The Jury is Still Out
Definition : An indication that a decision has not been reached on a particular issue, mainly due to lack of evidence.
Example: The jury is still out on whether the majority of the office thinks Gatorade is superior to Powerade.
Origin: The use of “the jury is still out” has been used in a legal context for over 150 years in the newspaper business after gaining popularity among editors as an efficient, attention grabbing headline. In the modern era it is more often used in reference to generic quandaries with no inherent moral dilemma present, for instance “the jury is still out on whether I’m going to see that movie this weekend.”
In 1959 the world was captivated by the trial of Los Angeles surgeon Bernard Finch, who was tried before a jury on charges that he conspired with his receptionist/lover to murder his wife. A guilty verdict was finally reached after three years and three trials. Each trial featured prolonged deliberations which tested the patience of those looking for both justice and a resolution, causing uninspired headline writers to recycle “the jury is still out” repeatedly instead of coming up with a headline which would communicate any new or interesting developments in the case. Thus the phrase took on a wider applicability.
Put a Sock in it
Definition: An informal way of telling another individual to stop talking, although this is considered rude when said outside a group of friends or family members.
Example sentence: I told you getting the families together for a weekend game of competitive croquet was a bad idea.”
“Put a sock in it, will you?”
Origin: It is a widely held belief this expression derives from a technique created by exasperated listeners to muffle the sounds coming from early gramophone machines–which had no volume control– whereby they would roll up a disposable sock and throw it into the horn protruding out of the player. This phrase appeared in an August 8, 1919 edition of London’s The Athenaeum newspaper, which defined it as a way of telling someone to stop talking, singing or shouting.
Australian Fredric Manning’s 1929 WWI novel The Middle Parts of Fortune, chronicling Manning’s experience fighting as part of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, features numerous instances of soldiers telling their corporal to “put a sock in it” after he suggests momentarily conceding to their enemy as an act of self preservation, though the text is more well known for having to be published after Manning’s death due to its vulgarity. Nevertheless the word probably originated among the ranks of those serving during World War I, eventually becoming more commonplace in the soldiers’ respective home countries when they returned from the war.
On the QT
Definition: A command to not talk about a private topic around certain people until further notice
Example: I heard a rumor Jose is looking to trade Chris Johnson from his fantasy football team, but keep it on the QT.
Origin: On the QT was coined in the U.S. during the 18th century, an era that also gave rise to other abbreviated expressions that people now take for granted as a socially acceptable way of expressing a particular idea, often with little to no knowledge of what words are being abbreviated or their meanings. Robert Hendrickson, author of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, revealed the first known example of this phrase comes from an 1870 British ballad “Whatever I tell you on the QT” The Oxford English Dictionary refutes this assertion, claiming it appeared in an 1884 story by George Moore, “It will be possible to have one spree on the strict q.t.”
As for what QT actually stands for, it is likely an abbreviated form of the word quiet, giving an already private matter another layer of significance, however arbitrary.
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