was first published in 2010.

The Proof of the Pudding: (sometimes “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”): finding out if something is going to work or not by trying it out. The word “proof” here is used in its old-fashioned sense, with a meaning closer to the word “test.” The term is said to go back to the early 14th century in English literature, but doubt has been cast on it being that early: today it’s thought to have been used first in the early 17th century. Even then, though, puddings were not the sweet dessert as we know them today. More likely they would have been savory meat and other foods packed into an animal’s skin or stomach, rather like a sausage or even a haggis.

Think Outside (or Beyond) the Box: think creatively or in a novel way. This term has been around since the 1960s and comes from North ­America. “The box” refers to the way people think if they are just sticking to the rules and don’t have the courage or imagination to go beyond the “box” of old-fashioned but established ideas. To “think outside the box” means to get away from older concepts, and come up with new and better ideas without being scared of annoying people who have older views. According to Wikipedia, “Thinking outside the box” (also “thinking out of the box” or “thinking beyond the box” and, especially in Australia, “thinking outside the square”) is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. The term is thought to derive from management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s challenging their clients to solve the “nine dots” puzzle, whose solution requires some lateral thinking’. The phrase has become something of a cliché through gross overuse.

Thought Shower: an environment in which people freely contribute ideas to a central project, concept or idea, spurring each other on to think creatively (or, indeed, “outside the box”). This is another piece of business jargon originating from the USA, and one which has become a well-worn cliché. The term evolved in the early 21st century from the word “brainstorm,” which was offensive to some as it also refers to medical condition connected with epilepsy. As a result, the business use of “brainstorm” largely has been replaced by other terms.

Ticked Off: reprimanded or annoyed. This term can have different meanings, depending on where you live. The basic and most literal meaning is to tick or check items off on a list. An applied meaning is from the military in the UK in the early 20th century, when to “tick someone off” meant to reprimand them. Another applied meaning is from the USA about half a century later, when it came to mean being annoyed, for example, “I was really ticked off by her attitude in the board meeting.”

Tinker With: to repair, adjust, or work with something in an unskilled or experimental manner. The word “tinker” has its origins in Middle English back in the 13th century, when used as a verb it meant to work with tin, and as a noun, someone who does that. In modern times the word means the action of fiddling with something—or someone who fiddles with things ineffectually. The phrase “tinker with” means to fiddle with something without really knowing what you’re doing or having a clear purpose in mind.

Toe the Line: make sure you obey rules and conform to what’s expected of you. This term probably comes from the sporting world in the early 19th century, used to remind athletes to keep their toes on the starting line so they wouldn’t get an unfair advantage over other competitors. Another theory is that it comes from the House of Commons in the ­British parliament in the 19th century, where opposing politicians were made to stand (and not cross) the given line while debating. Other variants in those days included “toe the plank” and “toe the mark,” and US variants include “toe the crack” (in the floorboards, across which you couldn’t move) and also “toe the scratch,” a line scratched into a floor or even a dirt area to separate prize fighters—also from the 19th century.

Tongue-in-Cheek: a statement or notion that the speaker or writer intends the audience to take lightly. If something is said “tongue in cheek” it means that the speaker either has some doubts about its truth or gravity or intends that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Its original meaning in England was something to be despised. However by the mid-19th century, it was being used as it still is today. The literal connection is a bit unclear, but many experts feel it stems from “bite your tongue,” which means to stop yourself either from either saying more, or perhaps from bursting out laughing.

Touch Base: to contact or communicate with. This is another term borrowed from the US game baseball (and another term which, through its popularity, has become a cliché). Touching base, in baseball, means to get to, and touch, whichever base you—as the player—can stand on, depending on the game’s progress. In business, it means is to contact or get back in touch with someone.

