Dear LINGUA FRANCA Sprachschule blog readers! From Berlin I welcome you to our 100th idiom post!
A classic barrel cuff
My colleague and I have been working hard to build a good relationship with one of our more difficult customers. He’s a very sensitive man, but after a lot of flattery we finally had him at the point where he wanted to sign a contract for a big new deal with us. But at the final meeting my colleague made a stupid joke and we were told that he wouldn’t be doing business with us any longer. One off-the-cuff (spontan) comment and thousands of euros as well as many hours of work disappeared!
The origin of this idiom seems to come from the old practise of writing notes on detachable and disposable cuffs. In other word, if you forgot to bring paper to write on, you wrote on your cuff. Therefore something off the cuff was created without careful planning or preparation.
For an example of this old cuff-writing practise, have a look at what Charlie Chaplin does at about the 30 second mark in the video below. And then watch the rest, it’s a classic…