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 Morethe authentic origin 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 Moremeanings and origin of ‘flavour of the month/of the week’
UK, 1967—person or thing that enjoys a short period of great popularity—the particular ice-cream flavour promoted during a month/week
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘away with the fairies’
Irish English, 1907—out of touch with reality—ultimately refers to the belief that the fairies spirit away human beings
Read Moreorigin of ‘the gnomes of Zurich’ (international bankers and financiers)
British origin—popularised by Harold Wilson in 1956, but first recorded in The Observer (London) of 30 October 1955
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to know how many beans make five’
to be sensible and intelligent—1784 in a US publication, but attributed to “a gentleman from abroad”—‘blue’, meaningless fanciful intensive, sometimes before ‘beans’
Read Moremeaning and early instances of ‘as the bishop said to the actress’
UK, 1930—‘as the bishop said to the actress’, ‘as the actress said to the bishop’: mischievously implies a sexual innuendo or ambiguity in a preceding innocent remark
Read Morean investigation into the origin of the phrase ‘an old Spanish custom’
UK, 1932—hypotheses as to origin: successful music-hall song(s) – clichés about Spain – coined by Herman Cyril McNeile
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to keep an ear to the ground’
USA, 1815—from the practice of putting one’s ear to the ground in order to detect the vibration of sounds in the distance before they can actually be heard
Read Moreorigin and meanings of ‘dreaming spires’
the city or university of Oxford; the sheltered condition of unworldly academics—from the poem ‘Thyrsis’ (1866), by Matthew Arnold
Read Morethe authentic origin of the phrase ‘(as) bold as brass’
UK, 1789—aided by alliteration, arose from a long-established figurative use of ‘brass’, sometimes in association with ‘bold’
Read Moremeanings and origin of the phrase ‘all dressed up with nowhere to go’
USA, 1910—originated as a line in the musical comedy The Girl of My Dreams—allegedly coined by music-hall artist Nita Allen
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