17th century—contrasts what the mind remembers with what it forgets (with reference to the opposition between the coarser particles, which are retained by a sieve, and the finer ones, which pass through it)—denotes an extremely poor memory (with reference to the fact that a sieve does not hold all its contents)
Read MoreEnglish phrase (1728) preceded by ‘good wits jump’, i.e. ‘agree’ (1618)—French phrase (1775) preceded by ‘les beaux esprits se rencontrent’ (1686)
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The 1776 French translation of Laurence Sterne’s ‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy’ gave to French ‘dada’, a child’s noun for ‘horse’, the figurative meaning of ‘favourite pastime’ or ‘pet idea’.
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‘keep your hair on’ (British, late 19th century): perhaps from the image of pulling one’s hair out, or one’s wig off, in exasperation, anger or frustration
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