Touch/Knock on Wood: a superstitious expression used by someone who wants to assure that a prediction or luck doesn’t fail. In the UK and ­Australia people “touch wood” and in North America they “knock on wood,” but the meaning is the same. The expression comes from an old-fashioned superstition that when you make a positive prediction you should touch or knock on wood to protect your prediction from failing. There are a few theories about its origins, including that it was a pagan belief that evil spirits lived in wood so to tap or touch wood would keep the evil spirits in their place. Another popular theory is that it comes from German folklore where good spirits live in trees and by touching or knocking on wood, you ask them to protect your prediction. Interestingly there are variants of this phrase across the world, with the possible exception of African countries.

Train Wreck: an unstoppable business or civic disaster. This contemporary term literally refers to a railroad accident, though it is also used as a metaphor for a chaotic or disastrous situation.

Tranche: a layer or division of a larger entity, or one of a group of securities that forms a larger investment such as a bond issue. In French, the word “tranche” means a slice—for example, une tranche de pain, a slice of bread. In more general business sense, a “tranche” can mean pretty well any layer, subgroup or part of a larger whole. The word can also be used as a verb, meaning to separate into layers, subgroups, and so on.

Turn Over a New Leaf: to start afresh—start again, leaving behind whatever failures or other things that might have stood in your way. Some experts say that the term originated from the way in which new leaves grow on trees in the springtime, so giving us new inspiration and hope. However a more likely origin lies in the 16th century in Britain when the expression used the word “leaf” metaphorically. And “leaf” had nothing to do with trees: it simply described a whole sheet of paper stuck in a book—two pages, one on either side. This is how everyone referred to books’ pages when the printing industry was just beginning, and even in the 20th century that was still the case. However the word “leaf” itself is very old, going back to Middle English in the 9th century.

Two Cents’ Worth: an opinion, usually unsolicited. The metaphoric term that appeared in use in the USA in the mid-19th century carries the message of something of little value or worth. It is used in business as well as general circles, as shown in this sarcastic example: “Who asked you to add your two cents’ worth?”

U, V

USP: initials that stand for Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point. This marketing term refers to the most important thing that makes a product or service attractive to possible buyers. It is mainly derived from the marketing and advertising industries of the 20th century in the USA and other English language countries.

Under the Weather: feeling unwell without any specific symptoms, or sometimes when you know what’s wrong with you but don’t want to share it with everyone else. The term’s origins are a little unclear but generally seem to connect to sailors working on ships in rough seas where if they weren’t well, they would be sent to the lower decks of the ship so that while they were “under the weather,” they were less likely to be made sick by the rolling of the ship. There is also a theory that says the full phrase was “under the weather bow,” which is almost the opposite of the previous nautical connection: the weather bow is the part of the ship which moves and plunges the most, and if you’re under it you are likely to feel unwell. Use of these phrases stems from the 19th century.

Up Skill: to get more training, or to provide more training for your staff, so that business skills improve. This term is from late 20th century training industry jargon.

VAR: initials that stand for Value Added Reseller (could also be pronounced as an acronym but, interestingly, seldom is): This term refers to a company that buys a product, adds things to it and/or improves what it does, and so on, and then resells the product on to customers at a profit. Commonly used in the IT/computer industries, in car sales, and various other industries.

Value Add: to add value to a project, scheme, business plan or many other things, usually for no extra money (or at least no obvious extra money) to please the customer. This phrasal verb is not related to “value-added” (which normally refers to government tax added to a product at several stages in its development).

Virtualization: the creation of a virtual—rather than actual—version of something. This wonderful contemporary term is used to describe anything and everything that previously might have been done on an analogue or face-to-face basis which is now done digitally and/or online. Thus, the content is available worldwide—virtually everywhere. In theory, with online communications we are capable of virtualizing almost everything.

W

Walk on Eggshells: to progress very carefully and gently in difficult circumstances. Eggs when whole are fragile enough, but when they have been emptied they are even more fragile and the lightest touch can crack them into fragments. Whether in personal relationships or in business, to “walk on eggshells” means to use much tact and sensitivity. Most likely the origin was in the 19th century in Britain. Other variants include “walking on eggs” (thought to be an earlier version), “walking on thin ice,” “walking on broken glass,” and so on.

