A Word In Your Shell-Like - Nigel Rees

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expression derives from the fable (told, for example, in Piers Plowman, circa 1377) about the old mouse who suggested putting a bell round the neck of a cat so that mice would be warned of its approach. It was generally agreed among the mice that this was a very good idea – except that one young mouse pointed out the only flaw in it: ‘But who shall hang the bell about the cat’s neck?’ The nickname ‘bell-the-cat’ was applied to Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus (circa 1450–1514) who earned it by devising a scheme to get rid of Robert Cochrane, hated favourite of James III of Scotland. He is reputed to have said that he would ‘bell the cat’, and he began the attack by pulling Cochrane’s gold chain from his neck. Cochrane and others were hanged. Douglas switched allegiance and led the rebellion against James.

      belly See BETTER THAN A SLAP.

      —belongs to—A modestly used but memorable format for titles. London Belongs To Me was the title of a novel (1945) by Norman Collins (filmed UK 1948 but known in the US as Dulcimer Street). Paris Belongs To Us was the English title of Jacques Rivette’s film Paris nous appartient (France 1960).

      belt and braces A term applied to a system with its own back-up, suggesting that if one part falls down, the other will stay up; a double check. It is an engineer’s expression, used for example by a BBC man to describe the two microphones placed side-by-side when broadcasting the sovereign’s Christmas message. In the days when this was broadcast live, it ensured radio transmission. Belt and Braces was the name of a British theatre group of the 1970s. An Australian engineer commented (1993) that some of his colleagues would talk of ‘belt, braces and bowyangs, too’ – ‘bowyangs’ being ties round a worker’s trousers to keep out cold and mud.

      be my guest American Speech in 1955 had ‘be my guest’ as a way of saying ‘go right ahead; do as you wish’. Hilton hotels may also have used ‘be my guest’ as a slogan at some time. Certainly, Be My Guest was the title of a book (1957) by the hotelier, Conrad Hilton. What is not clear is when the phrase originated.

      bend See CLEANS ROUND.

      benefit See BEING FOR THE.

      benign neglect When he was a counsellor to President Nixon, the American Democratic politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003) quoted this phrase in a memorandum dated 2 March 1970: ‘The time may have come when the issue of race could benefit from a period of “benign neglect”. The subject has been too much talked about…We may need a period in which negro progress continues and racial rhetoric fades.’ This was leaked to The New York Times and the inevitable furore ensued, though all Moynihan suggested was that racial tensions would be lessened if people on both sides were to lower their voices a little. He was repeating an 1839 phrase of an Earl of Durham to Queen Victoria regarding Canada. It had done so well ‘through a period of benign neglect’ by the mother country, the Earl said, that it should be granted self-government.

      Bentley See BLACK MARK.

      be prepared The motto of the Boy Scout movement (founded 1908), which shares its initials with the movement’s founder, Sir Robert Baden-Powell. With permission, the words were subsequently used as an advertising slogan for Pears’ soap. They were also used, as a motto, by police in South Africa.

      (a right) berk Morris (1977) cites Dudley Moore as saying of Peter Cook (in a magazine interview): ‘It is hard to distinguish sometimes whether Peter is being playful or merely a berk.’ Morris then goes on, coyly, to say ‘berk is British slang – originally a bit of Cockney rhyming slang – meaning “fool”’ – and leaves it at that. In fact, ‘berk’ is short for ‘Berkeley/Berkshire Hunt’, which is rhyming slang for ‘cunt’. Spelling the word ‘birk’ or ‘burk(e)’ helps obscure the origin. Theoretically, if it comes from this source, the word should be pronounced ‘bark’. The use probably does not date from before 1900.

      Berlin by Christmas See BY CHRISTMAS.

      Bernie, the bolt! Bob Monkhouse, host of ATV’s game show The Golden Shot 1967–75, explained in 1979: ‘Lew Grade had bought the Swiss-German TV success The Golden Shot and the host had to repeat one line in each show – the word of instruction to the technician to load the dangerous crossbow and simultaneously warn the studio of the fact that the weapon was armed…“Heinz, the bolt!” [was the original phrase]. When I took over in 1967, Heinz went home. He stayed long enough to train an ATV technician, Derek Young. I said, “’Derek, the bolt’ sounds lousy. Let’s make it alliterative. What’s funny and begins with B?” We were reckoning without the man himself. Derek liked Derek. “Well, you think of a name that begins with B and won’t embarrass you,” I said. And Bernie it became. I found out later that his wife liked it.…Only blokes called Bernie grew to loathe it…’ The phrase stayed the same even when Derek was replaced by another technician. At one time, viewers watching the programme at home could ring and instruct the operator to aim the gun. Hence: Left a bit, – stop! Down a bit, – stop! Up a bit, – stop! Fire! This acquired a kind of catchphrase status, not least because of the possible double entendre.

      be soon See SHE KNOWS YOU KNOW.

      best See AND THE BEST; HAPPIEST DAYS OF; IT’S ALL DONE.

      (the) best and the brightest This alliterative combination is almost traditional: ‘Political writers, who will not suffer the best and brightest of characters…to take a single right step for the honour or interest of the nation’ – Letters of Junius (1769); ‘Best and brightest, come away!’ – Shelley, ‘To Jane: The Invitation’ (1822); ‘Brightest and best of the sons of the morning’ – from the hymn by Bishop Heber (1827); ‘The best, the brightest, the cleverest of them all!’ – Anthony Trollope, Dr Thorne, Chap. 25 (1858); ‘So we lose five thousand of the best and brightest [i.e. coins/money] – P. G. Wodehouse, ‘Anselm Gets His Chance’ (1930). In David Halberstam’s book The Best and the Brightest (1972), the phrase applies to those young men from business, industry and the academic world whom John F. Kennedy brought into government in the early 1960s but who were ultimately responsible for the quagmire of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

      best beloved Term of endearment (also ‘O My Best Beloved’ and ‘O Best Beloved’) addressed to the reader of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (1902). These comic fables explaining the distinguishing characteristics of animals (‘How the Camel Got His Hump’ and so on) were originally told by Kipling to his own children.

      (to put one’s) best foot forward Meaning ‘to walk as fast as possible; to make a good impression’, this probably derives from an earlier form: ‘To put one’s best foot/leg foremost’. In Shakespeare’s King John, IV.ii.170 (1595), we find: ‘Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.’ The right foot has from ancient times been regarded as the best foot, right being associated with rationality, the left with emotion. To put your right foot forward is thus to guard against ill-luck.

      best friends See EVEN YOUR.

      (the) best fucks are always after a good cry A seldom recorded observation. In Peter Hall’s Diaries (1983) – entry for 22 May 1979 – it is quoted as having been said at Glyndebourne after Elizabeth Söderström had burst into tears at being given tough direction and then gone on to give ‘a very good first act’.

      be still, my beating heart! A common phrase from 19th-century verse, now only used in parody or as a cynical comment on an account of young love or a romantic incident. ‘My beating heart’, on its own, appears in innumerable verses between 1700 and 1900. ‘Be still, my beating heart, be still!’ is the first line of ‘All One’ by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907). ‘Oh my soul, my beating heart’ is in Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (1869). Dr James Beattie’s ‘Elegy: Written in the Year 1758’ has: ‘But peace, bold thought! Be still, my bursting heart!’ W.

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