If there’s an elephant in the room, then one of two things is true: Either you’re speaking metaphorically, or there’s been a breakout at the local zoo. Let’s hope it’s the former, or else you’ll need a lot of peanuts to keep your new animal friend happy.

If we turn to the expertise of the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase “elephant in the room” has two definitions: The earlier usage dates to 1935, and refers to something “obvious and incongruous.” But today, it’d be more popular to use the elephantine saying in the context of a “significant problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but ignored … usually because it is more comfortable to do so.” This latter definition appeared in print in 1984 as the title of a book to help guide the children of alcoholics.

While it clearly entered the English lexicon in the 20th century, the phrase was possibly inspired by a 19th-century Russian fable that pokes fun at a man who failed to notice a large elephant in a museum, despite how obvious the creature was. Why an elephant and not another animal? It likely has to do with the fact that elephants are the largest land animal, and are an apt metaphor to use when describing a potentially substantial impact.

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Today, people are prone to use this phrase when discussing — or ignoring — tense topics that could cause awkward situations. This may include financial issues, substance abuse, relationship troubles, or any other serious matter. The phrase is rarely, if ever, used in the actual context of there being an elephant nearby.

Anyone who “minds their p’s and q’s” is known for acting on their best behavior, but what do those two letters stand for? Polite and quiet? Proper and quaint? Peas and uh… qarrots? We won’t take liberties with the spelling of “carrots,” and we can further confirm that none of those options is correct. However, there are a few origin stories for this perfectly quirky turn of phrase. 

The Oxford English Dictionary records examples of these letters in print as early as 1602, though “p’s and q’s” were sometimes written as “Pee and Kue.” “To be on one’s p’s and q’s” and variants of that phrase meant to be on one’s best behavior. The exact wording of  “mind your p’s and q’s” was first documented in the 1756 book The Life & Memoirs of Ephraim Tristram Bates. 

While lexicographers and dictionaries can trace the printed citations and usages of words and phrases, they often don’t reveal how these phrases originally came to be. With “p’s and q’s,” there are several possible origin stories, but none rises above the rest. It’s possibly related to the similarity of the appearance of “p” and “q” in penmanship and a warning to avoid mixing them up; a similar story is related to printers mixing up the letters when typesetting. A completely different theory is based on the idea that bartenders used to keep running tabs of the number of pints and quarts drunk by their patrons (or told the patrons to “mind their own p’s and q’s”). A fourth and final purported origin story is that “p’s and q’s” translates to “pleases and thank-yous,” as the latter part of “thank-you” sounds like the letter “Q.”

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While all of these theories relate in some way to the idea of good and orderly behavior, each is dubious in its own way. We may never know the true origin of this early 17th-century phrase, so feel free to come up with a fun origin story of your own for “p’s and q’s.”

The state of Kansas has contributed much to American culture. For junk food connoisseurs, it’s the birthplace of Pizza Hut and ICEEs, and for classic movie fans, it’s a key part of one of the most famous film quotes of all time: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” which Dorothy (Judy Garland) says upon her arrival to Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz. But that’s not the only well-known line with roots in the Sunflower State — we also can trace “get out of Dodge” back to a Wild West town in Kansas. 

This idiom, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “to leave, esp. quickly,” refers to the infamous Dodge City — a once-bustling cattle town on the outskirts of the American Wild West. Today it’s a small town that embraces its former notoriety through Wild West tourist draws, but in the late 19th century, Dodge City hosted a population of gunslingers and ne’er-do-well cowboys. Along with the outlaws, the famous lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson roamed the streets, which contributed to the rowdy reputation of the town. 

While Dodge City was established as the epitome of the Wild West town by the 1870s, it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the idiom “get out of Dodge” gained widespread popularity. The radio and television series Gunsmoke — which aired in various forms from 1952 to 1975 — played a key role in popularizing this expression. Set in Dodge City during the 1890s, Gunsmoke starred James Arness as U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, a lawman known for wielding his authority and telling criminals to “get out of Dodge.” The catchphrase soon entered the collective American lexicon, and examples began to pop up in print in the 1960s. In a 1965 edition of the National Observer: “Here are some of the expressions… the gang members were using… ‘Get out of Dodge.’” And in a 1989 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “This is the Steele strategy — work for one big inning every game, invoke the 20-run rule and get the heck out of Dodge at the end of the fifth.”

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This begs the question: Did anyone actually order outlaws to “get out of Dodge” in Dodge City during the 1890s? We can’t know for sure if the real peace officers who patrolled the town used the same lingo as the fictional U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, but Wyatt Earp and the like certainly inspired the creators and writers of Gunsmoke. 

The phrase “dog-eat-dog” could work in two contexts: First, maybe you’re giving your beloved fur baby a hot dog as a well-deserved birthday treat. But second, and more recognizably, the phrase “dog-eat-dog” is a figurative idiom.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “dog-eat-dog” as “a situation in which people are willing to harm each other in order to succeed.” It comes from the Latin idiom canis caninam non est, which translates into English as “a dog does not eat dog’s flesh.” The ancient Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro included the phrase in his seminal work, De Lingua Latina (On the Latin Language). In the Latin usage, the intended meaning was that even dogs have their limits and the animals wouldn’t eat a fellow dog, no matter how fierce they appear.

In 1813, “dog-eat-dog” appeared in English in a collection of political essays, but it repurposed the original Latin idiom and was used to suggest the exact opposite. The implication was that in the world of politics — and other cutthroat industries — “dogs” (people) don’t have any limits in the pursuit of unbridled success and power.

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As people have continued to use the phrase, it’s become a bit mangled. Sometimes it’s heard (and written) as “doggy dog world.” While the idea of a planet full of even more dogs sounds wonderful, “doggy dog world” is an “eggcorn” — a word or phrase that’s misheard and repeated due to having similar sounds. It’s been a “dog-eat-dog world” since the days of ancient Rome.