‘to know —— like the back of one’s hand’ – ‘connaître —— comme sa poche’

27th December 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

first attested in David Balfour (1893), by Robert Louis Stevenson—French equivalent ‘connaître comme sa/ses poche(s)’ (‘to know like one’s pocket(s)’ – 1791)

the melodramatic origin of ‘cloak-and-dagger’

11th December 2017.Reading time 12 minutes.

possibly from ‘cloak and sword’, from Spanish ‘(comedia) de capa y espada’, a type of dramas in which the main characters wore cloaks and swords or daggers

origin of the phrase ‘the land of Nod’

7th September 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

‘the land of Nod’: a state of sleep—punning allusion to the name of the region to which Cain went after he had killed his brother Abel (Genesis, 4:16)