Sayings with funny origins

These silly exclamations called minced oaths were originally Bible-friendly alternatives to swearing. The origin of this phrase is linked with an early British practice at a time when forests were still the exclusive property of royalty.

Sometimes it can be difficult to trace old sayings and their origins.

Sayings with funny origins. The Origins of 11 Funny Animal-Related Sayings Mental Floss Education Details. Oct 13 2014 A doggie bag might sound obvious and clams sure look happy enough to bely their own saying but the origins of various animal-related sayings are often. Here are the origin stories of common phrases you might not have known.

Explaining these is a fun ways to connect with new people–say at a networking event. You end up looking smart but. Early Americans during the colonial times would ask their servants to rub their oak floorboards the right way.

The wrong way not wiping them with dry fabric after wet fabric would cause streaks to form and ruin it leaving the homeowner annoyed. Its origins arent clear but bonkers is first recorded as British naval slang for a bit drunk in the 1940sperhaps acting as if someone has bonked or hit them on the head. As a hodgepodge of German French Latin Greek and other languages English is always full of surprises.

It has funny-sounding words like cattywampus sure. Technically English speakers stole this from the Greek Gods. It is taken from the word clew In Greek mythology.

When Mintatour a monster with the body of a man and a head of a bull trapped the mythical king Theseus in a labyrinth Theseus is said to. 10 Common Sayings With Historical Origins 1. Turn a blind eye.

The phrase turn a blind eyeoften used to refer to a willful refusal to acknowledge a particular. White elephants were once considered highly sacred creatures in. Although pulling someones leg is all in good fun nowadays it originally described the way in which thieves tripped their victims to rob them.

Wolf in sheeps clothing. Someone who is pretending to be something they are not usually to the detriment of others. This ones attributed to the Bible Matthew 715.

The Bible also gave us rise and shine Isaiah 601 seeing. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This medieval proverb comes from the sport of falconry where the bird in the hand the preying falcon was worth more than two in the bush - the.

These silly exclamations called minced oaths were originally Bible-friendly alternatives to swearing. The idea was that if you shouted. Duns was known as Doctor Subtilis because of the subtlety of his thinking.

The origins of this derogatory word for someone considered incapable of learning the opposite of a bright student are surprisingly old dating to the time of one John Duns Scotus who was born around 1266 and died in 1308. Still the swan song saying and ideation pops up in the works of Shakespeare Coleridge and Chaucer proving that no one can avoid a poetic vision even if its false. The origin of this phrase is linked with an early British practice at a time when forests were still the exclusive property of royalty.

For any unauthorized commoner then to gather firewood in them was a crime poor people being the only exception. Though they were not permitted to cut or saw off branches they were free to remove withered. Something said when a person is at a loss for words History.

There are two possible sources for this common short saying. The first refers to the cat-o-nine-tails a whip used by the English Navy for flogging. The whip caused so much pain that the victims were left speechless.

This saying comes from Ancient Greece where voting was done using beans. Citizens would put a white bean into the jar of a candidate they support and a black one for a candidate that they do not approve of. However on a few occasions clumsy people.

The history behind By the short hairs is a strange one as the phrase as its used today really has no history. One day somewhere in the world someone must have thought it would be funny to grab a dude by his pubes and refuse to let go–completely ignoring the poor fellows yelps for mercy and womanly crying. The phrase sold down the river means to be betrayed to a huge degree.

The origin lies in one of the horrors of the American slave system. Those who were sold down the river were enslaved people separated from their families in most cases and transported via the Mississippi or Ohio river to cotton plantations in states further south. 1 Break the Ice.

Sometimes it can be difficult to trace old sayings and their origins. However break the ice is a pretty easy one. Broadly speaking back in the 1500s ice-breaking ships were introduced to inhabited polar regions.

This word has its origins in Latin where it meant ignorant. Boy does etymology give you life lessons. Its funny how paradoxical origins can be.