Purple patch

Noun

1. A period of excellent performance, where nearly everything seems to go right, work properly, and contrasting with a more general lower level of performance.

The England team hit a purple patch just after half-time, where they scored 3 goals in 10 minutes, but in the end they were lucky to escape with a 3-3 draw.

2. An ornate or elaborate section of a written work, a patch of purple prose.

Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader's response.

When it is limited to certain passages, they may be termed purple patches or purple passages; these are often noted as standing out from the rest of the work.

The term purple patch is also used in a more general, and more unequivocally positive, sense to refer to a period of outstanding achievement. This usage is particularly common in sporting contexts in some countries; for example, a footballer who had scored in six successive games might be said to be "enjoying a purple patch".

The term "purple prose" is derived from a reference by the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65–8 BC) who wrote in his Ars Poetica (lines 14-21):

Inceptis grauibus plerumque et magna professis
purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter
adsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianae
et properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agros
aut flumen Rhenum aut pluuius describitur arcus;
sed nunc non erat his locus. Et fortasse cupressum
scis simulare; quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspes
nauibus, aere dato qui pingitur?

Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy
purple patches; as when describing
a sacred grove, or the altar of Diana,
or a stream meandering through fields,
or the river Rhine, or a rainbow;
but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render
a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint
a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?

Purpureus meant lustrous or dazzling in Horace's Latin.


source: wikipedia, wiktionary

Rest on one's laurels

Verb

Rest on one's laurels

• (idiomatic) To rely on a past success instead of trying to improve oneself further.

Despite our success, this is no time to rest on our laurels. We rested on our laurels too long. Our competitors took away a lot of our business.

source: wiktionary, idioms.thefreedictionary.com

Jack of All Trades

Noun

jack of all trades (plural jacks of all trades)

(idiomatic) One competent in many endeavors, especially one who excels in none of them.

1618, Geffray Minshull, Essayes and characters of a prison and prisoners:

Now for the most part your porter is either some broken cittizen, who hath plaid Jack-of-all-trades, some pander, broker, or hangman, that hath plaid the knaue with all men, and for the more certainty his embleme is a red beard, to which facke hath made his nose cousin german.

1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. 25:

"I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and my own gardener, and my own Jack of all Trades," said Wemmick.

1912, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Where There's A Will, Ch. 5:

A fellow can always get some sort of a job—I was coming up here to see if they needed an extra clerk or a waiter, or chauffeur, or anything that meant a roof and something to eat—but I suppose they don't need a jack-of-all-trades.

Synonyms

factotum, handyman, sciolist


Etymology

1610s, from sense Jack (“man (generic term)”). Originally a term of praise (competent in many endeavors), today generally used disparagingly, with emphasis on (implied or stated) “master of none”, as in later longer form jack of all trades, master of none.

First attested in Essayes and characters of a prison and prisoners, by Geffray Minshull, published 1618 (written 1612), as Jack-of-all-trades.

Jack of all trades, master of none is a figure of speech used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one.

The earliest recorded versions of the phrase do not contain the second part. Indeed they are broadly positive in tone. Such a Jack of all trades may be a master of integration, as such an individual knows enough from many learned trades and skills to be able to bring their disciplines together in a practical manner. This person is a generalist rather than a specialist. A person who is exceptional in many disciplines is known as a polymath or a "Renaissance man"; a typical example is Leonardo da Vinci. The phrase became increasingly cynical in connotation during the 20th century.

A female person of this kind is being described as Jill of All Trades.

In Elizabethan English the quasi-New Latin term Johannes factotum ("Johnny do-it-all") was sometimes used, with the same negative connotation that Jack of all trades sometimes has today.

The term was famously used by Robert Greene in his 1592 booklet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, in which he dismissively refers to William Shakespeare with this term, the first published mention of the writer.

