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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories, send them to our American Stories.com. They are some of our favorites.

Hair of the dog to paint the town red, the curious origins of everyday sayings and

fun phrases, is a book that reveals the surprising, captivating, and even hilarious origins

behind 400 of these sayings, including read between the surprising, captivating, and even hilarious origins behind 400 of these sayings, including

read between the lines, cat got your tongue, raining cats and dogs. Here with the recurring

series, his hair of the dog author Andrew Thompson, as he shares another slice from his

ultimate guide to understanding these baffling, many mysteries of the English language.

The first expression I'd like to tell you about is above board, which means honest and open or legal.

If something's above board, everything's okay.

It reminds me years ago I used to have a weekly game of blackjack with a group of guys and people

had often cheat. It was all a bit joking, but people would have their hands under the table

and everyone would say, get your hands on the table, you've got to be above board. And that's

where that expression comes from. It's a gaming expression. In card playing, the board was the table,

as in a sideboard. And if a player dropped his hands

below the table, he could be accused of cheating by swapping his cards or pulling a card out

that he had stashed under there. So to stop any sort of suspicion, people had to keep their hands

above the table. So if the player's hands are above board, nobody could suggest

anything was wrong. A saying that comes from ancient times is Achilles heel, which everyone's

heard of. It means a weakness or vulnerability. You might say he's a great runner, but that's

his Achilles heel. When he can't do long distances, for example.

It has its origins in ancient Greek legend.

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