Learn English – What does it mean to “pin a badge” on something
idioms
Original sentence was:
Linux Foundation Wants to Pin a Badge on Secure Open Source Software
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Best Answer
"Pin a badge" is simple: it means to "stick a badge" on something. Often in public meetings, including those held in India, the supporters of a particular party sport badge on the left side of the chest. They stick the badge with their shirts (or whatever they wear) with the help of a safety pin. The idea behind is: let the others know who in the meeting are supporting the particular party (or a particular cause that the party is espousing). This is "pinning the badge".
Off here indicates not the location of living but its source.
The idiom arises in the last half of the 18th century in association with the idiom “get one’s living off (of) the land”, meaning one obtains the income which sustained life by farming or by renting the farmlands one owned to others. Armies were likewise said to “live off the land” or “off the country”—meaning that in wartime they obtained what they needed by appropriating it from the territories they crossed rather than being supplied from home.
A similar use of off appears in the phrase dine off (pheasant, the haunch, six or seven courses) meaning one obtains one’dinner from these sources.
So to say that “She lives off her parents” means she obtains the necessities of life from her parents; to say that “I've been living off rats” means I get my nutrition by eating rats.
Best Answer
"Pin a badge" is simple: it means to "stick a badge" on something. Often in public meetings, including those held in India, the supporters of a particular party sport badge on the left side of the chest. They stick the badge with their shirts (or whatever they wear) with the help of a safety pin. The idea behind is: let the others know who in the meeting are supporting the particular party (or a particular cause that the party is espousing). This is "pinning the badge".