Just as myths get passed from generation to generation, so do sayings. Here’s where a few home-related ones came from

“You got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

The saying is based on the superstition, dating from Roman times, that it’s unlucky to put the left foot on the ground before the right. (The Latin for left is sinister.) Get out of bed on the left (wrong) side and you know your day is ruined before it has started — a thought likely to put you in a foul mood.

“Don’t work yourself into a lather.”

Surprise: This has nothing to do with manic cleaning. The expression, probably dating to the mid–19th century, means “don’t get hot and bothered.” “Lather” refers to the flecks of foam on a heavily perspiring horse after a hard workout.

“Put a sock in it.”

This colloquialism, used to get someone to tone it down or stop talking altogether, goes back to the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. Because the original phonograph had no volume control, users would literally have to put a sock in the horn to mute the music.

“The pot calling the kettle black.”

This expression, referring to a hypocritical statement, dates back to the 17th century. Whether because both the pot and the kettle were cast iron or because they both sat in a fireplace or on a wood-burning stove and so were equally blackened, neither was better (less black).

“Like a house on fire.”

American pioneers in the 18th century came up with this expression, derived from the fact that the log cabins so practical in the timber-rich West went up like kindling when they caught fire. Originally a reference to a horse that could run very fast, the phrase, or its variant “like a house afire,” is used today to denote anything that moves especially quickly or energetically — as in “They get along like a house afire.”