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.
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origin 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 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 Moreorigin of ‘Scouse’ (Liverpudlian)
The original sense of ‘Scouse’, denoting a person from Liverpool, is ‘a stew’. The word ‘scouse’ is in turn a shortening of ‘lobscouse’, of obscure origin.
Read Moreorigin of ‘Yorkshire tyke’ (nickname for a person from Yorkshire)
The word ‘tyke’, a nickname for a person from Yorkshire, originally meant ‘mongrel’. The people from Yorkshire have adopted it as a term of self-reference.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘over the top’
‘Over the top’, which means ‘excessive’, originated as a WWI expression meaning ‘over the parapet of a trench and into battle’.
Read More‘sot-l’y-laisse’: French for ‘oyster’ (of a fowl)
The French word for the oyster-shaped piece of meat in the hollow of the pelvic bone of a fowl is ‘sot-l’y-laisse’, literally ‘(the) fool leaves it there’.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘(with) tongue in cheek’
The phrase ‘(with) tongue in cheek’ originally referred to a sign of contempt or derision consisting in sticking one’s tongue in one’s cheek.
Read Moreorigin of the phrase ‘(as) mad as a March hare’
‘(As) mad as a March hare’ refers to the fact that, in the breeding season, the hare is characterised by much leaping, boxing and chasing in circles.
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