a hypothesis as to the origin of ‘to rain cats and dogs’
an alternative explanation of the phrase “it is raining cats and dogs”
Read More“ad fontes!”
an alternative explanation of the phrase “it is raining cats and dogs”
Read MoreFirst 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 Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘strawberry preacher’
Read MoreIn the phrase ‘in Dicky’s meadow’, which means ‘in trouble’, the first element is an alteration of ‘dicky’, meaning ‘hazardous’, ‘critical’.
Read MoreSexual puns in 17th-century English theatre explain several meanings of ‘P’s and Q’s’.
Read MoreIn ‘Indian summer’, ‘Indian’ merely denotes something other than that denoted in Europe by the simple noun ‘summer’—as in ‘Indian corn’ (‘maize’).
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