The phrase “giving the cold shoulder” means being hostile or uncooperative towards someone. It may come from turning one’s shoulder away from someone or from serving less desirable guests a cold shoulder of meat. Similar phrases include “silent treatment” and “shut out.” It is a deliberate action and can be described as treating someone with indifference or refusing to offer greetings. Its origins date back to the 1800s.
When English speakers refer to giving someone the cold shoulder, it means that the person is generally hostile to someone else. This can also mean that someone is not actively cooperating or working against that person. This generally negative idiom uses the word cold to mean a negative emotion. The word cold can be used by itself in English to describe a person’s negative behavior towards someone else, but this expression generally implies a more sudden turn of events.
Another phrase that is similar to giving the cold shoulder is the “silent treatment” phrase. When someone is not talking to someone else due to negative emotional factors, he is said to be giving that person the silent treatment. This sentence is more accurate than the other, since giving someone a cold shoulder doesn’t automatically imply silence.
The origin of the phrase is disputed. Some believe that the common meaning is actually related to a person’s physical shoulder, meaning that someone literally turns their shoulder towards the other person rather than facing them directly. Others point to customs in what is now the United Kingdom which would indicate that the phrase is related to conditions around food.
In the food origins of the phrase, the term shoulder refers to a shoulder of mutton or other meat. It is said that desired guests were offered hot meals in many households, where less desired guests were given a portion of a cold shoulder of meat. This probably contributed to the use of the “cold shoulder” as something used to show negative relationships between people.
Many cite the origin of this idiom as occurring in the 1800s, in the early part of the century. Writers like Charles Dickens used the phrase a little later. In general, it has found its way into the English lexicon as a way of referring to negative interpersonal relationships and often involves very deliberate and blunt action, rather than simply describing two people who have never gotten along.
Along with the phrase “give someone the cold shoulder,” which is a colloquial and allegorical idiom, some shorter, more succinct sentences can be applied. Many English-speaking societies rely heavily on phrasal verbs, idioms that consist of a verb and a preposition. One that applies here is the phrasal verb, “shut out.” “Locking out” someone or “locking someone out” is kind of like giving them the cold shoulder. Other more technical phrases such as “treating someone with indifference” or “refusing to offer greetings” can also be applied to more accurately describe specific interactions that people describe quite generally as “giving someone the cold shoulder”.
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