In 1612, the English language version of the phrase appeared in the book Essays and Characters of a Prison by English writer Geffray Mynshul originally published in 1618, and probably based on the author's experience while held at Gray's Inn, London, when imprisoned for debt.

Mynshul uses only the first half of the phrase in the book, which may indicate that the phrase was in common usage at the time he wrote his account. Indeed, the jack of all trades part of the phrase was in common use during the 17th century and was generally used as a term of praise. 'Jack' in those days was a generic term for 'man'.

The 'master of none' element appears to have been added later and the expression ceased to be very flattering.

Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them, whilst when abbreviated as simply jack of all trades is more ambiguous and the user's intention may vary, dependent on context.

In North America, the phrase has been in use since 1721, typically in its short form.

The phrase is occasionally extended further into a rhyming couplet which restores the earlier positive meaning,

Jack of all trades, master of none,
Certainly better than a master of one

Other versions appear as:

Jack of all trades, master of none,
Oftimes better than a master of one

Jack of all trades, master of none,
Better than Jack of 1 trade, master of none

Jack of all trades, master of none,
Or a few or a lot, like the Rennaissance man

Another way to counter-act the negative tone of the "master of none" part, is to change it to "Jack of all trades, master of some", which leans more towards the "Renaissance man" sort of person.


source: wikipedia, wiktionary

Daft as a brush

Adjective

daft as a brush (not comparable)

Describes someone who is known to do and say silly things.



source: wiktionary

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Noun

A children's counting-out game.


Eeny, meeny, miny, moe which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games (such as tag) and similar purposes such as counting out a child that has to be stood down from a group of children as part of a playground game.

It is one of a large group of similar 'Counting-out rhymes' where the child pointed-to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'.

The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820 and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.

Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin.


Origins

The first American record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York are said to have repeated the rhyme:

Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.

The rhyme seems to have been unknown in England among collectors until the late nineteenth century, although it was found by Henry Bolton in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s. He also found a similar rhyme in German:

Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?

The most common English form seems to be:

Eena, Meena, Mona, My,
Barcelona, Bona, stry,
Air, ware, frum, dy,
Aracy, baraca, we, wo, wack

but there is a well-entrenched version, collected from Durham:

Eena meena mina mo,
Where do all the Frenchmen go?
To the East and to the West,
To the bonny birdie's nest;
Apples in the garden,
fishes in the sea,
if you want a pretty girl
please choose me!

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one:

Hickery Pickery, pease scon
Where will this young man gang?
He'll go east, he'll go west,
he'll go to the crow's nest.
Hickery Pickery, Hickery Pickery

More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version is

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;
Olla bolla Domino,
Okka, Pokka dominocha,
Hy! Pon! Tush!

which was one of many variants of 'counting out Rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888.

A Cornish version runs:

Ena, mena, mona, mite,
Bascalora, bora, bite,
Hugga, bucca, bau,
Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.
Stick, stock, stone dead - OUT.

Another possibility is that the British occupiers of India brought a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:

ubi eni mana bou,
baji neki baji thou,
elim tilim latim gou.

Another version of this type of rhyme heard sung in English by children in Bombay in 1986 and 1987 and written down by Glen Dryhurst during several business trips was:

Eena, meena, maca-roni,
dee, dye, domi-nony,
It's half past ten,
an old lady came,
she called my name,
chick-a-dye,
chick-a-dye
is my name.

On saying that last word, the child pointed to was either: "in", "out" or "it" as the case may be.

One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count "Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite".

There are similar examples of children's rhymes that were collected in England that are more obviously counting rhymes up to ten, such as 'Ya, ta, tethera, pethera, pip, Slata, lata, covera, dovera, dick'.

David Zincavage asserts that the origin is Scottish and posits that the first line of the verse is a corruption of Inimicus animo, a Latin phrase that translates as "enemy of the soul."

The second line uses "nigger" and this goes to early depictions of the devil as black, as opposed to the modern red; we still have references to darkness as being evil.

