"Gut Feeling" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 10/08/2020

0:00 - How to Say, “Gut feeling…”
0:17 - Examples of “Gut feeling…”
1:06 - Meaning of “Gut feeling…”
1:40 - Origin of “Gut feeling…”
4:17 - More Examples of “Gut feeling…”
5:00 - Conclusion

“Gut feeling…”

You often hear people talk about their “gut feeling”, or the way they feel about something without any logic attached.

“My gut feeling is that I should definitely take the job offer at XYZ Company,” you might say after many, many job interviews.

Perhaps you and a few friends are hiking in the mountains, “The weather doesn’t look so good, my gut feeling is that we should head back now.”

“So, a monster ate all the cookies? My gut feeling tells me that it wasn’t a monster,” you might say to your kid after finding the cookie jar empty.

As is plain to see, “gut feeling” describes how you feel about something instinctually. It’s how you feel about something immediately, your reaction to something, an intuition without logic.

When you have a “gut feeling” about something, you are sure you are right about it, but cannot explain why.

“Gut” comes from Old English and is used to describe the body’s organs involved in eating; such as the stomach, intestines, etc.

For at least the past few thousand years, people believed that emotions and feelings originated in the belly, stomach or “gut” area of your body.

Thus, your “gut feeling” would be how you felt about something without the involvement of your logical brain, which is in your head.

A related idiom is, “trust your gut,” which is an entreatment to believe your initial reaction, to do what you think is right - even though you can’t explain why.

Though people think it’s a good idea to go with your “gut feeling” - and they easily remember all the times that they did and were correct…

… they usually forget about all the times that they “trusted their gut” and were totally wrong.

As you can guess, a “gut feeling” is actually your mind making a decision about something subconsciously, without you actively thinking about it.

Therefore, the more you know about a topic, subject or person, the more reliable your “gut feeling” about it will be.

On the other hand, the less you know about a topic, subject or person, the less reliable your “gut feeling” would be.

Indeed, if you know nothing about a topic, subject or person, you pretty much won’t have a “gut feeling” about it at all.

“What does your gut tell you?” your coworker might ask. “My gut feeling is that we need more time,” you might reply in regards to a project.

“I’m going to trust my gut and make an emergency landing. My gut feeling is that something is wrong,” a pilot might say after some severe turbulence.

“Go with your gut,” your father might say, “your gut feeling is often right!”

So, when there’s a small decision to be made, it’s easy to follow your “gut feeling”, but when the decision is big, perhaps you’ll need to consult with other people’s “gut feeling”, as well!

#superduperenglishidioms #englishidioms #idioms #proverbs