On the Mend

"I'm so glad she's on the mend," I said to a friend the other day. Her puppy had recently been spayed and was recovering from the surgery.

I realized that "on the mend" is an idiom I use often in health-related conversations. But it's one I watch for when I'm working on health content.

The meaning seems simple enough. One definition of "mend" is "repair," and when our health is improving, such as when wounds close and bones heal, it's a repair process. When I say that my friend's puppy is "on the mend," it means her health situation is improving.

And according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "on the mend" has been an English phrase since at least 1802, when S.T. Coleridge wrote in a letter, "My health has been on the Mend, since you left town."

But while idioms may be intuitive to some readers, others may find them problematic. People learning English might not be aware of them, or they may express similar sentiments in different ways in the other languages they know.

Even long-time English speakers can also take idioms literally. I remember saying to a teenager, "We should get our show on the road." I meant that we should get ready to leave for an event. But he said, "Wait. We're going to a show?"

Idioms are handy. But before you use them, consider your audience. Even the most straightforward-sounding idioms may not necessarily be clear to your readers.