Do you find yourself using phrases or sayings without thinking about the meaning or origin? Such phrases or idioms can originate from many places. There are biblical ones like ‘the best of both worlds’ referring to heaven and earth. Or ones such as ‘the cat’s got your tongue’ where there are three possible origins. It may come from the cat-o-nine tails whip - a naval punishment. Or the idea that, in ancient Egypt, liars would have their tongues cut out and fed to cats. There again, it could have been from medieval times, when witches had familiars, often black cats, who would steal a person's tongue to prevent them from speaking out against the witch.

This week I’ve been burning the midnight oil to get my column written. I had to address the elephant in the room but, without letting the cat out of the bag, I needed to come up with an idea that broke the ice, without giving any of my readers the cold shoulder. You might think that writing a column like this is a piece of cake, but I’m going to spill the beans. You have to hit the ground running in the world of newspapers. Having got an idea I had to bite the bullet and write, but I needed to know if I was barking up the wrong tree. Once I’ve written the column and sent it to the editorial team, I just hope they don’t tell me to sling my hook.

The midnight oil comes from the time when we used oil lamps to light up the darkness. Having to work late to finish a job meant literally burning the oil at midnight or later.

Lots of people imagine ‘the elephant in the room’ is a modern phrase. The earliest reference to the phrase comes from a fable written by the Russian poet Ivan Krylov in 1814, titled "The Inquisitive Man." In the story, a man visits a museum and notices all sorts of small details but fails to see the elephant in the room.

Giving away a secret by letting the cat out of the bag is thought to come from medieval market places where unscrupulous meat traders would pretend to sell a piglet, but actually send the buyer away with a worthless cat. The secret swap was found out when the buyer opened the bag.

Breaking the ice has a nautical origin, when ships would be trapped in ice flows. Small ships would break the ice to allow the larger ship to sail. Interestingly, slinging your hook is also nautical. The hook was a slang name for an anchor and when you raise it into its sling you can sail away. So you leave, sailing on to a new port.

If something is a piece of cake, it’s easy. One widely accepted theory is that the phrase originated from the "cakewalk," a dance competition held among enslaved black people in the Southern United States during the 19th century. The dance was a parody of the formal dances of plantation owners, and the best performers were awarded a piece of cake.

Another food related saying is to spill the beans, to reveal something. It’s been suggested the phrase comes from an ancient Greek voting method. In this system, beans were used to cast votes anonymously. White beans indicated positive votes, while black beans indicated negative votes. If someone accidentally or intentionally knocked over the container holding the beans, they would "spill the beans," thus revealing the results prematurely.

As for giving someone the cold shoulder, a popular but unverified explanation is that the phrase comes from the practice of serving an unwelcome guest a cold shoulder of mutton instead of a hot meal.

If you "hit the ground running" you are starting a task or project with great energy and enthusiasm, without any delay or need for adjustment. Its origins are somewhat debated, but there are a few popular ideas. It may have a military origin. During World War II, soldiers who parachuted into combat zones needed to be ready to fight as soon as they landed. Another idea is that hobos jumping off moving freight trains in the US would need to "hit the ground running" to avoid injury. If you bite the bullet you are going to experience some pain and in the days before anaesthetic it was one way to stop people screaming.

In hunting, dogs were trained to chase animals up trees and bark so the hunter knew where to shoot, but the animals would often jump from tree to tree, leaving the dog barking up the wrong tree.