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Green’s Dictionary of Slang lists the exclamation way to go! as a short form of that’s the right way to go, noting that it may have been coined for the 1940 American biographical film Knute Rockne All …

This sense of beat goes back as early as c1810 per OED. (c indicates circa here). Although, it was not used as "beats me" in the earliest citation. The origin of "beats me" appears to be a semantic ex …

1864 is the year given for the first written usage of times table for the sense "multiplication table" in OED: 1864    When this exercise can be readily done, pursue the same course with the three t …

OED provides the earliest citation from 1909 for the figurative idiom. I believe the earlier usages are more literal; and the phrase has gained an idiomatic usage as an allusion to the conventional en …

The most probable and supported origin of drug in the idiom 'a drug on the market' (also with 'in') is from French drogue meaning 'a worthless object, an unpleasant object'1, 'trash, rubbish, cheap st …

The phrase on the part of (also on a person's part) goes back as early as 1385, first used by Chaucer in his epic poem Troilus and Criseyde. Here is the definition of the phrase and the earliest citat …

The sense of "to make sense" of the verb track goes back to 1924 in written usage per OED. Here is the definition and the first citation from OED: intransitive. To be consistent with something (such …

OED gives c1175 (c indicates circa) for the year of the first attestation of New Year and it is recorded earliest in New Year's Day: c1175    Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 4230    Tatt daȝȝ is …

The first written form of the proverb "A closed mouth catches no flies" appears to be in Catalan from late 1400s per an academic research paper about Catalan paremiology but it is concluded that the p …

The first written usage, according to OED Online, is from Jan. 25, 1993. It is from FreeLore Whitepaper Repost in alt.uu.future (Usenet newsgroup). World Wide Web sites: info.cern.ch (128.141.201. …

Straight Dope has a detailed answer to the question "How did French fries get their name, and where did they originate?" which includes its origin in Paris, France and how it originated from the name …

Update: There is an earlier date found for the origin of prove (as a baking term) in Google Books and it is in Sven Yarg's answer. I'm including the earliest citation from OED (from the book Cyclopædi …

The reference is to the tanning process in leather making (as you've guessed) and The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition (by Christine Ammer) provides more details: This term uses …

Ring in this idiom is a euphemism for "arse" so the idiom is a variant of to work one's arse off. The earliest usage is from 1992 per Green’s Dictionary of Slang: work one’s ring off (v.) [var. on wo …