origin of ‘the lion’s share’: ‘le partage du lion’

24th May 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

‘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)

‘to go to hell – or to heaven – in a handbasket’

23rd May 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

‘hell in a handbasket’ (1841), ‘heaven in a handbasket’ (1834) in Irish contexts—‘handbasket’ chosen for alliteration with ‘hell’—‘to go to hell in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to hell’—‘to go to heaven in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to heaven’ or ‘to go to hell’

the phrase ‘a snowball’s chance (in hell)’

22nd May 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

‘a snowball’s chance in hell’: no chance at all (USA, 1880)—elliptically, ‘a snowball’s chance’ (USA, 1895)—in the 1880s, ‘a snowball in hell’ was also used as a term of comparison to denote something that disappears rapidly

the authentic—and simple—origin of ‘sleep tight’

21st May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

In the phrase ‘sleep tight’ (USA, 1873), the adjective ‘tight’ is used as an adverb meaning ‘soundly’, i.e. ‘deeply and without disturbance’, as in the combination ‘tight asleep’ (USA, 1847).

The phrase ‘the sky’s the limit’ originated in poker.

20th May 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

meaning: ‘there is nothing to prevent someone or something from being successful’—from a late-19th-century metaphor specifically used of poker games with ‘a sky-high limit’ on stakes

the informal British phrase ‘(as) sick as a parrot’

19th May 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

meaning: ‘thoroughly dejected or disappointed’—appeared (1973) in Tyne and Wear (north-eastern England)—originated apparently in football parlance, in which it soon became a cliché

meaning and origin of ‘red in tooth and claw’

18th May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 1857—characterised by savage violence or merciless competition—from Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘In Memoriam’ (1850), in which ‘red in tooth and claw’ refers to Nature’s brutality

the probable origin of ‘monkey business’

17th May 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

UK, 1835—mischievous or deceitful behaviour—alludes to the proverbial playfulness of monkeys—probably modelled on Bengali ‘bãdrāmi’; cf. modern Sanskrit ‘vānara-karman’, from ‘vānara’ (monkey) and ‘karman’ (action, work, employment)

‘like a million dollars’ vs. ‘like thirty cents’

15th May 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

USA—‘to look, or to feel, (like) a million dollars’, or ‘(like) a million bucks’: to look, or to feel, extremely good, or extremely attractive (early 20th century)—sometimes used in contrast to ‘like thirty, or 30, cents’: cheap, worthless (late 19th century)

origin of ‘Stepford’ (robotically conformist or obedient)

13th May 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

robotically conformist or obedient—from The Stepford Wives (1972 novel by Ira Levin and 1975 film adaptation by Bryan Forbes), in which Stepford is the name of a superficially idyllic suburb where the men have replaced their wives with obedient robots