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're some of our favorites.

Up next, we continue with our recurring series about the curious origins of everyday sayings,

the stories behind them.

Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slice

from his ultimate guide to understanding these many mysteries, these

many stories of our precious English language.

Out of the blue means a complete or unexpected surprise, and it's a variation of the expression

a bolt from the blue.

The ancient Romans caught a flash of lightning on a clear day, a thunderbolt from the blue.

The blue in the phrase is related to the blue of the sky.

Lightning on a sunny day was obviously very rare, and the Romans began to use the saying to refer to any sudden surprise.

The phrase was first used in writing by Thomas Carlyle in a book he wrote in 1837.

The expression over the top sometimes shortened to OTT means to an excessive degree or beyond acceptable limits or outrageous.

And it has its origins in trench warfare.

In World War I, to go over the top was to charge on foot across

open ground from the safety of the trenches. The order was given over the top lads and the best of luck,

but few had much luck as they often ran head on into enemy machine gunfire. On the first day of the

Battle of the Somme in July 1916, over 58,000 casualties were sustained by the British when they all went over the top.

To paint the town red means to go out and celebrate or get very drunk, and it owes its origins to a legendary night of revelry in 1837.

There was a man called the Marquess of Waterford,

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