Origins of Expressions

  Hit The Hay  Watch this on YouTube here - Hay Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Hit The Hay means you are going to bed, to get some rest.  “I’m gonna hit the hay” Origin: The term “hay” was used in the USA to mean bed since the early 20th century. It is wordplay from when mattresses were filled with hay, or beds were lined with straw. The word hit is from when you fall into bed your head Hits the mattress, which used to be filled with hay, and just like that, the term hit the hay was born. The first written record seemed to happen from the sports scene in 1903, The Oakland Tribune wrote: "'Sam' Berger, the Olympic heavyweight ... was sleepy and he announced that 'he was going to hit the hay.'" This saying started out in different forms before 1903. Some of the other ways you might hear about going to bed and hay is: crawl into the hay; or hit the sack Example: Today we still use this saying as a fun way to say we are tired and are going to bed. An examp...

  The Last Straw Watch this on YouTube here - Hay Video - YouTube Video Meaning: The Last Straw means the final additional small burden that makes the entirety of one's difficulties unbearable. “Ugg, that’s the last straw.” Origin: This phrase started out a bit longer than what we see today, the original saying was   Now you might think straw is light, how can that break a camel’s back? Well, a lot of small things can add up to a big heavy pile, and just like the phrase the last straw might be the one that makes the pile too heavy to handle. The first written history where this phrase was used was in The Edinburgh Advertiser, in 1816: "…Yet straw upon straw was laid till the last straw broke the camel's back."  Some scholars suggest that the phrase is a take on an old proverb that reads: 'it is the last feather that breaks the horse's back'. But that is a phrase for another video. Example: Today we still use the phrase in its shortened version, the last st...

  Find a Needle in a Haystack Watch this on YouTube here - Hay Video - YouTube Video Meaning: Find a Needle in a Haystack means something is difficult to find.  “Well, that’s like finding a needle in a haystack.” Origin: You’ve probably lost something small before, like your keys or maybe even your phone. After searching every nook and cranny, you finally find them. Whew! However, looking for a needle in a haystack, as the saying goes, is far more challenging. You are trying to find an object, like a small needle in this case, in a large stack of hay. This can be quite hard, if not impossible for some people. The needle and hay are so similar, that it can be easily overlooked. This saying and others around the same idea have been used for hundreds of years in our language to express difficulty finding something, one of the first written records of a similar saying goes   But the first written record where the phrase was the same as what we used today was in The Complete W...