DYK: Did you know? Did You Know that Turned the Corner is a nautical term? When Ships sailed past the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn were said to have ‘turned the corner’. Three complete historical novels in one book Tapestry of Love Historical Series 2nd edition 2015 – Court records dating back to the 1630s […]
The source of the idiom – LAUGHING STOCK is unclear. Stocks were a means of punishment in use at the time the phrase was coined, by which people were tortured or ridiculed. Victims were held by having their ankles, and occasionally the wrists too, trapped in holes between two sliding boards. The punishment, although not as harsh […]
Handle with kid gloves means to handle a situation, or a person or an object, delicately and gingerly. The phrase comes from the 1730’s when kid gloves were made from the skin of a young goat. They were not intended for use when you were working and wearing kid gloves usually indicated that the wearer […]
Cut and run is a phrase used in the context of a cowardly defeat but actually the phrase ‘Cut and Run’ is a nautical term. In an emergency rather than haul up an anchor the sailors would cut the anchor cable then run with the wind. In nautical usage however the term does not necessarily […]
DYK: Did you know? In the phrase ‘Above board’ What exactly is the board? The board is a table and comes from gambling activities. See larger image Additional Images: Faith and Courage: A Novel of Colonial America (Tapestry of Love) (Paperback) By (author): Causey, Donna R List Price: $13.02 New From: $13.02 In Stock
Did You Know? ESCAPED BY THE SKIN OF YOUR TEETH – The expression is a Hebrew one that first appeared in this form in the Geneva Bible (1560). In Job 19:20, it reads: My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. This was a […]
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is a person who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long-term. The word Freelance actually came from the Middle Ages when freelances were soldiers who fought for anyone who would hire them. They were literally freelancers who used their lances wherever they were directed.
Bury the hatchet – means to settle your differences with an adversary. Hatchets were buried by the chiefs of tribes when they came to a peace agreement. The phrase is recorded from the 17th century in English but the practice it refers to is much earlier, possibly pre-dating the European settlement of America. A translation […]
Today without a clue means to have no knowledge of something, but it once had a different meaning. A clue (also spelled clew) was a globular ball formed from coiling worms or the like or, more specifically, a ball of thread. In Greek myth – the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus entered the […]
Mad as a hatter is not from Alice in Wonderland like I once thought. Mad as a Hatter comes from the fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries hat makers treated hats with mercury which became a hazardous occupation. This was known to have affected the nervous systems of hatters, causing them to tremble […]
