Speaker 1: Those Old Saints, phrases, idioms, you know, those things your
family and friends would say. And it usually came from
out of nowhere, and sometimes it only made sense. I mean,
they had to start somewhere, right, Who, what, where, why, when?
And how? Some of those old Saints are not only ancient,
but still carry a powerful punch even today. In fact,
I live by one of those old saints. Winning is
a choice. The goal of these episodes is to help
preserve not only a language, but lessons in life. My
name is Arrow over a barrel. It's more of a
simple way of saying, or admitting, you are in a
place of helplessness and in a position of vulnerability under
someone else's control. That moment you have no real choice
but to comply. You are over a barrel. The origin
of the phrase is heavily debated, but there are two
theories that some historians say was brought into action because
of the phrase. Drowning rescue, someone who is pulled from
the water would be placed faced down over a barrel
and rolled over and over again. It was intended to
save lives. Another source of information suggests over a barrel
comes from naval punishment sailors who committed a crime were
stretched over a barrel before being flogged. They were at
the complete mercy of the person that was offering the punishment.
There have been several changes over the years to over
the barrel. They include man over a barrel, bent over
a barrel, and you got me over a barrel. Grammaris
dot com believes that we are using the phrase totally
one hundred percent wrong, often ending up in a conversation
about gymnastics and or one who eats a lot of pickles.
That's not what it means, but people do say, whoa,
how many pickles did you do today? Are you over
the barrel? Something our parents would say. My name is Arrow.