Shirley Kobliner - So to Speak: 11,000 Expressions Thatll Knock Your Socks Off

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Copyright 2020 by Harold Kobliner, PhD, & Shirley Kobliner

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First Tiller Press trade paperback edition December 2020

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Design by Pentagram

Cover design by Patrick Sullivan and Pentagram

Hat, book, bird, eye, elephant, racket, rocks, and bee illustrations courtesy of the British Library

Socks and apple pie by Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kobliner, Shirley, author. | Kobliner, Harold, author.

Title: So to speak : 11,000 expressions thatll knock your socks off / by Shirley Kobliner and Harold Kobliner, Ph.D.

Other titles: 11,000 expressions thatll knock your socks off

Description: New York, NY : Tiller Press, November 2020.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020023123 (print) | LCCN 2020023124 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982163761 (paperback) | ISBN 9781982163778 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: English languageIdioms.

Classification: LCC PE1460 .K73 2020 (print) | LCC PE1460 (ebook) | DDC 423/.13dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023123

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023124

ISBN 978-1-9821-6376-1

ISBN 978-1-9821-6377-8 (ebook)

DEDICATION

We dedicate this book to our darling grandchildren, Rebecca, Adam, Benjamin, Joshua, Sarah, and Jacob, who are more fun than a barrel of monkeysbut also know that sometimes its necessary to do what you have to do, not what you want to do. From generation to generation, we hope this book continues to spark your love of language, your appreciation for the art of conversation, and your zest for lifelong learning. We also know itll remind you of all the fun times we had coming up with these expressions together.

Love,

Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Harold

And to our children and children-in-law who have made us proud:

We think youre all the cats meow.

Love,

Mom and Dad/Shirley and Harold

Balance the books

THE STORY BEHIND SO TO SPEAK

It looks like you all have ants in your pants! said my wife, Shirley. We were reading to our grandsons kindergarten class, when we noticed the children starting to squirm.

Ants in your pants? asked a tiny boy.

Thats funny! yelled a girl with a big grin.

Shirley closed the book, smiled, and explained the unfamiliar expression. It means youre fidgeting, as if there were ants crawling up the leg of your pants.

Ewwwwww, said a boy. At that moment, everyoneincluding the teacherstarted to laugh.

Sensing she was on a roll, Shirley asked, Can anyone think of another expression about bugs or insects?

Theres busy as a bee! I chimed in. Several children nodded.

My mom says Im a social butterfly! said a girl.

Snug as a bug in a rug, exclaimed our grandson, Jacob. Grandpa taught me that!

Soon, several children were flapping their wings and buzzing around the story-time rug as they shouted out expressions. For two educatorsShirley had been a teacher, and I a middle school principalit was a memorable moment.

As we drove home, we couldnt stop giggling. After I pulled into the driveway, Shirley turned to me with bright eyes. You know, she said, this would make a great book.

I had been thinking the exact same thing.

Thirteen years, twenty-six legal pads, and countless conversations later, we ended up with the book you now hold in your hands. It is the largest collection of its kind, with more than eleven thousand English-language expressions curated and categorized in a uniquely entertaining way.

From the start, we made a conscious decision not to use the internet to find new expressions, and not to look at other collections. Every expression we include here is one we heard with our own ears or saw with our own eyeson radio and TV, at the theater, at lectures and debates, in everyday interactions, in books and newspapers we were reading. We took suggestions from family, friends, and people we met in our daily lives, jotting down each new expression on the crisp white shirt cardboards from our dry cleaner that Shirley repurposed as scrap paper. (We soon moved on to those many legal pads, and eventually a computer spreadsheet, to keep track.) We also drew upon our own memories.

Send up a trial balloon

During the decade-plus of gathering, culling, and categorizing, we hit some milestones. At five thousand expressions, our son-in-law helped us weed out duplicates by coming up with an algorithm so that each expression appears only once in the book. And as we neared the nine-thousand-expression mark, we offered our grandkids a modest bounty (a dollar per new expression). All in all, this project has been a labor of love (to use a favorite expression), and a true celebration of the love of language with the love of my life.

After sixty-five wonderful years of marriage, I lost Shirley in 2016. There is not a day that goes by that I dont miss her immensely. At first, I felt I couldnt continue the project without her. But during a gathering at our home after she passed away, friends began spontaneously sharing expressions in her honor, and I knew that I needed to finish our book.

Every time I hear an expression, I feel Shirleys humor, beauty, and intelligence. This book comes from both of us, with warm wishes. Our hope is that it keeps you on your toes, jogs fun memories, and knocks your socks off!

Harold Kobliner

The third wheel

WHAT MAKES SO TO SPEAK FUN

We use expressions all the time, often without much thought. When you feel sick, youre under the weather ; when you feel great, youre on top of the world ! If you dont speak up, it could be that the cats got your tongue , or maybe its just a frog in your throat . You may be fine with half a loaf , or you may insist on the whole enchilada . No matter if youre a smart cookie or a tough one, youand most everyone you knowhas a veritable smorgasbord of expressions stored deep in your brain.