Walk the Line: to behave properly and according to rules or requirements as set out by whoever has issued those rules or requirements. Many people in the USA assume that “walk the line” comes from a very popular song by that name, by the late American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. However it is said to come from prisoners’ exercise yards in a number of English language countries from the 18th century through the early 20th century, when prisoners taking exercise would have to walk along a circular painted line for the given amount of time—and were punished should they stray from it.

War of Attrition: a strategy used by competing businesses to try to wear each other down to soften the way for takeovers, amalgamations, and other high-level maneuvers. This is a military term used in many countries, essentially meaning a “war” whereby participants use small but select tactics to try to wear down the enemy’s strength and sanity. It’s widely assumed that the term derives from World War I (1914–1918), when such tactics were used at the expense of millions of troops and innocent civilians. Unfortunately this has become a popular tactic in many business communities, too.

Water Cooler Conversation: informal communication among work colleagues. Many companies in the English language markets have a big container of cold water available for employees to drink during business hours. This cooler is normally in an area where employees can take some water in a plastic cup and then stand around and talk informally. The “water cooler conversation” is taken seriously in many companies, because this is where business issues get discussed informally and people can say what they really think. That’s not always possible in formal meetings.

Wax and Wane: to grow stronger and then weaker again. In a literal sense this term refers to the phases of the moon, and was first seen in use in the 14th century in Britain. Today it’s also a metaphor for issues in business, public services and other areas when trends or success rates fluctuate according to unspecified, and largely uncontrollable circumstances.

We’re on a Journey: a contemporary term for “we’re going ahead with a project.” In our politically correct times, polite euphemisms have become very popular for anything from business to medicine and particularly, cancer and other major long-term conditions (LTCs). Going on a “cancer (or whatever LTC) journey” means being diagnosed, then following a treatment pathway. Going on a journey in business is one of our recent touchy-feely contemporary terms which, frankly, don’t fool anyone.

What the Hell (or Heck): an expression meaning you really aren’t bothered and are up for trying something new. While ruder derivatives are sometimes used, such phrases use what at one time were considered very strong language in most English language countries. Amusingly, the term can have another contradictory use. If you were to say “what the hell do you mean by that?” to a colleague it can indicate that you are annoyed and offended by what they have said, and are demanding a pretty swift explanation.

When Pigs Can Fly: a metaphor meaning that something is impossible or unbelievable. Given that pigs don’t fly and never will unless genetic engineering makes some pretty radical advances, to say that “I will believe that when pigs can fly” is a metaphor for the fact that you do not and ­cannot believe what the person is suggesting. And where does this wild metaphor originate? Although you might think it’s a contemporary idiom, it isn’t. In fact there are suggestions that this may have been a traditional Scottish proverb, devised as far back as the late 16th century in an edition of John Withal’s English-Latin dictionary for children. In it we find the proverb that read, “pigs fly in the air with their tails forward.” Interestingly, too, you’ll also find a reference in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” in which the Duchess proclaims “just about as much right as pigs have to fly.” Whatever, though. In business, this delightful term—understandably, in the circumstances—often is used sarcastically in relation to frivolous entrepreneurial ideas which fail to meet common-sense criteria. For example, “That process will work when pigs can fly.”

White Collar Workers: people who work at administrative, executive and management levels. A rather divisive (and sexist) term that assumes people who work in offices wear white shirts underneath their smart suits because their job does not require them to get their hands dirty. Hence “blue collar workers,” workers who wear blue or other colored shirts under their overalls, that is, they are manual workers. Much as these two terms are politically incorrect and somewhat offensive, they are still commonly used in many industries.

White Goods: (also see brown goods) a consumer marketing term that describes the appliances consumers buy for major kitchen/utility activities. This term, coming from the second half of the 20th century in the USA and other English language markets, is still in use today and came to be because most appliances used for cooking, refrigeration, laundry, and so on at that time were white.

