“ad fontes!”
MEANING a single fortunate event doesn’t mean that what follows will also be good ORIGIN The annual migration of swallows to Europe from southern climes at the end of winter was the subject of a proverb in Ancient Greece: μία χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ, in which ἔαρ means spring; it is found […]
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mandragoras – from Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri XXX (1583), by Rembert Dodoens The term hand of glory originally denoted a charm made from, or consisting of, the root of a mandrake. A calque of French main de gloire, it was first used in Curiosities of nature and art in husbandry […]
Read MoreThe expression knight in shining armour denotes a person regarded as a medieval knight in respect of his chivalrous spirit, especially towards women. In A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1993), B. A. Phythian explained: Despite its medieval feel, this is a twentieth-century phrase, first recorded in print in Victor Canning’s Whip Hand (1965). […]
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word histories 