‘cannon fodder’ | ‘chair à canon’

22nd Oct 2022.Reading time 11 minutes.

soldiers regarded simply as material to be expended in war—‘cannon fodder’ (1847), said to have been coined after German ‘Kanonenfutter’—French ‘chair à canon’ (1814), first used in reference to Napoléon Bonaparte

meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to keep an ear to the ground’

13th Sep 2018.Reading time 9 minutes.

USA, 1815—from the practice of putting one’s ear to the ground in order to detect the vibration of sounds in the distance before they can actually be heard

word histories

Tag: François-René de Chateaubriand

‘cannon fodder’ | ‘chair à canon’

meaning and origin of the phrase ‘to keep an ear to the ground’