A Dark Horse

 
To refer to something or someone as a dark horse is to suggest they have come to prominence from relative obscurity. The phrase was originally used in relation to a real horse. It was not uncommon for horse owners to hide the potential of their best horses by keeping them hidden until the day of the race. A 'dark horse' was therefore one that wasn't known to the punters and was difficult to place odds on. The figurative use later spread to other fields and has come to apply to anyone who comes under scrutiny but is previously little known.

Benjamin Disraeli's novel The Young Duke, 1831, provides the earliest known example : "A dark horse, which had never been thought of ... rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph."
 

Home James and don't spare the horses.

 
This saying dates from 1870 or earlier but it was a song by that title in 1934 that gave the phrase a popular boost. One of the best known versions was sung by Elsie Carlisle with Ambrose's Orchestra c. 1934.

One story says the phrase was uttered by Queen Victoria, who had a driver named James Darling. She didn't want to call him "Darling," as custom would dictate, so she called him by his first name instead. I have no idea if this story is true, but I like it.

When I was young I was never sure whether the phrase was "Home James and don't spare the horses" or "Home James and don't spur the horses" - which, of course, would have had the opposite meaning.
 

Not my cup of tea

 
If something is not your cup of tea, you don't like it very much.

The positive version -- "He's my cup of tea" - has apparently been used since the late 1800s and the negative -- "It's not one's cup of tea" -- since the 1920s.'
 

Heuristic

 
I came across the word 'heuristic' the other day and looked it up. Unfortunately I'm not sure I understand the answer! Nevertheless I include the defionbitions in the hope they may enlighten someone....

A rule of thumb, simplification, or educated guess that reduces or limits the search for solutions in domains that are difficult and poorly understood. Unlike algorithms, heuristics do not guarantee optimal, or even feasible, solutions.
Heuristic is a word which relates to a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem.
Heuristic is an adjective for experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery. A heuristic method is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is hoped to be close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'.
 

Silver tongued

 
Silver tongued is defined as eloquent; expressing oneself readily, clearly, effectively; and articulate. A silver-tongued person speaks to someone in a pleasant way and praises them in order to persuade them to do what he wants.

"He was a silver-tongued orator who convinced many people to support him."
 

Ellipsis and aposiopesis

 
Ellipsis (plural ellipses) is a mark or series of marks that indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence (aposiopesis).

The most common form of an ellipsis is a row of three periods or full stops (...). Forms encountered less often are: three asterisks (***), one em dash (—), multiple en dashes (––), and the Unicode Ellipsis symbol (…).

The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot.

I use aposiopesis a lot; I have the habit of ending sentences with an elipsis as a way of suggesting I could have written a lot more had I so wished...
 

Grow'd like Topsy

 
Occasionally one hears the expression that something 'grow'd like Topsy'. I thought readers might be interested to know its origins.

In "Uncle Tom's cabin, or Life among the lowly", published in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe describes the character Topsy - a wild and uncivilized slave girl who Miss Ophelia tries to reform. In Chapter 20 the novel recounts a conversation between Ophelia and Topsy:

"Tell me where were you born, and who your father and mother were."
"Never was born," re-iterated the creature more empahatically. "Never had no father, nor mother nor nothin'"
"...Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?" The child looked bewildered, but grinned as usual.
"Do you know who made you?"
"Nobody, as I knows on," said the child, with a short laugh. The idea appeared to amuse her considerably; for her eyes twinkled, and she added, "I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me."


At the time of its publication 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' outsold every book previously published in the U.S. except the Bible and readers were charmed by Topsy's declaration that she just "grow'd." Soon "it growe'd like Topsy" had become a popular figure of speech to describe something that grew or increased by itself, without apparent design or divine intervention.

According to the Word Detective, today, "grow like Topsy" is most often heard in criticism of bureaucratic institutions or government budgets, for whose bloated sprawl and inefficiency no one is eager to take credit.
 

Edification

 
Trying to explain the difference between while and whilst made me realise that there are lots of words that mean pretty much the same thing but which we use in different contexts. Trying to explain when to use one and when the other is sometimes beyond me.
One such word is edification. The definition of edification is "instructed and encouraged in moral, intellectual, and spiritual improvement; uplifting enlightenment; education; illumination; instruction; or the act of being informed.

I would use edify rather than educate in the following context - "I write a Christmas message each year for the edification of my friends". Why? I don't know. My Christmas messages are rarely morally enlightening or spiritually uplifting! In fact, by using the word edification there is an element of tongue-in-cheek about it.
 

To bone up

 
The phrase to bone up means to revise; study a subject in depth; to study intensely, usually at the last minute as for an exam.
As with many phrases the origins are uncertain. One suggestion is that it relates to a Victorian publisher and bookseller Henry Bohn (1796-1884) who produced many study primers in Latin and Greek. If he had been the cause of th pjrase one might have expected it to appear as Bohn up on occasion but it never does. An alternative, and more tenable theory, is that it derives from the practice of using bones to polish leather. So, boning up was polishing or refining one's knowledge.

It's a shame that the Henry Bohn theory doesn't stack up because Liverpool still boasts a Henry Bohn bookshop. I don't know if the proprietor was ever a Henry Bohn or whether the name simply derived from the bookselling world's more famous predecessor.
 

Asperous

 
Asperous means rough to the touch; rugged; with very distinct elevated dots; more uneven than scabrous.

"The damp gray stone of the Club looked desolate, like the asperous face of a lost, old man." - Matt Rees - "The Bethlhem Murders"