Brewer also cites an alternative: " In considering this idea, it is possible of course that this association was particularly natural given the strange tendency of men's noses to grow with age, so that old judges and other elderly male figures of authority would commonly have big noses. Other theories include suggestions of derivation from a Celtic word meaning judgement, which seems not to have been substantiated by any reputable source, although interestingly and perhaps confusingly the French for beak, bec, is from Gaulish beccus, which might logically be connected with Celtic language, and possibly the Celtic wordstem bacc-, which means hook.
Partridge says that the earlier form was beck, from the th centuries, meaning a constable, which developed into beak meaning judge by about , although Grose's entry would date this development perhaps years prior.
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And finally to confuse matters more, Cassells Jonathan Green slang dictionary throws in the obscure nevertheless favoured by Cassells connection with harman-beck, also harman, which were slang terms for constable combining harman meaning hard-man it is suggested, with beck or bec , from the mid 16th century. As with several other slang origins, the story is not of a single clear root, more like two or three contributory meanings which combine and support the end result.
Earlier versions of the expression with the same meaning were: 'You got out of bed the wrong way', and 'You got out of bed with the left leg foremost' which perhaps explains why today's version, which trips off the tongue rather more easily, developed. According to Chambers, Bedlam was first recorded as an alternative name for the hospital in , and as a word meaning chaos or noisy confusion in , evolving naturally from slightly earlier use in referring to a madhouse or lunatic asylum.
Bedlam is an example of a contraction in language.
words and expressions origins
Thanks S Taylor for help clarifying this. Bees have long been a metaphorical symbol because they are icons everyone can recognise, just as we have many sayings including similarly appealing icons like cats and dogs. Earlier references to the size of a 'bee's knee' - meaning something very small for example 'as big as a bee's knee' - probably provided a the basis for adaptation into its modern form, which according to the OED happened in the USA, not in UK English.
Neither 'the bees knees', nor 'big as a bees knee' appear in Brewer, which indicates that the expression grew or became popular after this time. Based on Nigel Rees' well researched and reliable dating of for first recorded use, it is likely that earliest actual usage was perhaps a few years before this. It's certainly true that the origin of the word bereave derives from the words rob and robbed. It's true also that the words reaver and reiver in Middle English described a raider, and the latter specifically a Scottish cross-border cattle raider.
However the word bereave derives says Chambers from the Old English word bereafian, which meant robbed or dispossessed in a more general sense. It's a very old word: Reafian meaning rob appears in Beowulf The 'be' prefix is Old English meaning in this context to make or to cause, hence bereafian. The 'be' prefix and word reafian are cognate similar with the Old Frisian North Netherlands word birava, and also with the Old High German word biroubon.
These and other cognates similar words from the same root can be traced back to very ancient Indo-European roots, all originating from a seminal meaning of rob. Incidentally Cassells says the meaning of bereave in association with death first appeared in English only in the s, so the robbed meaning persisted until relatively modern times given the very old origins of the word. Thanks J R for raising the question. In fact the expression 'baer-saerk' with 'ae' pronounced as 'a' in the word 'anyhow' , means bear-shirt, which more likely stemmed from the belief that these fierce warriors could transform into animals, especially bears and wolves, or at least carry the spirit of the animal during extreme battle situations.
Thanks Cornelia for this more precise derivation. This derivation is also supported by the Old Icelandic word 'Beserkr', meaning 'bear-shirt'. I am additionally informed thanks F Tims that: " By their account, the 'bar-sark' was worn only by members of the Norse chieftan's personal bodyguard, they being the most ferocious, and thus the most feared, of the Vikings plundering eastern Scotland and the hapless Dane-mark.
So, according to the book, the term does not apply to all invading Vikings, just the more obnoxious. In the book, also, the Norse word 'bar' or 'baer', as the case may be means 'wolf', from the hide of which the shirt was made, so it would be a 'wolf-shirt' Champions - Professed fighting men were often kept by kings and earls about their court as useful in feud and fray. Harald Fairhair's champions are admirably described in the contemporary Raven Song by Hornclofe - "Wolf-coats they call them that in battle bellow into bloody shields. They wear wolves' hides when they come into the fight, and clash their weapons together These baer-sarks, or wolf coats of Harald give rise to an Old Norse term, 'baer sark', to describe the frenzy of fight and fury which such champions indulged in, barking and howling, and biting their shield-rims Voltaire wrote in ' If this is best of possible worlds If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?..
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Another famous writer of his time, though less renowned today American James Branch Cable, , might well have contributed to the popular use of the term when he used it in his novel 'The Silver Stallion' in , when he created a frequently repeated ironically amusing expression in its own right: ' The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.. The fact that the quotes feature in the definitive quotations work, Bartletts Familiar Quotations first published and still going bears out the significance of the references.
Related no doubt to this, the s expression 'biblical neckline' was a euphemistic sexual slang term for a low neckline a pun on the 'lo and behold' expression found in the bible. Thanks Ben for suggesting the specific biblical quote. It is both a metaphor based on the size of the bible as a book, and more commonly a description by association to many of the particularly disastrous epic events described in the bible, for example: famines, droughts, plagues of locusts, wars, mass exodus, destruction of cities and races, chariots of fire, burning bushes, feeding of thousands, parting of seas, etc.
The use of the word biblical to mean huge seems first to have been applied first to any book of huge proportions, which was according to Cassells etymology dictionary first recorded in in a work called Piers Ploughman. It is logical that over the centuries since then that the extension of 'biblical proportions' to describe huge events would have occurred in common speech quite naturally, because the association is so appropriate and obvious.
