How Did They Come Into Use?

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 309, 30 December 1938, Page 4

How Did They Come Into Use?

SOME “SILLY SAYINGS’* The number of silly things we go on saying every day is legion. Consider a few of them. 4 4 The apple of the eye ' * has nothing to do with an apple. “Apple'' is a corruption of “ pupil,'* which comes from the Latin, “pupilla I—a 1 —a doll"—the diminutive picture of oneself seen in another's eye. “Like it or lump it*' does not refer to a ‘‘lump" but a “sulk." In Devonshire, whence the saying comes, .“lumps" is equivalent to ‘‘sulks. " ! “Not worth a lig" concerns no fruit but tho Italian word “fico—a snap of the fingers.' ’ “To write like an angel" has no connection with a heavemy spirit but a real man, Angel Vergicios, a Greek of the 5 century noted for calligraphy. | “To rain cats and dogs" has no connection with domestic animals, but ia another corruption, this time of “catadupes ’' —‘ ‘ waterfalls.»' “A pretty kettle of fish" does not jmean the kitchen kettle but a “kittle" —a kind of weir for catching fish. When you say “he's a great gun’* you do not infer artillery but a flagon of ale which was called a 44 gun" when the expression was first used. “Apple-pie order," of course, has nothing to do with cooking. Of old a knight was 4 ‘ cap-a-pied ** when armed from head to foot. In French “a plis" means “folded in plaits." The “applepie" expression is based on a corruption of both.