Whats in a word

Journalists and Authors could not do there jobs without using words or an expression, have you ever read a book or article and wondered about the meaning of a word or where a certain expression originated? I do, so I thought I would Google up a few and here they are

1) Pass the Buck: “Blame someone else; avoid accepting responsibility”

Origin: The original Buck was a buckhorn knife passed around the table in certain card games. It was placed in front of the player whose turn it was to deal the cards and see that the stakes for all the players were placed in the pool. Someone who passed the buck, literally passed the responsibility to the person next to him

2) A bitter pill to swallow: “An experience that’s difficult or painful to accept’

Origin: Refers to taking medicine in the time before doctors had any way to make pills more palatable. The bark of a New World tree, the cinchona was effective in fighting malaria. But the quinine it contains is extremely bitter. Widely employed in the era before medications where coated, cinchona pellets caused any disagreeable thing to be termed a bitter pill to swallow”

3) He’s tied to her apron strings: “A man is dominated by his wife”

Origin: “In England several hundred years ago , if a man married a woman with property, he didn’t get title to it, but could use it while she was alive. This was popularly called apron-string tenure. A man tied to his wife’s apron strings was in no position to argue; hence the phrase came to stand for any abnormal submission to a wife or mother”

4) To give someone the cold shoulder: “Reject or act unfriendly toward someone”

Origin: Actually refers to food. In England a welcome or important visitor would be served a delicious or hot meal. “A guest who had outstayed his welcome, or an ordinary traveller” would get a cold shoulder of mutton.

5) The naked truth: “The absolute truth”

Origin: Comes from this old fable: “Truth and falsehood went swimming. Falsehood stole the clothes that Truth had left on the river bank, but Truth refuse to wear Falsehoods clothes and went naked”