If you catch the devil by the toe, it won't cause his cloven hoof any pain. If, instead, you've pinched a human's toe instead, he'll yelp, and since you have made a mistake in identifying him, you should release him.

There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from early twentieth century in the United States of America:

Eeny, meeny, miny moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers make him pay,
Fifty dollars every day.

A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1960s, is:

Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Put the baby on the po.
When he's done,
Wipe his bum.
And tell his mother what he's done.

Versions collected in New Zealand in 2002 include:

Eeny, meeny, miny mangi,
Catch a mangi by the tangi.
If he squeals, steal his wheels,
Eeny, meeny, miny mangi.

And:

Eeny, meeny, miny mit,
Catch your girlfriend by the tit.
If she slips, kiss her lips,
Eeny, meeny, miny mit.

source: wikipedia, wiktionary

Hardhearted

hardhearted (comparative more hardhearted, superlative most hardhearted)

1. Lacking in compassion; cold and pitiless.

Derivations

• hardheartedly (adv.)
• hardheartedness (n.)

Antonyms

• softhearted
• tender-hearted

source: wiktionary

Beat around the bush

Verb

to beat around the bush (third-person singular simple present beats around the bush, present participle beating around the bush, simple past and past participle beaten around the bush)

1. (idiomatic) To treat a topic, but omit its main points, often intentionally.
2. (idiomatic) To delay or avoid talking about something difficult or unpleasant.

Please stop beating around the bush and tell me what the problem is!

Synonyms with beat around the bush

• pussyfoot
• prevaricate
• waffle

Antonyms with beat around the bush

• cut to the chase
• get on with it
• get to the point

Alternative forms

• beat about the bush

source: wiktionary

To the nines

To the nines is an English idiom meaning to perfection or to the highest degree.

In modern English usage, the phrase most commonly appears as dressed to the nines or dressed up to the nines.


Origin

The phrase is said to be Scottish in origin. The earliest written example of the phrase is from the 1719 Epistle to Ramsay by the Scottish poet William Hamilton:

The bonny Lines therein thou sent me,

How to the nines they did content me.

Robert Burns' Poem on Pastoral Poetry, published posthumously in 1800, also uses the phrase:

Thou paints auld nature to the nines,

In thy sweet Caledonian lines.

Dressed to the nines.


Adjective

dressed to the nines (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Very fancily or formally dressed; wearing very showy or splendid clothing.

• He arrived at the gala, dressed to the nines in his top hat and tails.
• 1976, Tim Rice, Don't Cry For Me Argentina

All you will see is a girl you once knew, although she's dressed up to the nines, at sixes and sevens with you.

References

Dressed to the nines in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, 2004.


source: wikipedia, wiktionary

Custom

Etymology

From Middle English custume, from Anglo-Norman custume, from Old French coustume, from Vulgar Latin *cōnsuētūmen, from Latin cōnsuētūdinem, accusative singular of cōnsuētūdō (“custom, habit”), from cōnsuēscō (“accustom, habituate”), from con- (“with”) + suēscō (“become used or accustomed”), inchoative form of sueō (“I am accustomed”), perhaps from suus (“one's own, his own”); see consuetude. Displaced native Middle English wune, wone (“custom, habit, practice”) (from Old English wuna (“custom, habit, practice, rite”)), Middle English side, sid (“custom”) (from Old English sidu, sido (“custom, note, manner”)), Middle English cure (“custom, choice, preference”) (from Old English cyre (“choice, choosing, free will”)).

Noun

custom (plural customs)

1.  Frequent repetition of the same act; way of acting common to many; ordinary manner; habitual practice; usage; method of doing or living.

• And teach customs which are not lawful. Acts xvi. 21. 
• Moved beyond his custom, Gama said. Alfred Tennyson. 
• A custom More honored in the breach than the observance. Shakespeare 

2.  Habitual buying of goods; practice of frequenting, as a shop, manufactory, etc., for making purchases or giving orders; business support.  

3. (law) Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.  

