origin of the phrase ‘to sit below the salt’
The phrase ‘below the salt’ originated in the social differentiations materialised by the former custom of placing a large saltcellar in the middle of a dining table.
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sexual origin of ‘merrythought’ (‘wishbone’)
‘merrythought’, late 16th century— the forked bone between the neck and breast of a bird—so called from its resemblance to a woman’s external genitals
Read More‘hand of glory’: ultimately an alteration of ‘mandragora’
mandragoras – from Stirpium historiae pemptades sex sive libri XXX (1583), by Rembert Dodoens The term hand of glory originally denoted a charm made from, or consisting of, the root of a mandrake. A calque of French main de gloire, it was first used in Curiosities of nature and art in husbandry […]
Read Moremeaning and origin of the phrase ‘tit for tat’
original illustration for The Spider and the Flie (1556), by John Heywood The phrase tit for tat means an equivalent given in return or retaliation. The expression seems to be a variation of the obsolete and more comprehensible tip for tap, in which both tip and tap meant a light but distinct blow, stroke, hit. The phrase therefore meant blow for […]
Read Morethe multiple meanings and origins of ‘P’s and Q’s’
Sexual puns in 17th-century English theatre explain several meanings of ‘P’s and Q’s’.
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