Page 1 of 1

Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 8th, 2017, 11:10 pm
by JMN2
Easy to google them of course but that would not be cricket.

Being in a limelight


Thin red line

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 8th, 2017, 11:31 pm
by 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'?

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 8th, 2017, 11:32 pm
by NomoneyNohoney
PS: I notice JMN2 that I've been a member of TLF for 50 minutes longer than you!

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 8th, 2017, 11:35 pm
by NomoneyNohoney
Just for whimsy, here's something I learned recently.
What is the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow?'

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 8:45 am
by kiloran
NomoneyNohoney wrote: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 :D

--kiloran

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 8:46 am
by malkymoo
JMN2 wrote:
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.

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 8:53 am
by 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?

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 9:48 am
by NomoneyNohoney
Kiloran, I applaud your logic! It's not what I meant though, there is an actual word for 'the day after tomorrow.'

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 9:58 am
by AleisterCrowley
malkymoo wrote:
JMN2 wrote:
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

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 11:12 am
by redsturgeon
NomoneyNohoney wrote:Just for whimsy, here's something I learned recently.
What is the English language word for 'the day after tomorrow?'


Perhaps "threemorrow" ? :D

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

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 12:33 pm
by 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'

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 12:57 pm
by PinkDalek
JMN2 wrote: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. ;)

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 12:58 pm
by PinkDalek
panamagold wrote: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?

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 9th, 2017, 1:08 pm
by panamagold
PinkDalek wrote:
On that basis, does yesterday exist?


Ah, that would be the past and that existed.

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 10th, 2017, 10:36 pm
by 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.)

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 11th, 2017, 4:59 pm
by 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.

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 11th, 2017, 8:53 pm
by JMN2
AleisterCrowley wrote: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.

Re: Origins of Sayings and Idioms

Posted: October 11th, 2017, 9:30 pm
by UncleEbenezer
JMN2 wrote:
AleisterCrowley wrote: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.