4. (obsolete) Familiar acquaintance; familiarity.  

5. The customary toll, tax, or tribute.  

6. created under particular specifications, specialized, unique, custom-made  

Synonyms

• fashion 
• habit 
• wone 
• practice 
• usage
• wont

 Adjective

custom (not comparable)

1. made in a different way from usual, specially to fit one's needs

• My feet are as big as powerboats, so I need custom shoes.   

Verb

custom (third-person singular simple present customs, present participle customing, simple past and past participle customed)

1.  (obsolete) (transitive) To make familiar; to accustom. 
2. (obsolete) (transitive) To supply with customers. 
3. (obsolete) (transitive) To pay the customs of. 
4. (obsolete) (intransitive) To have a custom. 

• On a bridge he custometh to fight. Edmund Spenser.

Event, agenda and function

event

Etymology

From Latin ēventus (“an event, occurrence”), from ēveniō (“to happen, to fall out, to come out”), from ē (“out of, from”), short form of ex, + veniō (“come”); see venture, and compare advent, convent, invent, etc., convene, evene, etc.

Noun

event (plural events)

1. An occurence; something that happens.
2. An end result; an outcome (now chiefly in phrases) - 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.3: - hard beginnings have many times prosperous events [...]. - In the event, he turned out to have what I needed anyway.
   

   (physics) A point in spacetime having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate.

   (computing) A possible action that the user can perform that is monitored by an application or the operating system (event listener).  When an event occurs an event handler is called which performs a specific task.

   (probability theory) A set of some of the possible outcomes; a subset of the sample space. 



 

 

agenda

Etymology

From Latin agenda, substantive use of the neuter plural of agendus (“which ought to be done”), future passive participle (gerundive) of agō (“I do, act, make”).

Noun

agenda (plural agendas)

1. (now rare) Plural form of agendum.
2. A temporarily organized plan for matters to be attended to.
3. A list of matters to be taken up (as at a meeting).

Usage notes

The word agenda is the Latin plural of agendum, but in English the word agenda is taken as a singular, and item on the agenda used for individual things in the list.

Synonyms

• (temporarily organized plan): docket, schedule

function

Etymology

From Middle French fonction, from Old French function, from Latin functio genituve functionis "performance, execution", from Latin functus past participle of fungor "perform, execute, discharge".

Noun

function (plural functions)

1. What something does or is used for.
2. A professional or official position.
3. An official or social ocassion.
4. A relation where one thing is dependent on another for its existence, value, or significance.
5. (mathematics) A relation in which each element of the domain is associated with exactly one element of the codomain.
6. (computing) A routine that receives zero or more arguments and may return a result.
7. (biology) The physiological activity of an organ or body part.
8. (chemistry) The characteristic behavior of a chemical compound.
9. (anthropology) The role of a social practice in the continued existence of the group.

Synonyms

• (what something does or is used for): aim, intention, purpose, role, use

• (professional or official position): occupation, office, part, role

• (official or social occasion): affair, occasion, social occasion, social function

• (analysis: many-to-one relation): many-to-one map, many-to-one mapping, mathematical function, operation, transformation

• (computing: routine that returns a result): procedure, routine, subprogram, subroutine

Hypernyms

(mathematics): relation

Phrases and sayings

1. Phrase in the offing meaning just entering or leaving a port.

• e.g They could see that the ship was waiting in the offing.

2. Say cheese was devised by the American politician Joseph Davies. Say cheese use imperatively to elicit a smile from someone for a photography by their saying 'cheese' (the vowel of which, when pronounced as is usual in English, forces a somewhat smile-shaped mouth).

3. Spruce up means:

1. To dress or arrange smartly, elegantly and neatly.
2. To refresh, revamp; to freshen or improve something, especially its appearance.

4. The hair of the dog refers to the belief that drinking alcohol will cure a hangover.

5. The expression Bunny boiler derives from the 1987 thriller film Fattal Attraction directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer.

