In a French Restaurant

Despite my wife being fluent in French, I have learned very little of that language in our married life. Of course, there are many French [phrases that have made their way into fairly common usage in English. For example, here are three you might use or hear in a restaurant.

"À la carte" means that each dish on the menu is priced individually, rather than being part of a set meal. It literally translates to "according to the card"—referring to the menu card. While the correct French spelling includes the accent (À la carte), it’s commonly written without it in English. (We are lazy about that stuff.) The term describes a dining style where meals are selected and paid for item by item, unlike a table d’hôte arrangement, which offers a fixed-price menu for a set combination of courses.

Though the exact date of its first use in French is unclear, à la carte entered the English language in the early 19th century.

For Americans, it means "with ice cream on top"

The phrase "à la mode" is French for "in the fashion" or "fashionable", and originally had nothing to do with dessert topped by ice cream. 

In classical French cuisine, it describes dishes prepared in a particular style, like boeuf à la mode, a pot roast cooked with wine and herbs.

The term was anglicised as a noun – alamode, which was a form of glossy black silk, and it appeared in a 1676 edition of The London Gazette:

But Americans are familiar with this phrase as meaning "with ice cream." That twist appears to have emerged in the late 19th century. One of the earliest documented uses of à la mode to mean served with ice cream was in an 1895 article from the Chicago Daily Tribune, describing a pie topped with ice cream. From there, the term caught on and became a staple of American diner lingo.

The American chicken cordon bleu

When someone says a dish is "cordon bleu", they’re not just talking about chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. They’re basically saying it’s top-tier, five-star, “kiss-the-chef” level stuff.

The phrase is French for “blue ribbon”, which back in the days of the Bourbon kings wasn’t just something you won at a school science fair—it was literally the highest rank of chivalry. By 1727, English speakers had picked it up to mean elite quality — especially when it came to chefs.

Fast forward to 1827, when a cookbook titled Le Cordon bleu ou nouvelle cuisinière bourgeoise hit Paris, dishing out top-notch recipes. Then in 1895, a newsletter called La Cuisinière Cordon-bleu began sharing pro tips from real chefs. And in 1896, Cordon Bleu cooking classes kicked off in Paris’s fancy Palais Royal, training folks to sauté like royalty.

In short: if someone says your cooking is cordon bleu, you can proudly toss your spatula in the air and take a bow.

Grateful Dead

Grateful Dead was originally called The Warlocks, until Jerry Garcia found out that another band had the same name. The band's founding members were Jerry Garcia (lead guitar and vocals), Bob Weir (rhythm guitar and vocals), Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (keyboards, harmonica, and vocals), Phil Lesh (bass guitar and vocals), and Bill Kreutzmann (drums)

The name, though sometimes mistakenly identified as coming from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a phrase that appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

"In the land of the night, the ship of the sun is drawn by the grateful dead."

Supposedly, Jerry was intrigued by the story of a troubled soul who is put to rest by a traveler. The spirit then repays the favor by helping the traveler with his own quest.

The Grateful Dead were a symbol of the 1960s counterculture. Though they never achieved mainstream commercial success, their legion of Deadheads followers brought them financial success.

They are forever part of the Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco scene, where they regularly played at Ken Kesey’s acid tests.

In their earliest incarnation, they were a jug band/country/blues band, which they returned to to some degree in their acoustic American Beauty/Workingman's Dead period. Over their 40-year career, they played many musical genres including rock, folk, R&B, jazz, and psychedelic.

They are best known as a live band and toured almost continually during the 60s and early 70s. (There are many more live recordings - legitimate and bootleg - than studio releases.)

 

It's strange to think of the Dead having a "greatest hits" album since they never sought out commercial success, but they did hit the charts in the late 80s with “Touch of Grey.” Still, there is a Gratest Hits compilation available.

The band essentially ended with the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995, though members of the band still tour and release tracks as part of other ventures. Former members of the band, along with other musicians, toured as The Other Ones in 1998, 2000, and 2002, and as The Dead in 2003, 2004, and 2009. In 2015, the four surviving core members marked the band's 50th anniversary in a series of concerts in Santa Clara, California, and Chicago that were billed as their last performances together. There have also been several spin-offs featuring one or more core members, such as Dead & Company, Furthur, the Rhythm Devils, Phil Lesh and Friends, RatDog, and Billy & the Kids.

Official Site Of The Grateful Dead

Down to the Wire and Hands Down

Here are two sports idioms from horse racing that have gone beyond the sport. Both contain "down."

When something goes "down to the wire" we mean it goes to the very end or last minute. "The election went down to the wire." The term comes from the length of wire that was once stretched across a racetrack at the finish line. Now, that finish is recorded electronically. The figurative use of the phrase goes back to about 1900.

