meaning and origin of ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’
A horse’s teeth reveal its age. It is therefore bad manners to look in the mouth of a horse that has been received as a gift in order to establish its value.
Read Moreorigin of the word ‘immolate’
The verb ‘immolate’ is from Latin ‘immolare’, meaning, literally, ‘to sprinkle (a victim) with sacrificial meal’, from ‘mola salsa’, ‘salted spelt-meal’.
Read Moreorigin of the word ‘sneeze’
The verb ‘sneeze’ is an alteration of the obsolete verb ‘fnese’ due to misreading or misprinting it as ‘ſnese’ (= ‘snese’).
Read Moreorigin of ‘Mothering Sunday’
The theory that the custom of visiting one’s mother on mid-Lent Sunday derived from the custom of going to one’s mother church on that day is no proven.
Read Moreorigin of the adverb ‘cap-a-pie’ (from head to foot)
English ‘cap-a-pie’ is from ‘de cap à pied’, ‘from head to foot’, used in Occitan and in the Middle French of southern France.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to lick into shape’
This phrase originated in the belief that bear cubs were born formless and had to be licked into shape by their mother.
Read Morethe emergence of ‘padoodle’ (one-eyed car)
padoodle (USA): exclamation shouted by a person who spots a car with only one working headlight, which entitles this person to kiss or hit someone else
Read Moreorigin of the word ‘pink’
The noun ‘pink’ for the flower is perhaps short for ‘pink eye’, ‘small or half-shut eye’ (cf. French ‘œillet’, ‘carnation’, diminutive of ‘œil’, ‘eye’).
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘esprit d’escalier’
The expression ‘esprit d’escalier’, ‘wit of the staircase’, originally referred to a witty remark coming to mind on the stairs leading away from a gathering.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘pigs might fly’
The original form of this phrase was ‘pigs fly with their tails forward’. Also: the French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish equivalent expressions.
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