'Hopping Mad' ...found its way into English literature by the 1660s, was probably first spoken in hop-cultivating centers like Kent, blaming hops for the drunken rages of "hoppers" who were the itinerant laborers who worked seasonally in the hop fields. Funny; I always envisioned some really-pissed guy hopping around. Care to share any that you know?
The best one I know of is that everyone calls someone saying saomething critical as they leave a 'parting shot', which is, I suppose, technically accurate, but is derived out of a misunderstanding of the original statement, which was " a Parthian shot", because the Romans, most notably under Crassus, often were beaten by the Parthia horse archers who would ride away from attacking infantry but shoot backwards as they stayed out of harm's way.
assassin, and thus assassinastion, is derived from the drug hashish. It comes from the Arabic 'hashshashin' and 'hashishiyyin', - literally. ‘a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish,’ both forms being applied in Arabic to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to murder some king or public man.
Rule of thumb - from when it was legal to beat your wife as long as your implement was no wider than your thumb (or so the movie Boondock Saints tells me). For all intents and purposes - not sure of the origin, but it drives me nuts to see "For all intensive purposes" Am I my brother's keeper? - this one is obviously biblical and is used as a rhetorical question. The problem is that it is used incorrectly. When Cain asks if he is his brother's keeper, God expects Cain to know where his brother is.
I only encountered the intensive thing in the past few years, but am amazed how widespread it is now that I notice it.
Oh...another one..." You can't swing a dead cat without..." etc. Originally a naval expression about having the space to use the Cat O' Nine Tails, ie whip.
Another one applied in direct contradiction to it's original intent, like brother's keeper, is " Ignorance is bliss...". The second part is left out: " ...when 'tis folly to be wise', and was used in the context of negating the concept of blissfull ignorance, not advocating it as it is so often used today.
"Raining cats and dogs" comes from France I think. Cats used to get up on roofs and aogs would chase after them. When a heavy rain came, it washed all the animals off the roofs. "Red light disctrict" - Hookers would hang around train stations and train crossings. Thats all I can remember.
When life takes a **** on you, you have to eat that ****, and then **** out that **** that was made of the **** that life ****ted on you.
testify - in judicial proceedings, witnesses (more often men than women) would grab their testicles and swear by them as an oath to tell the truth, or so i'm told.
Actually testify comes from the latin testificari meaning to make witness. Most individual English words can be traced back to their roots in other languages (often Latin or Greek).
For the longest time I was guilty of "for all intensive purposes." Partly because I had never seen it written, only spoken (and misunderstood) and partly because to me it made sense both ways, so I never really had a reason to question it.
Sorry to bring up a dead thread but I missed it over the weekend. Even though you're joking (I hope), there is a method of swearing oaths in Genesis in which the the swearer would put his hand under the receiver's thigh and then swear. That's weird. Good fences make for good neighbors is one that suffered the same fate as ignorance is bliss. It comes from a poem that goes on to dispute that good fences make good neighbors. Macbeth, if 'swinging a dead cat...' is of naval derivation, what about "the room was so small you couldn't cuss a cat without getting fur in your mouth"?
'Armed to the Teeth' was supposedly in reference to a message sent to some Scots to come to the Teeth River, armed and ready for battle.
F*CK - Fornication for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Something about a law against having premarital sex during the renaissance, I think. People got tired of saying the whole thing, so they just shortened it to the law of F*CK.
Double post: "the whole nine yards" Back in WWI (or WWII) when they were going all out against the enemy, on those huge guns on tripods (I'm not a history or gun buff, can you tell?) they would empty out all their rounds of bullets, which the rolls were 9 yards long. So now when we're going all out for something, we're doin "the whole nine yards"
