[ti:It Will Not Wash] [ar: Susan Clark] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Go to 51voa.com for more... [00:10.43]I'm Susan Clark [00:12.62]with the Special English program [00:15.06]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:17.99]Young Mister Smith [00:20.08]had an idea for his employer. [00:21.97]It was an idea for saving money [00:25.31]for the company [00:26.30]by increasing prices. [00:28.19]At the same time, [00:30.34]Smith suggested that the company [00:32.78]sell goods of less value. [00:35.37]If his employer liked the idea, [00:39.40]Smith might be given more pay. [00:42.00]Perhaps he might even [00:44.19]get a better job with the company. [00:46.23]Business had been very slow. [00:50.01]So Mister Smith's employer [00:52.76]thought a few minutes [00:54.40]about the idea. [00:55.80]But then she shook her head. [00:58.79]"I am sorry, Smith," [01:01.63]his employer said. [01:03.22]"It just will not wash." [01:07.05]Now, the meaning of [01:10.04]these English words should be, [01:12.13]"It will not get clean." [01:14.02]Yet Smith's idea did not [01:17.55]have anything to do [01:19.09]with making something clean. [01:21.43]So why did his employer say, [01:24.67]"It will not wash?" [01:26.91]Most word experts agree that [01:31.63]"it will not wash" [01:33.13]means it will not work. [01:36.21]Eric Partridge wrote that [01:39.21]the saying probably developed [01:40.70]in Britain in the eighteen hundreds. [01:43.34]Charlotte Bronte used it [01:46.03]in a story published [01:47.32]in eighteen forty-nine. [01:49.36]She wrote, "That wiln't wash, miss." [01:53.39]Mizz Bronte seems to have meant that [01:57.07]the dyes used to color [01:59.46]a piece of clothing [02:01.12]were not good. [02:03.16]The colors could not be depended [02:06.10]on to stay in the material. [02:08.59]In nineteenth century England, [02:12.58]the expression came to mean [02:15.02]an undependable statement. [02:17.66]It was used mainly [02:19.70]to describe an idea. [02:21.84]But sometimes it was [02:24.72]used about a person. [02:26.12]A critic once said [02:29.70]of the poet Robert Browning, [02:31.49]"He won't wash." [02:33.63]The critic did not mean that [02:36.42]the poet was not a clean person. [02:39.11]He meant that Browning's poems [02:42.24]could not be depended on to last. [02:45.59]Today, we know that [02:48.37]judgment was wrong. [02:49.57]Robert Browning still [02:52.11]is considered a major poet. [02:55.14]But very few people remember [02:57.83]the man who said Browning [03:00.13]would not wash. [03:01.52]Happily for the young employee Smith, [03:05.93]his employer wanted him [03:08.97]to do well in the company. [03:10.41]So the employer [03:12.61]"talked turkey" to him. [03:14.90]She said, [03:16.69]"Your idea would be unfair [03:19.18]to our buyers. [03:20.32]Think of another way to save money." [03:23.46]A century ago, [03:26.10]to talk turkey meant [03:28.49]to talk pleasantly. [03:30.14]Turkeys in the barnyard [03:32.33]were thought to be speaking [03:34.12]pleasantly to one another. [03:35.81]In recent years, the saying [03:38.90]has come to mean an attempt [03:41.18]to teach something important. [03:44.32]Word expert Charles Funk tells [03:48.36]how he believes [03:49.31]this change took place. [03:50.90]He says two men were [03:54.03]shooting turkeys together. [03:55.63]One of them was a white man. [03:58.61]The other was an American Indian. [04:02.10]The white man began stating reasons [04:06.43]why he should get [04:08.07]all the turkeys for himself. [04:10.06]But the American Indian [04:12.70]stopped him. [04:13.74]He told the white man, [04:16.23]"Now, I talk turkey to you." [04:19.66]Mister Smith thought of [04:22.35]a better idea after his employer [04:24.64]talked turkey to him. [04:26.63]He was given an increase in pay. [04:29.47]So if your idea "will not wash," [04:33.75]try "talking turkey" to yourself [04:37.13]and come up with a better idea. [04:39.22](MUSIC) [04:46.94]This WORDS AND THEIR STORIES program [04:49.82]was written by Jeri Watson. [04:52.11]I'm Susan Clark.