As the Old Saying Goes...: A List of Proverbs, Idioms & Expressions

By Nicholas Nicholas

A light hearted and informative book on the origins of everyday sayings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781682224816

Book preview

As The Old Saying Goes… Copyright © 2014 by Nicholas D. Nicholas. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

FIRST EDITION

Designed by Nicholas Nicholas

ISBN: 978-1-68222-480-9 (PRINT)

ISBN: 978-1-68222-481-6 (EBOOK)

Dedication

This is book is dedicated to my mom, who always told me there’s nothing to it, but to do it!, my grandma, who said most of these expressions to me growing up and my sister, the one that made me reach for more in life.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title

Copyright

Table of Contents

As The Old Saying Goes...

Dedication

Introduction

Format

Animals

Weather

The Body

Money

Food

Time

Talk

Objects

Movement

Effort

And The Rest...

Quick Hits

References

Introduction

Growing up, my life has been bombarded with one saying after another. My mother, grandparents, sister, teachers and many visiting friends and relatives of my parents. It was like, What the hell does this mean? (ex: a penny saved is a penny earned) WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE?!! This was only the beginning of a lifetime of these wonderful quotes, idioms, wise sayings and friendly tales of advice. They would just spurt one at me and leave me to ponder What?.. Why?.. Okay…. It was like a quest to find out why did they say that to me and how does it apply to me? I am sure you to will have heard many of these sayings and have said to yourself, Okay… but what exactly does that mean?

Well here we go… I have put together some of the most repeated sayings that were thrown at me and broke down their meanings, origin and anything else of interest I could gather about them. I have found it to be an interesting journey and have even delighted and mystified some of the people who have spurted these words of wisdom to me throughout life. So, it is with a great deal of pride and love that I present you their true or intended meanings.

Enjoy!

Nicholas D. Nicholas

Format

The Phrase

Definition

Origin/History/Explanation

Simple Meaning (SM)

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth:

Do not unappreciatively question a gift or handout too closely.

A gift horse is a horse that is a gift. When given a horse, it was considered bad manners to check its teeth. Horses’ gums recede as they age making their teeth appear longer.

This saying can be traced back to St. Jerome who referred to it as a common saying in his introductory remarks to the Epistle to the Ephesians in his translation of the New Testament: Equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur; loosely translated means: A given horse’s teeth are not inspected.

SM: Appreciate what is given (advice, gifts, etc…)

Coming straight from the horse’s mouth:

From an authoritative or dependable source.

A 20th century phrase, in horse racing circles tips on which horse is a likely winner circulate amongst punters. The most trusted authorities are considered to be those in closest touch with the recent form of the horse, that is, stable lads, trainers etc. The phrase is supposed to indicate one step better than even that inner circle, which is the horse itself.

SM: Information straight from the source (person)

You can lead a horse to water, but can’t make

him drink:

Plainly put, you can offer someone opportunity, advice and/or assistance, but can’t force them to take it.

This age-old saying probably originated in the 12th Century. Linguistic scholars claim to have first found the horse and water metaphor in Old English Homilies, a volume dated 1175 A.D. In this context, the proverb read as follows:

Who can give water to the horse that will not drink of its own accord?

SM: You can’t force opportunity or change on a person

Don’t put the cart