Transcript:

Hello, Daniel and hello vocab man listeners. This is Stephanie from the Geopats Language Podcast coming to you with another guest episode. And this time we're going to be talking about "cut me some slack"

cut me some slack Taylor. Cut me some slack.

I used to be a cop.

First I want to tell you where I am. I'm not in the park today as in my previous episodes, I am in an outdoor cafe in the in the capital of Albania, which is Toronto, where I'm living right now. I am an American ex-pat, who is currently living in Albania by currently for how long, who knows, but that's not the point of today. Today. The phrase is "cut me some slack".

Oh, this one really hurt my head. Trying to figure out why it was so hard to come up with something to say about this. And I finally figured out this is sort of a dated phrase. You know, there are phrases that are popular for just a short period of time. That's pretty much what this one is. The period of time that it was popular, seems to be in a lot of movies and TV shows for that time period.

So I think this is a really clever one for Daniel for ask me to do. And I think it's one that I hope I can clear up for you. So let's get to it.

Cut me some slack. So again, I feel like it's a dated expression. I haven't looked it up, but I have a feeling that Daniel might look it up and let you know what time period this was popular in my gut says it was probably the eighties or early nineties.

1980s, early 1990s. Uh, more recently, I think we use things like give me a break or come on or something like that, but cut me some slack was definitely very, very popular and very used during probably the 1980s. Now some examples, it's usually in response to something. So I'm going to try to do two voices here to give you an example.

So I can't believe he said that to his boss. Uh, cut him some slack. He just had a baby and hasn't slept in weeks. I'm not so sure that came across as two different voices, but let me try again. I can't believe he said that to his boss. Come on, cut him some slack. He just had a baby and hasn't slept in weeks.

So basically slack is to loosen a tight restraint. So in this case, the tight restraint is your judgment on someone. So most likely it's your being most likely it's judging someone for some really not so great behavior. And the person in response is trying to say, Hey, be kind to them. They're having a hard time.

Basically. So it's cut them some slack. So, you know, when you're holding a rope with another person or a few other people, and it's very tense and you're both pulling, pulling, pulling, sort of like a tug of war, a cut type of game situation. And if someone lets go too soon, you fall to the ground because there's no tension.

That's not this. This is more of, if someone lets go of the rope a little bit, then you have a little bit more room to move back and forth. So the tension in this rope scenario is the judgment that someone is making on someone else. So if you cut them some slack, cut them some slack, you're giving them a little more flexibility on your judgment of their bad behavior.

Whereas if you didn't cut them any slack, which is something that would be said also, um, then your, your, your judgment is very strong there by the tension in the rope would be very, very strong. So you'd be pulling really hard on that. Um, yeah, so, so cut them some slack. Started as a boating phrase, if I understand it correctly.

And, um, with the slack, the rope from the slap being something that was used, I'm not a huge birding person. So I can't explain that too much, but I'm sure Daniel will fill in the blanks there for you. Again, it is a dated phrase, so it's not necessarily something that you would say nowadays. But it's definitely something that you would want to know so that when you come across it in, like I said, movies and TV shows, or if you were to talk to an older person who might use it, you would know what they said.

So generally speaking, you would probably hear it, not use it. I hope this clarified somewhat the phrase. Cut me some slack. Thank you so much, Stephanie, for clarifying to us the meaning of cut me some slack. So. Actually, this is a really good example to show that it is not always easy to find practical phrases, which we can use in our daily basis because here on the Vocab Man, we try to learn phrases.

Which we actually use in the real world out there. Right. So as Stephanie said, this is a rather dated phrase, so I didn't know that. Right. And I think she's right when she says that it was used in the nineties or eighties, because I came across this expression a lot when I was watching detective stories.

Right? So for example, Harry Bosch, which takes place, I think in the nineties or something like that, I'm going to show you an excerpt from the series. This came from season three, episode six of Harry Bosch. I'd like not to hear the name Bosch in my morning briefing anymore. How can we make that happen? You can always fire me. Sure of that.

Sorry. I have no control over what people do or say about me. If you're expecting me to cut you slack for your crime misadventures, you're mistaken, I do not expect anything. Well, I think you do. And I think if you're not careful, I eat you alive. And they even used this expression a second time. In the same episode:

we don't want to lose these guys.

If you and Bosch can find time in your eight hour day to sit and watch them and knock yourselves out. But I can't justify the extra manpower and overtime until you get something more concrete,

same as it ever was ... cut her some slack Harry. So before we wrap this up, guys, let's give me another definition which comes from Marie and Webster. So it is informal. It means. To treat someone in a less harsh or critical way. Thank you for listening guys. Thank you again, Stephanie.

I always appreciate when you are on the Vocab Man here. It's really great. Thank you so much.

Finally cut me some slack.

Again, this is Stephanie from the Geopats Language Podcast , G E O P A T S. You can find us anywhere that you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening to this. And I hope that you can recognize this phrase.

Cut me some slack when you hear it in the future. Do let us know if this has helped you with that phrase. Thanks so much. And thank you, Daniel for this opportunity and keep up the good work. Bye.

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A special thank goes to Stephanie!

Check Stephanie's podcast out now (Geopats Language Podcast):
https://podtail.com/podcast/geopats-language/