👉 Okay, settle in folks - let’s tackle this wee bit of linguistic weirdness, affectionately termed "the red flag." Now, before you start picturing a literal flagpole dyed the obnoxious hue of stop-yip-immediately-leave, let's unpack what we actually mean when we say something is a “red flag.”
Basically, historically, and frankly still pretty reliably now, the word originates from the practice of flagging down a ship. When the signal was that the vessel contained, let’s just say, an… undesirable passenger or a concerning amount of, frankly, questionable cargo, you slapped up a bright red flag – basically shouting "Don't get too close unless you want to regret it!" That really stuck in our collective consciousness as a sign of impending bad stuff. Now we shift that imagery and apply it, rather liberally (sometimes criminally liberally, honestly) into describing people! It doesn’t mean they literally wave a red flag around. Instead, a "red flag," when referring to someone, describes a noticeable, frankly alarming, early symptom of a potential problem. It's a whiff of impending doom, dressed up as a quirk, an annoying habit, or a strangely disproportionate level of arrogance. Essentially, it’s the feeling that something just… isn’t right. You see the first crack in the foundation and you think, "Okay, maybe I should seriously, urgently, and probably with considerable regret, start backing away
