Chrysti The Wordsmith: Alliterative Cliches - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith American English has hundreds of cliches expressions so overworked they're often dismissed as throwaway verbal shorthand. A piece of cake. Sick as a dog and fish out of water are common examples. A generous percentage of our cliches owe their popularity and some would say they're over use to alliteration the repetition of sounds or syllables within a phrase. Consider bolt from the blue. An expression that repeats the initial B sound. This cliche refers to an unexpected event that seems to strike like lightning from a cloudless sky bolt from the blue was first seen in print in 1857 the last up in the alliterative cliche lap of luxury is a metaphor for an environment of nurture and comfort those who we say have been cradled in the lap of luxury were raised in affluent circumstances doing something to beat the band is an alliterative way of saying to perform with gusto. When you beat the band you metaphorically drown

out the noisiest ensemble around the expression the more the merrier is an abbreviated version of the phrase the more the merrier The fewer the better the fare. The entire expression was published as early as 15 30 today only the alliterative truncation remains meaning the greater number of participants. The more the fun increases the more the merrier. Join me next time for more common alliterative offerings. I'm Christie the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.