the cultural background to ‘the Swan of Avon’

22nd February 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

an epithet for William Shakespeare, born at Stratford-upon-Avon, on the River Avon—first used by Ben Jonson in the earliest collected edition (1623) of Shakespeare’s plays—but this use of ‘swan’ for a bard, a poet, is rooted in a tradition going back to antiquity

the authentic origin of ‘quiz’ (“Vir bonus est quis?”)

12th May 2017.Reading time 24 minutes.

Originally meaning ‘person of ridiculous appearance’, ‘quiz’ (students’ slang, late 18th century) was jocularly derived from the Latin interrogative pronoun ‘quis’ in “Vir bonus est quis?” (“Who is a good man?”)—a good, ingenuous, harmless man being likely to become an object of ridicule or even of harassment.

origin of ‘one swallow does not make a summer’

24th October 2016.Reading time 9 minutes.

photograph: Wikimedia Commons/Thermos MEANING a single fortunate event doesn’t mean that what follows will also be good ORIGIN The annual migration of swallows to Europe from southern climes at the end of winter was the subject of a proverb in Ancient Greece: μία χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ, in which […]

meaning and origin of ‘to beggar belief’

5th July 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

original illustration for Scribbleomania; Or, The Printer’s Devil’s Polichronicon (1815) by William Henry Ireland (Amabilis insania et mentis gratissimus error means A delightful insanity and a most pleasing error of the mind) MEANING The phrase to beggar belief (or description) means to be too extraordinary to be believed (or described). […]