Origins of Expressions

  It Cost an Arm and a Leg Watch this on YouTube here - Shopping Video - YouTube Video Meaning: It cost an arm and a leg means that the item costs a large amount of money. "Wow, that Jewelry cost us an arm and a leg."  Origin: This idiom has a few theories. The oldest being that portrait painters use to charge more for larger pain. A head and a shoulder painting was the cheapest option, followed in price by one which includes arms, add finally the top of the range was legs and all portrait. Anos so often with popular tales, there is not truth in that story. Painters certainly did charge more for larger pictures, but there's no evidence to suggest they did so by limb count. Another theory was that the phrase started during the 20th century, possibly during one of the major world wars. The idea being that soldiers, because of their heavy involvement in war and being in the line of fire, could possibly lose a hand, foot, leg, or arm. Thus the war would literally cost a perso...

  Shop Till You Drop Watch this on YouTube here - Shopping Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Shop till you drop is an American idiom. It means to shop till you are physically tired and can't walk anymore. "I'm gonna shop till I drop." Origin: However, this idiom did not start out with the same meaning it has today. It started in the 1900s as an advertising slogan for department stores. Especially around Christmas. It was meant to mean that you should go to one store instead of running around to different places and becoming exhausted. Some of these advertisements read. "Shop Till you drop. But nowhere will you find value equal to these." "You should. We drop. This one promotes a home delivery service." The first written record of shops that you dropped was in the Chicago Daily Tribune’s Annual parody poem called the day before Christmas. He was printed in 1902 and read. "Why listen, I’ve shopped- until from Exhaustion. I've pretty near droppe...

  Window Shopping Watch this on YouTube here - Shopping Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Window shopping is a phrase that means to walk around and look at the window displays of stores. Not to physically shop through windows Origin: This activity has been around since the rise of the middle class in Europe in the 1800s, around the same time when windows were put into storefronts. Originally for extra storage, without caring about how it looked. However, since the shops were small and could only have a limited number of customers, a line of people start gathering outside these shops. This made a display in the window more important than storage, especially with people waiting to get inside. As years have passed, window displays have changed, and have adapted to the times. What originally started as a small display of goods in the 1800s has adapted to the use of electricity, lights and now even technology to make even more eccentric displays, that interact with the customers. All this ...

  Home Away From Home  Watch this on YouTube here - Home Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Home Away From Home means that there is a place that is not your home, but you feel just as comfortable there as you do in your own home. You might experience this when you visit friends or family, especially if they have been in your life for a while;  "ahh, it’s like a home away from home." Origin: The phrase has been around since the 1860s; it was first used as Home from Home for a hotel that was trying to showcase and market their characteristic of comfort. Later in the 1800s, the slogan changed to what we know of today as a home away from home; it started to be used beyond the hotel industry and into boarding houses like boarding schools, workhouses, and orphanages. As time went on, the phrase Home away from home was used as a joke and used to talk about a place that were frequented a lot, like a local bar. When someone became a regular, and the staff knew them by name, they becam...

  There's No Place Like Home  Watch this on YouTube here - Home Video - YouTube Video Meaning: There's No Place Like Home means that you feel that your home is the best place to be.  "Ahh, finally home, there’s no place like home." Origin: This well-known idiom has been around for a while, with its first written history in 1781; it appeared in the English newspaper The Bath Chronicle it read: But this maxim mind - No place like Home For safety will you find   However, there is also other occurrences of this phrase throughout history. In 1823 there was a song called "home sweet home" written by John Payne and Sir Henry Bishop the song has these lyrics:   'Mid pleasures and palaces Though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, There's no place like home. And of course, in the 1939 movie Wizard of Oz when Dorothy clicks the heels of her ruby slippers together and utters the phrase,  "There’s no place like home.” Example: Today we still ...

