My Manager called my cubicle mate and I into a meeting room, closed the door and said “Cider Depot, other guy, let’s shoot the breeze”. My cubicle mate screwed up his face and said “What does that mean, anyway?”.
I understand “to shoot the breeze” to mean to engage in casual conversation, or chat. But where does this expression come from?
I always thought it meant that you’re not doing anything productive; if you literally shoot [at] the breeze, nothing happens.
FWIW, the local colloquialism is “peeling chile”. Even though peeling chile is quite productive, you can bullshit about just about anything while not really paying attention to what you’re doing.
Nothing is being shot at. The expression dates from the early 1940s. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives 1941. It’s almost certainly one of many variants of shoot the bull.
Check the discussion on wordwizard.
Thanks for the link. Interesting, but not quite definitive. Works for me though.
Exapno gives the correct info. I can trace it as an Americanism to 1930, but that’s about the time frame.
Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang compares it to several similar expressions, among them bat the breeze, beat the breeze, and fan the breeze. I think it’s clear that it relates to the notion of the air coming out of one’s mouth adding to the ambient stirrings. In this sense, it would be also related to blowing hot air.