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"Cold shoulder" is a
Where "cauld" is the equivalent of
phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
used to express dismissal or the act of disregarding someone. Its origin is attributed to Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
in a work published in 1816, which is in fact a mistranslation of an expression from the Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
Bible. There is also a commonly repeated incorrect folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
.
The expression "cold shoulder" has been used in many literary works, and has entered into the vernacular. It has been used as a description of aloofness and disdain, a contemptuous look over one's shoulder,Hodgson, p. 153. and even in the context of a woman attempting to decline the advances of an aggressive man.Palmatier, p. 73. Overall, it remains widely popular as a phrase for describing the act of ignoring someone or something, or giving an unfriendly response.Helterbran, p. 22.
Etymology
The first recorded use of the expression was in 1816 bySir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
in the Scots language
Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commonly ...
, in ''The Antiquary
''The Antiquary'' (1816), the third of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, centres on the character of an antiquary: an amateur historian, archaeologist and collector of items of dubious antiquity. He is the eponymous character and for all p ...
''. This expression is a mistranslation of the Latin phrase ''dederunt umerum recedentem'' from the Book of Nehemiah 9.29 from the Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
Bible, which actually means "stubbornly they turned their backs on you", which comes from the Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
Bible's Greek equivalent ''ἔδωκαν νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα''. Latin ''umerus'' (often misspelled ''humerus'') means both "shoulder" and "back":
Where "cauld" is the equivalent of cold
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
and "shouther" means shoulder
The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...
,Jamieson, p. 475. which is further supported by contextual usage in ''The Antiquary''. Neither eating nor food is expressed in the passage, but the phrase is presented in a rather allusive way. The phrase also appears in one of Scott's later works, '' St. Ronan's Well'' and after the 1820s it had travelled to America. Dated June 1839 in a letter to the editor in the New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
newspaper ''The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier'':
Despite being repeated in several non-academic (non-scientific) books of etymology, the common explanation that the phrase stems from serving a cold shoulder of mutton or other meat to an unwanted guest is an incorrect folk etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...
according to linguists.
One source claims that the explanation of the expression is literal: keeping one's back towards, or in the least a shoulder between, a person one was trying to avoid.Eliot, p. 33.
See also
* A phrase also coined by Sir Walter Scott, "lock, stock, and barrel
"Lock, stock, and barrel" is a merism used predominantly in the United Kingdom and North America, meaning "all", "total" or "everything". It derives from the effective portions of a gun: the lock, the stock, and the barrel.
History
The term wa ...
"
* Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
* Silent treatment
Silent treatment is the refusal to communicate verbally and electronically with someone who is trying to communicate and elicit a response. It may range from just sulking to malevolent abusive controlling behaviour. It may be a passive-aggressiv ...
* Blacklist (employment) In employment, a blacklist or blacklisting refers to denying people employment for either political reasons (due to actual or suspected political affiliation), due to a history of trade union activity, or due to a history of whistleblowing, for e ...
References
Sources
* * * * * * *{{cite journal, last=Scott, first=Sir Walter, title=The works of Sir Walter Scott. 3, The antiquary, date=1816, page=370, publisher=James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, oclc=310724884 English-language idioms Shunning