Saturday, July 17, 2010
SAVED BY THE BELL
To be ‘saved by the bell’ is to be saved by a last minute intervention. This is aboxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be ‘saved’ from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round.There is a widespread nition that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached.The idea being that,if they were buried but later revived,they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death.The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real. Several prominent people expressed this fear when close to death themselves – “Have me decently buried,but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead” – George Washington. For more details visit our site secondpen.com.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
SAVE ONE'S BACON
To 'save one's bacon is to escape from injury ; to avoid harm, especially to one's body. By bacon,we normally mean the cured and dried meat taken from the backed or sides of apig.To the medieval mind, 'bacon' was meat from anywhere on the body of the animal, more akin to what we now call pork.This was the origin of the slang term 'bacon' was simply saving your body from harm.The expression was used that way as early as the 17th century as, for example,this extract from ireland's Momus Elenticus,1654: "Some fellowes there were... To save their bacon penn'd many a smooth song. For more details visit their site secondpen.com.
my twister
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
LOSE FACE
To 'lose face' is to feel humiliated ; lose one's reputation. Lose face' began life in english as a translation of the Chinese phrase 'tie lien'.That phrase may also be expressed in English as 'to suffer public disgrace', i.e. to be unable to show one's face in public.In 1876, the consular official sir Robert Hart published a series of essays - These from land of sinim - which include this observation - "the country [china] begins feels that Government consented to arrangements by which china has lost face; to the officials have long been conscious that they are becoming ridiculous in the eyes of the people". Hart was well -regarded in both Britian and china.
'Save face' comes later. It has no direct equivalent in chinese and is merely the converse of 'lose face'. For more details visit site secondpen.com.
'Save face' comes later. It has no direct equivalent in chinese and is merely the converse of 'lose face'. For more details visit site secondpen.com.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
One Sandwich Short of a Picnic
One sandwich short of a picinic is a colloquial term for stupid There are many pharses of the form 'an X short of a Y'.These all mean the same thing,[ie] the person being spoken of is stupid.The 'short of ' insult began in Australia and Newzealand in the mid - 19th cetury. For example,colonel Godfrey Mundy's Our Antipodes,1852."Let no man having,in colonial phrase,'a shingle short’ try this country.He will pass his days in tarban Creek Asylum”. Of course,shingles are wooden tiles and many of these phrases refer to having something loose or missing ‘up top’ - ‘a few slates missing, ‘ a screw loose’. ‘A sandwich short of a picnic is fairly recent. The first citation of it that has been documented is from the BBC’s Lenny Henny Christmas special,December 1987.In that,Henry perfomed I’m Mad…, a spoof song and dance routine written by kim fuller and others.This aped Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit bad. Henry,in a straightjacket, sings ‘I’m mad,while the backing vocalists sing: he’s mad,mad,one brick short of load’. Do You want full information visit secondpen.com
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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