Questions tagged [phrase-origin]
For questions about the origin of a phrase or an expression. Also consider the 'etymology' tag.
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Why does English use the French "sans" for sans serif?
Is it because France had impactful printers and typecutters like the Garamonds and Jensons in the Renaissance?
Or is it about being elegant and “Frenchified” when talking about something as peculiar ...
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Origin of the phrase "crazy as a coon"—is it racist?
Encountered most recently in the Procol Harum song "Lime Street." Does the phrase refer to a raccoon, or is the word here used in the sense of the slur?
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Who coined "times tables" and when?
I've always thought "times tables" to refer to multiplication tables was a British thing, but Wikipedia suggests it might be common in the US, too.
Is anything known about when the term was ...
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When did the insult “up yours” come into existence?
The movie Blazing Saddles used everything and anything to get a laugh. When the African American sheriff, newly assigned to a rural town, patrolled the main thoroughfare he happened upon an elderly ...
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Who coined the phrase "play the hand one is dealt"?
The cartoon character Snoopy in Peanuts by Charles Schulz said the phrase (a source):
"You play with the cards you're dealt…"
The variations of the phrase include, as far as I know:
play ...
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Origin of "home and dry"
Cambridge says that the idiom home and dry is British English, which explains why I hear it used around me. It means:
to have successfully finished something
but I have heard it used also literally. ...
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When was the first use of "For sure"?
When (approximately) was the first recorded use of "for sure" to mean "certainly"?
For example,
I wanted it more than he did, for sure.
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Are the origins of ¡ay, güey! and 'oy vey' related at all? [closed]
Though both of these terms come from other languages, they are both said in English, depending on where one is. One (ay wey as a more English form) can mean holy crap!, and the other can mean ...
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What is the origin of the expletive "man alive!"?
There are various speculations about its origins: its being a euphemism for 'Good Lord' or a simplification of 'any living man' or again a shortened 'no matter – man alive!' (Thomas Hood 1845)
"...
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Origin of expression "orchestra seat"
Orchestra seats are mentioned in this answer but why are seats closest to the orchestra (or stage) called "orchestra seats"? They are certainly not in the orchestra. What is the history/...
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Why is it "the Passion of Christ" and not "the Passions of Christ"?
I see that Google gives much more hits for The Passion of Christ (singular) than for the plural Passions, which in part is due to the movie of Mel Gibson with the same title.
I also see that ...
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At a 2:40 rate — slang for high speed
I've run across the phrase "at a 2:40 rate" in mid-19th Century sources. The context suggests that it means "at high speed," but I'd like to know the derivation. If it means a mile ...
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What's so profound about deafness?
I can describe someone as profoundly deaf, but I don't seem to see the same adverb used to describe other conditions. This observation is supported by Google Books data.
Why is deafness specifically ...
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Origin of "get back on terms"
I'm interested in finding the origin of the phrase "get back on terms". Commentators in the Tour de France and other big bike races use it all the time. I understand it in context; its ...
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Where did the phrase "bring to the table" originate?
I couldn't find where the phrase "bring to the table" originated. Please share your thoughts and any information you have.
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Is blunt the right expression for directness?
A 'blunt' statement is when someone says things to the point and factual. But wouldn't 'sharp' (or some other word that implies frankness or sharpness) be a better word than 'blunt'? As blunt has the ...
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Origin of "another and a greater X"
Having recently happened across the fact that Greek ἄνωθεν anothen means "from above, higher," I'm now constantly when I see it thinking "another and a greater..." But where does ...
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What might a pub named "the bull and last" likely be a reference to?
In the Kentish town/Highgate area are two pubs, The Bull and Last and The Bull and Gate.
What might such pub names be references to?
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In the Ozarks, why was a pregnant woman "with squirrel"?
Many blog posts online claim that in the Ozarks, being 'with squirrel' was once slang for 'being pregnant.' That is, if Sally is 'with squirrel', then Sally is pregnant.
They mostly cite Vance ...
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Origin of "Indent" as in inventory or request
I have recently moved to an institution run by the British government where staff use the term "indent" as a noun to refer to an inventory exercise done to work out what they need to buy.
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Is there a connection between "Having a chip on one's shoulder" and "Knock it off"?
After reading the Wikipedia article I was wondering about a possible connection between these two idioms.
Quoted from Wikipedia: Chip on shoulder
This idiom traces its roots back to a custom that was ...
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Meaning and usage of "head(s) AND tails above"?
I've come across the expression "head(s) and tails above" (the rest, the competition etc; different from something like "can't make head or tail of something" i.e. can't figure it ...
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When was the term Godi Media coined?
When was the term Godi Media coined?
I know that godi means lap so, it kind of means 'lapdog media'.
It is been used very frequently in India to describe the media supporting the ruling government.
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Origin and evolution of the proverb "A closed mouth catches no flies"
"A closed mouth catches no flies" is a proverb, and the origins of proverbs are almost always strange and murky; I'm not really expecting a definitive answer here. Wiktionary attributes the ...
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What is the origin of the phrase "in this day and age"?
I've searched but have not found any information about the origin of the phrase "in this day and age."
Has anyone researched this? Why not write "today"?
