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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 85. The word origin today is cold

  • shoulder. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. The cold shoulder is a noun phrase

  • that means that someone treats a person who they know in a very unfriendly way

  • without any emotion at all. It varies from the phrase to give someone the

  • silent treatment. Yeah. I know sometimes students might get confused between

  • these two a little bit as well. When one gives another person the silent

  • treatment, he or she refuses to say any words. They say they don't say anything

  • at all to that person. If someone gives another person the cold shoulder, he or

  • she is more likely to give unemotional one or two word answers and you know, not

  • smile at all. So cold shoulder they just may look at you or they may look the

  • other way. They... if you talk to them they won't answer at all basically. Or maybe

  • just give you a dirty look. I don't know maybe possibly. But if someone's giving

  • you the cold shoulder, they, they won't smile. They'll have a very straight face.

  • No. Okay. No. No really. That's all right. No. They give answers like that. That's what

  • they do. So they give very, very short brief very not warm, very cold sort of

  • unemotional answers. That's the way we usually say that. Someone is giving you

  • the cold shoulder. Okay. Let's continue. The idiom to give someone the cold

  • shoulder first became popular in the early 1800s and the earliest citing is

  • in writings by Sir Walter Scott. Okay. Many claim the origin came from a custom

  • at the time that if a visitor was welcomed , he was served you know a big

  • hot meal. You know, come on in give him a nice big hot meal. However if he was not

  • welcomed, he or she would only be served the coldest toughest part of the animal

  • usually mutton. And it was proof that it was an inferior meal and it was proof

  • that you they weren't really that happy. Well I guess you should be glad that they gave

  • you anything at all. But it was proof that they weren't happy. So that's, that's

  • how it ... that's how it came about. So that's why I say somebody gave you the

  • cold shoulder. They didn't treat you like a nice warm guest. So thus, the phrase a

  • cold shoulder was born. So this is what they say. They say this is where it came

  • from. Okay. So the cold shoulder refers to the

  • cold shoulder of an animal. A piece of meat that was supposed to be a tough

  • part, not good quality. Okay. Let's continue. We got three examples to cover this.

  • Example number one. I don't know what I did wrong, she has been giving me the

  • cold shoulder for two days now. So again probably the same way giving very short

  • brief. very unfriendly sort of answers to someone. Or number two. I tried to

  • apologize , but she didn't say much. Well she didn't say much meaning , she probably said

  • a little but not, not very much at all. She gave me the cold shoulder. Okay and

  • number three here. I know you strongly dislike him,

  • if you encounter him at the party just give him the cold shoulder. Yeah. So don't

  • face him. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope was clear. I hope it was informative.

  • Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 85. The word origin today is cold

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