  Eat Us Out Of House and Home Watch this on YouTube here - Home Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Eat Us Out Of House and Home means that the food and resource have been depleted.  “The Football team has eaten out of house and home” Origin: This phrase has been around for a while; it was first written in the ( Thesaurus Linguae Romanae Britannicae), a glossary by Thomas Cooper in 1578; it read: “To eate out of house and home: to waste and consume his substance, money etc.” This idiom became quite popular after William Shakespeare started using it in his play Henry IV(4 th ) Part II , in 1597 it read: “It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have. He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his.” Example: Since then, the phrase to eat us out of house and home has been a regular idiom that we hear quite often; it is a way of expressing that a lot of resources seem to be used up when people come to visit. An exa...

  Great Minds Think Alike  Watch this on YouTube here - Mind Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Great Minds Think Alike means that two people, usually very intelligent people, have the same views. They are quite similar. "Great minds think alike." Origin: The first time the phrase "Great Minds Think Alike," was written was found in Carl Theodor von Unlanski's biography "The woful history of the unfortunate Eudoxia" in 1816. However, it is believed that the phrase is a shortened version from one that was used in the 1700s. The older phrase has no written record only oral history, it goes: "Great minds think alike, and fools seldom differ."  Example: Today we mainly use the phrase as an add-on when two or more people have the same idea. An example sentence is: "Let’s break for lunch. I was thinking of the same thing, great minds think alike!” Watch this on YouTube here - Mind Video - YouTube Video

  Two Heads Are Better Than One  Watch this on YouTube here - Mind Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Two Heads Are Better Than One means that, when two people work together they can solve problems better than one person can alone.  Origin: This saying is quite old and first appears in the Bible (Ecclesiastes, 4:9 ) it talks about two people reaching a good yield, it reads: “Therefore, two are better than one” The more common way of saying it as two heads are better than one was in a book by John Heywood called A  Dialogue   published in 1546, it read: “Some heades haue taken two headis better then one. But ten heads without  wit , I wene as good none.” Example: Today we use the phrase to express that two people working together will have better and faster results than just one person working alone. An example sentence is: “Song producers often encourage their clients to work with other writers, the theory being, that two heads are better than one...

To Be In Two Minds  Watch this on YouTube here - Mind Video - YouTube Video Meaning: To Be In Two Minds means that you are having issues making a choice. You are unable to decide. “I don’t know; I am in two minds.” Origin: The phrase goes back to the early sixteenth century, although the number  two  was not fixed to the statement, it was still used in the same sense as it is used today  - that there is an issue trying to make a choice.  Jehan Palsgrave wrote (1530),  “I am of dyverse myndes,” The phrase took the modern writing in l853 in Charles Dickens book Child’s History of England it reads:  “. . . was in two minds about fighting or accepting a pardon” Example: Today the idiom has not changed from when it was originally used, we still use it to express having issues making a choice. An example sentence is: “I was in two minds about leaving the country; my friends are all here, but at the same time I really wanted to work abroad.” Watch thi...

  On The Bread Line Watch this on YouTube here - No Money Video - YouTube Video Meaning: On The Bread Line refers to a group of needy people who form lines to receive free or discounted food from government or charitable organizations. As time went on, “On or under the breadline” has also been used to explain income level. Origin: On the breadline started out as a literal phrase, where lines of people would occur outside a bread store. The New York Times in 1904 wrote the obituary of Louis Fleishmann, it told a story of how the breadline started outside his bakery. The story goes, Louis Fleischmann opened a Vienna bakery near Broadway and 10 th street in New York City. The Fleishmann family packaged yeast and wanted to open a bakery, yup, it's the same yeast you can still get today. After a while he started to get people lining up outside the bakery, the smell of the hot bread being baked drew in starving New Yorker. Fleishmann offered to feed one of the men and soon after that, a...

