Showing posts with label phrase origins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phrase origins. Show all posts
Monday, January 9, 2012

You're all set!

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Where does this expression come from? You hear it all the time. The waitress puts your food down on the table and says, "There, you...
Monday, June 20, 2011

More word derivation stories

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I haven't been doing this as often lately. Sorry. But I found some excellent derivation stories recently and it's past time to sha...
Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Tell it to the Marines

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There is a 1926 silent movie on TCM with this name. When I read the phrase -- Tell it to the Marines -- a jingle popped into my mind. Do y...
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Phrase origins: off the cuff

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I hear the phrase "off the cuff" comes from olden days when debts were literally written on the cuff of the man who provided a s...
Wednesday, May 11, 2011

It's that fabulous day of the week!

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It's time for words and phrases. Today the material comes from John Ciardi's "A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium of Curio...
Wednesday, May 4, 2011

It's National Word Origins Day (i.e., Thursday). Woot!

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Today's words come from Robert Hendrickson's excellent volume, "The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins....
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Fun batch of words and phrases today

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Today I'm jumping back to Robert Hendrickson's book, "The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins". The f...
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

It's word day. Woot!

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Today's entries come from "A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium of Curious Expressions & Intriguing Facts" by John Cia...
Thursday, April 14, 2011

Let's talk about words

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Today's words are taken from John Ciardi's " A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium of Curious Expressions and Intriguing Fac...
Thursday, April 7, 2011

A few words from Ciardi

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The following is from John Ciardi's "A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium of Curious Expressions & Intriguing Facts"....
Thursday, March 31, 2011

Words, words, words. Hooray!

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Welcome to word and phrase origins Thursday. Up today, a few facts from John Ciardi's "A Browser's Dictionary: A Compendium o...
Thursday, March 24, 2011

It's that time of the week again

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The following is taken from "The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson. My copy of "...
Thursday, March 17, 2011

It's Phrase Origins Thursday!

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Word afficionados, rejoice! You held your breath, you waited and hoped and finally it's here -- Phrase Origins Thursday! But I digress...
Thursday, March 10, 2011

Woot! It's word derivation day!

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I like today's words and phrases. As always, the information is from "The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins...
Thursday, March 3, 2011

OMD! It's Word Derivation Day.

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Today, three lovely word derivation mysteries will be solved. As usual, the text you read below comes from The Facts on File Encyclopedia of...
Thursday, February 24, 2011

OMD! It's Word and Phrase Origins Day

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Oh, my dog! We're gonna have fun. Here's a fine selection of word and phrase origins. Enjoy!   To beat the living daylights ...