The Last Straw
Oh, My desk!
I was shocked to see my desk covered in straws when I came in to work today. It seems as though I was pranked. To be fair, I pranked a coworker earlier in the week by surrounding his desk in pylons. While I was out teaching a special lecture, the office got back at me. Apparently, everyone joined in decorating my desk. It was a unifying activity. I’m happy to be the one that brings the group together (sarcasm). I jokingly remarked that this is the last straw! Of course, I was referencing the numerous straws on or attached to my desk. But it didn’t bother me that much. I thought it was funny.
You might be asking yourself why they put straws all over my desk. Well, it comes from the research I did while researching trash talking. In one of the experiments, the researchers tried to see if trash talking had any effect on performance. They listed some of the insults they used for trash talking. One of them was, "Grab a straw because you suck." So, I have been saying that to people as a joke and giving straws to coworkers.
Meaning
The last straw is the last event in a series of events that makes you take action. Usually, the last straw makes you quit trying or makes you so frustrated that you get angry. The last straw is not a big deal by itself but there was a series of events that led up to it. So, this final event makes things unbearable for you. The last straw is a way to describe frustration. You are saying that you can’t handle it anymore. You may also hear the phrase, “the final straw.”
Example: I didn’t clean my room or play with my sisters, but the last straw was when I refused to wash the dishes. Now my mother is angry.
Origin
The last straw references an old proverb, “the straw that broke the camels back.” The earliest appearance of this idiom in writing comes from an 1816 post in The Edinburgh Advertiser, “yet straw upon straw was laid till the last straw broke the camel’s back.” In this case, straw is dried grass. Camels were used in some societies to transport materials, including straw. The story is that a rich man tried to put as much straw on his camels as possible to make more money. Each individual piece of straw is not that heavy but with enough straws, the weight is unbearable for the camel.
The straw that broke the camel’s back might have come from an earlier phrase, “the last feather breaks the horse’s back” which dates to 1655. For me, this sounds more like an English phrase, as I don’t think there were many camels in England in the early 19th century. I think the proverb might use ‘camel’ to make the phrase sound biblical. There is also a theory that a camel was used because it comes from an Arabic idiom, though I haven’t seen any evidence of this.
See Also: Trash talking, Rage quit, Getting under my skin
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Reference:
https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/the-last-straw
https://www.theidioms.com/the-last-straw/
https://www.idioms.online/the-straw-that-broke-the-camels-back/
https://thecontentauthority.com/blog/what-does-the-last-straw-mean