origin of the word ‘skinflint’
attested 1699—from the hyperbolical phrase ‘to skin a flint’ (1656)—cf. ‘to skin a flea for its hide and tallow’ and French ‘tondre un œuf’ (‘to shave an egg’)
Read MoreTag: animals
meaning and origin of ‘to lead apes in hell’
The obsolete phrase ‘to lead apes in hell’ expresses the fancied consequence of dying a spinster. Its first know user was George Gascoigne in 1573.
Read MoreEating in the Romance languages
In Latin, short words having complicated irregularities in their forms gave way to simpler words with regular patterns and longer phonetic individualities.
Read Morethe colonial origin of the word ‘kidnap’
original meaning of ‘kidnap’, late 17th century—to steal or carry off children or others in order to provide servants or labourers for the American plantations
Read Moreorigin of ‘a millstone round someone’s neck’
from the gospel of Matthew, 18:6: If someone causes a child to sin, it would be better for them to have a millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the sea.
Read Moreorigin of ‘the world is my oyster’
refers to the possibility of finding a pearl in an oyster—coined by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor, perhaps in allusion to a proverb
Read Moresexual origin of ‘merrythought’ (‘wishbone’)
‘merrythought’, late 16th century— the forked bone between the neck and breast of a bird—so called from its resemblance to a woman’s external genitals
Read Morethe origin of ‘to pull the wool over someone’s eyes’?
‘to pull the wool over someone’s eyes’, US, 1830s—perhaps from sheep farming: the hair that grows around a sheep’s eyes can get into them and blind the animal.
Read MoreAbraham Lincoln and ‘to swap horses while crossing a stream’
used by Abraham Lincoln to indicate that he was renominated for President because the Republicans did not want to take a risk during the American Civil War
Read Moremeaning and origin of ‘Mother Carey’s chicken’
probably from Latin ‘Mater Cara’ or Italian ‘Madre Cara’, ‘dear mother’, i.e. the Virgin Mary, believed by sailors to send the petrel as a harbinger of storms
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