This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including yours,

send them to Our American Stories.com.

There's some of our favorites.

And up next, a recurring favorite, we continue our series about the curious origins of everyday

sayings.

Here to join us again is Andrew Thompson as he continues to share another slice from his ultimate guide to understanding these mini mysteries of the English language.

Here's Andrew.

Red tape is pointless bureaucratic procedures or excessive regulations.

And it derives from the 16th century in Britain. Since that time legal and official documents

have been bound with red ribbon. Documents were rolled in their original condition and seal

with red tape. This was done as a measure to ensure documents had not been tampered with, similar to

wax seals in ancient times. Official Vatican documents were also bound in red cloth,

and to this day many legal documents are bound in pink or red coloured material.

The phrase was then expanded to its current form by Charles Dickens,

who used it in a number of his books, including David Copperfield, Bleak House and Little Dorrit.

To rest on your laurels means to be satisfied with a past performance and to think any

future effort is unnecessary. And that expression harks back to ancient Greek. Apollo, the famous

Greek god, was usually depicted with the crown of laurel leaves around his head, and a wreath of laurels

became a symbol of status and achievement, and these wreaths were presented to winning athletes

at various athletic games in the 6th century BC. The Romans then embraced the laurel as a status symbol

and would present wreaths to victorious generals and the people who were presented

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