Everybody knows what it means. Almost nobody can tell you where it came from...and that turns out to be the whole story. #OnTheBackBurner #Etymology #WordOrigins

On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of ""on the back burner,"" the youngest phrase this show has ever appraised. Before gas, American stoves didn't have burners at all. They had eyes — removable lids over a single firebox — so cooks were back-burning constantly, by physics, with no words to describe what they were doing. The concept sat around for a century waiting on the technology to name it.

Then the gas range arrives in the 1920s and the phrase still doesn't show up until 1945, with Oxford holding out until 1963. Why the lag? Because a thing has to get boring before it can become a figure of speech.

Also: the two twists that make this phrase strange — a name that may run backwards, and an American metaphor whose earliest written evidence sits in the Times of London. Plus gas stove bans in San Francisco, Colorado, New York and Virginia, what you were doing for years before you had a word for it, the gap-filling friend, and a Dictionary of Misinformation entry about what robins are actually doing on your lawn.

Then we grade it. It does not go well.

Value is in the eye of the appraiser.

0:00 If Billy Don't Say It, It Ain't No Phrase

0:57 The ATP Intro Theme

1:45 What's Good: The Holiday We Won't Timestamp

5:08 DC Heat vs. Southern Heat

7:08 When Great Directors Have To Explain Their Own Movies

8:10 Today's Phrase: On The Back Burner

9:26 Twenty's Take: Not My First Choice, But It Gets The Job Done

10:15 Mario's Take: Why It Feels Like Disrespect

12:17 A Question For The Chefs: Are The Burners Actually Weighted?

13:13 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Collins

14:25 Priority vs. Importance

18:00 The Youngest Phrase We've Ever Done

18:36 Unveil The Origin: When Stoves Didn't Have Burners

20:29 No Word For It Because There Was Nothing To Name

21:00 The Lexical Gap

21:47 What Were You Doing For Years Before You Had A Word For It?

22:04 Twenty: Humor As A Defense Mechanism

25:32 Older Generations Didn't Have ""Depression."" They Had Melancholy

26:25 The Happiest Beat About Fighting Off Depression

29:47 The 1920s: The Appliance Arrives, The Phrase Doesn't

30:53 Gas Companies Lose Lighting And Move Into The Kitchen

32:30 1945 To 1963: Why The Phrase Took 30 Years To Land

33:22 Metaphor Lag: A Thing Has To Get Boring First

34:20 Gas Stove Bans: San Francisco, Colorado, New York, Virginia

37:13 Should A Restaurant Kitchen Be Told To Go Electric?

39:53 Take Your Ass Outside And Grill

40:38 Twist One: The Name May Run Backwards

42:37 Twist Two: An American Phrase First Printed In London

44:01 Is This Phrase An Industry Plant?

45:19 Back-Formation And The Missing Paper Trail

46:45 The Plan-Making Friend And The Gap-Filling Friend

50:22 Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

53:13 Pop Culture Impact: Only A Top Three This Time

54:49 #2 The Burner Branch: Burner Phone, Burner Account, Burner Email

55:40 #1 The Wire, Season 3, Episode 7: ""Back Burners""

57:09 The Appraisal: Impact

58:58 Speed

1:00:50 Preference

1:01:26 This Phrase Is Boston Market

1:02:09 Dictionary Of Misinformation: Birds Do Not Listen For Worms

1:04:50 Closing Thoughts

1:05:08 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

Merriam-Webster · Cambridge Dictionary · Collins Dictionary · Oxford English Dictionary · Cambridge English Corpus · The Times of London · The Wire, ""Back Burners,"" S3E7, aired November 7, 2004 — teleplay by Joy Lusco Kecken, story by David Simon & Joy Lusco Kecken, directed by Tim Van Patten

COMMENT: Lefties — do you actually use the front left burner? And what's something

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