une oie blanche” (= a white goose) refers to a young woman, naive and unenlightened regarding the birds and the bees.

Red Herrings And White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases Red Herrings And White Elephants: The Origins of the Phrases

biblioboy, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, Phillybooks COM LLC, Ebooksweb COM LLC, BookCorner COM LLC, Washburn Books, thelondonbookworm.com Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuthMad hatter . . . pie in the sky . . . egg on your face. We use these phrases every day, yet how many of us know what they really mean or where they came from? Origin: From the Burmese belief that albino elephants are sacred. They can’t be used for work and they must be lavished with the ultimate amount of care. If the King of Siam wished to get rid of a particular courtier, he gave a gift of a white elephant. The courtier dared not offend the King with a refusal although he was fully aware that the cost of upkeep of such an animal was ruinous. If you happen to be a bootlegger, your profession recalls the Wild West outlaws who sold illegal alcohol by concealing slender bottles of whiskey in their boots. If you're on cloud nine, you owe a nod to the American Weather Bureau's classification of clouds, the ninth topping out all others at a mountainous 40,000 feet. It is popularly—but erroneously—claimed that the phrase (as) bold as brass originally referred to Brass Crosby (1725-93), Lord Mayor of London.

red herring in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary red herring in Traditional Chinese - Cambridge Dictionary

lots of interesting stuff here...lots of history...stuff you might read in the oed only more info here. where word phrases came from. As others have noted, some of the words or phrases discussed are very specifically British. Knowing the derivation of the word "berk" makes me happy that this is not much used in the United States. The OED doesn’t mention whether albino elephants are considered sacred in Burma, but does have the story about the King of Siam giving troublesome or obnoxious courtiers the ‘gift’ of a white elephant which would ruin the recipient due the costs of maintenance. If you happen to be a bootlegger, your profession recalls the Wild West outlaws who sold illegal alcohol by concealing slender bottles of whiskey in their boots. If you're on cloud nine, you owe a nod to the American Weather Bureau's classification of clouds, the ninth topping out all others at a mountainous 40,000 feet. If you opt for the hair of the dog the morning after, you're following the advice of medieval English doctors, who recommended rubbing the hair of a dog into the wound left by the animal's bite.Origin: This phrase refers to smoked herring. In many parts of 19th century Britain such fish have a very strong smell and were usually known, not as kippers, but as red herrings. Because of their smell, they were good at masking other smells. As a result, they could easily cover the scent of a fox. A red herring pulled across the trail could divert the hounds onto a false path. Thus, by analogy, the phrase came to be used to describe any false trail.

Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack Books Red Herrings and White Elephants - Albert Jack Books

But the roots of “dicey” lie, not in the clouds, but on the gambling tables (or the floor of an RAF hangar). “Dicey” comes from “dice,” the plural of “die,” the little spotted cubes of chance used in many games. A mission that was “dicey” to the RAF pilots was fraught with danger, and their safe return was as uncertain as a roll of the dice they often used to pass their time on the ground. This sense of both chance and danger has carried over to our modern use of “dicey” to mean “seriously risky,” often with overtones of disaster if the effort fails. Teachers of the language, especially one teaching ESL (English as a Second Language), would benefit from the book as well. At the first sign of boredom your class shows in an English course (you should be able to notice the blank looks and nodding heads), swipe Red Herring and White Elephants out and start to ask them why certain phrases are so. I never questioned the origin of While Elephants, Red Herrings, or any of the other many ideomatic phrases that we use everyday, but a friend of mine bought me this book and I was blown away!Two bits of that story are true. “Dicey” did begin as RAF slang during WWII. And, as Bill P. discovered in his research, there is indeed a “Dice” airfield at Aberdeen, Scotland, evidently known for its clear weather. When we look out of the window and it is Raining Cats and Dogs, don’t go out there. There are several suggestions for the origin of this phrase, one alluding to a famous occasion when it actually rained frogs. Apparently many were lifted into the air during a howling gale and then dropped to the …