The origins of 13 everyday sayings non-English speakers don't understand

Have you ever had to "separate the wheat from the chaff"' Or "fly by the seat of your pants"'Linguistic researchers found the origins of these and other everyday phrases that don't make sense to non-English speakers in a study commissioned by Privilege Insurance.Keep scrolling to see the 12 origins of everyday phrases, as well as one bonus phrase no one can agree on.If you are very drunk, you may be "three sheets to the wind." The phrase comes from having a ship's sails properly fastened.According to researchers, "sheets" refer to the ropes that fasten asail. If one of your sheets isn't properly tied down, theship would become difficult to control and would be "to the wind," or moving erratically.To "fly by the seats of your pants," or improvise without a clear plan, was popularized after Douglas Corrigan's 29-hour flight from Brooklyn to Dublin in 1938.The phrase was used in a 1938 headline in The Edwardsville Intelligencer to describe Corrigans off-book flight. He was meant to fly toCalifornia, but divertedhis plane to Dublin instead. "Corrigan had filed for a transatlantic flight two days earlier but it was rejected because his plane was not considered fit for the job," the researchers wrote. "Upon landing in Dublin he claimed his compass had packed up."One mechanic said Corrigan "flies by the seat of his pants," which was said to be an old flying expression for going aloft without instruments or radio."Bite the bullet," or doing something unpleasant, comes from when soldiers would bite a bullet when they were being operated on without anesthetic.There is some debate over whether or not this is true. The phrase has been in use since 1796 and has always meant to have a "stiff upper lip" before doing something you don't want to do.It may have come from a belief that people can derive couragefrom biting a bullet, according to researchers.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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