Origins of Sayings and Idioms

[JMN2]

Easy to google them of course but that would not be cricket.

Being in a limelight


Thin red line

[NomoneyNohoney]

Being in the limelight - think that's because of some kind of arc lighting used in theaters in the good old days.

Thin red line - wasn't that British soldiers wearing red tunics, so a line of men opposing an enemy could be described as a 'thin red line'?

[NomoneyNohoney]

PS: I notice JMN2 that I've been a member of TLF for 50 minutes longer than you!

[NomoneyNohoney]

Just for whimsy, here's something I learned recently.
What is the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow?'

[kiloran]

Just for whimsy, here's something I learned recently.
What is the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow?'

You wrote that on sunday, so the answer is.... tuesday

--kiloran

[malkymoo]

Being in a limelight

Remembered from my O-level chemistry!

When quicklime is heated to a high temperature it emits an intense light, used to illuminate the stages of theatres before electric light came along. Not sure what was used to do the heating though.

[malkymoo]

One saying that used I used to speculate on the origins of is "Got up like a dog's dinner". Not heard so much these days but meaning flashily dressed or overdressed.

I finally managed to get a sensible explanation (these were pre-Google days), anybody know what it is?

[NomoneyNohoney]

Kiloran, I applaud your logic! It's not what I meant though, there is an actual word for 'the day after tomorrow.'

[AleisterCrowley]

Being in a limelight

Remembered from my O-level chemistry!

When quicklime is heated to a high temperature it emits an intense light, used to illuminate the stages of theatres before electric light came along. Not sure what was used to do the heating though.

Hydrogen and oxygen , apparently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limelight

[redsturgeon]

Just for whimsy, here's something I learned recently.
What is the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow?'

Perhaps "threemorrow" ?

John
(I notice that I am primogenita to you by 85 minutes)

[panamagold]

As tomorrow technically doesn't exist the day after therefore also doesn't exist. So for something that is non-existent I nominate the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow' as 'myth'

[PinkDalek]

Easy to google them of course but that would not be cricket.

... Thin red line

Scotland recently lost to Papua New Guinea at cricket but their thin red line showed more steel at Balaklava.

[PinkDalek]

As tomorrow technically doesn't exist the day after therefore also doesn't exist. So for something that is non-existent I nominate the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow' as 'myth'

On that basis, does yesterday exist?

[panamagold]

On that basis, does yesterday exist?

Ah, that would be the past and that existed.

[NomoneyNohoney]

Just to close out the question, the answer to 'the day after tomorrow' is an archaic word, "overmorrow."
If you search for the word, it seems to have equivalents in European languages (qv: http://www.yourdictionary.com/overmorrow) and its just a fine word that needs resuscitating. I'm trying to inveigle it into conversations when I can.

(As a digression, the Georgian language for once is really brief with these words:
today : dges
tomorrow: hwal
the day after tomorrow: zeg
the day after the day after : mazeg

Every language should have a word for the day three days hence.)

[AleisterCrowley]

I was told by a Swedish friend that they (Swedes) have different words for maternal and paternal grandparents, which makes sense. She may have been winding me up of course.

[JMN2]

I was told by a Swedish friend that they (Swedes) have different words for maternal and paternal grandparents, which makes sense. She may have been winding me up of course.

She's not winding you up, maternals are mormor and morfar and paternals are farmor and farfar.

[UncleEbenezer]

I was told by a Swedish friend that they (Swedes) have different words for maternal and paternal grandparents, which makes sense. She may have been winding me up of course.

She's not winding you up, maternals are mormor and morfar and paternals are farmor and farfar.

Uncle and aunt are likewise distinguished according to which side they're attached to. But once you get to cousins, you have a word that sounds a lot like ours, and following the tree (e.g. farbrorson, mosterdotter, for all-male or all-female connections, with the obvious permutations for mixed lines) would be unusual.