I love all these phrases!! They do make the language so much colorful, and send your mind into an imagery trip.
How about this one: “pay through the nose”???? Where does it come from?
I love all these phrases!! They do make the language so much more colorful, and send your mind into an imagery trip.
How about this one: “pay through the nose”???? Where does it come from?
I know that one!
It’s from Denmark and it’s about people not paying their taxes – if they didn’t pay, they had their noses split open (yuk!), so they literally ‘paid through the nose’!
I found it really interesting. I loved studying the origin of words at the university. There’s something I would like to know. One of my colleges told me that the word “knight” has a Vicking origin, as well as those words beginning by . My doubt is if that is true or not.
Thank you very much for your help and for your interesting notes!!!
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I’ve got one – where does the phrase ‘skeleton crew’ come from. I know it means a really reduced workforce, but why?
Thanks
What about ‘mind your Ps and Qs’? I’ve never understood that one.
In the US, we don’t say ‘Heath Robinson’, it’s ‘Rube Goldberg’ instead.
Dani – re. Rube Goldberg: you can find him/it in the American edition of MED:
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/Rube-Goldberg
(in the dictionary, go to Options and selecet American version)
I love all these phrases!! They do make the language so much colorful, and send your mind into an imagery trip.
How about this one: “pay through the nose”???? Where does it come from?
I love all these phrases!! They do make the language so much more colorful, and send your mind into an imagery trip.
How about this one: “pay through the nose”???? Where does it come from?
I know that one!
It’s from Denmark and it’s about people not paying their taxes – if they didn’t pay, they had their noses split open (yuk!), so they literally ‘paid through the nose’!
I found it really interesting. I loved studying the origin of words at the university. There’s something I would like to know. One of my colleges told me that the word “knight” has a Vicking origin, as well as those words beginning by . My doubt is if that is true or not.
Thank you very much for your help and for your interesting notes!!!