Bunny boiler was inspired by a scene in the movie where a scorned woman (Glenn Close), seeking revenge on her ex-lover (Michael Douglas), places his beloved family pet in a pot of boiling water when he is away from the house.

Bunny boiler meaning an obsessive and dangerous former lover who stalks the person who spurned them.  Bunny boiler also meaning an excessively obsessive girlfriend or boyfriend who reacts in an extreme way to ending a relationship.

6. Flotsam and jetsam were

1. The debris remaining after a shipwreck.
2. The collection of miscellaneous items or fragments of little importance.
3. People considered to be of little worth
• e.g. The flotsam and jetsam of society were at the night club. 

7. A dead ringer was originally a horse substituted in order to gain advantage in a race. Dead ringer also meaning someone or something that very closely resembles another; someone or something easily mistaken for another.

• e.g He is a dead ringer for his grandfather at that age.

8. Oranges got their name from the Middle Eastern name 'norange'. Oranges originated in South-east Asia and when they arrived in Persia and Spain they were given the names 'narang' and 'naranja' respectively. As they got nearer to England, and hence nearer to requiring a name in English, they lost the 'n'. This on happened their journey through France, where they were known as 'pomme d'orenge'.

9. Take the gilt off the gingerbread meaning remove an item's most attractive qualities.

10. Dressed to the nines' derives from dressing well, in one's best clothes.

11. Umbrage was a shady area.

12. Beyond the pale derives from the outer limits of a settlement. The phrase inspired from pale, a jurisdiction under a given authority; often held by one nation in another country, hence suggesting that anything outside their control was uncivilised. It was in use by the mid-17th century. The phrase may be a reference to the general sense of boundary, but is often understood to refer to the English Pale in Ireland. In the nominally English territory of Ireland, only the pale fell genuinely under the authority of English law, hence the terms within the Pale and beyond the pale.

13. Lock, stock and barrel derives from the parts of a flintlock musket. The phrase meaning a thing in its entirety, with nothing omitted.

• They want to buy the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel.

14. The first person described as a living legend was Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English nurse, wtiter and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night. An Anglican, Nightingale believed that God had called her to be a nurse.

15. Humble pie was a variant of 'umble pie', i.e a pie made from innards. In medieval times the pie was often served to lower-class people. Although 'umbles' and the modern word 'humble' are etymologically unrelated, each word has appeared both with and without the initial 'h' after the Middle Ages until the 19th Century.

16. Weasel words originated from the supposed habits of weasels sucking eggs. Weasel word is a word used to qualify a statement so as to make it potentially misleading.

"Weasel words are words that suck all of the life out of the words next to them just as a weasel sucks an egg and leaves the shell" - Century Magazine, quoted in Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (New York: Facts on File Publications,1987).

17. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year was the text on the first Christmas card. The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Callcott Horsley.

18. Saved by the bell meaning saved by a last minute intervention. This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round. The earliest reference to this that I can find is in the Massachusetts newspaper The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, February 1893:

"Martin Flaherty defeated Bobby Burns in 32 rounds by a complete knockout. Half a dozen times Flaherty was saved by the bell in the earlier rounds."

19. The sorts in out of sorts were printer's type blocks. It actually meaning irritable or somewhat unwell, with vague medical symptoms.

20. The phrase Salad Days was coined by William Shakespeare. It was taken from the play Anthony and Cleopatra written by Shakespeare:

"My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!"

The phrase is now used to refer to one's days of youthful inexperience.

21. Boxing Day got its name from the giving of gifts in boxes at Christmas.

22. The first Jumbo was an elephant in Barnum's circus in 1882. The giant elephant's name has spawned the common word 'jumbo', meaning large in size.

23. The expression Double Dutch derives from the British difficulty in understanding Dutch. The English, historically, found Dutch (albeit a fellow Western Germanic language) particularly difficult to understand so anything that was completely incomprehensible would be double Dutch, i.e. twice as hard as Dutch. (Note that historically, 'Dutch' could refer to German dialects, as well.)

