This piece was inspired by an episode of The Cooler, KQED’s weekly pop culture podcast. Give it a listen!
Ah, idioms—those obscure, frequently-baffling bits of language-within-a-language guaranteed to make learning any foreign tongue that little bit harder. As explored on a previous episode of KQED Pop’s The Cooler podcast, the world's languages are chock-full of these linguistic puzzlers, but brace yourselves, America: trusty old British English is no less stuffed with idioms just waiting to confuse you in a pub somewhere.
So, if you’re planning a trip across the pond to take advantage of Britain’s natural beauty and/or staggering post-Brexit currency woes, read on for the sayings most likely to make you come a cropper! (Including that one right there.)
“A damp squib”
Meaning: a bust; a disappointment, particularly after much anticipation.
Example usage: “After all that planning, Carly’s birthday party was a total damp squib.”
It’s hard not to imagine this one rising to prominence purely on the basis that “squib” is really fun to say. The word actually means “small explosive device”—i.e. exactly the sort of thing you wouldn’t want to be damp. Older squibs were un-insulated and needed to be kept dry in order for the gunpowder to ignite, making any “damp squibs” a pretty disappointing display. Fun fact: In the film industry, squibs now often refer to the little explosions of fake blood used to simulate gunshots.
