Date； 2006.12.07(Thu)
“Spill the beans”
Idioms appear in every language, and English has thousands of them, they are often confusing because the meaning of the whole group of words taken together has a little, often nothing, to do with the meanings of the words taken one by one.
For instance “let the cat out of the bag” means to reveal a secret. Today the phrase has nothing to do with a cat or a bag, but hundreds of years ago it actually did. It says that Centuries ago in England you might buy a costly pig at a farmer’s market. But if the merchant was dishonest and put a worthless cat in to the bag instead of the piglet, you might not find out until you go back home and let the cat out the bag. Because of this frequent situation the idiom states. There’s another more common expression that’s means the same and you might have heard, “spill the beans”, this one also means to give away a secret, and the theory of this idiom go back to the ancient Greeks and their society. People voted by putting a white been or a black been in to a jar (white=yes, Black=no). The beans been supposed to be counted in secret, but if somebody accidentally (or purposefully) knocked over the jar and spill the beans, the secret vote will be revealed.
Secrets are something that intrigues anybody, so let’s take care to not spill the beans to someone we don’t want. See you next time. Bye!
For instance “let the cat out of the bag” means to reveal a secret. Today the phrase has nothing to do with a cat or a bag, but hundreds of years ago it actually did. It says that Centuries ago in England you might buy a costly pig at a farmer’s market. But if the merchant was dishonest and put a worthless cat in to the bag instead of the piglet, you might not find out until you go back home and let the cat out the bag. Because of this frequent situation the idiom states. There’s another more common expression that’s means the same and you might have heard, “spill the beans”, this one also means to give away a secret, and the theory of this idiom go back to the ancient Greeks and their society. People voted by putting a white been or a black been in to a jar (white=yes, Black=no). The beans been supposed to be counted in secret, but if somebody accidentally (or purposefully) knocked over the jar and spill the beans, the secret vote will be revealed.
Secrets are something that intrigues anybody, so let’s take care to not spill the beans to someone we don’t want. See you next time. Bye!