24. Booby prize meaning A prize or status, often unwelcome, awarded as a joke or disincentive to the loser of a contest or for poor performance.

• e.g At the end of the conference, they awarded him with a rubber chicken as a booby prize for complaining the loudest.

25. An inkling was a faint hearing of one's own name. It also meaning A slight suspicion or hint.

• e.g Featuring a prominent and unique opening chord, the song's success provided the first inkling that The Beatles were not the one-hit wonder some had suggested when they first came to America. —A Hard Day's Night (song)

Another meaning for inkling was inclination or desire.

source: www.phrases.org.uk, wikipedia

Subject and Predicate

The subject in grammar is the agent (the 'doer') in an active sentence such as: Alan kissed Jane.

However, there is a difficulty. The following two sentences are identical in meaning:

• Our children planted a tree
• A tree was planted by our children.

Only in the first sentence is our children the grammatical subject. So there is a difference between the logical subject and the grammatical subject. Also, many sentences have no subject, for instance:

• Come here!
• Identifying the thief may take some time.

If a sentence does have a subject, then the rest of the sentence may be called the predicate. These two parts make a sentence complete.

Examples:

The large car stopped outside our house.

The large car = subject

Outside our house = predicate.


source: wikipedia

Mum's the word

Mum's the word meaning keep quiet or say nothing.

Origin

'Mum's the word' has become a popular name for baby product shops and nursery services, but the 'mum' in this phrase isn't mother. Nor has 'mum' anything to do with Egyptian mummies, despite their prolonged tactiturn disposition. That 'mummy' derives from 'mum' being the name of the bitumen used for embalming.

The 'mum' of 'mum's the word' is 'mmm' - the humming sound made with a closed mouth, indicating an unwillingness or inability to speak. The word is of long standing in the language and first appeared in print in William Langland's Middle English narrative poem Piers Plowman, circa 1376:

Thou mightest beter meten the myst on Malverne hulles
Then geten a mom of heore mouth til moneye weore schewed!

That loosely translates as 'You may as well try to measure the mist on the Malvern Hills as to try and get her to speak without first offering payment'.

As old as Piers Plowman, and as central to English folklore, is the tradition of mumming. Sadly, no complete texts of the mediaeval mummers' plays have been preserved. There was never a definitive version in any case, as the acting, dancing, drinking and alms collecting that made up mumming varied from one parish to another. We can't be sure what mediaeval mumming plays were like, but a raucous mixture of pantomime, morris dancing and carol singing, played out by a group of bizarre characters in stylised fancy dress, is what has come down to us by oral tradition.

What we do know is that 'mumming', or 'miming' as it was sometimes called, derives from the word 'mum'. Early versions of mumming involved a parade of characters entering houses to dance or play games in silence, i.e. 'miming'. More recently, the tradition has evolved to almost always include the character of a quack doctor, who revives the hero (usually Saint George) after his death in a fight with the Turkish Knight (boo, hiss).

Although they mummed for all they were worth, the players didn't use the phrase 'mum's the word'; that usage came later, in the 17th century. The earliest version of the phrase was 'mum is counsel', that is, 'you are advised to say nothing'. That form of the phrase was used in Gulielmus Gnapheus 1540 translation of the Latin text The Comedye of Acolastus:

I dare not to do so moche as put my hande to my mouthe, and saye mum, is counseyle.

Of course, we can't examine a Tudor phrase without Shakespeare getting in on the act, and he used 'mum' inHenry VI, Part 2, 1592:

"Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."

'Mum's the word' later became the standard way of advising a person to keep quiet and the first citation of it in print that I have found is in Of the Seasons, Francis Rabelais, 1653:

I have known the time when Men reckoned the Spring to begin when the Sun enter'd in the first Degree of Aries. If they reckon it otherwise now, I knock under ['concede defeat'], and Mum's the word.

source: phrases.org.uk

Fish

Fish

Etymology - From Middle English, from Old English fisc. Cognate include Latin piscis.