Outside of horse racing, if someone said, "Hands down, this is the best pizza I have ever eaten." In that usage, it means unconditionally. It can also be used to mean something done with great ease.

In horse racing, when a jockey wins hands down, it means that when the jockey is certain of victory, he or she drops their hands and relaxes the hold on the reins. 

The horse-racing phrase was first cited by OED in 1867, and its figurative usage was noted in 1913.

Greenbacks, Bucks, Clams, Dead Presidents, Dough and Scratch

There are some informal (slang) names for U.S. paper currency. One fairly common term is "bucks." It likely originated from the early American practice of trading deerskins, known as buckskins, which were used as a unit of exchange. Over time, the term "buck" became a colloquialism for money. It's thought that this term was later applied to dollars and paper currency, becoming a widely used slang term.

The term "clams" for money likely originated in the mid-19th century in the United States. One theory is that it came from the expression "shell out," meaning to pay up or cough up money, which references the practice of using seashells, like clamshells, as currency or for decoration in some cultures. This term may have been shortened to "clams" as a slang term for money.

The term "dead presidents" likely originated in the late 19th or early 20th century, as many U.S. presidents were featured on various denominations of currency. The term gained popularity over time, particularly in the mid-20th century, as it became a common slang term to refer to paper money. It's worth noting that not all U.S. currency features presidents, but the term "dead presidents" stuck due to the prominent portraits of presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others on various denominations.

As with the previous terms, we have "likely" rather than definitive origin stories. The term "dough" for money likely originated from the idea that money is a vital resource, much like dough is a fundamental ingredient for bread. It's a basic necessity that helps things "rise" or progress. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, "dough" became a popular slang term for money.

The term "scratch" for money probably comes from the idea of scratching out a living or making ends meet. It may also come from the notion of scratching together enough money to achieve something. In a street-level context, it might imply that it's a resource that's earned or scrounged up through effort. The term is often used in phrases like "scratch together" or "from scratch," emphasizing the idea of gathering or accumulating resources.

"Greenbacks" became a semi-official name for some currency in 1861when the Union introduced Demand Notes to fund the Civil War. United States Notes followed in 1862. Both were dubbed "greenbacks" due to their distinctive green ink, an anti-counterfeiting measure. 

As the first widespread US paper currency, these notes shared some similarities with today's bills, like the green color, but had notable design differences. Early $1 notes featured Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and President Abraham Lincoln was on the $10 note. The backs showcased intricate wording or patterns, such as the crisscross sawhorse design. 

Initially, greenbacks were printed in larger sizes - 7 3/8 x 3 1/8 inches - until they were downsized to 6 1/8 x 2 5/8 inches in 1929.

Calling Dibs and Playing Jacks

Have you ever "called dibs" on something? Let's say that a group of people decide to rent bicycles for a ride, and one person says, "I call dibs on the red one." "First dibs" is sometimes called to establish a claim on the first use or the ownership of something. 

What does that mean and where did this odd expression originate?

This slang term has been in use since the early 19th century. The origin is disputed, but the most common origin story is that it comes from an old children's game called dibstones.

Dibstones is a child's game, similar to jacks and dice games. A dibstone is a pebble used in the game as a counter. The pebbles or the discarded knucklebones of sheep have been used since the late 17th century.

The game is from England, but the slang usage seems to be American. While playing, you can place a stone at your place to indicate a point. Similar to the modern slang usage, this means you have claimed a point.

To "call dibs" today is to claim a temporary right to something or to reserve it.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Children's Games - Knucklebones

The more common game of Jacks is also known as Knucklebones, Tali, or Fivestones. The games all have origins going back to ancient Greece and are mentioned by Sophocles and in the Iliad and Odyssey.

The games are usually played with five small objects (ten in the case of jacks). At one time, the game pieces were literally knucklebones, which are the astragalus bone in the ankle, or the hock of sheep. The jacks are thrown up and caught along with a ball or other object.

Modern jacks have six points/knobs and are usually made of metal or plastic. The simplest throw consists of either tossing up one jack, or bouncing a ball, and picking up one or more jacks/pebbles/knucklebones from the ground while it is in the air.

The games have a whole series of throws with odd names such as "riding the elephant", "peas in the pod", "horses in the stable", and "frogs in the well".

Sheep knucklebones used in the game

A variant on the previously mentioned games that is played by Israeli school-age children is known as kugelach or Chamesh Avanim ("five rocks"). Instead of jacks and a rubber ball, five die-sized metal cubes are used. The game cube is tossed in the air rather than bounced. 

here's also the Korean game Gonggi, another variant.

I was not able to find the origin and reason why the game or the game pieces are called "jacks."  Do any readers know?