90. Indubitably!

Do you like apples? I do.

I also like idioms and think that they can be fascinating.  An idiom is a combination of words that, because of its common usage, has a figurative meaning that is different from what you would think from the individual words that are used. 

Apparently, they exist in all languages. It has been calculated that there are at least 25000 in the English language and this number grows every year.

The English language has many idioms that originated in our agricultural heritage. They are common and in everyday use:

sorting the wheat from the chaff

until the cows come home

fell upon stony ground

plough a lonely furrow

A study of the language of a civilisation discovered by western anthropologists some 50 years ago in New Guinea proves that they are true hunter-gatherers and practise no form of farming whatsoever.  Although their language contains idioms, there are none that derive from any kind of farming, either arable or keeping livestock.  

Last week, while I was having breakfast, I heard someone on the radio say, 

“… as sure as eggs is eggs”. 

That got me thinking.  It’s a commonly used expression to convey certainty about something but why isn’t the grammatically correct, “as sure as eggs ARE eggs” ever used and does it come from some aspect of the practice of keeping chickens?

Thanks to Google, I found out why very quickly.  You may be aware that in May 2010, in Hesperody, I told of my intention to use the Internet to become an expert on a different subject every day before lunch and ever since I have been doing just that. 

Go on - test me.  Ask me whether there are more seats in the Bundestag than there are in the House of Commons or why do fools fall in love or what was George Harrison's sister's name or who let the dogs out?  I know all that now and a lot more too.   

Then, that evening on Newsnight, I heard a cabinet minister say very emphatically, “As sure as hell, that won’t happen.”

What?  Have I missed something?  When did Hell become a certainty?  I’m going to have to re-evaluate my whole life and then make many necessary adjustments.  If a leading member of the Conservative party is certain of it, then it must be true and hell must be real. 

Could he have been in touch with Margaret Thatcher?

He would, I think, have been on much more solid ground saying, “as sure as eggs is eggs,” because even although it is grammatically incorrect, there is a tangential element of truth in that phrase.

After only 10 seconds research I found that “As sure as eggs is eggs” is a corruption of the original,

“As sure as x is x”.  

That has an algebraic, mathematical certainty to it.  

There is no question about it that once x is assigned a value, xis always the same as x and therefore x is x.  In fact, it’s so true that you could say that it’s as certain as eggs is eggs. 

Now, how do you like them apples?

Half an hour after I posted this I got an email from the Professor Willy Aspinall BSc, PhD, CSci, CGeol, the Cabot Professor in Natural Hazards and Risk Science at Bristol University.  Willy was taught 'A' level physics by my father.

He writes:

Pedantically and in memory of your late father who, were he still with us, would surely aver that, almost invariably, x denotes a random variable which can take on any of a number of values.  If the value is fixed and known, algebraic notation is not needed.

So "eggs" may not be x.

I shall offer no counter to that.  I expect he's right.