Over a Barrel Phrase Origin
“Over a Barrel, Have They You” Yoda/Star Wars
A phrase that will probably follow us way into the future…over a barrel. Someone used it regarding me by saying, “My dear woman, you have me over a barrel.” I didn’t even know I had them in that position, but he felt I had him over a barrel…or I had the odds in my favor so they couldn’t win. Or in Yoda speak, “My dear woman, me over a barrel, you have.”
Phrase Origin for Over a Barrel
The person over the barrel is in the other person’s power or at his mercy. In the days before mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other modern methods of lifesaving, lifeguars placed drowning victims over a barrel, which was rolled back and forth while the lifeguard tried to revive them. Victims were certainly in the lifeguard’s power, and the process is probably the origin of the Americanism to have someone over a barrel.
From The Henry Holt Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
Yoda Speak …Learn to Speak Like Yoda
That’s right, you can learn to speak like Yoda too! Fun site to play with here.
Have any phrases you’d like to understand? Let me know by commenting on my blog…
I had to come and comment when I saw the picture of Yoda. How clever you are to tie that iconic character into your post.
As usual I found myself saying, I didn’t know that about lifeguards. 🙂
Thanks for the quick lesson my friend. And the link to Yoda speak. I’m going to save this as a boredom buster for the tail end of our summer vacation. The girls will love it!
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Linda,
It’s a new WordPress SEO program driving me to make word choices in titles. The whole emphasis at the beginning of the sentence makes me almost talk backwards, so Yoda popped into my thoughts this time. Yoda speak would never have been found unless I did that. I bookmarked it also!
While watching a Laurel and Hardy movie as a kid I saw the lifeguard trying to revive one of them over a barrel and just thought they were goofing around. I didn’t know ‘having them over a barrel’ meant they were resuscitating them.
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