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Where does this proverb come from? “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”
I am attempting to find the origin or source of this proverb:
“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”
Most sources say that this is a translation of an African proverb,...
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Where and when did "booby prize" originate, and in what context did it become popular?
Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) has this entry for the term "booby prize":
booby prize n (1889) 1 : an award for the poorest performance in a game or competition 2 : ...
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What is the origin of "the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and x"?
What is the origin of "the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and x"?
This sentence construction is common in American media as far as I can tell, with the 'x' being something that is ...
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must be vs must - Why use one over the other [closed]
What is the explanation for the construction of the phrases "it must be valid" and "it must exist" that are frequently used without much thought, and why haven't we created ...
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What is the origin of "in the zone" or what "zone" is this about?
The idiom "(to be) in the zone" as in to be "in a mental state of focused concentration on the performance of an activity, in which one dissociates oneself from distracting or ...
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Origins of the phrase “the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is now”?
Does anyone have good information on the first known usage or attribution of the phrase “the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is now”, or similar concepts?
According to ...
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How come "screw over" means "to cheat"?
I looked it up in Wiktionary, and I've found out that the term "screw over" means "to cheat someone, or ruin their chances in a game or other situation."
I want to know how that ...
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What is round about round trips?
If one plans to travel from A to B and then, later, along the same route, from B to A, and one wishes to purchase a ticket for both components of the trip, one will, if one is a speaker of British ...
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At what point did most English speakers know the joke, "What time is it? Time for you to get a watch!"? [closed]
When is the first documented usage of the joke, "What time is it? Time for you to get a watch!"? At what point in history would most English-speakers know this joke, meaning, if you stopped ...
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What's the origin of the idiom "fish for a compliment"
I have been searching for the origin of the phrase "fish for a compliment", but I couldn't find anything on the internet. Goose egg!
The Free Dictionary defines the idiom
fish for ...
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When did the expression "cat's breakfast" come in to usage as an example of a hodgepodge collection, assuming it ever did?
In CNN's January 8, 2023 video Retired general calls new armored vehicles US is sending Ukraine 'significant' after about 04:40 US Retired Major General (and analyst for CNN) James "Spider" ...
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What is the origin of the phrase "the kindness of strangers" [closed]
Blanche Dubois uses the phrase (in "Street Car Named Desire") but, since she is using it ironically (or perhaps deluding herself), is there an older source? A quick search gives lots of ...
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What is the origin of "New Year"?
When I search the origin of "New Year", I find its history and origin in Roman Empire (and Julian calendar) as it is expected. However, the notion of "New Year" goes back to ...
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Origin of "By a landslide" to mean "by a huge margin"
Since exactly when did the word "landslide" started being used in context of depicting anything huge (but especially margins) apart from it's literal meaning and sense.
Especially when did ...
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year of first use of a vulgar expression? [closed]
Could someone please tell me the origin of the phrase working my ass off or derivations or variations thereof? I've seen 1930s and 1946 as answers, but no elaboration or explanation.
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Did these quotes really originate from Jerry Maguire? [closed]
I just finished watching Jerry Maguire (1996), and noticed the sheer amount of idioms in it that it apparently coined:
It notably spawned a large number of catch phrases into popular culture, most ...
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Etymology of "Bank Jugging"
There is a crime where the robbers wait outside a bank and identify people that are likely to have withdrawn money and then follow them to a place where they are robbed.
Just today I saw this referred ...
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Etymology/origin of the term 'blazes over'?
In soccer (football), commentators often exclaim that "Player X blazes over the goal" or "...just blazes it over, really poor shot..."
It's also found in written form, either in ...
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Who coined the term Benevolent Dictator?
In searching for the origins of this term, I find the concept attributed to John Stuart Mill, but I can't find the term used in his writing.
From Wikipedia:
Modern usage of the term in a world ...
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What’s the origin of the vulgar phrase “I’ve got a board cut to fit my ***”? [closed]
To me the saying “I’ve got a board cut to fit my ass” means that I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do that I have to do, but where does this expression come from?
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Origin of the phrase "pit of despair"
I can't find much online about the etymology/origin of the phrase besides mention of a psychologist naming a torture chamber for experiments he did on monkeys:
The pit of despair was a name used by ...
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What is the origin of the phrase "hit rock bottom"?
Etymoline hyphenates rock-bottom and provides a rather vague origin as a synonym of bedrock:
"lowest possible," 1884, from the noun phrase meaning "bedrock" (1815), also ...
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How does "I'll have your job!" translate to getting someone fired?
Maybe it's reading a story on reddit about an entitled Karen, or maybe it's talking to an upset customer that starts to threaten you, or maybe you're expressing frustration at someone else not doing ...
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What is the etymology of the phrase "see what one had for breakfast"?
This phrase is usually referred to women who (accidentally?) reveals more than intended because of such as wearing a short skirt or falling over and having their clothes flip over and thus reveal ...
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Is the word "also" related to the phrase "although it may be so"?
Note that the word "also" is a sub-sequence of the phrase "although that may be so"?
ALTHOUGH THAT MAY BE SO
AL SO
A
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H
O
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G
H
chr(32)
I
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chr(32)
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chr(...
