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Phrase: Go to your head
It’s a Saturday during the dog days of summer.
You may feel like imbibing a few wobbly pops this evening, but don’t let them go to your head.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is our phrase for today.
Like most phrases in English, go to your head has more than one use and meaning.
As in the case I outlined above, drinking alcohol can make you feel dizzy or slightly drunk.
When it does, we say it has gone to your head.
Naturally, that is the whole point of imbibing.
If it didn’t go to your head, why the heck would you do it?
Anyways, the second usage of today’s phrase is when you are too proud of an achievement.
It happens all the time.
One day a coworker gets along with everyone in the office.
Then, they are promoted and become a tyrant.
That little bit of power and success went to their head, so now they think they are Donald Trump or Kim Jung Un.
They bark orders, ridicule, and look at you with missiles coming out of their eyes.
There is a quote from the British historian Lord Acton that goes, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The problem is this statement relates to most of us.
Just a little bit of power will go to your head sometimes.
Have you ever seen a little girl lord it over other, slightly younger little girls while they are playing?
The fact that she is older gives her a little power, and it has gone to her head.
That’s why we have to teach children humility and not to let power go to their heads.
No one likes a tyrant who lords it over them.
When it comes to alcohol, though, let’s say the jury is still out.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.