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Category: religion

‘anything for a quiet wife’ | ‘anything for a quiet life’

18th May 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘anything for a quiet wife’ (1875)—jocular variant of ‘anything for a quiet life’ (ca. 1620), which expresses concession or resigned agreement, to ensure one is not disturbed

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‘(you’re) damned if you do and damned if you don’t’

29th Apr 2020.Reading time 15 minutes.

means that, in a specific situation, a person will be blamed or considered wrong no matter what he or she does—USA, 1817—originally used in Christian contexts

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‘my name is Simpson, not Samson’: meaning and origin

25th Mar 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

UK, 1906—used by a workman asked to lift too heavy an object—‘Simpson’ chosen for its similarity with ‘Samson’, the name of a biblical hero of enormous strength

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‘a handsome husband and a thousand a year’

22nd Mar 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

UK, 1907—the ideal of an unmarried woman—the phrase was especially used when offering to an unmarried woman the last cake or piece of bread from a plate

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history of ‘slower than the second coming of Christ’

29th Feb 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

extremely slow—USA, 1874—in Christian theology, the Second Coming of Christ is the prophesied return of Christ to Earth at the Last Judgement

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history of ‘many are cold (but) few are frozen’

28th Feb 2020.Reading time 7 minutes.

USA, 1885—humorous alteration of ‘many are called (but) few are chosen’, which refers to The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (gospel of Matthew, 20:1-16)

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meaning and early occurrences of ‘kiss my arse’

17th Feb 2020.Reading time 11 minutes.

very rude way of expressing profound contempt—first recorded in The Killing of Abel, one of the 15th-century mystery plays known as the Wakefield, or Towneley, plays

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history of the phrase ‘are you there with your bears?’

16th Feb 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

16th century—exclamation of annoyance at the reappearance of someone or something—from bear-leaders’ regular visits or from story of Elisha and the bears

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origin of ‘old soldiers never die (they simply fade away)’

2nd Feb 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

UK, 1913—from a British Army song (1908) parodying a hymn titled ‘Kind Words Can Never Die’ (USA, 1859)

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‘Is a bear Catholic?’ | ‘Does the Pope shit in the woods?’

30th Dec 2019.Reading time 15 minutes.

USA, 1984—used to indicate that something is blatantly obvious—humorously from ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ and ‘Does a bear shit in the woods?’

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