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In order to make up for this deficiency, I study etymology as best that I can. It's often hard to understand and explain a colloquialism to my daughter without knowing where it came from.
Think about the, now fairly antiquated phrase, letting the cat out of the bag. There was a scam where people tried to sell a cat in a bag as a suckling pig, but opening the sack, the cat would be let out of the bag, ergo, hidden facts would be revealed. (NOTE: Snopes rejects this...but it's a cool story.)
Now, another term is fast talker. Why do people "talk fast?" Obviously the phrase doesn't literally mean one who's speaking quickly, but one who's speaking deceptively.
