Calling “shotgun” to claim the passenger seat in a vehicle comes from the term “shotgun messenger” which was the guard who sat next to the Stagecoach driver and kept robbers away with a shotgun. It became a popular phrase due to Hollywood Western flicks.
Our lexicon is full of colorful and odd phrases that have been passed down from generation to generation. And while we use them quite often in our conversations, how often do you wonder WHY we say them? The origin stories of many common phrases is often as exaggerated and fanciful as the words themselves. So many origins are actually tall tales wound “through the grapevine” over ages but the truth behind some of our favorites is just as fascinating and, at times, shocking. So, “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” and take a look at “the whole shebang.”
Conversation Factoid Icebreaker: First popularized in a 1992 song by Ice Cube, Nintendo filed a request in 2010 to trademark the phrase “It’s On Like Donkey Kong.”
