  You’ve heard and spoken them all your life, colorful little sayings (known as euphemisms) like don’t let the bedbugs bite, mind your Ps and Qs, wet your whistle, and rule of thumb.
Their origins are often sketchy, sometimes unknowable. Why they develop is more easily explained. They typically arise from a speaker’s desire to say something in a less offensive, disturbing, or troubling way. We can minimize the power of words through euphemism, like when we say "the big C" instead of "cancer."
Take, for instance, one of the more interesting euphemisms -- "bless you," usually triggered by a sneeze. The expression has a variety of possible origins. People may have said it to protect the soul of someone who sneezes from shooting out of their body and becoming lost. Or it could have been said as an attempt to wish for the return of life to the sneezer, since people once believed the heart stopped during a sneeze. Others thought that, since sneezing was a symptom of the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, people said "bless you" to wish the sneezer’s soul well in the afterlife, since having the disease meant you had a high probability of being a goner. It’s even been known as recognition of pending good luck.
Whatever "bless you" has meant through the ages, today it is usually said only because people expect us to say it.
However these fascinating expressions enter the lexicon, they change how we use language. Let’s take a look at the origins and meanings of a few popular euphemisms (or, at least, as best we can).
Crocodile tearsThis expression means a false or insincere display of sadness or remorse. Like humans, crocodiles have lacrimal glands; a University of Florida scientist has concluded they cry while devouring their meals. The expression has been referenced numerous times in literature, including Shakespeare. As for today, it’s not too difficult to imagine an apparently remorseless creature like a crying crocodile as a metaphor for insincerity in human behavior.
Dead as a doornail Hey…you’re not just dead…you’re Very Dead, yet another expression found in Shakespeare.
A doornail was a large, studded, iron nail that was used during medieval times to hang old heavy wooden doors. The nail would be hammered through the door and bent over the protruding end to secure it. Most nails back then would be re-used because they were expensive -- except the doornail, which was, for all intents and purposes, unusable…"dead."
Throw in the towelThis one means to give up or quit. As you might have guessed, it’s boxing jargon. It originated around 1900 and comes from the method of declaring defeat. As a boxing match played out, a boxer’s manager would throw a white towel or sponge into the ring if their fighter was taking a beating and likely to lose. Naturally, sometimes just when the manager was ready to throw in the towel, the bell would ring, leaving the boxer with the good fortune of having been "saved by the bell."
Beyond the paleThis euphemism refers to unacceptable behavior, something that is over the limit or improper.
A pale was a sharp wooden stake used during the Middle Ages to build fences around homes. By the year 1400 it had come to mean a safeguard, a barrier around territories, or a limit that was not permissible to go beyond. Traveling outside these safe zones was considered going beyond the pale. Eventually the term meant an area of activity, interest, or study, in much the way we use the word "field" now. Today, it applies to those whose actions or statements go beyond shared values, beliefs, or social customs.
Make no bones about itThis saying means to be blunt and candid about something.
 In 15th century England, when you made chicken soup, the true test of your cooking was whether you removed all the bones from the meat. If you were unhappy with the soup, you "found bones in it." If you found "no bones," you could swallow it without difficulty or objection. Today, when you "make no bones" about something, you give people something "they can swallow" -- you are plainly telling the truth.
Jump the sharkThis phrase is typically used to describe the moment a TV program, music band, actor, politician, or other public figure has started to decline in popularity, "gone downhill," or lost quality. The saying comes from the hit ‘70s and ‘80s show "Happy Days." In later seasons, finding it hard to maintain viewership, producers of the show tried many stunts to interest viewers. The defining moment was when leather-clad Fonzie (played by Henry Winkler) jumped over a shark on water skis, demonstrating that the show was out of good ideas.
And with that, I think we should wrap this up, before I jump the shark with this piece.
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