The idea of bad deeds, specifically curses, coming back to haunt their originator has long been established in the English language and was expressed in print as early as 1390, when Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Parson’s Tale: Such cursing deprives a man of the Kingdom of God, …
In Jonathon Green`s majestic Dictionary of Slang (2011 )can be found wonderful counterpoints to today’s highly unimaginative, fuck, shag, and screw. Some of the following are so lovely, a campaign should be started to bring some of them back. Give someone a green gown (1351) Play nug-a-nug (1505) Play …
During the mid 19th century Letitia Elizabeth Landon ( 1802-1838 ) was the most widely read woman of her day. A hybrid of Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton she managed to write some very successful novels, children stories, short stories and even found time to pen a few plays …
Born around 50–45 BC, the Latin poet Sextus Aurelius Propertius in one of his Elegies pronounced that ‘Passion is always warmer towards absent lovers’ (Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes). The phrase first appeared in English 1500 years later as the title of a poem by an anonymous writer. …
Somewhat surprisingly the phrase did not originate from Hollywood Cowboy films but from the Greek Homer over two thousand years ago. It took many years for the phrase to make the transition into English. In 1720 Alexander Pope(1688-1744) the poet and champion of the heroic couplet translated Homer`s words as …
“Used in present-day English chiefly by America speakers as a synonym for the aubergine, aubergine was originally applied specifically to the white-skinned, egg-shaped variety of the vegetable. This was in the mid-eighteenth century (available evidence suggests that the term predates aubergine by about 30 years). By the middle of the …
“Gesundheit,” say Germans; “Felicità,” say Italians; and the Welsh have to say “dduw bendithia chi” whilst the Arabs clasp hands and reverently bow. Every culture believes in a benediction following a sneeze. The custom goes back to a time when a sneeze was regarded as a sign of great …
Is the euphemism dying out? Growing up in the 1960’s there was an entire sub-lexicon of phraseology to cover this. It was the Golden age of euphemisms. Nobody died of pneumonia, diphtheria or tuberculosis, they were peaky, then poorly, then passed over. Some adults had to be watched because they could turn …
OMG, as anyone under the age of twenty-one (and practically everyone else, at this point) knows, stands for “oh my god!” The acronym is commonly used in text messaging but it predates the era of the ubiquitous mobile phones. In fact, it predates the era of phones mobile or otherwise. …
“How vainly men themselves amaze…………” Old meanings are confusing enough without shoving two into a line, yet that is exactly what Andrew Marvell did without a flicker of compunction in the opening line of The Garden. The modern reader would be almost excused for thinking that narcissistic men are …
