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Table of contents
- The Unbelievable Origin Of 'Piss Poor' And Other Sayings From A Simpler Time
- Cliches and Expressions of origin
- Common Sayings, Words and Customs; Their Origin and History
This comes from the days when livestock had their ears marked so their owner could be easily identified. This old saying is from Ecclesiastes 'a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and be merry'. If a person we admire has a fatal weakness we say they have feet of clay. This phrase comes from the Bible. King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a statue. It had a head of gold, arms, and chest of silver, belly, and thighs of bronze and its legs were of iron. However, its feet were made of a mixture of iron and clay. A rock hit the statue's feet and the whole statue was broken.
The prophet Daniel interpreted the dream to be about a series of empires, all of which would eventually be destroyed. Daniel Historians are skeptical about the story.
Muskets had a priming pan, which was filled with gunpowder. When flint hit steel it ignited the powder in the pan, which in turn ignited the main charge of gunpowder and fired the musket ball. However, sometimes the powder in the pan failed to light the main charge.
In that case, you had a flash in the pan. This old saying comes from the Bible. In Ecclesiastes the writer says that dead flies give perfume a bad smell in old versions of the Bible the word for perfume is translated 'ointment'. If a fleet won a clear victory the ships would sail back to port with their colors proudly flying from their masts.
In the Middle Ages freelances were soldiers who fought for anyone who would hire them.
The Unbelievable Origin Of 'Piss Poor' And Other Sayings From A Simpler Time
They were literally free lances. You can tell the age of a horse by examining its teeth. A horse dealer may lie to you but you can always find out the truth 'from the horses mouth'. This comes from the days when workmen carried their tools in sacks. If your employer gave you the sack it was time to collect your tools and go. This phrase is from King John by William Shakespeare. By law a Roman soldier could force anybody to carry his equipment 1 mile. In Matthew Jesus told his followers 'if somebody forces you to go 1 mile go 2 miles with him'. Any farm animal that had outlived its usefulness such as a hen that no longer laid eggs would literally go to pot.
It was cooked and eaten. In the past it wasn't polite to use the exclamation 'God! Sometimes they said 'heck' instead of Hell. This comes from cricket. Once a bowler who took three wickets in successive deliveries was given a new hat by his club.
Cliches and Expressions of origin
A bushel was a container for measuring grain. In Matthew Jesus said 'Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick'. This means to have no choice at all. In the 16th century and the early 17th century if you went on a journey you could hire a horse to take you from one town to another and travel using a relay of horses. That was better than wearing out your own horse on a long journey over very poor roads. In the early s, Thomas Hobson was a man in Cambridge who hired out horses.
However, he would not let customers choose which horse they wanted to ride. Instead, they had to ride whichever horse was nearest the stable entrance. So if you hired a horse from him you were given 'Hobson's choice'. A petard was a type of Tudor bomb. It was a container of gunpowder with a fuse, which was placed against a wooden gate. Sometimes all things did not go to plan and the petard exploded prematurely blowing you into the air.
You were hoisted by your own petard. This comes from the Bible, Isaiah , the Old Testament prophet berates people who say 'stand by thyself, come not near me for I am holier than thou'. The expression to eat humble pie was once to eat umble pie. The umbles were the intestines or less appetizing parts of an animal and servants and other lower class people ate them. So if a deer was killed the rich ate venison and those of low status ate umble pie. In time it became corrupted to eat humble pie and came to mean to debase yourself or act with humility.
When slaughtering a pig you tied its back legs to a wooden beam in French buquet. As the animal died it kicked the buquet. This is from Isaiah 'He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter'. Later this verse was applied to Jesus. In the ancient world winning athletes and other heroes and distinguished people were given wreaths of laurel leaves. If you are resting on your laurels you are relying on your past achievements.
If you need to look to your laurels it means you have competition.
This is another old saying from the Bible. This one comes from Jeremiah 'Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots? This old saying is probably derived from the days when people who sold piglets in bags sometimes put a cat in the bag instead. If you let the cat out of the bag you exposed the trick. In the Middle Ages people thought that bear cubs were born shapeless and their mother literally licked them into shape. Means cowardly. People once believed that your passions came from your liver.
If you were lily-livered your liver was white because it did not contain any blood. So you were a coward. In Ecclesiastes the writer warns us not to curse the king or the rich even in private or a 'bird of the air' may report what you say. This phrase comes because guns used to have 3 parts, the lock the firing mechanism , the stock the wooden butt of the gun and the barrel. A long shot is an option with only a small chance of success.
Common Sayings, Words and Customs; Their Origin and History
In the past guns were only accurate at short range. So a 'long shot' fired over a long distance only had a small chance of hitting its target. When a horse grows old its gums recede and if you examine its mouth it looks 'long in the tooth'. This phrase comes from the fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries hat makers treated hats with mercury.
Inhaling mercury vapor could cause mental illness. This is a corruption of Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus. In paintings she was often shown weeping tears of repentance. So she became associated with sentimentality. This comes from the Saxon word moot or mote, which meant a meeting to discuss things. A moot point was one that needed to be discussed or debated. In battle a ship surrendered by lowering its flag. If you nailed your colors to the mast you had no intention of surrendering.
You were totally loyal to your side. This was originally a nickname for the poet Ambrose Philips who was known for writing sentimental verse.
In Isaiah the prophet says: 'there is no peace saith my God to the wicked'. After it was woven wool was pounded in a mixture of clay and water to clean and thicken it. This was called fulling.