Reader Opinions
Steven Avalos – (when hell freezes over) July 16, 2020
In Dante’s Inferno, the 9th Circle is frozen. This is the place where the traitors are punished, where Satan was thrust into ice when he was cast out of heaven for trying to overthrow God. Could the idiom have any connection to this?
Mike Webber – (the devil is beating his wife) July 15, 2020
I was born in Virginia near where the Earl Hamner (Walton) family was from. My grandfather always said when it rains when the sun is shining it means the devil is beating his wife.
Mr Terence Rattigan – (you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs) July 14, 2020
Surely, the phrase implies breaking others to achieve your own desired results.
Hadley – (coin a phrase) July 14, 2020
The association with invention is the ironic part I believe.
Joe Bradford – (third wheel or fifth wheel) July 11, 2020
Today a fifth wheel refers to a pick up truck towing a HUGE trailer from the bed of the pickup.
Sophie – (dot the i’s and cross the t’s) July 8, 2020
I’m multilingual and I’m from Europe, I’ve come across this idiom in both latin and german based idioms. In Portuguese they say ‘pôr os pontos nos i’s” or in dutch “puntjes op de i zetten”. It’s interesting how language has evolved.
Rasheeda – (all that glitters is not gold) July 8, 2020
In this thought it says anything that has glitters or shine is not always expensive or gold
Pete Iacullo – (shoot from the hip) July 6, 2020
The origin of this idiom is much older than “cowboy shooting”. In the early days of hand-held long arms (rifles, but specifically muskets), because the ignition mechanism was external, it often would ignite more explosively and cause facial injuries when the rifle was aimed for a precise shot. Riflemen were afraid to get hurt, so they began the practice of shooting the musket away from there face, even though the aim was not precise. When fired, these guns had a heavy recoil, so rather than support the gun from their shoulder, they supported it “from their hip”. Thusly the expression “to shoot from the hip” implied that an action or words were not precise, but approximate and may not exactly hit the target (ie) achieve the exact result.
Zoe Hayward – (devil’s advocate) July 6, 2020
Leviathan is not a demon name for envy. As god created it without sin.
Anonymous – (wash dirty linen in public) July 3, 2020
She thought it was time to wash her dirty linens in public, who knew she could be so brazen!!
