In a recent edition of the State Department’s State Magazine, one column addressed the matter of the use of certain words and phrases that have become common, everyday idioms. The writer’s concern was that these idioms have the potential to be offensive in that their origins (what he calls their “back story”) are racially and culturally insensitive. He therefore advises against their use. Among the idioms he identifies and to which he provides the back story are: “hold the fort,” “rule of thumb,” “going Dutch,” and even “handicap.”
The columnist’s concern is admirable, and the issue of racial and cultural sensitivity is not unimportant. The call to “choose your words thoughtfully” is worth remembering. In fairness, he admits that the validity of the back stories he provides may be historically uncertain. But he insists that, whether true or untrue, they may be a factor in how people will receive the idiom. The back story may open the door to an offense and affect the “environment.”
Yet I wonder whether the specific issue that he addresses is necessary. By their very nature, idioms and their meaning often take on a life of their own and may no longer have any connection to their origins. They mean what they mean in current usage. Besides, who knows any of these back stories? I would venture to say that most, if not all, current communicators have no idea as to the origin of the idioms they use. And I haven’t heard of people taking serious offense from the use of such idioms. (Except perhaps some who intentionally look for offense.) In truth, references to origins of idioms are generally unnecessary and irrelevant.
The intended meaning of a speaker or writer is what matters, not what other people try to make them say. I remember how so much unnecessary pain was inflicted when people made a big deal of one journalist’s use of the idiom “chink in the armor” when referring to Chinese athlete Jeremy Lin. Clearly, “chink” here had nothing to do with Lin’s ethnicity. But malicious people misrepresented the intended meaning and made it into a blown-out-of-proportion controversy. Lin himself took no offense from the idiom.
Scripture instructs followers of Christ to be “slow to anger”—whether from a real offense or just a perceived offense—“for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness” (James 1.20 NET). As the Sage reminds us: “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense” (Proverbs 19.11 NIV). We would do well to pay attention to this instruction, and avoid unnecessary heartache.
—Keith Jainga