Old saying and meaning

Sandy_123

I love finding out why we say things. This one I learnt today.

Mad as a hatter

This expression, dating from the early 1800s, alludes to exposure to the chemicals formerly used in making felt hats, which caused tremors and other nervous symptoms.

Lou67

@Sandy_123
I’ve used that one a few times lol but didn’t know where it came from.

What goes around comes around.

What’s for you won’t go past you.

I believe in these sayings.

Sandy_123

I only learnt it today too I was surprised

I love old sayings

Sandy_123

Hair of the Dog That Bit You”

This is a popular term for a hangover cure and means that you should try drinking some of what you had last night to get rid of the sick feeling (which is a bad idea!). The original phrase is from medieval times and is actually about rabid dogs. The idea was that applying hair from the dog that bit you to the wound would make it heal quickly.

Albus_Scope

I love "Bury the hatchet" It's pretty literal!

When two native American tribes decided to settle their differences and live in harmony, the chief of each tribe buried a war hatchet in the ground to signify their agreement.  

Or "Paint the town red"

A lot of controversy about the origins of this one. But people in the UK believe it references the Marquis of Waterford and friends in 1837, who went on a night of drinking through the English town of Melton Mowbray and ended up painting tollbooths, swans and windows all over the town with red paint. 😆

Whereas people in the US cite 1884, and the Oxford English Dictionary quotes the Chicago Advance (1897): "The boys painted the town [New York City] red with firecrackers [on Independence Day]."

I like the UK version better.

Sandy_123

Those are good @Albus_Scope

Albus_Scope

And "the second mouse gets the cheese" is because the first mouse is the one that sets off the mouse trap.

Rosie_Scope

I saw some graffiti on a toilet wall once that said:

"The early bird gets the worm, but what does the worm get?

… DEATH"

Made me chuckle, I've still got a picture of it somewhere 😁

Albus_Scope

A new one for you. "Spill the beans"

The most commonly accepted answer is that it originated thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece, where votes were made by placing either a white or a black bean in a vase, depending on whether they meant yes or no. The beans were later counted to reveal the result.

But if the vase was accidentally (or deliberately) knocked over, the beans would be visible to everyone, and the result would be known before it was meant to be. Hence you’d ‘spilled the beans’.

Sandy_123

Love them guys

“Dressed to the Nines”

In the 18th century, if you wanted a suit then you had to have one made. “Dressed to the nines” refers to the nine yards of fabric it took to make a whole suit, including the vest and jacket. Today, it just means someone is dressed really fancy

Strawberry1

First up best dressed .

Strawberry1

Put my foot in it .

Strawberry1

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Strawberry1

Out of the frying pan and into the fire .

Strawberry1

I apologise I haven't put the meanings with these quotes . Sorry 😞 😞 😞.

Sandy_123

Thats ok @Strawberry1

Strawberry1

Thank you @Sandy_123 .

Albus_Scope

That's not a problem @Strawberry1 you've given me a few new sayings to research, so I can add the meanings later on. Thanks!

Strawberry1

Thank you @Albus_Scope 😊. Sincerely sorry 😞.

Rosie_Scope

You don't have to be sorry @Strawberry1, it's really interesting to look into them!

I had a look at "First up best dressed". I hadn't heard of that one before!

Apparently that one comes from big families where if you were the first child up you'd get the best clothes. And also I'd imagine if you were the first born child you'd get better clothes and the younger kiddies would get all your hand-me-downs. Seems like it's a bit like the early bird catches the worm one 😊

Albus_Scope

Ok, next!

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Short version;
Frying pans were seen as the instruments demons would use to torture us and the fire relates to being burned at the stake by Henry VIII, which was his favourite means of getting rid of people who disagreed with him.

Long version;
Out of the frying pan into the fire’ is an old English proverb. However, it was brand new when it appeared in the Tudor courtier John Heywood’s influential collection of proverbs – A Dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe tongue.

It was a contemporary and colleague at the court of Henry VIII, Thomas More, who coined the expression in 1532.

More appears to be the first to have used the phrase, in his war of words with the English religious reformer William Tyndale – in the pamphlet The Confutacyon of Tyndales Answere, 1532:

"Hath by his false caste of iuglynge, fetely conuayed hym self out of the fryenge panne, fayre into the fyre."

[He [Tyndale] has, by his false reproach of trickery, conveyed himself out of the frying pan into the fire.]

To understand what More was talking we need a little context. The frying pan was an allusion to the imagined device that demons would use to torture believers. An example of its use with that meaning is found in the translation of Jesus. The Floure of the Commaundementes of God, by the Tudor scholar Andrew Chertsey, 1521:

Here ben to deuylles the whiche bereth a fryenge panne for to haue me fryed wtin it by perdurabylyte.

[Here there were devils that brought a frying pan, in order to fry me for eternity.]

More was highly erudite and would certainly have been familiar with Chertsy’s works and the language used in the English Tudor religious community.

The ‘into the fire’ part is more straightforward. Those who fell out with Henry VIII were burned at the stake or, if he felt inclined to be merciful, beheaded. This is the fate that More experienced in June 1535.

Tyndale also incurred Henry’s anger by writing that Henry’s claim that his first marriage was unlawful. He was later arrested on a charge of heresy and was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536.

More’s statement about Tyndale did turn out to be correct. He did, by his own words, “convey himself into the fire”.