meaning and origin of the phrase ‘curiosity killed the cat’
1868, but late 16th century as ‘care [= disquiet] killed a cat’—the image is perhaps that disquiet would exhaust the nine lives allotted to a cat
Read MoreTag: Ireland
origin of the phrase ‘been there, done that (and got the T-shirt)’
Australia, 1980—seems to have originated in a 1979 tribute song to the Australian cricketer and cricket commentator Alan McGilvray
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘away with the fairies’
Irish English, 1907—out of touch with reality—ultimately refers to the belief that the fairies spirit away human beings
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to know how many beans make five’
to be sensible and intelligent—1784 in a US publication, but attributed to “a gentleman from abroad”—‘blue’, meaningless fanciful intensive, sometimes before ‘beans’
Read Moreorigin of the phrase ‘as the crow flies’ (in a straight line)
Attested in 1761, ‘as the crow flies’ originally referred to the interior of a country; it did not originate in a practice of early navigation at sea.
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘to dodge the column’
to avoid work, to shirk one’s duty—originated in military slang during the First World War, the word ‘column’ denoting a formation of marching soldiers
Read MoreHow a cartoon popularised ‘to drop the pilot’.
John Tenniel popularised the phrase in a cartoon depicting the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck, published in Punch (London) of 29 March 1890.
Read Moreorigin of the Irish-English phrase ‘up the pole’ (‘pregnant’)
probably refers to pregnancy as an awkward condition, the image being apparently of an uncomfortable position at the top of a pole
Read Moreorigin of ‘to [verb] the living daylights out of somebody’
The adjective ‘living’ is an intensifier, and ‘daylights’ is an 18th-century slang term for ‘eyes’ chiefly used in contexts of physical violence or threats.
Read More‘to go to hell – or to heaven – in a handbasket’
‘hell in a handbasket’ (1841), ‘heaven in a handbasket’ (1834) in Irish contexts—‘handbasket’ chosen for alliteration with ‘hell’—‘to go to hell in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to hell’—‘to go to heaven in a handbasket’ meant ‘to go to heaven’ or ‘to go to hell’
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