Gramer girl here, I'm a neon fagrity and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff. Today I have

a quick tip about why we say we're cooling our heels. And then we'll talk about the

story of the word jouche as in I'm juicing up my zoom background.

Before we get started though, thanks to Erica Linda, JLR 2005 in Dr. Pell for leaving

Gramer Girl reviews last week on pod chaser. And I found that the thing that keeps me going

right now is thinking about all of you, the listeners. So if you'd like to show me where

you listen, I'm doing the thing I did a few years ago again. Post a picture of yourself

on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag where I listen and I'll repost it for other people

to see too. I'd love to see where you listen right now or what you do while you listen.

Thanks.

Last week I was standing around impatiently waiting for my morning coffee to drip through

its filter. And I must have looked annoyed because my husband asked what I was doing. And

I said, I'm just cooling my heels waiting for this coffee. And then we both started wondering

where that phrase came from. What does it mean to cool your heels? We thought there'd

probably be some weird or fascinating story, but it turns out it's actually about literally

cooling your feet. When you walk for a long time, your feet get hot. And when you stop

to rest, your feet cool down. The Oxford English Dictionary puts the first use in the year

1576. And at that time, it could also refer to horses. You could cool your heels, cool your

feet, or your horse could cool its hooves. For example, here's a line from a 1611 translation

of the Iliad. The soldiers all sat down and ranked, each by his arms and horse, that

then lay down and cooled their hooves. Today, it means to wait around, especially if

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