Reader Opinions

SMEA – (sleeper cell) January 2, 2025

There will be a major increase in the planting of sleeper cells into the USA after the incredible opening of the borders during the Biden administration. Track it back to Obama in his desire to bring down this country. it’s unfortunate that they all can’t be tried for treason.

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Niek (from The Netherlands) – (vim and vigor) January 1, 2025

May I suggest that also vis comes from Latin? Vis means force, and in Latin vim is the accusative of vis. That leaves me with a missing explanation of the accusative; if the word is used in the meaning with force one would expect the ablative vi.

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Alexco – (in the heat of the moment) December 28, 2024

She threw away her engagement ring in the heat of the moment.

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Neal Pearce – (from cradle to grave) December 27, 2024

I wanted to check the origins of this phrase because it appears in Shelley’s poem ‘Song to the Men of England’ written in the late 1700s. The second stanza starts:
Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, From the cradle to the grave…etc.

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Freddie Bradford – (get the sack (boot, axe)) December 22, 2024

How about the workhouse punishment for children who had been naughty or broken the rules and were stripped and made to wear an old sack with 3 hole cut in for arms and head then made to stand on a platform wearing only this diabolical sack..?

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Anonymous – (wind up) December 19, 2024

Could it not come from the biological term wind up to do with sensitization to pain. In other words getting irritable etc

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Anonymous – (cover one’s tracks) December 16, 2024

I feel the phrase “cover your tracks” originated with the Native American culture. They would ride in formations. And the last row of the line; they would tie branches to the tails of the horse trailing them to erase the tracks. I’ve seen it done.

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James Horsley – (take the bull by the horns) December 10, 2024

“undoubtedly originated in America” – not so sure there is no doubt, the Spanish have been bull fighting since around 711 AD (long before the “wild west” of America) and this is also a Spanish idiom (“coger el toro por los cuernos”) and it would make natural sense to have had a bull-fighting connotation – so which came first? My money is not on America.

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Chris – (ward off) December 9, 2024

A ward was a magical talisman, icon or symbol used for protection, so when you warded something off you were stopping it coming near. As stated by Cindy, aside from the feminist root, the example sentences are very flawed.

Ward is protection, hence we have a wardrobe – a place to protect clothes.

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Chris – (under the weather) November 30, 2024

Originally, sailors used the phrase “under the weather bow,” referring to the side of the ship that would get the brunt of the wind during storms. To avoid getting seasick when the waves got rough, they’d bunker down in their cabins—literally under that bad weather—to let the storm pass.

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