Monkey off your back
Finally, A Win!
The Detroit Lions finally got the monkey off their back with their win last Sunday. They won on the last play of the game. The Lions are my favorite American football team but they SUCK. They are really bad this year. I wrote about kissing your kissing your sister when they tied a game earlier this year. Coming into this game, they lost 10 games and had one tied game. There are only 17 games in the season, so there was a chance that they would not win any games this year. In 2008, they didn’t win any games. I was worried that would happen again. It sucks because that’s what everyone talks about, the season they didn’t win a game. So, it was really nice to see them get the monkey off their back this week.
Getting the monkey off your back means that you overcame a difficult situation or burden. It can also be used to say that you got rid of a problem. In the case of the lions, the situation was that they might not win a game this year. When they won, they removed the monkey from their back. When someone gets the monkey off their back, they feel a sense of relief and a reduction in stress.
Example: I finally got all the paperwork finished for this project and it is a monkey off of my back.
Origin
The meaning of a monkey on your back has changed over time. In the 1800s it meant to be angry or sad. Then it took on the meaning of having a terrible burden. Since the 1930s it has also meant an addiction (notably heroin).
Having a monkey on one’s back first appears in The Parterre of Poetry and Historical Romance (1836). The phrase may not have been common at the time but it is used figuratively. However, the idea of monkeys on back goes back even farther. In one of Aesop’s fables, called The Monkey and the Dolphin, a sailor brings a monkey with him on a voyage. The ship sinks and the crew (and monkey) swim for their lives. A dolphin sees the monkey swimming and thinks that he is a man. The dolphin picks up the monkey on its back and starts to carry it ashore. But, when the dolphin finds out that he is not a human, the dolphin drowns the monkey. Monkeys have also been used in circuses to ride dogs, donkeys, horses, and camels. In Mozambique there is a tribe of hunters that throw monkeys on wild boars to slow them down. You can see how a monkey can be a burden to other animals.
Alternatively, the phrase may have come from Sinbad. In one story, an ape-like creature jumps on a man’s should and won’t get off. This is probably where the anger meaning comes from.
See Also: Kissing your sister, Let's go, In a pickle
For more English phrases and quotes, follow me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ESL-ToyBox-112152010890485
Reference:
https://grammarist.com/idiom/monkey-on-ones-back/
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/17384/whats-the-origin-and-reasoning-behind-the-phrase-ive-got-a-monkey-on-my-back
http://read.gov/aesop/074.html
https://www.idioms.online/monkey-on-your-back/
https://www.videoman.gr/en/53923
https://www.etymonline.com/word/monkey