Language Café

Meaning: To extend the olive branch is to take steps towards achieving peace with an enemy (or simply someone with whom you have had a disagreement).Origin: This expression has biblical origins, and was seen as an emblem of peace. In Genesis, a dove brings an olive branch to Noah to indicate that God's anger had died down and the flood waters had abated.该短语源自圣经，橄榄枝被视为和平的象征。在《圣经 创世记》中，因为人在地上堕落败坏、罪恶满盈，上帝降雨四十昼夜，用大洪水将“人和走兽，并昆虫、以及空中的飞鸟，从地上除灭”，唯有在方舟中的挪亚一家、按上帝指示存留的畜类、飞禽、昆虫等得以保全存留。大雨过后，当放飞的鸽子带回橄榄枝给挪亚，表明上帝的怒气已经平息，洪水也退去了。

Meaning: To make an effort to improve your work or behavior because it is not good enough.Origin: Pulling up your socks to makes you look tidier and [allegedly] it could also come from military slang.

Meaning: Saying something in a jokey way with no seriousness behind it.Origin: The phrase is a literal reference to the facial expression created when putting the tongue in one's cheek. The phrase first appeared in print "the maid of Perth" by Sir Walter Scott in 1928.

Meaning: To tease someone; to joke around, to deceive in a playful harmless way.Origin: The phrase first appeared in the 1888s in America. The origin is not clear, there are two popular theories. Thieves used to pull the legs of their victims to put them off guard.

Meaning: *To be made to look foolish, and to be upset about it. *Also coarse or vulgar behavior often derived from sailors or fisherman.Origin: According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the U.S. slang sense of salty meaning angry or irritated was first attested in 1938. The author describes it as having originated in Philadelphia, where it was defined as "looking stupid… because of something you did". It is thought to have entered into widespread usage on the internet through fighting game and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) communities.

Meaning: The playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks.Origin: The origin of the word banter remains obscure, although it appears to have started life in England about three hundred years ago as a verb. Its original meaning was to tease or ridicule, usually in an aggressive manner.

Meaning: To remain resolute and unemotional in the face of adversity, or even tragedy.Origin: The first printed reference to it that I know of is in the Massachusetts Spy, June 1815:"I kept a stiff upper lip, and bought [a] license to sell my goods."A phrase strongly associated with the British

Meaning: To take the attention away from someone else, by doing something similar to what they are doing but only better.Origin: In the 17th century the writer John Dennis built a machine which made sounds like thunder for one of his plays, but the idea was copied by someone else and used in another play.

Meaning: To be very nervous or to be in suspense about something.Origin: based on the literal meaning of tenterhook (a hook that holds cloth that is stretched to dry), suggesting that someone's emotions are tightly stretched like a piece of cloth held by tenterhooks.

Meaning: To start something badly, or to start a relationship badly.Origin: There are theories which say that the wrong foot refers to the left foot, since there is an age old bias for the right side. Since we have "right and left" and "right and wrong", left tends to get associated with wrong. Another theory suggests that the phrase comes from the military, where in a march; all have to start with the same foot, which is usually the left foot.