Did You Know? Language Edition

Was reading happily through P-Girl's reader last night, "Shades of Gray". It is an amazingly engaging book about a young confederate boy who is sent to live with extended family after losing his entire immediate family to the war. He has great contempt for his uncle who dodged the draft, and judges him as a traitor and a coward. In reality the uncle is a man of great moral character and virtue who refused to fight for a cause he didn't believe in. Such wonderful character development and plot make this book an all in one night read that promises to be revisited.

I had to smile at one point in the story when a local bully is provoking the main protagonist and proceeds to pick up a chip of wood and place it mockingly on the young boy's shoulder. The protagonist, unwilling to be seen as a coward, knocked it off, and the fight was on. Light bulb moment. Isn't it funny how we use terminology and phrases so easily without really having any clue as to their origin? So this morning it was off to Wikipedia with me to get the full background story.

"Carrying a chip on one's shoulder was a form of challenge in the same spirit as a medieval knight throwing down his gauntlet. If an opponent picked up the glove, or knocked the chip of wood off their shoulder, the challenge was accepted and the fight was on."