Englishget a hold of someone
Meaning: To contact someone or communicate with someone, usually by telephone.
Example: “I've been trying to get a hold of the landlord all week.”
Origin: "Hold" carries its old sense of grip or possession, tracing to Old English healdan, to contain or restrain, while "get" comes from Old Norse geta, to obtain — combined, the phrase treats successfully contacting a person the same way it would treat successfully grabbing a physical object that had been just out of reach. Before telephones made "reaching" someone almost instantaneous, actually finding and speaking to a person you needed often took real, sustained effort, and "getting hold of" them captured exactly that sense of finally closing the gap after some difficulty.
More English idioms
- get one's act together To get control of oneself mentally or physically; to get organized.
- get someone's dander up To irritate or anger moderately.
- get the go-ahead To receive or grant permission to proceed.
- get the message To understand something that is only hinted at, perhaps because it is unpleasant.
- get this show on the road To get started.
- get to the point To speak or write concisely and directly.
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