Origins of Expressions

A Bowl of Cherries  Watch this on YouTube here - Fruit Video - YouTube Video Meaning: A Bowl of Cherries is used when talking about happy circumstances; life is good. However, it can also be used ironically when things are not going as good as they should.  “Well, isn’t that a bowl of cherries” Origin: This idiom started out as life is just a bowl of cherries, then later shortened to the phrase a bowl of cherries. It was used back then to express life is good . The earliest written record of life is just a bowl of cherries was in the column New York Life, by Grant Dixon, published in The Tampa Daily Times (Tampa, Florida) 1928: “…And why not?” asked the star manicurist of one of the big uptown hotels the other day. “The life of a manicurist on one of the big liners is just a bowl of cherries, my boy, just a bowl of cherries with whipped cream on the side.” When we hear “life is like a bowl of cherries” everyone remembers the song written by...

  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...