Noun

Fish (plural: fish or fishes.

1. (Countable) A cold-blooded veterbrate animal that lives in water, moving with the help of fins and breathing with gills.

• Salmon and trout are species of fish.

2. (Uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.

• The seafood pasta had a lots of fish but not enough pasta.

3. (Countable) A period of time spent fishing.

• The fish didn't prove successful.

4. A card game in which the object is to obtain pairs of cards.

5. (Uncountable) (derogatory slang) Women.

6. (Slang): an easy victim for swindling.


Intransitive verb

to fish (fishes, fished, fishing)

1. To try to catch fish, whether sucessfully or not.

• She went to the river to fish for trout.

2. (Followed by about, around, though, etc) To attempt to find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.

• Why are you fishing around my things?

3. (Followed by around) To attempt to obtain information by talking to people.

• The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.

4. (Cricket) Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and missed it.


Synonyms

• Angle, drop in a line
• Rifle, rummage
• Angle

Transitive verb.

1. (Followed by for) To attempt to get hold of (an object) that is among other objects.

• He was fishing for the keys in his pocket.

2. (Figurative, followed by for) To attempt to gain (compliments, etc).


Synonyms

• (Attempt to get hold of (an object) among others): rummage.
• (Attempt to gain (compliments, etc)): angle

Adjective

1. Of or relating to fish.

• A fish dinner.

2. Of or relating to fishing

• A fish hook.

Fishy

Noun

1. Diminutive or childish version of fish.


Adjective

1. Of, from, or similar to fish

• What is that fishy odor?

2. Suspicious, inspiring doubt

• I don't trust him, his claims seem fishy to me.

Fish and chips

1. (Uncountable) A meal of fish fried in batter and served with chips (fried potatoes), popular in the United Kingdom.


Fish Finger (plural fish fingers)

1. (British, Australia) A rectangular finger of fish coated in breadcrumbs that is cooked by frying or grilling.


Synoyms
Fish stick (US)


Fish Supper

Noun phrase

Fish supper (plural fish suppers)

1. (British) The dish of fish and chips eaten at supper-time.


Fish tape

Noun

1. A long strip of metal used to 'fish' electrical wiring through a building.


Starfish

Etymology - star + fish


Noun

Starfish (singular and plural)

1. Any of various echinoderms eith usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everything their stomach.

source: wiktionary

On the nail

(UK) immediately, without delay

"Tell me, have you a mind to anything in the Doctor's book? Speak the word, and I will help you to it upon the nail." --Thomas Nashe, Have With You To Saffron Walden (1596)

Etymology: On the nail allegedly from the tradition of striking bargains by placing cash on the nails in Bristol. The Oxford English Dictionary however cites a Anglo-Norman phrase from c. 1360, "payer sur le ungle" to pay on the (finger)nail, meaning "to pay immediately and in full", and quotes parallel usages from 17th century French, Dutch and German sources. It adds that "N.E.D. (1906) notes that: ‘the explanations associating it with certain pillars at the Exchange of Limerick or Bristol are too late to be of any authority in deciding the question’."

source: wiktionary

A chain is only strong as its weakest link

Meaning: An organization (especially a process or a business) is only as strong or powerful as its weakest person. A group of associates is only as strong as its laziest member.

Origin of the proverb: This originated in the United Kingdom (UK), hosted there by Anne Robinson, and was later syndicated for use in many other countries. The show, which relies on the demonstration of the abysmal lack of general knowledge by many of the participating contestants, is an example of the many 'humiliation television' shows of the early 21st century and is a sad spectacle. It is clearly a literal fact that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The conversion of that notion into a figurative phrase was established in the language by the 18th century. Thomas Reid's Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, 1786, included this line:

"In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest."

source: www.phrases.org.uk, wikipedia

More facts about words

Almost is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

Typewriter is the longest English word that can be made by using only one row of a keyboard.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E.

