What?s best way to find cloud nine?

It?s amazing how words, phrases and old sayings seem to find a way into our language and then hang on forever. What?s even more fascinating is that, though most of us know exactly what they mean in common usage, many times we have no idea where they came from. Their origins seem to have drifted into near obscurity over the years.

But, of course, that?s just meat for my table, as they say.

Since no one really gave me any challenges this week, I get to research some of my own favorites. Phrases that made me go, ?Hmm, wonder where that came from.?

Here?s one that, like many, can vary a bit depending on one?s location. ?Old stamping grounds,? or as I first heard it here in the South, ?old stomping grounds.? As in, ?Well it?s good to be back in my old stomping grounds.? It refers to a place where one has spent a lot of time in their youth, usually a gathering place for friends or a place where guys and gals go to meet each other.

One charming explanation I?ve found for this one has to do with prairie chickens. Seems these fowls were often observed by early settlers prancing about at dawn doing their fancy mating steps, cackling and strutting around as part of their courtship ritual. So intent were they on this that they finally wore some areas of the ground bare. It wasn?t long before settlers could tell just by looking at these patches of bare ground that these were the mating spots for the love-struck prairie chickens, and they began calling it their ?old stomping grounds.?

Pretty funky chickens if you ask me. (Um, that?s a play on that old dance from the ?60s called the ?Funky Chicken.? Remember that one? You know, you danced around flapping your arms like a … Oh, never mind. It?s gone the way of plaid, hip-hugger, elephant bell-bottom pants, with cuffs no less. Remember those? The wider the bells the better. On the other hand, it?s probably better if you don?t. Trust me on this.)

Here?s one that made me wonder. Being on ?cloud nine.? As in, ?He met the girl of his dreams and he?s on cloud nine.? It means being extremely happy, almost to the point of delirium, or even in some cases, in love.

I?ve found an origin for this one, and it sounds fairly logical, but I can?t guarantee its accuracy. Seems the number nine has major significance, especially with mathematicians. There are those who say it goes back to the Holy Trinity, since 3 x 3 = 9. Later on, in Victorian times, a person who was attired in their best finery was referred to as being ?dressed to the nines.? Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with clouds.

Well, I?m coming to that. Some folks apparently believed that clouds existed on successive layers and the highest, or ultimate, level was nine. So anyone who was suddenly terrifically happy was said to be soaring above the clouds and of course they were assumed to be on the highest cloud, level nine. Hence, being on ?cloud nine.? All you meteorologists out there cut me some slack on this one, OK? We?re not going for scientific accuracy here. We?re just trying to explain where this venerable old saying came from. And I like this one, it?s kind of nice.

And then there are those old sayings that that are based on an inaccurate premise. ?Henpecked,? for instance. Biologist W.C. Allee achieved a level of fame for discovering the pecking order of hens and the female?s habit of using her beak as a weapon against the other females. The fact is the hens never pecked the roosters, and yet the term is often used today to refer to the verbal attacks wives make on their husbands. Go figure!

Charlie Johnson is news editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191.