Widows and Orphans: lines of text at the end or beginning of sentences or paragraphs where there is just one word or line left over, which goes on to the next page. This text editing term refers to a practice to be avoided especially in a document you’re writing that needs to look professional.

Windfall: a stroke of luck—whether in money, circumstances, or other good fortune. Relating to tree-borne fruit like apples and pears, windfalls are ripe fruit that drop from the tree, so making it easy for you to pick them up and benefit from them. A windfall in business is a fortunate event that makes your organization and its projects happen more successfully. Although this term is still in active use across most English language markets, we’re told that its origins go back to the 15th century.

Win-Win: circumstances in which two sides of a business deal both gain something good, without either one losing anything or having to cut back on profit/revenue.

Y

You Are Toast: a popular contemporary term meaning that you are out of luck—finished—dismissed from your job or other terminally negative interpretations. Although this term has a very final ring to it, when you think about it “toast” is not the end of a process but the beginning of a potentially appetizing experience. Some say the expression comes from Canada, but the New York Times recorded the use of this term back in the latter decades of the 20th century.

You Can Take It as Read: you can count on the information so presented as being correct and therefore believe it. Origins are vague, but we can assume there is a connection between the literal interpretation and the fact that something which is “read” has been endorsed by the appropriate individuals and bodies.

Young Turk: a young employee or other contributor who has lively new ideas and is eager to share and implement them. The term would now be considered politically incorrect, but it is still used by older people in business to describe young upcoming talent. The term was first seen in the USA in the 1920s when referring to young people who revolutionized political thinking at that time. However, the term goes back to earlier times. Around the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, the then Sultan of the Ottoman Empire introduced sweeping modernization of their army due to the influence and support of young Turks, who went on to implement those modernizations at the expense of the old-school older generation. The term can also have negative connotations, as in referring to those who are not only young and visionary but also radical, rebellious, or revolutionary.

Your Guess Is as Good as Mine: the answer to a pertinent question that is not in the least bit obvious, and so anyone could take a guess at the right answer and have an equal chance of being right. The expression has been around for many years but still is heard a lot in business, public service, and other areas of work. Origins are uncertain but are said to go back to the 1920s in the USA.

Youthquake: a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people. The word received the winner of the “word of the year” accolade from the UK’s Oxford Dictionaries in 2017.

Z

Zip (Zilch): nothing at all. The term is apparently an Americanism dating to the end of the 19th century. It is sometimes used in business to express a value of zero, as in “His earned commission last week was zip.” The term can also be used as a synonym for energy, as in “our new hire in sales seems to have lost his zip.”

Zip It (Zip It Up): to stop talking immediately. The phrase is derived from the action of a zipper to close a garment or bag. It is a rude way of telling someone to stop talking. Example: “Just zip it—I’m tired of listening to your complaints.”

Zonk Out: a business or other type of initiative which does not work. In the UK and US to “zonk out” means to go to sleep and/or pass out due to fatigue, excess alcohol and/or drugs consumption. The contemporary term going back to the mid-20th century is used in business, as in “the new plans for the business zonked out as there were insufficient funds available to support it.”

Numbers

101: a special number used to show that whatever it’s linked to is introductory—such as an introductory course or lesson in something. There are various versions of the number’s origins, but according to Daniel Engber, columnist on Slate.com, “In the late 1920s, The Oxford English ­Dictionary finds the first use of ‘101’ as an introductory course number in a 1929 University of Buffalo course catalog. Colleges and universities began to switch to a three-digit course-numbering system around this time.” As with so many such examples, after a while the term filtered through into general slang and business jargon and is now used commonly to describe the basic, introductory elements of almost anything from sports to cooking.

$64,000 Question: a question whose answer is critically important to an enterprise, project, business outcome, and so on. This term comes from an American TV game show that goes back to the 1950s. The game consisted of contestants answering a series of questions each worth a given amount, the most difficult of which was worth $64,000 in prize money for contestants getting the right answer. Since then the term has become well used across business and other subjects.