The idiom “in the pink” means to be in excellent health and is often used to counter someone who is not feeling well. Its origin is uncertain, but it was originally used to describe the best example of a particular group. Idioms like this add impact and expressiveness to speech.
“In the pink” is an English idiom used to describe someone who is in the best possible physical condition. People often use this phrase to describe someone who is in peak condition with no significant ailments worth mentioning. This phrase is often used as a way to counter someone who is not feeling well or has a variety of illnesses. While the origin of “in the pink” as a health indicator is difficult to ascertain, the phrase can be traced back to when it was used to describe anything that was the best example of a particular group.
It is not uncommon for English speakers to take advantage of some colorful words and phrases that may not mean what their literal definitions may indicate. These words or phrases, also known as idioms, tend to get their accepted meanings from how they are used in the culture, as opposed to their literal interpretations. Such phrases are particularly useful for giving impact and expressiveness to speech. A popular idiom that has been used for hundreds of years is the phrase “in the pink.”
If someone is described with this idiom, they must be in excellent health. This phrase is used as an extreme, meaning that a person described in this matter is far above average in terms of health and fitness. Instead, those people who deserve this sentence must be in exemplary conditions compared to others. For example, consider the sentence, “I just had a checkup and I got a clean bill of health, so you could say I’m in the pink.”
Many people often use this phrase to counter another condition for which a person is not healthy at all. They can do this by comparing a person’s health at different stages in their life, or they can compare one person to another. For example, someone might say: “It’s a shame that she went from being completely pink to having so many health problems just a few years later.”
The phrase “in the pink” was used for hundreds of years until playwright William Shakespeare in the 16th century. For most of that time, though, the phrase didn’t refer specifically to health. Instead, it was used to describe whatever was the best about a specific batch of things. It was only in the 20th century that it gained its association with health.
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