Tighten Your Belt Watch this on YouTube here - No Money Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Tighten your belt means that you are trying to spend less money or use fewer resources. "Got to tighten our belt this month." Origin: The origin of this saying has to do with hunger, the first written history of tighten your belt was in 1825 in David Stewart's book - Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland. It read: "When pinched with hunger they experienced great relief from tightening the belt." This saying was also used during the Great Depression when families had very little money and could not buy enough food. As they lost weight it was said that they had to tighten their belts. Example: Now we have adapted the term to mean spending less money. An example sentence of how it is used today is: "The Smiths are going on a vacation abroad and it will cost them a lot of money so they're all going to have to tighten ...

  As Poor As A Church Mouse  Watch this on YouTube here - No Money Video - YouTube Video Meaning: As Poor As A Church Mouse means to have little or no money. It is said that it came about in the 1600s to explain that if a mouse live in a church it went quite hungry due to a church having no food storage, the original saying was "as hungry as a church mouse.” From there the phrase got Changed to as poor as a church mouse - because if you have no food, you probably have no money. Origin: This saying as poor as a church mouse was first written in 1682 in The Royalist, in a comedy by Thomas D'Urfey it read: "' Gad if he threatens me agen, I'll take the Law of him; I know how to deal with such Tories as himself; I'll hoist him into Westminster-Hall with a wet finger, and so drill him from Court to Court, till he's as poor as a Church-Mouse, or an honest Attorney." Example: Today we still use as poor as a church mouse to declare we have very little money....

Fall For Someone   Watch this on YouTube here - Falling In Love Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Fall For Someone means to be attracted romantically to someone, to start to fall in love with them. To fall in love means that this was not an action that you wanted to happen, just like if you trip and fall on the ground, it is said that the feeling of falling in love is just like tripping or being helpless, you cannot control it, it just happens. It is often said as “to fall in love” or “I am falling for them” Origin: The first written record of fall in love was in 1590's epic poem The Faerie Queen, published in the 1590s, it reads: “He sees her face; doth fall in love, and soone for her depart.”   Example: Today we still used the term “fall” in love or for someone to express a love that was not expected but just happens. An example sentence is: “The more we worked together and got to know each other, the more I could feel myself falling for her.” Watch this on YouTube ...

  Head Over Heels      Watch this on YouTube here - Falling In Love Video - YouTube Video Meaning:       Head Over Heels is used to express feelings of excitement or passionate love, in a literal sense to want to jump for joy or turn cartwheels to show how excited you are, to get your heels over your head. Origin:      The phrase head over heels had a few meanings before it was what we know today, it was used in the 14 th  century as “heels over head,” to explain a cartwheel or somersault, it then changed to head over heels and it was used to explain someone being pushed around, you know what would happen during a fight. In 1771 the book by Herbert Lawrence the Contemplative Man had an example that read, "He gave [him] such a violent involuntary kick in the Face, as drove him Head over Heels."      The first written record of head over heels in the modern sense where love was involved was in an American newspaper...

  Having a Crush  Watch this on YouTube here - Falling In Love Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Having a Crush means that you feel infatuated with another person. You have a love for them romantically, but you are not in a relationship with them. Quite often it is a secret you are keeping; you do not tell the other person that you have feelings for them, it can be a one-sided emotion. “I think he has a crush on you.”  Origin: The word crush comes from the 1800s in England, it was used as a word that referred to social gatherings or dances. The term "crushing on someone" evolved into a phrase meaning a romantic entanglement at a crowded social gathering. These gatherings were the most popular way to hook up at that time. I mean if hook up meant talking to someone in a hot room full of people. It first appeared in 1884 in The Journal of Isabella Maud Rittenhouse it read: “Wintie is weeping because her crush is gone.”  Example: The saying to have a crush is still used...

    Head in the Clouds Watch this on YouTube here - Clouds Video - YouTube Video Meaning:  Head in the Clouds means to daydream and be unaware of what is going on, to be absent-minded. It can also be used for someone who thinks illogically or in an abstract way. Example: “They got their head in the clouds today.” “My brother has his head in the clouds if he thinks he is going to become an engineer because he is terrible at math.” Origin: This phrase is said to be started in the 1600s orally with no written history, the first written history for the phrase head in the clouds where it was used as an idiom was in a passage by Anna Bartlett Warner, in 1854 from The Glen Luna Family it read “-with his head in the clouds as you say–go stumbling along over the obstacles which had accumulated through his abstraction, and hardly know what they were or how they came.” Today we still use this idiom to express someone that daydreams and their mind seems very far away. They h...

