“Ad fontes!”
meaning: ‘what is appropriate in one case is also appropriate in the other case in question’—earliest occurrence in A Collection of English Proverbs (1670), by John Ray
Read Moreany muddle-headed business—UK, 1813—the stupidity of the people of Coggeshall, a small town in Essex, England, has been proverbial since the mid-17th century
Read Moresaid to console a child choking over his or her food—UK, obsolete—first recorded in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738), by Jonathan Swift
Read More‘anything for a quiet wife’ (1875)—jocular variant of ‘anything for a quiet life’ (ca. 1620), which expresses concession or resigned agreement, to ensure one is not disturbed
Read Moretwo people, especially lovers, should be left alone together—UK, 1829 as ‘two is company, three none’—but notion already proverbial in 1678
Read More
16th century—exclamation of annoyance at the reappearance of someone or something—from bear-leaders’ regular visits or from story of Elisha and the bears
Read MoreUSA, 1926—only a person with a given personality, characteristic, etc., is able to identify that quality in someone else—particularly used of homosexuals
Read MoreFirst recorded in 1694, ‘Peg Tantrum’ was chiefly used in the phrase ‘to go to Peg Trantum’s’, meaning ‘to go to one’s death’. This word is perhaps from ‘Peg’, rhyming form of ‘Meg’, pet form of the female forenames ‘Margery’ and ‘Margaret’, and from ‘tantrum’.
Read Morefrom ‘to lose a sheep for a halfpennyworth of tar’—refers to the use of tar to protect sores and wounds on sheep from flies (‘sheep’ was pronounced ‘ship’)
Read More
‘Wash the milk off your liver’: refers to the digestibility of milk, but misunderstood by the Oxford English Dictionary as referring to cowardice
Read More
word histories 