The slang 'big cheese' is a fine example of language from a far-away or entirely foreign culture finding its way into modern life and communications, in which the users have very awareness or appreciation of its different cultural origins. This would suggest that some distortion or confusion led to the expression's development. It's easy to imagine that people confused the earlier meaning with that of the female garment and then given the feminine nature of the garment, attached the derogatory weak 'girly' or 'sissy' meaning.
I received this helpful information thanks N Swan, April about the expression: " Hence perhaps the northern associations and s feel. A catchphrase can get into the public vernacular very rapidly - in a very similar vein, I've heard people referring to their friends as a 'Nancy Boy Potter', a name taken directly from the schoolmaster sketch in Rowan Atkinson's mids one-man show Kipling reinforced the expression when he wrote in that the secret of power ' It's the liftable stick.
The term is found also in pottery and ceramic glazing for the same reason. Takes the biscuit seems according to Patridge to be the oldest of the variations of these expressions, which essentially link achievement metaphorically to being awarded a baked confectionery prize. Heaven knows why though, and not even Partridge can suggest any logic for that one. Incidentally, the expression 'takes the biscuit' also appears thanks C Freudenthal more than once in the dialogue of a disreputable character in one of James Joyce's Dubliners stories, published in I am informed additionally thanks J Finnie, Verias Vincit History Group, Oct of a different interpretation, paraphrased thus: Rather than bullets, historic accounts tell of men bitting down on leather straps when undergoing primative medical practice.
Biting on a round metal brass bullet would have been both a potential choking hazard, and extremely hard to do. However in the days of paper cartridges, a soldier in a firing line would have 'bitten off' the bullet, to allow him to pour the gunpowder down the barrel, before spitting the ball bullet down after the powder, then ramming the paper in as wadding.
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This would have left a salty nasty-tasting traces of gun powder in the soldier's mouth. So, 'bite the bullet' in this respect developed as a metaphor referring to doing something both unpleasent and dangerous. If you can offer any further authoritative information about the origins of this phrase please let me know.
With hindsight, the traditional surgical metaphor does seem a little shaky. When the rope had been extended to the bitter end there was no more left. Captain Stuart Nicholls MNI contacted me to clarify further: "Bitter end is in fact where the last link of the anchor chain is secured to the vessel's chain locker, traditionally with a weak rope link.
Nowadays it is attached through the bulkhead to a sturdy pin. The term 'bitter end' is as it seems to pay out the anchor until the bitter end. Incidentally, the expression 'He's swinging the lead ' comes from days before sonar was used to detect under keel depth. A man was placed forward and swung a lead weight with a length of rope. A difficult and tiring task, so seamen would often be seen from aft 'swinging the lead' instead of actually letting go.
The origin also gave us the word 'bride'. Strictly for the birds. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable certainly makes no mention of it which suggests it is no earlier than 20th century. The term alludes the small brains of birds, and expressions such as 'bird-brain', as a metaphor for people of limited intelligence. The balls were counted and if there were more blacks than reds or whites then the membership application was denied - the prospective new member was 'blackballed'.
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In addition I am informed by one who seems to know To vote for admitting the new person, the voting member transfers a white cube to another section of the box. To vote against, a black ball is inserted. One black ball is enough to exclude the potential member. See also 'pipped at the post' the black ball was called a pip - after the pip of a fruit, in turn from earlier similar words which meant the fruit itself, eg pippin, and the Greek, pepe for melon - so pipped became another way or saying blackballed or defeated. These, from their constant attendance about the time of the guard mounting, were nick-named the blackguards.
These various explanations, origins and influences of the 'black Irish' expression, from a range of sources including Cassells, Hobson-Jobson, Oxford, Chambers, historical writings on Irish history, specialist online discussion groups, are as follows:. In summary, despite there being no evidence in print, there seems to me to be sufficient historical evidence as to the validity of the Armada theory as being the main derivation and that other usages are related to this primary root.
I say this because: there is truth in the history; it is likely that many Spanish came ashore and settled after the Armada debacle, and people of swarthy appearance were certainly called black. Also the Armada theory seems to predate the other possible derivations. From this point the stories and legends about the Armada and the 'black Irish' descendents would have provided ample material for the expression to become established and grow. Following this, the many other usages, whether misunderstandings of the true origin and meaning ie.
A simple example sent to me thanks S Price is the derogatory and dubious notion that the term refers to Irish peasants who burnt peat for fuel, which, according to the story, produces a fine soot causing people to take on a black appearance. The 'black Irish' expression will no doubt continue to be open to widely varying interpretations and folklore. I am also informed thanks C Parker of perhaps another explanation for the 'Mediterranean' appearance darker skin and hair colouring notably of some Irish people and giving rise to the Black Irish term, namely the spread of refugee Spanish Moors across Europe, including into Ireland, in the 8th, 9th and 17th centuries.
If anyone knows of any specific references which might support this notion and to link it with the Black Irish expression please tell me. Nor sadly do official dictionaries give credence to the highly appealing suggestion that the black market expression derives from the illicit trade in stolen graphite in England and across the English channel to France and Flanders, during the reign of Elizabeth I It is true that uniquely pure and plentiful graphite deposits were mined at Borrowdale, Cumbria, England.
And there was seemingly a notable illegal trade in the substance. In the 16th century graphite was used for moulds in making cannon balls, and was also in strong demand for the first pencils. The Borrowdale mine was apparently the only large source of pure graphite in Europe, perhaps globally, and because of its military significance and value, it was taken over by the Crown in Elizabeth I's reign.
The mine and its graphite became such a focus of theft and smuggling that, according to local history thanks D Hood , this gave rise to the expression 'black market'.