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The original phrase is The King is dead. Long live the King! According to wikipedia: The original phrase was translated from the French Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!, which was first declar …

Dictionary definitions of all three are very similar, typically something like: a pithy observation which contains a general truth But the Wikipedia entries for each are quite different. Are th …

I read it here. The New Jersey guy said that the Unix solution was right because the design philosophy of Unix was simplicity and that the right thing was too complex. Besides, programmers could easi …

To understand what this simple phrase means first think of the literal meaning, that the person was abandoned because it was assumed that they were already dead, mortally wounded or that it was inevitable …

It means to preserve for perpetuity, or at least, a very long time. Some creatures trapped in amber have been preserved for millions of years.

I'm not sure which one of these apparently flatly contradictory proverbs I heard first but I have definitely heard both several times. One of them is: There is honour among thieves. Another is: …

There is some confusion here between several idioms. First, never spank anyone on anything as spanking is a mild form of corporal punishment and I'm sure you don't mean that. a pat on the back is …

There was a recent article on the BBC news site about this. There's no suggestion at all that it could be considered offensive. The article confirms its US origin, as there was an alternative term th …

something throw someone in at the deep end - put someone in a challenging position without preparation in deep water - in trouble, in a difficult situation Your example doesn't quite fit the usual meaning …

It's none of those, it's: April Fools' Day However, I understand it as a day for 'April Fools' rather than 'the day of Fools that occurs in April' because there is no Fools' day in any other mon …

It was originally a maritime expression, where she refers to a vessel and it is an instruction to maintain the current course. So the author is saying that with this budget, the chancellor is continu …

bane: a cause of great distress or annoyance Therefore the bane of your existence is the chief annoyance or distress in your life, it is something that prevents you from enjoying life, turning it ins …

This is a misattribution and in fact comes from William Bruce Cameron's Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963). The comment is part of a longer paragraph and do …

According to Merriam-Webster, scut work: routine and often menial labor Probably from medical argot, scut meaning 'junior intern' First known use: circa 1962 Usage example: ... women who generally … Could it be related to meaning (2) in the OED? scut 1. the short tail of a hare, rabbit, or deer. 2. (inf. chiefly Irish) a person perceived as foolish, contemptible, or objectionable. …

I'm familiar with the word pooch as a cute synonym of doggy, but here is pooch used as a verb: It was just a poorly done deal and it just so happens to be the biggest deal ever for Nasdaq and they …