"There is also a tendency to take over American slang phrases without understanding their meaning. For example, the expression ‘barking up the wrong tree’ is fairly widely used, but inquiry shows that most people don’t know its origin nor exactly what it means."

https://orwell.substack.com/p/love-lies-sleeping

#English #Language #Foreign #Languages #Orwell #Vocabulary #Word #Words #Idiom #Idioms #Expression #Expressions