Howdy!
Thanks for returning to our Western Word of the Day column. The next few weeks I'm drifting a little bit away from what we think of as truly "western" words to focus on some other vocabulary term that I've learned and wanted to share.
Flash in the Pan - something that is very short-lived; something with a lot of "flash" but no lasting result
Term came from Revolutionary times dealing with muskets which often would not fire properly or would malfunction. When a soldier pulled the trigger to fire his weapon, the fire would often flare up in the pan as the prime was ignited but the bullet would not be shot out. So the ignition was a success but the actual shooting of a bullet was a failure.
Source:
History Channel, "America's Secret Slang" video series
www.history.com/shows/americas-secret-slang
No comments:
Post a Comment