Reader Opinions
Horse Owner – (eat like a horse) August 29, 2019
Horses do, in fact, eat voraciously and greedily – the person who wrote this doesn’t know horses. A thousand pound horse eats about 20 pounds of food per day – some of it in the form of hay or grass, and some in the form of grain. If the person who wrote this had ever seen a horse eat grain, he would eat his words.
Anonymous – (the early bird catches the worm) August 29, 2019
It doesn’t tell us where it got started or the possible place of origin….things that are more serious historically. The site just seems to reiterate the definition over and over in different ways.
Anonymous – (on the other hand) August 25, 2019
So could I say, “the two characters are foils. Bob was shy and timid on the other hand, Sam was outgoing” ?
Christian, nurse, widow, sheep dog trainer etc – (a bird in the hand) August 24, 2019
The expression is in Pilgrim’s Progress written in 1678
Anonymous – (keep your nose clean) August 21, 2019
Solving idioms is to fix something bad, polite or impolite, to help with socialism.
That is how speech-language pathology comes about.
Kieth – (apple of eye) August 19, 2019
The 885 AD writing was in Old English.
The Old Testament is in Hebrew. Not English.
In the Old Testament Hebrew the term is
“the pupil of the eye ” not the apple of the eye.
To translate the same Hebrew word meaning into
English meaning the King James translators in 1611 used
the phrase “the apple of the eye” to convey the concept of “the center of attention e.g. that which
is most precious”.
Anonymous – (honesty is the best policy) August 15, 2019
I learnt this as a kid, honesty is the best policy. If my kids have broken the vase then I trust that they will come clean themselves because I have taught them that honesty is the best policy. No one in this particular political party knows that honesty is the best policy.
Anonymous – (time and again) August 14, 2019
It’s very helpful to have your site and I appreciate your intention to be clear about the way we use our language. To that end, please stop saying “American” when what you are saying is specific to the United States of America.
The United States of America is one of thirty-five countries on the continent of America. America is a continent, it is not a country. There is no American language.
Anonymous – (ring a bell) August 1, 2019
I was on a yacht today, the waves were big enough it was ringing the boats bell.. my partner captaining the vessel said when we hit the first big crest.. “holy shit, that one rang my bell”…
Anonymous – (two heads are better than one) July 26, 2019
H.D. Rouse translation of “The Iliad,” by Homer, Book 10:
“But if one more would go with me, that means more courage and more comfort. Two heads are better than one.”
If translation is correct, that would put the phrase in the late eighth or early seventh century BC.
