origin of ‘castles in Spain’ and ‘castles in the air’
In French medieval chansons de geste ‘castles in Spain’ denoted fiefs that had to be conquered from the Saracens by the knights to whom they had been granted.
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the authentic origin of ‘once in a blue moon’
‘Once in a blue moon’ is a development from ‘once in a moon’, meaning ‘once a month’, hence ‘occasionally’—‘blue’ is merely a meaningless fanciful intensive.
Read Moreorigin of ‘quiz’ (“Vir bonus est quis?”)?
Originally meaning ‘person of ridiculous appearance’, ‘quiz’ (students’ slang, late 18th century) was jocularly derived from the Latin interrogative pronoun ‘quis’ in “Vir bonus est quis?” (“Who is a good man?”)—a good, ingenuous, harmless man being likely to become an object of ridicule or even of harassment.
Read Morethe nonsensical origin of ‘Kilkenny cats’
‘To fight like Kilkenny cats’ means ‘to engage in a mutually destructive struggle’.—from the tale of two cats fighting until only their tails remained (early 19th century), which was originally meant to be nothing but amusing nonsense.
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘a pretty kettle of fish’
The phrase ‘a pretty kettle of fish’ originally referred to a net full of fish, which, when drawn up with its contents, is suggestive of confusion, flurry and disorder—‘kettle’ being a form of ‘kiddle’, a noun denoting a dam or other barrier in a river, with an opening fitted with nets to catch fish.
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘to rain cats and dogs’
First recorded circa 1629 as ‘to rain dogs and cats’, this phrase is based on a cat-and-dog fight as a metaphor for a storm or hard rain; the theory that Jonathan Swift coined the phrase is ludicrous.
Read Moreorigin of the Lancashire phrase ‘in Dicky’s meadow’
In the phrase ‘in Dicky’s meadow’, which means ‘in trouble’, the first element is an alteration of ‘dicky’, meaning ‘hazardous’, ‘critical’.
Read Morethe multiple meanings and origins of ‘P’s and Q’s’
Sexual puns in 17th-century English theatre explain several meanings of ‘P’s and Q’s’.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Indian summer’ and French ‘l’été sauvage’
In ‘Indian summer’, the adjective ‘Indian’ merely denotes something other than that normally denoted in Europe by the simple noun ‘summer’.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to go commando’
USA, 1974—to wear no underpants—originated in university slang—perhaps because commandos wear no underpants in order to prevent crotch rot and rashes
Read Moremeaning and possible origin of ‘to push the boat out’
UK, 1915—to be lavish in one’s celebrations or spending—Army and Navy slang: to buy a round of drinks—’a boat’ might be metaphorical for ‘a glass’ (i.e., ‘a drink’)
Read Moremeaning, origin and early instances of ‘to lie doggo’
UK, 1882—to remain motionless and quiet; to keep a low profile—probably from ‘dog’ and suffix ‘-o’, with allusion to the characteristically light sleep of a dog
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘Dunkirk spirit’
1940 as ‘spirit of Dunkirk’—determination to endure hardship—refers to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in May/June 1940
Read Morethe military origin of the adjective ‘last-ditch’
UK, 1845: made as a last desperate attempt—from the 18th-century phrase ‘to die in the last ditch’, ‘ditch’ denoting a defensive entrenchment
Read Moreearly meanings of ‘Bamboo Curtain’
USA, 1948—notional barrier between China and non-Communist countries—after ‘Iron Curtain’—first used of censorship in South-East Asia
Read Morehistory of the terms ‘man Friday’ and ‘girl Friday’
USA—‘man Friday’ 1802: alludes to the name of Robinson Crusoe’s servant in Daniel Defoe’s novel—‘girl Friday’ 1929: coined on the pattern of ‘man Friday’
Read Moremeaning and origin of the British phrase ‘to go down the pan’
UK, 1950—to be completely lost or wasted; to fail utterly—alludes to ‘pan’ in the sense of the bowl of a toilet
Read Morea hypothesis as to the origin of ‘to get down to brass tacks’
USA, 1868—‘brass tacks’: the nails studded over a coffin, hence figuratively the end of any possibility of deceit, the return to essentials
Read More‘come (right) down to the brass’|‘come down to brass tacks’
USA—‘come (right) down to the brass’ (1854): get to the point; tackle the essentials—‘come down to brass tacks’ (1863): tackle the essentials
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