Hot: He Was a Hotheaded Hot Shot!

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Hot is a simple, easily-understood word.  So are most of the expressions made with the word hot.  But not always, as we shall see.

hot potato, for example, give you no idea at all to the meaning of the expression, hot potato. 

Now we are getting close to the meaning of hot potato. 

One such hot potato is taxes.

Another expression is not so hot.  If you ask someone how she feels, she may answer: "not so hot."   What she means is she does not feel well.

A hot shot is a person -- often a young person -- who thinks he can do anything.  At least he wants to try.  He is very sure he can succeed.  But often he fails. The expression was born in the military forces.  A hot shot was a soldier who fired without aiming carefully. 

A person who becomes angry easily is called a hothead.  An angry person's neck often becomes red.  We say he is hot under the collar.  You could say that your friend is no hothead. But he got hot under the collar when someone took his radio.

hot line appeared as a new expression.

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