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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 lines, cat got your tongue, raining cats and dogs.

Here, with the recurring series, is Hare 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 would 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

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.

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