In terms of this rather abstract characterization of meaning, the immediately preceding post can be amplified by numerous examples, and not just by paronomastic ones like “done and dusted” (British English, a phrase heard constantly on the BBC World Service, for instance). Any idiom that has arisen long enough ago to have lost any real connection with the objective context of its initial coinage will conform to the idea that meaning is arbitrary in the round. Such is the case of the phrase “hat trick,” which probably arose originally in association with the British game of cricket (although the OED Online disputes this etymology) and meant ‘taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries’ but was then extended to other games (like hockey and soccer) to mean any combination of three gains, whence its ultimate extension to any combination of three successful actions. The meaning of ‘hat trick’ now has no connection with its etymology and must be learned by speakers in order to be used correctly in contemporary English. As with so much of the vocabulary of natural languages, this is a typical example of the arbitrariness of meaning.

MICHAEL SHAPIRO