  Cloud Cuckoo Land  Watch this on YouTube here - Cloud Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Cloud Cuckoo Land is A state or realm of unrealistic and idealized fancy, beyond the realms of possibility, a mythical domain a utopia. Often said to “live in Cloud cuckoo land” or “to be in Cloud cuckoo land” Examples: “Her dreams are straight from cloud cuckoo land.” “He's always got some harebrained schemes on how to make money, all of them right out of cloud-cuckoo land!”  Origin: This is not an idiom that we use or hear that much today; Cloud-cuckoo-land was coined by the 4th century BC Greek playwright Aristophanes in the whimsical and extravagant play,  The Birds It talks about how the birds made a realm to separate the gods from humankind. It read: Pisthetairos : All right then, what name shall we provide? Chorus leader: Some name from around here - to do with clouds, with    ...

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining    Watch this on YouTube here - Cloud Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining means that even if something bad happens that there is always something good that comes from it also.  Example: “Well, there’s a silver lining.” “Always looking for the silver lining in the cloud, Billy welcomed the temporary layoff from work so he could do some work around the house.” Origin: This phrase is usually said as a supporting statement to a person who is overcome by some difficulty and is unable to see any positive outcome. The origin of this idiom “every cloud has a silver lining” was first written in 1634, with John Milton’s Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle. It read:   “Was I deceived or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” 'Clouds' and 'silver linings' were referred to often in literature from then onward. The saying became quite popular in the Victorian era in 1840 when Mrs S. Ha...

  Time To Kill Watch this on YouTube here - TIME Video YouTube Video Meaning:  This phrase is when you have nothing to do for a while you have extra time on your hands   Example Sentence:  “Hey we have time to kill before the movie, want to grab some dinner?”   Origin:  This phrase was first expressed in 1590 from the fishing Book called A Book of Fishing with Hooke and Line by Leonard Mascall the passage reads:                 “… wishing that all anglers would not angle in unseasonable times, as from mid-March to mid-May, for then it is the chiefest spawning time, an increase of fish; a great number there is in this realm which governs water that spares no time to kill nor cares for no time to save, but it takes at all time, which maketh freshe fishe so deare, and so scant in river and running waters.” TIME Video - YouTube Video

  In the Nick of Time Watch this on YouTube here - TIME Video YouTube Video   Meaning: This phrase means that you are just in time, or you just made it without being late   Example Sentence:  “I woke up just in the nick of time to catch the school bus.”   Origin:  This phrase was seen in a chronicle from 1577 the Romaine Navie it reads “… arrived at the very pinch or as commonly we said in the nick.” “of time” was added to that phrase a century later too” just in the nick of time” the new saying continued the phrase was probably cliche when Sir Walter Scott wrote it in The Pirate in 1821 he wrote: “The fortunate arrival of Gordaunt, in the very nick of time.”   TIME Video - YouTube Video

  Lose Track of Time Watch this on YouTube here - TIME Video YouTube Video Meaning: Not being aware of time, when more time has passed then what you wanted   Example Sentence:  “I started playing a video game, and lost track of time, I played for six hours.”   Origin:  This idiom is quite interesting. It came about with the implementation of standardized time. Standardized time happened between 1884 when the prime Meridian conference happened, and 1913 when time got globally broadcasted from the Eiffel Tower because railroads needed standard times. This change led to the end of many local times and everyone being on the same time for this idiom there is no exact time to when it was first started many writers made time their subjects because of this there are many variations of “lose track of time” one of my favorites is HG wells The Time Machine it reads “…you are wrong to say that we cannot move about in time, for instance, if I am recalling an inci...