10 everythings

Everything.  All.  In Toto.  We have a lot of phrases for everything.  Here are 10 of them.  I think that's all of them.  If there are more, then I don't want to know about them.

1. Bumper to bumper - similar to 'From stem to stern' but instead of the whole boat it means the whole car.  I've never heard it used in conjunction with any other term than warranty.  I think it means that every part of your car is liable to fail.

2. A to Z - A more inclusive phrase that also means everything,  It's funny that it means everything because I don't see any numbers between A and Z.












3. Soup to Nuts - This everything refers to the pantry and everything in it.  I would guess that this phrase is uniquely American since many pantries around the world are hardly all inclusive.

4. Shooting Match - Or more importantly, the WHOLE shooting match to indicate all of something.  Seemingly more outdoorsy the use of the phrase is probably not advisable in this political climate assuming the match in question is one of firearms.  I assume it would be fine if you were shooting marbles.

5. Enchilada - I'm really not sure why this one comes to mind except my dad used it from time to time.  Perhaps because an Enchilada seems to have everything wrapped up inside.

6. Shebang - The whole shebang.  A primitive hut or structure.  My dad used this one along with the enchilada referred above.  Maybe at one point he used to eat a whole enchilada inside his whole shebang.

7.  Cradle to Grave - This everything leans more towards the totality of someones life.  Normally it's used to indicate some kind of care of coverage and especially used in terms of some kind of government care.

8.  Start to Finish - Seems obvious, but this is everything in a race, all the turns and twists.  Used to indicate all the steps of any given process.

9.  Kit and caboodle - the kit was an old bag or knapsack and the caboodle didn't exist until the phrase did. Experts more informed about everything than I am, seem to think that it came from the word boodle which meant everything in an estate.  So kit and caboodle would mean all of someones possessions.

10. Alpha and omega - While it does seem to be a pretentious phrase since it means the same thing as A to Z except in Greek it is really only used to describe God.  I've never read anywhere in the Bible that he referred to himself as the A and the Z, or the soup and nuts.  None of those things really had the ring of Alpha and Omega.  Also, it's not Alpha TO Omega,  It's Alpha AND Omega, the beginning AND the end all at once.  If you are showing yourself to a polytheistic world, it's important to show that you are a one stop shop the beginning and the end.  If you are God, you can call yourself whatever you like.

Obviously I have run out of material.  15 days from now, we'll see just how shallow the waters of my mind really are.