a curious case of misunderstanding in the Oxford English Dictionary
‘Wash the milk off your liver’: refers to the digestibility of milk, but misunderstood by the Oxford English Dictionary as referring to cowardice
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meaning and origin of ‘King Charles’s head’
obsession—from Dickens’s ‘David Copperfield’, in which Mr. Dick is unable to write his memoirs because of the intrusive image of King Charles the First’s head
Read Moreorigin of ‘the world is my oyster’
refers to the possibility of finding a pearl in an oyster—coined by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor, perhaps in allusion to a proverb
Read More‘no man’s land’ and three different types of death
‘no man’s land’—first a place of execution outside London; then a mass burial ground during the Black Death; later an unoccupied zone between opposing forces
Read MoreA French kiss was originally a kiss on both cheeks.
‘French kiss’—19th century: a kiss on both cheeks—early 20th century (USA): a kiss with contact between tongues
Read More‘petrichor’: the sweet smell produced when rain falls on parched earth
a sweet smell produced when rain falls on parched earth—1964; literally ‘tenuous essence derived from rock or stone’, from Greek ‘petro’ and ‘ichor’
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘to bite the bullet’
late 19th century—from the practice consisting, for a soldier, in biting on a bullet when being flogged
Read Morethe authentic origin of ‘once in a blue moon’
‘Once in a blue moon’ is a development from ‘once in a moon’, meaning ‘once a month’, hence ‘occasionally’—‘blue’ is merely a meaningless fanciful intensive.
Read Moreorigin of ‘pipe dream’ (unattainable or fanciful hope or scheme)
pipe dream: American English, late 19th century—originally with reference to the kind of visions experienced when smoking an opium pipe
Read Morea hypothesis as to the origin of ‘mad as a hatter’
‘Mad as a hatter’ might be from ‘like a hatter’, an intensive phrase meaning ‘like mad’, perhaps related to the verb ‘hotter’, expressing motion and emotion.
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