Who invented idioms

Thus, they often found themselves barking up the wrong tree. John Dennis was a playwriter in the early s who invented a new method for replicating the sound of thunder for his new production. Something about metal balls being rolled around in a wooden mustard bowl. They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder. What other idioms do you know of with interesting origins? Share your favorites in the comments below. Leverage our expert marketing team to get started today.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Posted in Marketing and tagged copywriting , marketing. So, all in all, new idioms are created every day. Feedback We've Added New Words! Word of the Day. Meanings Meanings. Word of the day. Redefine your inbox with Dictionary. Yes, I always love going back and reading things over myself.

I think you can always take away something new, new angle, new way of looking at it, etc. Besides, there is an old saying too, repetition for emphasis Hi Joy Levine, I am revisiting hubs I have commented before 2 years ago, in fact!

Of course, that makes so much sense! I had always attributed the "minding your Ps and Qs " to being always dilligent in using "Please" and "Thank Q you"!

What you learn on a second reading, eh? Another origin for the term 'dead ringer' comes from horses. A ringer is a horse that looks identical to another horse. In cases where an expensive and well insured horse was owned. An owner might chose to 'accidentally' on purpose kill the ringer, claiming it as the insured horse and thus get the insurance money and then either sell the actual horse, or replace it for the ringer and build the 'ringer's' reputation up with a horse the owner already knows is proven.

Mind, this was all before DNA testing. Thank you for your comment. I always appreciate constructive criticism. And you're right, some of these may or may not be true.

This is the reason I stated exactly that in the last paragraph of the article, as you probably read. Again, I think the important thing is actively researching a subject to find out answers.

One always comes away with something, just as you did in researching it yourself. I appreciate the time you took in responding. A different point of view always helps us to learn more and makes us sharper, so I thank you. Some of your explanations are flat out wrong, such as raining cats and dogs and mind your p's and q's.

As a medieval reenactor, I find the beeswax item dubious - it can be used to smooth bowstrings, but for a complexion it would either be too thin to be useful or too thick to be comfortable; much easier to cover it with white lead makeup!

Thank you for your kind comments. Etymology is a fascinating subject and a favorite of mine. I'm already planning a sequel! Fantastic hub, and a joy to read. I did know the origins of a couple of these but not many. I find this a fascinating subject and you presented it well. Look forward to checking your other hubs. Voted up. Really informative, and detailed. You really did a lot of research on this one. Thanks for posting! Fun hub to read. Some fascinating lore, like the thing about beeswax, which I never heard about before.

I enjoyed reading. Awesome hub! I've always been fascinated with the origins of certain words and idioms and your hub has satisfied my curiosity on a few of them. Thanks for this fun, entertaining and educational hub! These are great! I am going to start saying mind your p's and q's much more now that I know what it's about, lol. This was very informative and fun to read! Great Hub - I really enjoyed reading it. I know it is not exactly an idiom but the phrase "Don't Drink and Drive", which we see constantly displayed on UK motorways, must be very confusing to any foreigner using a literal translation - unfortunately it always makes me laugh, which is not the intention of the notice at all!

I had no idea about the origins of most of these phrases. Definitely a very interesting read, and I learned a lot. Voted up and useful. Interesting article. I too value the origin of a word or a phrase, so enjoyed learning the derivation of some of these common, but often misunderstood idioms. In your spare time, look up www. Wow- very interesting. I never knew where any of these phrases originated, so this hub was entertaining.

Scary about the graves though-how dreadfully awful! Voted this hub up! The closest I could come to a true origin of "Who opened the gates? These walls served to protect the city against siege. However, in some rare cases, the city walls were left open, and the opposing armies would stampede through in force. Also, the walls were attacked and if they armies broke through the gates, same thing, they would stampede through in massive numbers.

So perhaps this is where the saying comes from. I couldn't find anything specific on "Dot your i's and cross your t's" although it sounds like a similar saying like minding your p's and q's.

The theory it came from typesetting certainly sounds feasible. Interestingly enough though, the expression "To a T" which means pretty much the same thing, came from an old word that was used precisely the same way To a Tittle, or To A T. Tittle came from the same latin word as title does. As far as the case of the underwear, lol, yes, I think that's strictly a mother thing.

It is such an interesting post, i always love to use idioms and phrases in my articles during college time. Very interesting and thorough Hub! The "dead ringer" and "saved by the bell" gave me the creeps. I'll twice now before I use those idioms again. I believe that came from Joseph Smith who so-called "translated" the Book of Mormon via invisible "seer stones" placed inside his top hat and he stuck his face into it and plenary dictated to Brigham Young.

Great read! Some people at work use some naval based phrases like " she's over the yard arm" when its coffee time :. Great article. We take for granted a lot of what we say and a lot of what we think we know. The meaning becomes so much clearer when we understand exactly what we are saying and the reasons behind it. These are a couple that come to my mind: "Who opened the gates? He came from a farm and I always assumed it had to do with letting the cattle cross the dirt road.

It would be interesting to find it's true origin. Of course now the term is endearing to me. Or "dot your i's and cross your t's" which I'm pretty sure came from typesetting.

And finally, do we put "always leave with clean underwear" in this category, or is this just something mothers say to embarrass us? I like this hub. English is not my mother tongue, so i found this useful. Sometimes, when i watched English movies I take note keep on mind of the phrases which made me confused well, i can be idiot sometimes Most of the times I would think they were idioms, so i try to look for it on the internet. I feel like now that I wrote this, I pay attention more to when I speak or say an idiom, or when I hear others use them.

And the more I notice, the more I am curious now and do research. I may have to write a follow up on more! Or if you would like to know the origin, I don't mind doing the work.

It's so interesting to hear how idioms came about. I like the one "costs an arm and a leg", how incredible that artists charged more to paint limbs : Thanks for sharing this fabulous information, I enjoyed reading this hub and learnt quite a lot about how idioms came about.

Voted up and shared. I love finding about origins of the phrases we use everyday in the English language. This was a really interesting article.

There are absolutely hundreds of idioms in the English language The amazing thing is we grow up with these idioms and hardly ever question their origin, as long as we know their meaning.

Thanks for all the comments. An eye! I like that. However, a seemingly plausible theory is that it came from the brass tacks that held a soldier's shoes together.

Idioms for Music. Idioms in Daily. Idioms in Movies. Most Common Idioms. History of Slangs. Most Common Slangs. Slang Phrase. Slang Words. Slangs for Chatting. Slangs for Music.