Spoonfeed, nine letters long, is the longest word whose letters are arranged in reverse alphabetical order. Trollied is an eight letter word with this property. Seven letter words with this property include sponged and wronged.

Strengths, nine letters long, is the longest word in the English language with only one vowel.

Hotshots consists of the same four letters repeated.

Hydroxyzine is the only word in the English language that contains "xyz."

You and ewe are pronounced the same but share no letters in common. Eye and I is another such pair.

Postmuscular, twelve letters long, is the longest English word that is normally typed by switching hands every two letters.

Monday is the only day of the week that has an anagram, which is dynamo.

Earth, having the anagrams hater and heart, and Mars, having the anagrams arms and rams, are the only planets with anagrams.

source: www.rinkworks.com

Facts about words

The longest English word, at 45 letters, is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis'.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a factitious word alleged to mean a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust, causing inflammation in the lungs. A condition meeting the word's definition is normally called silicosis.

This word was invented in 1935 by Everett M. Smith, president of the National Puzzlers' League, at its annual meeting. The word figured in the headline for an article published by the New York Herald Tribune on February 23, 1935, titled "Puzzlers Open 103d Session Here by Recognizing 45-Letter Word":

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis succeeded electrophotomicrographically as the longest word in the English language recognized by the National Puzzlers' League at the opening session of the organization's 103rd semi-annual meeting held yesterday at the Hotel New Yorker. The puzzlers explained that the forty-five-letter word is the name of a special form of silicosis caused by ultra-microscopic particles of silica volcanic dust...

Subsequently, the word was used in a puzzle book, Bedside Manna, after which members of the NPL campaigned to have it included in major dictionaries. This 45-letter word, referred to as P45, first appeared in the 1939 supplement to the Merriam-Webster New International Dictionary, Second Edition.

'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words.

Hippopoto- "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, "hippopotamine" has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear". Note: This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as one of Tickle's Teasers. 

Obviously it is not fear of hippos.

source: wikipedia

Fealty and Foible

Fealty

Definition: (noun) The fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord.

Synonyms: allegiance

Usage: There was a common head, chieftain, or sovereign, whose authority extended over the whole nation…and numerous trains of inferior vassals or retainers, who occupied and cultivated that land upon the tenure of fealty or obedience, to the persons of whom they held it.



Foible

Definition: (noun) A minor weakness or failing of character.

Synonyms: idiosyncrasy, mannerism

Usage: My foible was patriotism; I was ruined by the baneful habit of trying to serve my country.

Source: www.thefreedictionary.com

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush meaning it's better to have a small real advantage than the possibility of a greater one.

This proverb refers back to medieval falconry where a bird in the hand (the falcon) was a valuable asset and certainly worth more than two in the bush (the prey).

The first citation of the expression in print in its currently used form is found in John Ray's A Hand-book of Proverbs, 1670, which he lists it as:

A [also 'one'] bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

By how much the phrase predates Ray's publishing isn't clear, as variants of it were known for centuries before 1670. The earliest English version of the proverb is from the Bible and was translated into English in Wycliffe's version in 1382, although Latin texts have it from the 13th century:

Ecclesiastes IX - A living dog is better than a dead lion.

Alternatives that explicitly mention birds in hand come later. The earliest of those is in Hugh Rhodes' The Boke of Nurture or Schoole of Good Maners, circa 1530:

"A byrd in hand - is worth ten flye at large."

John Heywood, the 16th century collector of proverbs, recorded another version in his ambitiously titled A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546:

"Better one byrde in hande than ten in the wood."

The Bird in Hand was adopted as a pub name in England in the Middle Ages and many of these still survive.

The term bird in hand must have been known in the USA by 1734, as that is the date when a small town in Pennsylvania was founded with that name.

Source: www.phrases.org.uk