meaning and origin of ‘red herring’
Red herring, used in laying trails for hounds to follow, was misunderstood as a deliberate attempt to distract them, hence the figurative use of ‘red herring’.
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to send to Coventry
probable origin: in 1642, during the English Civil War, Royalists had been captured at Birmingham and sent to Coventry, which was a Parliamentarian stronghold.
Read Moresot-l’y-laisse
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 Morestirrup cup – one for the road
Huntsmen still use stirrup cup to designate an alcoholic drink offered to riders either as they are about to depart or when they return. Mr. Barry Puilan, Master of the East Antrim Hounds, hands a stirrup cup to huntsman Jack Taylor during the meet at Trench Hill, Ballyeaston, yesterday. from The Northern Whig […]
Read Moresanglier
original illustration for Of the Swine in The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents (1658), by Edward Topsell The French masculine noun sanglier denotes a full-grown wild boar. It literally means a boar living on its own, separated from the herd, since, via Old and Middle French forms such as sengler and senglier, it is from the popular Latin singularis (porcus), solitary (pig) – cf. Middle-French terms […]
Read Moreto be barking up the wrong tree
Fess Parker (1924-2010) wearing a coonskin cap in Walt Disney’s 1950s television series Davy Crockett – photograph: AP MEANING to be pursuing a mistaken or misguided line of thought or course of action ORIGIN In Americanisms, Old and New. A Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Colloquialisms peculiar to the […]
Read Morestalking horse
The forme and manner of the Stalking horse of Canuasse stopt. – from Hungers preuention: or, The whole arte of fowling by water and land Containing all the secrets belonging to that arte (1655 edition) The term stalking horse originally denoted a horse trained to allow a fowler to conceal himself behind it or […]
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