How ‘Grub Street’ came to refer to hack work.
From the 17th century onwards, Grub Street, in Moorgate, London, was inhabited by literary hacks.
Read MoreCategory: religion
‘Hands down’ originated in horse racing.
19th century—The adverb ‘hands down’ originated in horse racing: a jockey who is winning comfortably is able to lower his hands and relax his hold on the reins.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Shrovetide’ (‘les jours gras’)
Etymologically, ‘Shrovetide’ denotes the period during which it was customary to attend confession in preparation for Lent—but this period was also marked by feasting before the Lenten fast.
Read Morethe supposed origin of ‘to have one’s work cut out’: tailoring
supposedly an allusion to the preparation of fabric to be worked on: once the shapes have been cut out, the tailor still has a lot of sewing to do
Read Morethe devotional origin of ‘lip service’
First recorded in 1590, the term ‘lip service’ originally referred to prayer as a mere formal practice, as a sort of mechanical physical exercise.
Read Morethe Christian-Latin origin of ‘Noël’
French—from the noun use of the Latin adjective ‘natalis’ (from Christian-Latin ‘natalis dies’, ‘day of birth’), denoting the festival of the nativity of Christ
Read Morethe Cantabrigian origin of ‘wooden spoon’
originally, at Cambridge University: oversized wooden spoon given to the candidate coming last in the mathematical tripos (BA-degree final honours examination)
Read Morethe biblical origin of ‘deaf as an adder’
The image of the deaf adder originated in the Book of Psalms, 58:4-5: “the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers”.
Read Moreorigin of the phrase ‘good wine needs no bush’
first recorded in ‘As You Like It’, by Shakespeare—from the former practice of hanging a branch or bunch of ivy as a vintner’s sign in front of a tavern
Read Moreorigin of ‘cloud-cuckoo-land’
a realm of fantasy, dreams or impractical notions—1856 as ‘cuckoo-cloud-land’—from the name of the city built by the birds in ‘The Birds’, by Aristophanes
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word histories 