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 Relax, Refresh your English knowledge 32

156. What is the meaning and origin of ‘cut to the quick'?
The literal meaning of this expression is to remove or slice the flesh right down to the bone. With the passage of time, the expression acquired a figurative meaning as well. When someone's comments cut you to the quick, they hurt you very badly. Something that the individual has said causes you a great deal of distress; the comments wound you emotionally. It is also possible to say ‘cut someone to the bone'.
*The comments that you made at the meeting cut me to the quick/bone.
*The things that Rahul accused me of cut me to the quick.
The expression is seldom heard nowadays as it is considered rather old fashioned. ‘Quick' comes from the Old English ‘ciwicu' meaning ‘living'. It is in this sense that the word ‘quick' was used in Sharon Stone's western, ‘The Quick and the Dead'. The title means ‘The Living and the Dead'. In the context of the idiom, the word refers to the sensitive skin under one's fingernails and toenails. When we cut our nails to the quick, we cut them very short, and this often results in some amount of bleeding and a lot of pain.

157. How is the word ‘lucre' pronounced?
The ‘u' is like the ‘oo' in ‘cool', ‘pool' and ‘school', and the following ‘c' sounds like the ‘k' in ‘kiss', ‘kill', and ‘kin'. The final ‘re' is pronounced like the ‘a' in ‘china'. It is pronounced ‘LOO-ke' with the stress on the first syllable. The word is mostly used to show disapproval; it refers to the money or profit that someone has made — usually through dishonest means. ‘Lucre' comes from the Latin ‘lucrum', and in Latin, the word had two very different meanings. It meant ‘profit' and ‘avarice' or greed. In English, only the negative meaning survives.

158. What is the meaning and origin of ‘dog in the manger'?
The word ‘manger' rhymes with ‘danger', ‘ranger', and ‘stranger'. This rather old fashioned word is mainly used to refer to the open box or container from which cows and horses feed. The box is usually filled with hay or grass — nothing that would interest an animal like a dog. The idiom ‘dog in the manger' refers to someone who has something that he doesn't need or make use of, but is unwilling to give it to someone who might have use for it. He is a spoilsport.
*Stop being such a dog in the manger. If you're not going to be using that racquet, let me have it.
*Your dog-in-the-manger attitude is unlikely to win you friends.
The expression comes from a story in Aesop's Fables in which a dog sitting in a manger drives away the cows which come to eat. Although the surly dog has no use for the hay, it is not willing to let the cows to enjoy their food.

159. Which is correct: He was gunned down in front of/before his wife?
Both sentences are grammatically acceptable; there is, however, a difference in meaning between the two. The use of ‘in front of' suggests that the wife was a witness to the event; she actually saw her husband being gunned down. The second sentence suggests that the husband and the wife were both gunned down – the husband was gunned down first, and later the wife. In this case, they have both been shot.

160. What is the difference between ‘dinner' and ‘supper'?
The word ‘supper' is seldom heard in India, and ‘dinner' is mainly used to refer to the meal we have in the evening. In British English, however, the word ‘dinner' is used to refer to the main meal of the day. So if you have your main meal in the afternoon, then you can call it your ‘dinner'. If you have ‘dinner' in the afternoon, then the meal you have in the evening is called ‘supper'. It is usually a light meal. Dinner is considered to be much more formal than supper — a Prime Minister or President hosts a dinner, and not ‘supper' in honour of a visiting dignitary. The word ‘dinner' comes from the Old French ‘disner' meaning ‘to eat, have a meal'. It was originally used to refer to any meal, including one's breakfast!
A collection from the Open Page Supplement of The Hindu Newspaper 
Courtesy: Sri Upendra, the writer of the above