history of ‘crow’s nest’ (lookout platform on a ship’s mast)
UK, early 19th century—The invention of the crow’s nest is attributed to the Arctic whaler William Scoresby Senior (1760-1829).
Read MoreCategory: French/English
origin of the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ (in a straight line)
Attested in 1761, ‘as the crow flies’ originally referred to the interior of a country; it did not originate in a practice of early navigation at sea.
Read Moreorigin of ‘to bell the cat’ (to undertake a very dangerous mission)
ultimately based on the fable of the mice, or rats, who proposed to hang a bell round the cat’s neck, so as to be warned of its approach
Read More‘to count sheep’ – French ‘compter les moutons’
‘to count sheep’ (French ‘compter les moutons’): to count imaginary sheep jumping over an obstacle one by one, as a way of sending oneself to sleep
Read More‘bull in a china shop’ – ‘éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine’
‘like a bull in a china shop’ (UK, 1802)—French equivalent with ‘elephant’ instead of ‘bull’ (1849)
Read MoreHow ‘to call a spade a spade’ originated in a mistranslation.
originated in the mistranslation by Erasmus of Greek ‘skáphē’ (meaning anything hollowed out) as a word denoting a digging tool
Read Morethe curious French equivalents of ‘window shopping’
origin of ‘avoirdupois’: goods sold by weight
from Old French and Anglo-Norman ‘aveir de peis’, ‘goods of weight’, as distinguished from the goods sold by measure or number
Read MoreHow ‘lion’ came to denote a celebrity.
‘lion’: a person of note or celebrity who is much sought after—from ‘lions’: things of note, celebrity, or curiosity in a town, etc.—from the practice of taking visitors to see the lions which used to be kept in the Tower of London
Read Moreorigin of ‘the lion’s share’: ‘le partage du lion’
‘the lion’s share’ (UK, 1790)—calque of French ‘le partage du lion’ (now ‘la part du lion’)—from ‘The Heifer, the She-Goat, and the Ewe, in partnership with the Lion’, a fable by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-95)
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